Scott reacted first, lunging toward Marie, both hands aimed at her waist in an attempt to grab her and pull her far enough away to loosen her hold on Logan’s mind.
But even under her mental barrage, Logan was faster, diving in front of Marie and slamming one massive fist into Scott’s ribcage, knocking him backward six or eight feet.
“Don’t touch her!” Logan shouted. “Let her be!”
Jean tried to break into Marie’s mind, hoping to stem the flood of painful emotions, but it was no use. The psychic energy pouring out of the younger woman was like a waterfall of agony that drowned all Jean’s efforts instantly. When her own attempt failed, she sought help from the professor.
Help him! Help them both!
This is between Marie and Logan. She won’t be able to keep this up for much longer. I won’t let her go too far, I assure you. Right now, you should see to Scott.
Jean turned to where Scott rested on his hands and knees, wheezing like a broken accordion. She ran to him and knelt down to check his ribs for fractures.
“I’m get…getting…damn…tired…of this,” he managed.
“I don’t think he broke anything, but we should get you to x-ray to be sure. Wait until you can breathe more easily before you stand up or you’ll pass out,” she advised.
Scott looked back at Logan who was standing near the foot of the exam table facing Marie, a look of unmitigated misery on his face.
“What is he doing? Why is he just standing there?”
Jean paused for a moment then smiled knowingly. “He’s letting her have her say, letting her get it out. He knows better than to argue when Rogue is on a rampage. And some part of him believes he had it coming.”
Jean slid an arm around Scott’s waist as he straightened up, helping him walk out the door and across the hall to the school’s state-of-the-art infirmary.
Scott hoped he didn’t have any cracked ribs, but even if he did, he figured he’d heal faster from those than Logan would from the world of hurt he was in right now. He almost felt sorry for the mongrel. Almost.
---------------
Logan stood there letting Marie bombard him with images of him leaving and of her crying herself to sleep every night. Underlying all those images was a deep, deep sadness that was as mysterious as it was overwhelming. She was unloading it with the ferocity of the Twin Towers collapsing and he was feeling it like he was at Ground Zero. What had left her feeling that lost, that desolate?
He felt lower than whale shit for running out on her. She had no one else. Even worse, she’d never asked him to take care of her; he’d volunteered. Yeah, he’d nearly died saving her life on Liberty Island, but what the hell good had he been to her since then? According to the mental movie that played on a continuous loop in his head, all he’d done had been leave her and make her cry. Shit, even he thought he was an oaf.
He was willing to accept his punishment for leaving her, but when she conjured up images of him in Storm’s bed again, he rebelled—vehemently. If he’d actually fucked the weather witch that would have been different, but he hadn’t and no way was he taking a beating for a good time he’d never even had.
He launched himself at Marie, grabbing her with both hands on either side of her face and forcing her to look into his eyes. He yelled at her through gritted teeth.
“Stop it! Knock that shit off right now, Marie! I did not sleep with Storm. I didn’t do anything in that bed other than lay there and put myself back together. You think I want her? Is that what this is about? Well, think again, darlin’, ‘cause she’s not—“
Logan’s outburst seemed to snap Marie’s concentration and the images in his head disappeared like someone switching off a TV. He let go of her, but before he could say another word, Marie’s eyes drifted shut and she lay down again on the exam table.
“Marie? Marie! What the hell just happened?” he roared, shaking her shoulders none too gently.
“She’s fine, Logan,” Xavier said from his place on the table behind Logan.
Spinning around to face the professor, Logan wasn’t about to let it go at that.
“Are you kidding? Fine? She passed out for Christ’s sake!” A terrible thought occurred to him. “Did I do that?”
“No, she simply went back to sleep—at my suggestion. She needs the rest and you and I need to talk, but first I will require your help with removing this equipment,” Xavier said, indicating the wires and patches on his chest, as well as the brain monitor.
Logan divested the professor of the wires and helmet-shaped contraption and laid them on the table holding the various monitoring machines. Then he retrieved his abandoned wheelchair from the next room and carefully lifted him into it.
“Would you mind helping me locate my shirt? I don’t know where Jean put it when they took it off of me,” Xavier said, glancing around in search of the garment.
Logan noticed the professor had a respectable six pack, well-developed pecs, and biceps to match, not the physique he would have expected for a telepathic philanthropist who spent his days in a wheelchair.
“Just because my mutation involves mental acuity rather than brute strength doesn’t mean I have to have a geeky body,” Xavier stated.
“Hey, did I say anything?” Logan shot back.
“No, but you were think—“
“You telepaths can be real pains in the—“
“No need to finish that thought.”
“Ass. And sensitive mother grabbers, too,” Logan returned, then added with a grin, “I always finish what I start.”
Throughout the friendly banter, Logan wandered around the room and finally located Xavier’s shirt behind the stack of machines that had been monitoring him. He handed it to the professor who quickly put it on.
“That’s much better. I was freezing!”
Just then Marie stirred on the exam table, turning onto her side away from the two men. Xavier and Logan held their breath like a pair of new fathers afraid of waking a napping baby. The seconds dragged by as they waited, listening to her breathing even out again. Finally, satisfied that she was still sound asleep, they let out a collective sigh of relief.
“Perhaps we should finish our talk in my office,” Xavier offered.
“No, right here’s fine. I don’t want her to be alone when she wakes up.”
“But—“
“I ain’t leavin’ her, Chuck.” Logan’s tone added an unspoken coda to his statement—not again, not ever again.
“Hey, you got any blankets around here?”
“Top drawer of the exam table,” Xavier directed, smiling inwardly at how Marie had managed to tap into the Wolverine’s nurturing capabilities. It was obvious that more than just Logan’s mutation had moved to a higher level, although Xavier doubted he was ready to admit as much.
Logan pulled a fluffy white blanket from the drawer and spread it over Marie’s still body, tucking it in around her shoulders. The urge to kiss her was monumental, but he shoved it away. When he finally did kiss her, he didn’t want an audience. But the need to make physical contact wouldn’t be denied, so he opted instead to brush a strand of white hair out of her eyes and tuck it behind her ear.
“Sleep tight, darlin’” he whispered before turning back to Xavier who was smiling in spite of himself.
“What?”
“It’s just a very...surprising side of you, Logan. Pleasantly so, but surprising all the same,” Xavier answered.
“Holy hell, Chuck, you said you were freezing. I just thought she might be cold, too. No big deal,” Logan protested, shrugging off Xavier’s compliment. Fearless Leader’s approval of how he cared for Marie was neither requested nor required, but Logan couldn’t help feeling a tinge of pride at the professor’s obvious admiration of his gentler side, even though he’d never admit it. Hell, most days he wouldn’t admit to having a gentler side, let alone being proud of it.
“OK, everybody’s comfy now, so spill it, professor,” Logan prompted.
“Alright then, what I believe has happened is that you have become immune to Rogue’s skin,” Xavier stated.
It took Logan a minute to sort out exactly what Xavier meant by ‘immune to her skin’. God knew he wasn’t immune to the sight of her skin or the smell of it; both haunted him night and day. No, he meant it in the medical sense.
“Immune? As in it can’t hurt me?”
“Precisely.”
“But how…?”
“We may never know exactly how or when the change occurred, but I think your mutation is the key to why it happened to you and no one else. Think about it, Logan. Between that first time, when you accidentally clawed her shoulder and she touched you to heal herself, and the much longer exposure you shared on Liberty Island, she has touched you more times and for longer than anyone else, even Magneto. And yet, here you stand. I think that somehow you’ve built up a resistance to her power.”
Logan stared at him stupefied.
“Because of your healing factor,” Xavier continued, “you are probably the only being on the planet who could withstand her touch for long enough to make that happen and still keep breathing. Anyone else would have died from that much contact.”
He paused to make sure Logan was still following his explanation. He could tell by the feral’s furrowed brow that he was struggling a bit with the concept.
“Does that make sense?” Xavier asked.
“Yeah, in a geeky sort of way,” Logan answered.
“The only other explanation would be that the power she’s absorbed from you reacts differently when combined with her own power, weakens it perhaps, so that when she touches you, your power counteracts hers on contact. Either way, the result is the same. She remains untouchable to everyone but you.”
That last part Logan needed no help interpreting. He, the Wolverine, was the man, the singular being—the one in a billion—who could kiss the unkissable Rogue. He alone could touch her, hold her, make love to her.
Hot damn! Hot damn! HOT DAMN!
His heart did a little happy dance inside his chest, fluttering against his ribcage and leaving him just a touch lightheaded. He couldn’t wait to tell Marie. This was just too damn good to be true. It was almost enough to make him propose marriage. It was almost enough to make him believe there really was a God.
But the euphoria didn’t last for long. Xavier’s next words brought him crashing back to reality.
The professor’s eyes were solemn as he told him, “Logan, she already knows this. It’s what caused all that sadness.”
There it was again, that deep sadness, that yawning black hole of hopelessness that she had shown him. Was that how she really felt about him being the only one who could touch her? How could that be?
“What? Why?”
“She doesn’t believe you have, uh, those kinds of feelings for her, or did you miss that somehow in all that she showed you?”
He forced himself to think back through the images she’d hurled at him, reliving the whole vicious nightmare in a sort of bizarre instant replay, all the way back to the first thing she’d said.
He doesn’t want me. Don’t you see? Logan doesn’t want me!
Logan turned back to the sleeping Marie, scooped her off the exam table and started for the door.
“Logan, where are you going?”
“Chuck, I have to make her understand how wrong she is about me not wanting her. I only know one way to do that—“ Logan started before the professor cut him off.
“You can’t project your thoughts directly to her, but I can pass along the message for you.”
Logan stopped and turned around, Marie still cradled against his chest, snoring lightly.
“Uh, thanks for the offer, Cyrano, but this ain’t exactly the kind of message that can be delivered through a third party.” Logan turned to go, hoping the professor caught his meaning. He really didn’t want to have to be any more blunt.
“Oh?”
No such luck.
“Yeah, uh, it kind of involves more show than tell…um…” Logan fumbled.
“Really?” came the puzzled reply.
“Aw, c’mon Chuck, for her sake, please don’t make me have to say it.”
“Oh, Oh! Of course. Forgive me, I, uh…”
“Forget it. Really. You going to be OK if I leave now?”
“Yes, yes, I’ll check on Scott and Jean in the infirmary, let them know you and Marie are, uh, upstairs.”
Logan walked toward the door, but the professor had one more thought to share.
Be gentle.
“I already knew that, Chuck,” Logan called over his shoulder in answer to the psychic nudge.
“I’m glad to hear it, but I wasn’t exactly speaking to you,” Xavier clarified a split second before the door slid shut. He was sure that the Wolverine had heard him loud and clear. He hoped for Rogue’s sake he would act accordingly.
---------------
“Put me down this minute! I mean it, Logan! I don’t want to go with you!” Marie hollered as she slammed her fists into his chest She’d awakened to find herself being carried into the elevator by the last person on earth she wanted to have carrying her anywhere.
But instead of releasing her, he rolled her even tighter against his chest, trapping her hands uselessly between their bodies. He buried his face in her hair and spoke in a hoarse, sexy whisper against her ear.
“Liar. You’ve wanted me to carry you to my bed since Liberty Island. Well, darlin’, today is the day you get your wish.”
---------------
Marie loathed her traitorous body for how it reacted to Logan’s pronouncement. Her nipples went hard as cherry pits, poking through her tank top to graze his bare chest. Warmth swirled in her belly, spreading lower and lower until it reached her very core where it became a hot ache that had her wishing somebody would just shoot her and put her out of her misery.
Damn him! Damn him to hell for making her weak when she wanted to be strong, for crushing her resolve to finally be the one doing the leaving this time; and for keeping alive the impossible dreams she so desperately needed to see die.
When they reached his room, he shifted her weight so he could hold her with one arm while he opened the door. Once inside, he closed and locked the door behind them before setting her on her feet and stepping away.
She just stood there staring at him in wide-eyed disbelief.
“What?”
Curse her wayward eyes for straying to the bed!
Curse him—twice—for noticing.
“OK, I admit the thought of just throwing you on the bed and ravishing you did cross my mind,” he confessed with a half-smirk, “but I think we need to talk first. However, if you’d rather…” He lowered his shoulder as if he were going to lift her up again.
Skittering backwards out of his reach, she tripped and fell, landing hard on her bottom on the floor at the foot of the bed.
The son of a bitch actually laughed at her. Out loud.
“Oh, how I hate you!”
“No, you don’t,” he argued, reaching to help her up. She slapped his hand away and got to her feet on her own as he continued, “You probably hate that you still want me after the way I treated you, but you most definitely do not hate me, Marie.”
“Don’t presume to tell me how I feel, Logan!” she scolded as she attempted to walk to the door.
Before she’d taken her second step, he caught her from behind and wrapped her in his big arms, pulling her against him. She could feel the hard heat of his erection pressing against her bottom as his fingers slid slowly, one by one, across both of her taut nipples, fanning the flame in her loins into a conflagration of burning desire.
“Shall I tell you how you feel, Marie?” he whispered as he planted the first of several kisses along the column of her neck, sending her pulse skittering in all directions. He smiled to himself when he heard her breath catch and then watched her tilt her head back so he could scrape his teeth across the sensitive spot right where her neck met her shoulder. Oh, yeah, she hated him, alright.
“Your heart is beating so fast right now your breath can hardly keep up. I know because I can hear it. Your tight, virgin pussy is wetter than it’s ever been. I know because I can smell it. Your skin is so hot it’s all you can do to not tear your own clothes off. I know because I can feel it. Do you understand, Marie? I can feel you.”
His big, strong hands moved lazily down the outside of her tank top along her ribcage and then in one swift, surprising motion he spun her around to face him. His eyes were almost black with lust as he pressed one hand against the small of her back, bringing her pelvis in to meet the bulge in his jeans and grinding against her with a slow, intimate rhythm.
“You belong to me, Marie, just me, and no one else. I am the only man who can touch you this way, the only man who can ever have you. Can you feel how that excites me?”
For a second, maybe even two seconds, she fought the urge to melt into him, holding back only long enough to be able to congratulate herself later for not giving in the very instant that he touched her.
Her arms wound around his neck as she closed her eyes and raised herself up on tiptoe, expecting him to meet her halfway. But he didn’t.
Instead of kissing her, he slid his hands under her ass and lifted her off her feet. Her eyes flew open to find him grinning at her like the fucking Cheshire cat. She went from aroused to furious to humiliated in a heartbeat.
Angrily twisting her body and pushing with all her might on his shoulders, she broke free and landed on her feet. Clenching her fists at her sides, she loosed her fury with bitter tears in her eyes.
“You smug bastard! After everything else, do you really have to tease me, too? Fine, you proved your point. Go ahead and laugh. Ha-ha. It took all of thirty seconds for the great Wolverine to seduce the pitiful little virgin. Not much of an accomplishment, considering she wants him so bad she’d belly crawl naked over ground glass just to have him make love to her even once before she dies. There, I said it. Are you satisfied? Can I go now? Or maybe you’d rather be the one to leave—again!”
She whirled away, turning her back on him. She stood there, crying, wishing the floor would just open up and swallow her. She sensed him moving toward her and she took a step away, hoping one minute that he would just leave her alone and praying the next that he wouldn’t.
He followed her, reached out and gently laid a hand on her shoulder.
“I wasn’t teasing you, Marie, I swear,” he said softly, his rich baritone smoothing the edges of her broken heart. “I was smiling because I am happy—-all out, crazy, Christmas morning happy. I guess I have to smile more often so you get used to it being about something good and not just some sarcastic smart ass joke.”
“So, all this new found happiness of yours, is it because of what’s happened with…us?” she hesitated on that pronoun, still not sure if there was an ‘us.’
He felt that tiny silence like a slap in the face, one he richly deserved. He’d promised to take care of her, but instead he had left her, more times than he cared to remember. She had every right to doubt his feelings for her, to wonder if he would ever want her enough to stay and live up to his promise. He had his work cut out for him.
End Chapter 8.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Author's Note: Well, it's done and it's been a helluva ride, at least it has for me. I'm posting Chapter 8 today, but Chapter 9 is written and ready to go. I figured a chapter of nearly 8,000 characters was a bit much, so I split it into two. Chapter 9 will go up tomorrow, or maybe later today, if I can't stand waiting a whole 24 hours to share it with all of you.
I must take a moment to express an ocean of gratitude to Comic-cake for showing me the delights of writing in Roganland. She has been an invaluable support system, reference source, sounding board, shoulder to cry on and all-round friend throughout this endeavor. These last two chapters may never have found their way to you had it not been for her encouragement during a very difficult writing process. You are the total bomb, girlfriend!
Which is not to say that I don't appreciate all the kind words and inspiring reviews I've received from so many of you. As I said once before, you have given me a joy I can no longer live without. Thanks again, and Enjoy!
I must take a moment to express an ocean of gratitude to Comic-cake for showing me the delights of writing in Roganland. She has been an invaluable support system, reference source, sounding board, shoulder to cry on and all-round friend throughout this endeavor. These last two chapters may never have found their way to you had it not been for her encouragement during a very difficult writing process. You are the total bomb, girlfriend!
Which is not to say that I don't appreciate all the kind words and inspiring reviews I've received from so many of you. As I said once before, you have given me a joy I can no longer live without. Thanks again, and Enjoy!
Chapter End Notes:
Watch this space! Chapter 9--the finale--coming tomorrow!