The morning Ororo came to their door wasn't her first attempt at getting Logan to reconsider but it was her last. Bobby had made a full recovery but the mark on his skin hadn't faded, it wouldn't either. She'd marked him for life, all the rage and hurt she'd felt had been pushed into him, given him back the blame he'd shoved onto
her own soul. Logan thought Bobby deserved it; he'd killed Rogue with his lack of care and now he was making sure Marie had everything she could possibly need, away from here.
Everyone was watching as the arguement raged, Logan just carrying their bags down the stairs, tying them into the truck. Not answering her jibes and comments aimed at trying to get him to feel guilty about leaving them in the lurch. Sure they had teachers coming out of their wazoo but they didn't have a tactician like him, they
didn't have anyone who knew weapons like he did. At that sentence Logan threw his roladex at her from his old desk, the cards spilling everywhere on the stained concrete of the garage. Ororo was at her ropes end, she'd tried to talk to Logan about treating Rogue. About her need for counselling, for her need for control, for her home here and the friends she still had here.
It had been the admission of her life here that had Marie waking up to what was being discussed here, that she was being touted as insane to keep Logan from leaving with her. At those words she just moved toward Ororo, her hands uncovered and her face smiling blankly. Logan wasn't watching her and she knew she could get a good
touch in before Logan could grab her. If she wanted to know what was going on in her head she'd show her, she'd let her deal with the pain she had rolling around her nerves. The deadness that only Logan eased with his presence, that he still held hope for her, the person
she'd been before all of this, before the battle, before the choices both of them had made.
She was so close to her, just a hand width away when Logan just snatched her away from Ororo. His voice rumbling through her skin making it tingle all the more, "You've done enough 'Ro. You told her she was a traitor for doing it, for not being the perfect little
soldier you expected her to be. When all she wanted was a place people wouldn't flinch when she came near them." Logan growled his last words so only Ororo could hear them and her usual settled frame shuddered when she heard them. "An you did flinch didn't ya?"
He'd said his piece, they were leaving and that was that, where they were going was another matter entirely. No one here would know and he'd never let them near again if he had his way but Marie when she did heal might want to do some rebuilding with some of the people here. Hank especially, he was someone she could touch, he understood
her need to be normal, he'd never treated her like a traitor.
It seemed only fitting that the last person to see them had been the large doctor, he'd just pressed a small phone into Logan's hand. The only words swapped between the two men short and efficient, "I'm on speed dial. Number one, anything you need just call." With that he
turned away and went to walk back to the mansion, Logan's voice cutting through the engine noise to bring the larger man's attention back to Logan behind the wheel.
"You know they won't leave you alone here?" Hank looked tired just then and he nodded as he walked away his hand waving his goodbye as he walked back down the gravel drive home.
Marie remembered the tired look in Logan's face when he just reached out and stroked her skin, taking in her mixed emotions and fears about where they were going and what they'd do out there alone.
Smiling he just threw the truck into gear and pulled away, where didn't matter or what they did when they got there. All that did matter was away.
****************************************
Six months passed.
Marie was herself as much as she could be with the after-effects of the cure still playing hell with her mutation. Some days she was safe to touch, others she would project her feelings onto people around her. They travelled as much as they could, never staying anywhere longer than a week, criss-crossing the country and it was this that kept them under the radar when the news came out. Someone
had released a virus made from the cure, the thing was specifically designed to attack mutants. When Logan had heard it he'd looked at her face as the shock showed in her eyes and in his mind.
They were moving in fifteen minutes, by the hour's end they had a truck filled with stuff that they'd need out in the middle of nowhere and Logan had pushed speed dial four times with no luck.
At the moment they crossed the border into Canada he'd been waiting for someone to answer the damn phone when the voice he'd been waiting for answered at last. "How bad?" Marie watched the confusion run across his face as he drove them along the dark stretch of road that was leading them north-west into the heart of the plains. Logan switched the phone over to his other ear so Marie could listen too, the voice on the other end sounded tired, old, worn out.
"We had the first case three months ago, I didn't know what it was. I was called in as consultant but the thing is it's out and the kids who've been exposed..." Marie opened her mouth for the first time in a month, her voice cracked as the words fell out.
"Who?" The silence that met their ears was soon filled by the baritone she once loved to hear say her name.
"Kitty, Angela, David, Bobby is struggling at the moment but he won't be long if the disease follows it's course. It lurks in the body, waiting for the right moment to strike, then it takes over the bodies immune system. Destroying you from the inside out, at the most you have a month after you show symptoms. Bobby's had three weeks."
She wanted to smile, to feel joy at the death that was being written across the world. The joy of it, the utter freedom it gave, death walking on feet of air that everyone could feel and know. A touch from a loved one would be as deadly as her own could be, the irony of it wasn't over as she brought her mind back to listen to what
Hank was telling Logan. "The kids that took the cure, they seem to have some immunity to it, somehow the changes that were wrought by the original cure seem to make the virus die before it can replicate to cause any real problems." Logan's eyes met Marie's the relief in
them palpable, what Logan said next made her wonder why he'd given the people who hurt her a chance.
"Hank get over the border as soon as possible, head for Alberta. Take everything you can muster and get moving, now. Things are going to go south and New York will kill you all if they get the chance. I'll find you after we get settled. Hank, take only those who'll go. Leave everyone else behind, it's your only chance." The silence on the other end finally made Logan hang up and they travelled in silence for hours until the dawn light was creeping into the world.
Only then did they pull off the main road into the scrubland and bed down in the truck. Logan pulling her into his arms, seeing the nerves arise in her gaze as she realised the world had changed again. She'd had a few months of peace, a few months of piecing her shattered self together with Logan to help her find who she was
again.
Angry she looked at him, her eyes blazing.
"I'm not sharing you," the statement making him smile warmly, making him pull her closer to him. His hands winding through her clothing to touch her skin, making her needs pull to the surface of her.
"I know, but they deserve a chance Marie. Life's too short." She nodded as his hands began unwrapping her, life was too short but for her a grudge would always be there. They hurt her badly and she wouldn't give them a second go at her or Logan, she was herself again, stronger, harder, tougher. As the pleasure followed the trail of Logans skin over her own she let herself forget the news for a while. They were heading for somewhere safe and Logan wanted her with him, he loved her and she'd been feeling that for a while now and she was determined to keep it all for herself no matter what the
cost.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Times come for decisions and they take what was theirs and run with it. But what they leave behind still follows them, even when they don't want it to.