Lying still on his back, Logan kept his eyes closed as he listened to everyone else sleep around him. After Rogue had slammed the door in his face, he’d been too tired to try anything again with her. Standing outside he’d finished his cigar and mulled over the very reasons as to why he was still here, why he was still bothering to try and get through to her. He’d cursed whatever power it was that had caused their lives to be entwined but only half-heartedly. Eventually the other three had made their way back to the room. Jaime more or less drunk, a surprisingly buzzed Wanda and a glaring sober Pietro who’d immediately jumped on him about Rogue’s whereabouts.
Now he laid feigning sleep as he listened to three relaxed heartbeats and one that was becoming increasingly erratic. He’d been expecting it. Rogue had experienced a very shocking trauma, and he knew despite her objections she was going to reach a breaking point. Sleep never came easy to them anyways. The only time he ever found such peace was in sharing a bed with her, he knew it had been the same for her, he wondered if it had changed over the years. His question was answered for him when Rogue bolted up from the bed beside him, gasping for breath.
She whimpered quietly as she tried to stifle any sound she was making. He sensed her moving off the bed with shaking legs as she stumbled around the room towards the bathroom. Jaime still snored on and both Wanda and Pietro remained oblivious. In the past Logan would have been at her side to calm her down immediately but that time was long ago.
Rolling over he placed his back towards the bathroom and told himself he was going to go to sleep. After five minutes of Rogue still being in the bathroom he knew he was being unrealistic. Sitting up, he stared at the door and counted another five minutes. His body was itching as he picked up on the bundle of nerves behind the door, the sweat and nervousness that Rogue was putting out.
Gritting his teeth, he stood up and made his way towards the door. Not bothering to knock he opened the door and shut it quietly behind him.
“Couldn’t you have waited?” she spoke, her voice extremely shaky.
She was sitting on the edge of the tub, her hair plastered with sweat as she cradled her head with shaking hands. Her legs appeared to be convulsing on their own.
She had yet to look up at him.
There was a sudden creaking noise coming from the tub that sounded like the pipes were expanding. Abruptly, he found himself being pulled forward by an invisible hand as he landed on his knees beside her.
“You really, really shouldn’t be in here right now, Logan,” she whispered.
“What the hell was that?”
Suddenly, he felt his entire body go stiff, the metal in his bones humming with new life.
“Rogue…” he whispered, as he gasped at the sudden pressure.
She wouldn’t look at him as her white bangs covered her face.
“Marie…” he added desperately.
“I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I can’t control it.”
His eyes widen as he realized she was exhibiting Magneto’s power.
Pushing forward, her hand shot out and he felt the metal in his bones respond as his back came in contact with the counter top. With a little more space between them he felt the magnetic pull on his body ease.
Taking a deep breath he gazed at Rogue in shock. Sensing his stare she finally looked up at him, her eyes bloodshot but very much livid with unease. Wrapping her arms around herself she tried to stop the shaking.
“I need it, Logan,” she whispered quietly her head down again.
Glancing up she focused her stare on his top jacket pocket where she knew the drugs where.
“Give it to me,” she spoke clearer, her voice a little demanding.
Staring at her in shock his own hand grazed his pocket.
“How many?” he asked. “How many powers can you…”
“Everyone I’ve ever touched, depending on the length of time.”
“Shit.”
Tilting her head up at him, she raised one eyebrow even as her teeth chattered.
Tentatively, he moved forward and sat on the closed toilet seat. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the black pouch. The way her eyes suddenly lit up did not go unnoticed. “So this helps you control all the other powers,” he whispered in slight awe.
She nodded. “It helps for a bit.”
“Otherwise,” he turned and faced her.
“They over power me.”
He nodded slowly turning his head away as he took a moment. “You heal,” he spoke. “My power is in you.”
She nodded slowly. “It’s not as strong as yours, not as fast as the way you heal. Guess that explains the waking up in the coffin five days later. I didn’t know it was capable of doing that.”
Leaning forward he touched her knee and ignored the fact she jumped slightly; however, she didn’t turn away.
“Marie, you need to see a doctor.”
She scoffed. “I am.”
Her eyes darted back and forth for a second. “I mean I was.”
“Who?” he asked with a frown. “Not someone in the government, please tell me you didn’t…”
“Hank,” she interrupted. “I was seeing Hank.”
“What?” he sat back in surprise.
“I contacted him a few months ago and he took me on as a patient of his.”
“He never mentioned it,” Logan breathed through clenched teeth.
“You know he was working in Washington at the time, why would he have contacted you and…”
“Because I’m he’s friend damnit and because your m….” he blurted out as he stood up. “He should have known to tell me and…”
“Logan,” she remarked. “There was no reason to. Patient and doctor confidentiality.”
Breathing deeply he clenched and unclenched his fists.
“Bullshit,” he snapped and moved forward again. “Well what did the blue furball figure out, cause it sure as hell doesn’t look like he did a good enough job.”
Leaning back from his sudden verbal onslaught she spoke quietly in response. “I started to notice changes around…around the spring time,” she paused to look up at him from under her eye lashes.
“What kind of changes?”
She shifted nervously on the edge of the tub, suddenly unusually shy.
“Umm, you know certain urges,” she implored him with her eyes, as though he already knew the answer she didn’t want to voice.
She shook her head when she realized she was going to have to say it out loud.
“The urge to mate and to breed,” she spoke quickly.
“Oh.” Frowning, his smile turned sarcastic as he opened his mouth.
“And before you say anything, yes it was different from usual stuff. I don’t mean I was a slut. I mean it was biological. It was…” she paused and smirked at him. “Very Wolverine like.”
A little put off he sat back down on the toilet across from her.
“What are you saying, I gave you the urge to mate, the me in your head?”
She sighed. “Something like that.”
“What else?”
“I noticed my senses were becoming keener. It was all mild in comparison to your powers, but it was there, I could feel it almost growing inside me and I didn’t understand why, I’ve never been able to hold on to other mutant powers for a long period of time.”
“What happened next?”
“I was freaked out,” she threw at him and he felt his body stiffen again. Looking at the ground she murmured,
“Sorry.”
“I guess since you were the longest and the most frequent one I touched with my gift, I exhibited your powers first and more strongly and then it was Magneto and then it was Bobby and John and a few others here and there with some added strength or some thing.”
A large convulsion moved through her body abruptly and he caught her before she fell off the tub. Gasping in his arms she continued on, “I had to contact Hank, I couldn’t contact the X-Men, knowing, knowing….anyways, I would make visits to him and he’d conduct tests. He concluded it was a flare in my mutation; that my power was growing. That perhaps when I learned to control my skin I released some kind of slow building floodgate on the possibilities of my gift.”
“It didn’t matter what the cause was though, because I needed something fast to help me control it. The powers would flare up randomly and I had no time to be able to work out how and how to gain control over each gift. Hank knew of a certain drug on the black market that was specifically used for mutants, it was sort of a 24 hour cure. He got a hold of it and took the basic fundamentals of it and created a more refined drug. In no ways meant to be a cure, but something that could lower the wattage of my powers so to speak.”
Nodding slowly, he held her in his arms as he listened to her. “So the trips away from Wanda and them, the phone calls, the drugs it was all because of this.”
She shook slightly. “Yes,” she hissed.
Unconsciously, he found himself stroking her hair as he tried to calm her down.
“Are you going to make me beg for it?” she whispered.
Cradling her close to his more solid form she was quiet again.
“What if something else is in this particular drug you bought?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t care.”
He tensed.
“There’s not much of an option,” she shook again as she rested her head under his chin. “I’m a ticking time bomb.”
“Logan…”
“I will,” he answered before she could continue, his hands moving down her body to stroke her arms. She sunk against him in relief.
Sitting back a bit he opened the pouch, took out one green vial and opened the package that held the syringe.
The taps on the tub and sink creaked suddenly. “Hurry,” she whispered.
Draining the vial he didn’t have to ask as she placed her arm in his lap.
“I don’t like this,” he muttered.
“I know,” she replied softly.
Holding her arm still he injected the needle into her vein and pushed the plunger down. He watched in apprehension as the green liquid disappeared.
Rogue suddenly fell against him as she gasped in what he thought was pain at first until she moaned very low and he could feel her body become lax as the high took effect. She hummed a little as her eyes fluttered closed and she used his chest for leverage. The noises she was making wasn’t helping his reaction as she arched a little against him, he could feel the slight hum to the metal in his bones disappear but it was replaced with a new kind of tension as his pants tightened. She stopped writhing in his arms and he breathed a huge sigh of relief. Her warm hands reached up and grasped his shoulders, her lips resting on his bare neck as she breathed, “Thank you.”
She tilted her head back and he looked down at her, surprised by the lazy smile on her face, a smile she was directing at him. Finding himself amused he smiled back at her.
“You alright?”
She nodded as her smile beamed at him.
“How long you gunna be like this?” he asked, the surprised amusement coming across in his voice.
She shrugged. Slowly, her eyes closed and she seemed content to have him hold her. Despite the fucked up circumstances, Logan himself couldn’t believe that in a long time he too felt content for a moment in the world as he held her.
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