I was sixty three miles north of Laughlin City, where me and Marie first met, when I got a call from Chuck telling me, in that fucking calm voice of his, that there had been a bit of an *incident* with Marie. Not a recent *incident*, mind you, Cue Ball called me nearly a full fucking month after MY Marie had a scrape with Sabertooth when no one else was around and cause she had to fend totally for herself, she’d been left with no choice but to use her skin to drain the son of a bitch dead. She’d been locked up inside a padded, containment unit in the lower levels of the med lab for almost a month, trying to get the mangy ass under control in her mind and finally, it seemed she was calling the shots up there again and the first thing she had asked Chuck to do was call me and ask me if I could come home.
Now, I ain’t ever been accused of being a rational man, but on the flip side of that old coin no one has ever mattered to me like Marie, so when I found out she had been hurt, that she had been in danger, and none of the X-Fuckers had possessed enough sense to pick up the phone and call me before a fucking *month* passed, I was pissed as hell and all to happy to make it known. I told Chuck that hell yeah, I would come home, he needed to tell my girl I was on the way and while he was at it, I told him to send the jet to get me and he had best let Storm be the one flying it cause she was the one I was least likely to claw. I knew Marie had a real soft spot for her, and even though I knew for a fact that Marie had no issues with Scott, I did, and the way I was feeling, damn near homicidal, he would’ve been my first pick to shred with the claws that were itching to taste some X-Fucker’s blood.
Well, Storm made it to me in less than an hour, we loaded up my bike and with a calm smile that did little to ease my raging anger, she told me she would have me to Rogue as quick as possible.
I told her good, while she flew the jet, she could tell me exactly what had went down, cause I could be calmer with her than I would be with Chuck or One Eye or even Red, who had been shitty to Marie since her return from the dead.
Marie hadn’t told me that. He old roommate Jubes had shared that information.
So, Jean was on my ‘shit list’ along with the rest of them and Ro, she could sense that as she sighed and told me that Marie had went into town to exchange some shoes and Sabertooth ambushed her at the mall, of all fucking places. It seemed Mags had gotten another mutant making machine built and once again, he wanted Marie to serve as his battery, only Sabs hadn’t counted on Marie being confident enough in her fighting skills to fight back.
He hadn’t counted on her draining his life out.
I asked Ro point blank how bad had it been when Sabs was fighting for control and she said honestly it had been far from pleasant, keeping Rogue caged was the only way to keep her from hurting herself or someone and even though she was in control, or at least appeared to be, Jean had insisted on keeping her locked up for a while and when Rogue had asked Chuck to call me, Jean hadn’t taken that well, she had said it was proof Rogue was still a child, which, according to Storm, had prompted the ‘me’ in Rogue’s head to pop up and tell Jean to go fuck herself.
I got a relieved laugh at that.
But I was still pissed and everyone at the mansion must have known I would be, cause I was given a wide passage when the jet landed and I stomped from it, headed right to the med lab.
Jeannie made the mistake of getting in my way.
“One word from you, Red, and I swear I will forget that I don’t hit women.”
She drew herself up real straight at that. “I can defend myself, Logan.”
“And I don’t give a shit what you can and can’t do, all I care about is Rogue and I’m gonna see her now.” I locked my eyes on hers. “I know you’ve treated her like shit, don’t you think I haven’t heard all about that and I intend to talk to you and Chuck about not calling me sooner, but that little conversation is gonna wait.”
“Logan, be reasonable. Why would we have called you?”
“Because I swore I would protect that girl.”
“You made that promise to a petty, unstable child.”
“Jeannie…”
“Rogue is twenty one now, she *should* be able to take care of herself *without* killing someone, so calling you would have been a waste.” She sounded sure of herself, smug and overly smart. “It was up to her to get Sabertooth under control and if you had been here, you would have done something stupid like touch her again and…”
I growled at that and lucky for Jean, Scott appeared, to deal with his bitch of a wife while I continued my track to the med lab.
I didn’t know for sure where the ‘padded containment unit’ was at, but I easily caught on to Marie’s sweet smell and I followed that.
My heart damn near stopped when I saw her.
She was in a cage like thing, her hair was matted, her face was pale and her eyes were red from crying, but the second she saw me, she smiled and I could see in those blessed brown eyes that she was *all* Marie. I could see she was in control, Sabs was shoved off, into a little box, in the back of her mind…I wanted to cry and scream with relief all at once as I located the control panel for the containment unit and shoved my claws right into it, easily causing the door to open.
In an instant, Marie was in my arms, clinging to me, crying against my chest as I buried my face in her hair and whispered her name again and again. I told her I wasn’t gonna ever let go of her again, I was gonna hold her forever…I told her no more mansion, no more fucking X-Men, from that moment on, it was gonna be all about me and her and the rest of them could fuck off.
She lifted her face and looked up at me with that brilliant smile. “I love you. I love you, I love you more than anything, Logan, and I swore that if I managed to beat Sabs back and get control, I was gonna tell you that.” More tears came to her eyes and rained to her cheeks, I could see she was holding her breath, waiting for my reaction, and the way I figured it, she had waited long enough.
“I love you too, Marie. I always have. Always.” I cupped her face in my gloved hands.
“I wanted to believe that…”
“Believe it. Know it. Never doubt it.”
She laughed through her tears. “I’m so glad you’re here. I only wanted you.”
“Baby, I would have been here sooner…”
“I know. I know. Jean talked them into not calling you.”
“Yeah, well, Jean might get three claw marks to remind her what a mistake that was.”
But Marie shook her head. “I don’t give a shit about Jean.”
“I know. I just can’t believe theses fuckers let you go off by yourself.”
“It was a trip to the mall, Logan. No one knew I would be in danger. I was taking back a pair of shoes.”
“Well, listen up, babe, cause you ain’t going to the mall or shoe shopping or anywhere without me every again for the rest of your life so you had best get use to having a clawed, bad ass shadow.”
Her eyes went warm at that. “I have Sabs’s healing now, so the rest of my life could be a really, really, long time.”
“I got the same healing, so we’re gonna be stuck together for a long time, and I’ll have you know that is fine by me.”
“Would that be some kind of proposal, Wolverine?” She sounded flirty and she looked as beautiful as I had ever seen, matted hair and red eyes and pale skin was glorious in that moment.
“Proposal makes it sound like I’m asking you a question and when you ask someone something that suggest they got a choice in the matter and I have to tell you, babe, I ain’t giving you a choice.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s so, kid. You’re *mine*.”
“And you are *mine* so I would be delighted, to be Mrs. Wolverine.”
“Marie Wolverine. I like that. Makes it clear to the world who you belong to.”
“Well, Mr. Wolverine, my-soon-to-be-husband, I got a surprise for you.”
“Really?”
Nodding, she lifted a bare hand to touch my face.
Nothing happened.
“How…”
“While I was fighting with Sabs for control, I found the switch.”
That was all I needed to know, all the invitation I needed to take her lips with mine and kiss her with all I felt, holding nothing back as she returned the same passion, her arms wrapped around my neck.
Think our first time might have been right there, had Storm not cleared her throat just as I smelled her and I looked up to find her standing at the door, smiling.
“I take it you are feeling well, Rogue?”
Marie laughed at that and nodded. “I’m fine, Ro. It’s all me.”
“Good. And congratulations on obviously finding control of your skin.”
Marie blushed a little at that, but I grinned, cause let’s face it, I was a happy man.
“You can congratulate her on the fact that she will soon be a married woman.”
“I can not say I am surprised, but congratulations nonetheless.”
“Thanks, Ro.” Marie snuggled close to me as Ro smiled once more and left us alone.
“Hey, Marie, got a question for you.”
“You mean I get a say in something?”
I pinched her ass for that. “On this you do.”
“I already know what you’re gonna ask, Logan.”
“You do?”
“I do, and the answer is no, I don’t want to say here, I don’t want to live in the
mansion with Jean, cause she didn’t give a damn if I survived this or not and all I
want is to be someplace with you where we can live our lives.”
“Sounds like a plan to me, baby.” One that made me happy.
“Want to get out of here now?”
“What? I can’t claw someone first?”
“Logan…”
“The professor. Come on? He should have known to call me, no matter what.”
“No clawing the professor, cause whatever mistakes he might have made, he has been good to both of us a lot of other times.”
Damn but she had a point.
“Scooter? Please? I won’t kill him, just puncture a lung of something.”
“No, sir.”
“Jeannie?”
Hey, she stopped to think about that one, but just as I had expected, she shook her head and sighed.
“No. She isn’t worth your time.”
“None of them are.”
“None of them.” She touched my face again. “It’s about me and you now.”
“Always, baby. Always.”
And she was right, the rest of them didn’t matter, what was done or not done didn’t even matter, cause I had Marie forever and for me and her, forever would last a hell of a long time and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
THE END
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