“Is this all really necessary?” Jubilee asked with clear frustration.

Logan ignored the impatient movements of his teammates behind him; his attention was on the video screen in front of him. The whole team was situated in Storm’s office as they paid attention to the live feed coming through on the security system.

“Jubilee, this is a highly unlikely situation, discretion is a must,” Storm responded, her voice tense and her accent noticeably strained.

“But it’s Rogue!” Jubilee exclaimed.

Scowling at the chatter behind him Logan watched carefully as the video showed Rogue alone in the med lab, sleeping on one of the beds. He frowned at the restraints that held her arms down; they’d been installed on all the beds almost two years ago. It was a paranoid precaution that had well founded reasons. Another precaution was the fact that no one was in the room with her, not even Hank and particularly not him. He had a track record of messing things up when it came to precautions.

Storm sighed and Logan knew she was pinching the bridge of her nose, a common habit in the past two years.

“Jubilee,” she began tightly. “Have you forgotten why this is the procedure from now on?”

“No,” the young woman whispered back.

Her voice sounded so small to Logan’s ears, it was almost a shame; it wasn’t her fault that it was ‘procedure’. It wasn’t her fault that security cameras were installed in all the rooms in the lower levels. It wasn’t her fault Storm needed to know they were all present. Jubilee hadn’t been the one to rush down there two years ago and unknowingly release one of the world’s most powerful and out of control mutants. She wasn’t the one, who’d allowed her feelings for Jean to get the better of her.

“She did kind of just drop out of the sky, Jubes,” Bobby spoke up. “I mean we haven’t heard from her in almost a year and a half.”

“I’m well aware of that, Bobby,” she hissed.

“Well I mean, how do you explain the fact that Hank said there wasn’t a scratch on her.”

“Really, just shut up, Bobby,” she snapped back, her agitation building.

Logan turned a little to watch out of the corner of his eye the shocked and silencing look on Bobby’s face. It was hard not to take joy out of it. They may be a team but there were still a lot of tensions between them, a lot of unvoiced accusations. It was all incredibly healthy.

“I believe while we are all rightfully stressed by these unique circumstances, there is nothing we can do until she awakes. From my diagnosis, she appears in perfect health, the only consequence of the fall appears to be a slight concussion at best,” Hank voiced, trying to calm everyone’s frazzled nerves.

“And how do you explain that?” Kitty spoke up quietly. “I mean where did she fall from?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Hank answered with obvious disbelief.

“Which is why...,” Storm began again only to be interrupted by Jubilee.

“I get it okay,” Jubilee continued. “The Rogue we knew wouldn’t have survived such a thing. I get the precautions. I just don’t think it’s fair.”

Yes, Logan mused, was it fair that Rogue was once again paying for one of his mistakes. For Jean’s. For the Professor’s. Sometimes it was so very hard to catch a break. He could sense Storm watching him, her eyes burning through him. Because of course while Jubilee voiced her concerns, he was the one to watch. His silence only confirmed the direction of his focus. Because he’d been the one to try and help Jean before, out of supposed love disguised for lust, but Storm knew, she knew how deep his feelings for Rogue went. Maybe not the extent, but after seeing him throw himself on the line to save her so many times in the past, he had to give her credit to be worried about him, because he was the Wolverine and when Rogue was involved, he had a habit of doing something rash, of doing something unpredictable.

It was hard to see but Logan was sure he’d just seen Rogue’s eyelids flutter. Moving closer towards the screen, he watched in odd fascination, waiting for something he wasn’t exactly sure of, something more than the tell tale signs of her waking up. His mind was over worked with the morning’s events. Sure being a mutant, let alone an X-Men meant he was use to odd surprises and events he couldn’t explain but when they involved someone close to you, someone you’d been waiting for and looking for without even knowing it, well the urge to be drawn in was a given. Oddly, enough his concern wasn’t how she fell from the sky, his choice of questions and concerns lay in the past. Where had she been? Why had she left without saying good-bye? Why’d she leave such a cold trail?

“I believe she is waking up,” Hank voiced ominously.

His eyes glued to the screen Logan watched as Rogue’s eyelids fluttered again and suddenly they all heard a sudden gasp on the screen as Rogue bolted up right in the bed. The restraints around her arms snapped like kindling, un-noticed by her, but overtly picked up by the rest of them. Taking a deep breath her wide eyes glanced around the room and Logan spotted the moment familiarity seeped into her gaze and he felt something tighten in him when that familiarity turned to what he could only call disappointment. She didn’t want to be here. We’ll that was something to go with, clearly, it hadn’t been her plan to fall from the sky into their backyard.

“That bitch, and her sense of humour,” Rogue muttered to herself, but they all heard it through the security system. Rogue no longer seemed surprised but resigned to her current predicament.

Shifting the blanket off of her she jumped off the bed and her gaze wondered around the room. By the minute Logan and the others became more increasingly aware as they watched her. It was almost as though he felt he could pick out her thoughts. She knew where she was but where were they.

Tentatively, he watched her take in her surroundings once more, her gaze focused on the restraints on the bed finally and he saw the wheels turning in her head. She smirked dangerously and her eyes moved up to glancing around the top of the room. He frowned. She was looking right at them. Her eyes focused on the tiny camera. She knew they were there. She smiled knowingly and moved off to the side, she wasn’t visible for a second, but that second was enough, as the video quickly switched to a static feed. The camera broken.

“She knows,” Logan spoke quietly. “She knew we were watching her.”

No one spoke up, their eyes wide and confused, anxiety building in the room. Rogue had been calm. She hadn’t called out for any of them. It was not the reaction they were expecting.

“If she’s on the move the only way up and out is the south elevator,” Storm’s voice rose through the concerned silence.

“On the move,” Kitty reiterated. “You make it sound like she’s after us.”

“Maybe she just didn’t like being tied down and watched like an animal,” Jubilee voiced. “Especially by her supposed friends. I mean no one is down there to welcome her back and...”

“Jubilee,” Storm snapped, for compliance.

Logan moved for the door quickly, but Bobby and Pete beat him to it, everyone running out as they headed for the elevator that would carry them to the lower levels.

Rounding a corner sharply he spotted Bobby and Pete already glancing around. The elevator door dinged but when the doors slid open it was empty.

“What the hell?” Bobby murmured.

“She must still be down there,” Pete spoke up.

“Well let’s go,” Logan grunted in annoyance as they piled into the elevator.

Bobby reached over and pressed the button but the doors wouldn’t close.

“They’re jammed.”

A growl escaped him in frustration. “We’ll take the emergency one on the other side.”

Bobby and Pete nodded already heading in that direction as the girls and Hank caught up to them.

“The elevator is jammed, we’re going to take the emergency one, we need your codes Storm,” Bobby called out behind him.

“Jammed?” Storm inquired in concern.

“I have no idea,” Bobby answered.

“I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on,” Kitty voiced.

Heading in the other direction with the others Logan paused. Something wasn’t right. He was recognizing the signs of misdirection.

“Logan?”

“You go on,” Logan told Storm. “There’s something I need to check.”

She looked at him in concern, her lips moving in a sign she was about to question him but she nodded strangely and followed the others.

Turning back around he sprinted to the abandoned elevator they’d tried moments ago. The doors were shut. Pressing the down button, the doors opened smoothly, but the elevator was still empty. Poking his head in he spotted the loose tile in the ceiling. Somebody had come up in the elevator just not the way they thought.

Scowling he clenched and unclenched his fists, his nostrils flaring as he picked up on Rogue’s fresh scent. She’d moved on quickly. Running through the halls it didn’t take him long, for the trail stopped abruptly outside the door of Xavier’s old study. She wasn’t hiding anymore.

Slowly, opening the door his gaze fixated on the young woman who had her back to him, completely unconcerned as she threw book after book over her shoulder. Her gloved fingers skimming over Xavier’s book shelves in a hurry.

“Do you think he actually read all of these?” she spoke, her back still to him. “I mean he was always trying to save the world, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for sitting back and reading all the classics.”

“Rogue,” he started, his tactics thrown off balance at her indifference to his appearance. Let alone her actions of rummaging through Xavier’s old book shelves. He thought it best to go with directness. “What are you doing?”

“Just looking for a book, sugah. Thought I’d catch up on some light reading while I was here.”

Her hands skimmed another row of books.

“Rogue.” When she didn’t answer he became angry. “Marie.”

Her back tensed and she fumbled in reaching for the next book, but she shook it off quickly.

“Look at me,” he demanded.

“I’m busy, Logan,” she replied tersely.

“I think you should be busy explaining yourself.”

“Another time,” she threw back dismissively. His shoulders tensed at her dismissal.

Finally, she seemed to settle on what she wanted and she pulled out a small rustic looking book that had a thin layer of dust on it. She grasped it in her gloved hands tightly and stepped back.

“To think all those years, sitting in this room with him, he was smug enough to have it laying out right in front of me, right in front of everyone,” she spoke quietly, her eyes on the book. “He would be arrogant enough to do that.”

Turning around she finally regarded Logan as though he’d just appeared that second. Immediately, he found himself a little thrown off by her appearance. It was one thing to see her asleep and motionless after some time, but to see her standing confidently in front of him, her tight dark jeans hugging curves he knew a long time ago were going to be dangerous, accompanied by a tight fitting deep green long sleeved shirt and a plunging neck line that emphasized her ample chest, with a beaten up bomber jacket, well it definitely caught him off guard. The way she arched her hips towards him didn’t help one bit either.

She smiled at him and he could only call it a dangerous smile, a warning that with her, anyone was going to be playing with fire. He was looking at a true Rogue. Somehow he just knew it.

“We’ll I’m going to be off,” she spoke off hand.

He blinked twice as he directed his attention on what she was saying.

“Rogue, you’re not going anywhere.”

Her eyes narrowed at him in what he could only call amusement. He didn’t like it. She looked at him like he was some ignorant child.

“Is that a threat?”

He shook his head. “I’m not threatening you.”

“No, no I suppose you wouldn’t,” she muttered as she glanced at the book in her hand again.

“You just...” he paused. “You just appeared out of nowhere, Rogue, do you really think we’re – I’m- just going to let you walk back out.”

She smirked and moved to walk around him. “I’m leaving, Logan.”

“We’ll I gotta say I’m surprised you’re doing it this time with me around to see it,” he directed towards her back bitterly.

She stopped as her back tensed as though she’d been struck.

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “What difference does it make if you see me going? Doesn’t change the outcome.”

He was about to respond when the door burst open as the rest of the X-Men piled in. Rogue was mildly surprised and quickly back tracked towards the large windows on the far wall.

“Rogue?!” Bobby gasped.

“That would be me,” she answered briskly.

Collectively, all of the X-Men’s faces frowned and Logan would have found it comical if he wasn’t so concerned and put off by the current situation.

Storm moved through the crowded X-Men with authority.

“Rogue,” she began. “If you’d simply sit down and tell us...”

“I’d really like to stick around and maybe have some of your fine herbal tea Storm, I really really would,’ Rogue spoke and Logan knew he wasn’t the only one sensing the mockery in her tone. “But I have places to be.”

“Other sheds to drop into?” Kitty spoke up and she seemed surprised herself at her snippiness.

Rogue smiled tightly. “Don’t worry I’ll foot the bill on that damage.”

“We don’t care about the shed, Rogue,” Jubilee spoke up desperately. “We just want to know what the hell is going on? Why are you acting like this? Why are you running from us?”

Rogue’s posture changed to a more submissive position as she regarded Jubilee surprisingly warmly.

“Look, I’m sorry, but really, I’m just here for a book.”

Storm’s eyes hardened. “That is one of the Professor’s books.”

Immediately, the dominant posturing asserted itself in Rogue’s stance as her face turned hard. “This book belongs to me more than it ever belonged to Charles,” her tone final and cold.

The chill in the room was felt by everyone.

“Rogue, we just want to talk,” Storm began softer, trying another route. “You’ve been gone for a while and...”

“I’ve got to go,” Rogue interrupted sternly.

Logan took a step towards her, his eyes narrowing.

“You’re not going anywhere, Rogue.”

She lifted her chin in defiance at him. “You going to stop me, Logan?”

She was challenging him. “Yeah,” he responded back. “Ain’t like me to step down.”

She smirked almost fondly at him and nodded once before glancing out the window.

“I guess those are the lines drawn then,” she whispered.

Turning back to face Storm and the others she smiled at them, her eyes almost shining. “I’ll send you a cheque for the shed and the window.”

“Window??” Bobby voiced.

Rogue quickly charged towards the window and crashed through it like it was paper. Glass shattered everywhere and Logan raised his arm up to protect his face.

He glared at the shattered window. Surprises were a habit he wasn’t becoming fond of. Everyone ran over towards the window.

“Where the hell did she go?” Bobby exclaimed as they all looked down from the second floor.

“It’s not down, it’s up,” Kitty spoke up, her tone filled with awe.

Logan pushed through as they all watched a familiar figure fly up in the sky and away.

“Is that...?” Bobby began only for Jubilee to finish for him.

“Well, it ain’t Superman.”
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