The first time she heard Jean mumble the phrase, she didn’t pay much attention to it. In truth, she never paid much attention to Jean. What was the use? ‘Dr. Mega Bitch’, as Jubes called her, rarely had anything good to say, especially since Scott had come to his senses and dropped her in favor of Kitty, who was far better suited for his ‘good guy’ style.
Of course, once Scott kicked her bony ass to the curb, Jean turned her full attention to Logan and Rogue hated it with a passion. She hated Jean’s interest in Logan almost as much as she hated Jean herself and that was saying something. Rogue had grown close to Scott in a big brother/best friend way, during her time at the mansion and it had always burned her up to see Jean treat him with such casual disrespect. She had cheated on Scott for years, Rogue knew for a fact that Remy, Bobby, and John had all sampled Jean’s charms behind Scott’s back. The woman needed a ‘Public Welcome’ sign above her bed, as far as Rogue was concerned and she took devilish delight in knowing that it was soon after their individual encounters with Jean that Bobby and John had finally realized they belonged together.
Like Scott and Kitty, Bobby and John were the ideal couple, and seeing them together was salt in the wound that Scott had dealt to Jean’s precious pride when he dumped her once and for all.
“And Jean wants Logan to be her healing balm.”
It was with obvious and understandable disgust that Kitty had made the observation when it became impossible for everyone to ignore the way Jean followed Logan around all the time. Wherever Logan went, Jean was usually a step or two behind. She was stalking him, according to Jubes…it was almost sad to see a grown woman making a fool of herself and when it came to Logan, Jean did indeed look like a fool because any interest Logan had once had in her had long since faded. Like Scott, he had finally opened his eyes to Jean’s true colors and those colors were not at all pretty. The woman was bitch and Logan made it clear he didn’t want to touch her, but Jean refused to take a hint…she knew he and Rogue spent a lot of time together, but in Jean’s mind, Rogue was not in her league; Jean saw herself as the ideal woman and Rogue was a mere, untouchable nineteen year old…a child, Jean called her with a snide smile that made Rogue ache for a chance to bitch slap her.
Having Jean sniffing around the man she loved like a mangy hound in heat did not set well with Rogue, but she took comfort in two very undeniable facts that Jean was not at all aware of; Rogue knew that Logan loved her and two, she knew how to control her powers.
It was after absorbing Sabortooth in an unfortunate and unexpected encounter at the mall, of all places, that Rogue had discovered the mental switch that allowed her to turn her skin off and on. And Logan was the first person she told. She walked into his room without knocking, announced that she had finally figured it out…and then she took the chance of a lifetime and she told him that she loved him more than life. She told him she had loved him from the moment she saw him, in that dingy bar…she had loved him for so long she could not recall what it was like to not love him and she even loved the things about himself he hated. He was perfect and beautiful, she saw him for who he was…there had been more she had wanted to say, but before she had a chance to form the words, Logan had her in his arms, holding her pressed close to him as he kissed her so thoroughly she actually forgot her name for a moment.
Confident that she was in a breathless stupor, Logan stopped kissing her just long enough to inform her that he loved her too…had loved her all along and always would, he had been waiting for her to make the first move. He had not wanted to rush her, and as happy as he was that she could control her skin, he said it didn’t matter, even if she had not found control, he would have still wanted her. He even showed her two or three scenarios he had written in his journal that proved how he had intended to work around her skin in making her his, once the time was right…it delighted Rouge to know end to know that he loved her that much, but those ideas he had been working one were not needed as they fell into bed like two loved starved souls.
Logan turned her inside out that first night, and again and again in the nights that followed as he made her shiver and scream and finally, beg him to take her hard and fast and thoroughly. It was amazing and beautiful and by mutual decision they decided to keep their love and her ability to touch to themselves for a while. Rouge knew Hank and the Professor would want to run test, to figure out where her control had come from and both she and Logan knew several people within the mansion were likely to raise hell, when they learned that Logan had finally declared his feelings to an eager to receive and return those feelings Rogue.
Of course, Logan being Logan, had a hard time not making it known to the world that Rogue was his and after less than two weeks of silence, he told Rogue they had to go public. If they didn’t, he would snap…he had seen Remy sniffing around her and it was not a sight he delighted in seeing and Rouge agreed, she was ready and when she and Logan walked into the dining room hand in hand, everyone stopped and stared and Logan used the silence to make his announcement; he simply stated that he loved Rogue and she loved him, they were together, they would remain together for the rest of their lives and anyone who did not like it could set up a one on one meeting with his claws, at which point, he looked hard at Remy who nodded his new found understanding that flittering with Rouge again would end in his untimely and very painful death.
Surprisingly, the news was well received, Charles gave his blessing, Jubes and Kitty were beside themselves with delight and Scott actually told Logan that it was about damn time he figured it out.
“This coming from a man who was with Jean for how long?” Logan quipped.
“I figured it out in the end.” Scott smiled, slipping an arm around Kitty.
“I think something is in the water around here.” Jubes snapped. “All the men in this joint seem a little slow when it comes to seeing the light.” She glared hard at Remy, before turning to breeze from the room and after a stunned moment, Remy chased after her, spouting endearments in French while Kitty and Rouge laughed and Jean stood on the other side of the room, glaring at all of them.
That Jean was unhappy was an obvious given, she had lost Scott to Kitty and Logan to Rogue…to a girl who could not touch…it was wrong, in Jean’s mind and she glared at Logan for days afterwards, each time she saw him and whenever she passed Rogue, as long as Rogue was alone, she would say only one thing under her breath.
Corpore Vili
For the most part, Rogue ignored her, she either smiled and said hello, or said nothing at all, but after several weeks she became curious. She knew it was Latin, the phrase than Jean kept saying and she finally told Logan about the encounters late one night as they were getting ready for bed and Logan asked her to repeat it, but the moment she did, she was sorry she had.
In an instant, something cold and hard and angry came into Logan’s hazel eyes, which were usually filled with warmth, when he was near her and Rogue went still as he set on the bed for a moment, looking as if he might be ill.
“Logan?” She set down beside him. “What is it? Do you know what it means?”
“Marie…”
“Whatever it is, tell me. Please. I want to know.”
“Baby, she is so wrong. I want you to know that. Jean is a bitch.”
“I know she is a bitch, but what does Corpore Vili mean?”
For a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to tell her, then he sighed and reached for her hand.
“It’s a phrase I remember hearing the doctors use, back when I was in the lab. I think Jean must have picked it up that one time she tried to read my mind.”
“Is that something the doctors said to you?”
“It was more of what they saw me as.”
“And that was….”
“Corpore Vili means worthless body.”
“The doctors said that about you and…” Tears came to her eyes, as they always did, when she thought of him suffering in any manner. “And now Jean is saying that about me, because of my skin…” The pain she felt on Logan’s behalf quickly turned to rage, that Jean could use intimate knowledge regarding what Logan had suffered to insult her was too much…she had gone too far, as far as Rogue was concerned and before Logan could assure her again that Jean was a bitch, his fire breathing Marie was up off the bed and out the door.
Using the strength she had inherited from Sabortooth, Rouge when to Jean’s room and without knocking, without warning, she kicked in the door and at the sudden invasion, Jean let out a squeal that pierced Logan’s ears as he reached the scene, just as Scott and Kitty came from their room and Remy and Jubes slipped from hers while Bobby came stumbling out of his room with John just a few steps behind.
“Rogue, what the hell…” Wrapped in a silk robe, Jean looked outraged as Logan came to stand behind Marie, wanting to see what she intended to do while the other onlookers, lead by Jubes and Kitty, gathered at the door.
“Don’t you Rogue me you bitch.” Pure hate laced her words. “Did you really think I’d never figure it out? That I wouldn’t become curious? Or was that what you wanted all along, Jean? Did you want me to ask Logan what it meant? Was using that sick phrase, that you snatched from his memories your way of hurting me and him?”
“I don’t know what you mean…”
“Corpore Vili” Rough spat. “Worthless Body. You knew those bastard doctors said that about Logan and you have been saying that every time you have seen me for weeks and…God, what in the hell is wrong with you?”
“I have never said such a thing.”
“Yeah, you have.” Jubes spoke up. “I heard you once, but I didn’t know what it meant.” But she did now and she was just as disgusted as Rogue, as everyone looked at Jean with anger in their eyes and the redhead finally laughed, sounding almost mad as she did so.
“So what if I did say it?” She stood up tall. “It’s true. I mean, Rogue, you have to know that body you are trapped in is worthless. You can’t touch…”
“Actually, I can touch.” Rogue smiled coolly as she said it.
“What?”
“She has been able to touch for a while, Jean, but even before she could, she was never worthless.” Logan finally spoke in measured tones, his body tense with rage as he glared at Jean, wondering how he had ever thought her attractive. “Rogue is worth more than a thousand of you could ever be…even if she could never touch, she would be far from worthless and the fact that you can even suggest that she is worthless makes you as bad as the doctors in the lab I was in.”
“And what do you know?” Jean was in full bitch mode. “That phrase could have very easily been coined just for you, Logan. Corpore Vili. It fits you both. You and Rouge deserve one another. She is a life sucking freak, even if she can control her skin now and you are just a failed experiment…”
So caught up in her rage, Jean didn’t see Rogue’s fist flying at her face, but she did feel the pain as her nose shattered and blood began to freely flow.
“You bitch…” Logan’s arms wrapped around Rogue’s waist, to keep her from easily pouncing on Jean, where she had landed on the floor, but he did nothing to calm her words, figuring she deserved to have her say. “I don’t care what you think about me, or what you say about me, but if you ever insult Logan again, I will rip you apart like the cheep whore that you are. I may have been untouchable once, but I would rather have a heart and a soul in an untouchable body than be a heartless and soul less shell like you are, Jean.” She ceased struggling against Logan’s hold on her and after a long moment of glaring at Jean as she set on the floor bleeding and whimpering, she turned and walked from the room with Logan and the others following behind her.
The showdown was witnessed by half the mansion and naturally, the Professor learned what had happened and when he spoke to Rogue the next morning, he told her he was sorry for Jean’s behavior. There was no excuse he could offer, he was very disappointed in his old student and he explained that Jean would be gone away from the mansion for a while. He had insisted that she take sometime off to either come to terms with Logan and Rogue and Scott and Kitty as a couple, or decided that it was best than she not return at all, as there was no room for someone with no regard for her peers at the mansion.
It meant a lot to Rogue, that the Professor understood and six months later, he walked her and Kitty down aisle in their double wedding to Logan and Scott and a year later, Logan and Rogue welcomed their first child into the world. A daughter named Mandy…in Latin, her name meant ‘worthy of love’ and to Logan and Rogue, it seemed most fitting.
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Story Notes:
I have Jean Issues. Major ones. I don’t deny this. I have tried to like her, but it seems each time I watch X1 or X2 I start to hate her more and more. It’s gotten so bad that I skip past the scene in X1 where Logan tells Jean his heart belongs to her…you will have to excuse me while I barf. I just can’t seem to warm up to her and in this story, she is not a nice lady, so if you love Jean (though I don’t know what you would) you may want to skip this one:)