They told him it was wrong.
He was wrong.
She had a right to more.
She was young and good and sweet.
He was bitter and jaded and maybe dangerous.
They told him, if he really cared for her, if she really mattered to him, he would just leave her life for good; they told him the best thing he could do for her was turn and walk away.
So he did.
For her sake, he said goodbye.
He left her standing, with his tags in her hand…he left her there with a hope that he would someday find his way back to her world.
But he wouldn’t, or so he told himself…he told himself they were right, he really was no good.
He was a man with no past…he was a monster with claws…he was a combination of man and beast and daily both ached to return to her; the man and the beast, so often at war, could agree that she was the most precious thing in the world.
The man called her an angel.
The beast called her mate.
The man wanted nothing more than to give the beast what he wanted.
But the man loved her too much for that.
The man loved her enough to stay away.
And then the call came.
A year after he left, Scooter called to say it was time.
He had to come home.
She was in trouble and she needed him.
Mags had broken free, he had come for her again…Sabertooth had been with him and in the fight, he had stabbed Marie in the chest.
Jean and Hank were working hard, Scott said, but it didn’t look good.
The Rouge seemed to be fading fast.
Storm was on the way, in the Blackbird.
She arrived to find Logan close to tears, cursing himself for having ever listened to them…he cursed himself for having believed that the ones he had left her with had the means to protect her.
Only he could do that.
With his life, he would do that.
He went right to her as soon as the jet landed.
She was pale and weak and close to the Death’s dark door.
But she opened her eyes, to look up into his, and when she saw him there, she smiled and whispered to him that her heart had been his…from the moment they met, she had loved him and him alone.
She whispered that she had so wanted to be his…to be his mate.
He whispered back that she would be…she would be.
Then he leaned down and kissed her beautifully bare lips.
Jean screamed for him not to do it.
But Hank told her to shut up.
Logan knew what he was doing.
Wolverine knew the risk.
It was his decision to make.
It was his mate he intended to save.
Out of all that stood in the room, Hank understood and respected…he watched with a tear in his eyes as the pull began and life flowed from Logan into Marie.
He was the one to rush to Logan’s side as he fell and Marie set up in her bed, whole and healed and frantic with fear.
It was Hank that discovered no heart beating with the chest of the Wolverine.
But Marie, she refused to believe.
She had more Logan in her head.
And he told her it was okay.
He healed, after all.
He had not come back to her, just to leave again.
For fifteen minutes, she set by his side with Hank praying…he knew of nothing else he could do…
And then Marie smiled.
She had heard his heart begin to beat.
Logan opened his eyes.
Marie told him it was about damn time.
Logan set up and took her in his arms…bare skin to bare skin…her powers were his, as he had died for her…he had come back for her, as he had once said he would and with a smile, Marie told him he was a silly fool for having listened to the others when they said what he felt was wrong.
What did they know?
Nothing, Logan replied, before he kissed her tenderly and Hank sighed his relief to see for himself that true love could indeed prevail.
True love could transcend age and time.
True love could ignore the ignorance of others.
True love could face death, and come out the victor.
Hank was the first to tell them to give the others no thought, they had all they ever needed…they had one another and the future was theirs to take on and explore and he wished them well, shaking Logan’s hand and hugging Marie, in the minutes before the two left, feeling young and alive and free.
From time to time, as the years passed, a letter would come for Hank, always neatly signed by Marie and he would smile to hear how she and Logan were happily married, the parents of three little angels that daily proved to both Logan and Marie that true love was all that mattered and when love was indeed true, wrong was the one thing it could never be.
THE END
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