Open Your Eyes

Get up, get out, get away from these liars
'cause they don't get your soul or your fire

"Open Your Eyes"
Snow Patrol


"Logan, I...," Rogue stammered.

I kept walking.

She'd reached out and I'd kept walking and it's settling like lead in my gut.

That was one hour and two dismantled jet engines ago. Having done all I could do to help with the repairs--give me a car or a motorcycle and I can tear it to ground and build it back up again but I know exactly jack shit about jet engines--it's my job to keep an eye on our new exploding friend and another on the Brotherhood on their own patch of our slowly melting ice island.

Since Nitro seemed perfectly happy sittin' at the foot of the ramp and wasn't in danger of blowing up anytime soon--he'd explained to Beast that that mega-blast brought on by that telepath foolin' with his powers depleted his energy reserves. Hopefully those reserves will stay depleted until we can drop him off at the MRD. There's more lead for my gut. Damn the professor for puttin' this on me!

So, I lit a cigar, tucked the lighter under my belt, and turned my attention to the Brotherhood.

Quicksilver had taken off mere moments after our uneasy truce; running full tilt across the surface of the ocean presumably in search of a new ride. Heh, maybe we'll get lucky and a rogue wave'll take him out. Either way, they were making no attempt at fixing their own damaged plane. Which is probably good since not long ago I spied Kitty phasing some replacement parts out of their engines.

If any of the Brotherhood had seen her they weren't bothered. Blob had ripped-out several plane seats and set them up on the ice where he, Avalanche, and Toad were busy gorging themselves on whatever food they'd found on their hijacked plane and washing it down with the contents of an apparently well-stocked bar. Domino and that purple-haired telepath sat talking a few feet from them in seats of their own.

And then there was Rogue.

Rogue stood a little away from the others, her thumb to her mouth chewing on the seam of her glove and casting furtive glances this way.

I've seen her chew on that thumb seam a thousand other times: while debatin' between bacon and eggs or blueberry waffles for breakfast, that time she forced me to go shoe shopping and couldn't decide whether I should buy the combat boots or the cowboy boots. I felt like an ass standin' there with a combat boot on one foot and a cowboy boot on the other. I ended up buying both. She damn near gnawed a hole in her glove when the professor asked her to stay at the mansion and join the team.

I wonder what big decision she's chewin' over now?

Once again Rogue glanced this way and for a second our eyes met; she looked quickly away. Too quickly if Domino's sharp gaze and murmured comment to Rogue were anything to go by. Rogue mumbled something in reply and walked over to join Domino and the telepath. She took a seat on the armrest of an airplane chair and looked out to sea.

"So, you're the reason."

"What?" I said, whipping around. Nitro was looking up at me through his lank white hair.

"Rogue," Nitro began, "she isn't like them; doesn't belong with them so, I asked her why she was there. She told me it was complicated." He looked at me pointedly.

I took a long draw off my cigar.

"What happened?" he asked. "Did you cheat on her? She cheat on you?"

"We were never together."

Nitro nodded slowly. "And therein lies the complication."

"Look," I said, "no one put a gun to Rogue's head and forced her to join the Brotherhood. She's with them 'cause that's where she wants to be."

"So sure of that are you?"

"Listen here, bub," I said, pointing with my cigar for emphasis, "you're gonna wanna start mindin' your own business pronto before I decide to forego the MRD altogether and leave you at the bottom of the ocean instead!"

Nitro shook his head with a sigh, pushed to his feet, and started up the ramp. Halfway up he turned back to me.

"As a result of my powers I've hurt everyone I've ever cared for; I've lost them all. Don't lose someone you care for, Wolverine, because you're too stubborn to open your eyes and see what's right in front of you." With that Nitro turned and disappeared inside the jet.

Open my eyes? Hell, my eyes are always wide open! Dynamite-boy doesn't know what the fuck he's talkin' about! And stubborn? If anyone's stubborn it's Rogue! I told her plain as day I wanted her back on the team. She's the one who refused.

And love ain't got nothing to do with it! Rogue's angry 'cause the months leading up to the explosion at the mansion I was gone more than I was home. And then after the blast when the X-Men scattered to the four winds I took off on my motorcycle with hardly a look back. I still have no idea where she went or what she did during that year. Looking back she should've been right behind me on that bike. Things would be different now if she had been.

But love has nothing to do with it!

The reason you don't know is exactly why.

Fuck!

That one sentence from Rogue led to far too many sleepless nights for me.

Rogue.

The one person who finds it endearing when I pop open a beer at breakfast. The one person I'd suffer a day-long 'Lord of the Rings' movie marathon for.

Every instinct in me was screaming at me to march over there and drag her back home, kicking and screaming if I have to, and have it out once and for all. And it doesn't help that her scent is drifting to me on every gust of sea air. That unique blend of honeysuckle and jasmine that I can't pick up even the slightest trace of in the mansion.

But my feet stay firmly planted on the ice.

I've asked her to come home all the times I'm going to ask. The next move--whatever it is--is up to her.

Beast loped down the ramp and stopped next to me. "We've repaired all we can repair. She'll get us back home but we'll have to take it easy."

I nodded. "Good. The sooner we get this done, the better."

Beast remained standing next to me. I raised an eyebrow. "Something else you need, Hank?"

He glanced sidelong at the Brotherhood. "You realize the neighborly thing would be to offer them a ride home?"

Huh. They're all breathin' and still have all their appendages attached, I thought I was bein' neighborly. "I'll take it under advisement, Hank."

"Very well, my friend," Hand said and returned to the jet.

I turned back towards the Brotherhood and scowled. As far as I'm concerned the lot of them could sit here on this ice cube until it melted and the sea claimed 'em.

All except for Rogue.

I was just about to start over there when above the crackle and spit of melting ice and the Brotherhood's loud mouths my ears picked up the sound of a motor. I turned and scanned the horizon. There. A yacht and a rather large one at that. And going by the speed and the labored sound of the engines it was Quicksilver at the helm. That yacht must've been already out to sea and relatively close-by for Quicksilver to have gotten it here so quickly. I only hope that it's some rich asshole playboy floatin' in a rubber dinghy and not some vacationing family.

Within minutes the boat was alongside the ice and the Brotherhood was lining up to get on board. The yacht tilted dangerously on its side as Blob boarded, righted itself, and then tipped dangerously again as Blob leaned over the side to lift a drunk-off-his-ass Toad inside. Rogue was last in line and seemed to be draggin' her feet. Quicksilver leaned out the wheelhouse and yelled, "Move it or lose it, Rogue. I'm not waiting all day!"

I couldn't help smirking when Rogue yelled back, "Hold your horses, speedy! I'm coming!"

I stood there watching as the boat circled the ice and headed for home. Before they cleared the island Rogue, by the side railing, lifted her hand in a half-hearted wave.

I took a final drag off my cigar, tossed the stub into the ocean, turned on my heel and marched up the ramp inside the jet.

We still had a mission to complete.


-END-

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