The first time he saw her, sitting in a dive bar in the shitty town known as Laughlin City, he had known deep in his gut that *nothing* would ever be the same again for him or her. Even when he walked out, leaving her behind, after his encounter with the ass from the ring, her image had haunted him so thoroughly he hadn’t been overly surprised to find her stowed away in his truck. He even knew when he drove off that he would stop, that he wouldn’t leave her there to freeze…he couldn’t have left her there to die if his own life had depended on it, and later, when saving her life had meant possibly losing his own, he hadn’t hesitated to touch her, perfectly willing to trade his life for hers in that instant and in any instant that would follow.
When he left her at Chuck’s, holding his dog tags, thinking it was Jean he wanted and that she was just some kid, he had known that when he returned, she would be the first one to greet him…she would be the one to smile and welcome him home with true and genuine emotion in her soft southern accented voice.
When she flew from the jet, when he thought that she was lost to him forever, he had wanted to die himself.
He knew, without her, he had nothing to live for.
But Kurt returned her to him.
She was safe and alive and she remained that way, playing her own part in saving the world when she flew the jet and afterwards, after Jean died, and he set on the plane, holding a sobbing Scott, he looked at her and he knew in his heart and soul and his gut that she was indeed *his*.
She would forever be his.
But she needed time. She needed to grow. She needed to learn who she was and what it was she wanted to believe in.
He had to stand back and allow others to fawn over her, to woo her, to flirt with her.
He had to watch her struggle for control of her mind when she encountered Carol.
He had to watch her train to become an X-Man…he had to watch as she shed a few tears when Ice Dick dumped her and worse yet, he had to watch as Remy came into the picture with his fake accent and flattering words.
He watched as she *finally* found the switch that allowed her to turn her skin on and off.
He watched Remy grin like a fool, thinking he would finally have Rogue where he wanted her, in his bed, but Logan, Wolverine, knew it wouldn’t happen, that Rogue would not be falling into Remy’s bed because Marie belonged in his.
He intended to go to her that night, three years after their eyes first locked in Laughlin City, but Marie, she came to him first with a smile on her lips and blazing desire in her eyes.
Enough watching and enough waiting, she said in her soft voice that made him shake inside, made him feel as if his bones and the metal that lined them were melting under the intensity of her stare.
I want you, she added, and I love you, Logan, and I know you love me, so what are we waiting for?
What about Remy, he asked, in a voice too thick with emotion to belong to the mighty Wolverine.
It was never Remy, and you know it, she smiled again with ease, it has been you from the first, and it will be you till the end and I don’t want to wait anymore and I don’t want you to watch me from a distance anymore.
She couldn’t have said it any plainer.
She knew what she wanted.
She knew what he wanted.
She held out a hand that he accepted and when he pulled her into his arms, she pressed her lips to his and he sank into her, into her arms, into her soul, into the home and peace he had found in her so many years before.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her to his bed and when he laid down beside her, he whispered to her that she was right, the waiting was over.
The watching was done.
It was time to live and love.
It was time to belong to her, to make her his, and relish in the reality that he didn’t have to watch anymore because he could hold her, possess her, live with her and for her and never doubt that she had indeed been worth the wait.
THE END
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