-flash back-
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They had been on a mission.
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Taking care of a wild mutant.
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The so called wild mutant was just a teenager unable to control their powers, charles had helped calm the kid down and they were loading everyone back into the x-jet when they heard the familiar footsteps.
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Sentinels.
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“party crashers” rogue had said in her southern accent, her hair was curly today, pulled back with a head band.
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Logan had attacked taking two of them down easily.
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He never saw the third.
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Gambit had thrown three charged cards at its chest. The sentinel careened backwards, and took a step to catch its balance.
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Rogue saw it, too late to pick up the kid in front of her and fly to safety, so she just reacted.
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She shoved the kid out of the way, shoved the kid so hard he went flying, ended up with a fractured collarbone in the end of it all, but at least the kid was alive.
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Logan had grabbed the kid while Colossus made for the sentinel, but they all were too slow, its massive foot crushed her, trampled her where she stood.
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Colossus nearly ripped the sentinel to shreds as he flung pieces of the metal goliath around to dig out rogue.
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Logan got there first.
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She was alive and breathing but just hardly.
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In one motion he scooped her up, she had pulled off her gloves and she reached for him, he fell to his knees as he cradled her in his arms.
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Her face was covered in blood and more swolen then he thought it could have gotten. She looked at him, stared at his lips, she wanted a kiss, he could see it in her eyes.
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Well at least in the one that wasn’t swollen shut.
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Her hands found his neck trailing over the bare skin there, and he swallowed nervously.
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He knew she needed his healing factor thought.
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He tipped his head down to her, and her lips brushed his cheek.
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Simply electric.
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It felt like static electricity, buzzing over his skin, charging through his veins when she sapped his powers from him.
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He never once referred to her as a leech.
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He wanted so badly to capture her lips with his, to kiss her exploring her mouth until she had taken everything she needed from him, he didn’t care if she drained him dry he would recover one day.
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It would be worth it.
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But she had passed out.
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Damn.
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He stood sighing softly, worried about her. He knew she didn’t take as much of his healing factor as she needed to heal, but he was hoping she had gotten enough to keep her alive.
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Her steady breathing and her now steady heartbeat told him that she had.
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He had moved to gambit, that was her boyfriend. But there was a look of disgust on gambits face when his eyes landed on rogues trampled face.
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Boyfriend.
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The looser guy that made you ditch the person you called your best friend so that you could go see some cheesy movie that you had already seen with your best friend.
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Best friends.
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Every time logan had tried to leave her, really tried to leave her, every time that he wanted to just let go of his humanity she would cry.
She would ask him why he was leaving her.
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Told him he couldn’t leave, he was her best friend.
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And every time he would tell her that he didn’t have any friends.
And she would weep, and bring up something he had done for her.
People who didn’t care wouldn’t let you sleep in their bed when there was a thunderstorm.
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And each time it worked.
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He never admited that it worked, but wouldn’t he be dammed if he would promise to come back every time.
She would say “don’t come back to me Logan, come home to me.”
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He knew that Gambit was upset about how logan and rogue got along, nearly freaked out when he found a pijama clad rogue coming out of logans room one morning after a particulary bad storm the night before.
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“Come home to me Rogue” logan said to her.
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His voice was quiet against the sound of the heart monitor, how he ached for the sound of her laughter. Hell he would light himself on fire again just to hear her laugh.
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He did light himself on fire once didn’t he?
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He laughed at the thought, rembering how one of the kids was trying to light a fart, holding a lighter behind his butt.
Rogue told him it would be funny to see him light his cigar with the flame the kid was holding.
Sure enough logan did it.
And the kid busted wind at the exact wrong moment, sending a horrid smelling wave of fire over his face, didn’t bother him too much thought, he had caught on fire plenty.
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But rogue, she laughed.
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She laughed untill logan was certain that she was gonna fall over from lack of oxygen.
He ached for that laughter now.
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Best Friends.
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Its what the stupid key chain she had gotten him said.
His keys, all manly and simple, just three keys on a ring, dirty and smelling like motor oil the way that they should.
Then there was that stupid little keychain, one she had slipped on there the one time he let her borrow his car.
It was plastic and shiny and even glitterey.
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But it smelled like her.
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He didn’t know why that was so alluring for him.
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He sniffed the air.
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All he smelled were cleaners, he could still smell the sent of the soap beast had used to wash his hands before coming to check up on rogue.
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Rogue.
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She was still laying there.
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Silent.
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Kissable.
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He still wanted to kiss her, still wanted to hold her to his chest and comfort her, tell her everything would be alright. He wanted to tell her how he had been sitting here for 26 days. He wanted to tell her about how disgusted gambit was when he laid eyes on her mangled face.
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Who was he kidding?
He could never tell her.
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His fingers twitched.
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Great. He had done it again, got thinking about the way gambit looked at her and got himself all worked up. He needed a few minuets away. He needed to eat something anyways, he would go punch something then grab a bit of food to eat and be back here in less then ten minuets.
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He stood and looked at her.
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Kissable.
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Damn himself to hell. He was going to kiss her, just a little one. He was told to talk to her and all the talking, well he knew it was worthless, he could promise that woman anything and it would mean nothing to her. She didn’t want promises, she just wanted him there. She didn’t want nice things either, she would rather have a night at home, or somewhere to go during a storm then all the pretty shiny things he could afford.
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You know you want to.
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He hated his inner thoughts sometimes, hated how they pushed him for what he wanted and berated him about them at the same time.
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He moved to the head of her bed, reaching out to brush the hair from her face.
Funny how this was the first time he had done this without worrying about her sucking every last drop of his very being into her.
His hand caressed her face, and he bent low, pressing his lips to hers, even as swolen as they were, they were soft.
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Static electricity.
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He could feel it.
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He was happy. He was so happy he would have done a happy dance had she asked him for one.
He didn’t break the contact, he kept his lips pressed to hers, feeling the swelling in her lips going down. He wanted to smile but her sudden movements caught him off guard.
He stood up looking at her, watching her. He was watching her heal, watching her beautiful face return to its normal state.
Her fingers twitched, mimicking the action that he had just made moments ago.
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Great.
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He was inside her.
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He hated it.
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When she tapped him, when she took his healing factor, she took other things too.
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Memories.
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His eyes went wide as he stared at her.
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Boyfriend.
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He knew it, he knew she would see it, knew she would have that memory floating throught her mind.
His chest grew tight.
He took a deep breath and watched her, she flinched and then sat straight up her eyes wide.
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“Logan!”
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He reached out for her instinctively, but she flinched away from his hands.
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Her skin was bare.
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She looked up into his eyes, there was so much confusion there.
“Sugah, you been here all the time.” she didn’t ask. She simply stated it.
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“yeah Kid, I have been.”
“wheres Remy?” she used gambits real name. that meant bad news in Logans book.
“I will get him here.”
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Shit.
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She knew.
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She wouldn’t have asked for gambit that way if she didn’t.
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Logan poked his head outside of the door, hank was sitting there going over some paperwork, probably grading papers if logan had to guess.
“Hank, get gambit down here, its important”
Even thought hank looked at him with utter confusion on his face, he didn’t argue, just moved to grab the phone.
Logan looked back to rogue, she was nearly in tears.
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“Logan” her voice was shaky “has it really been almost a month?”
He didn’t answer just nodded.
“you didn’t want me to know did you?”
“About what kid?”
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“I can see it Logan, see how he looked at me.”
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Gambit.
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“Ah, know you are trying to protect me, but this one single memory is screaming at me, you must not like it, it must have been really bugging you.”
“you don’t understand kid, I was trying to protect you, I know how fond of him you are.” Logans chest began to feel tight again.
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Rogues eyes narrowed and she moved so that she was on her knees.
Logan watched her as she reached out for him, his breath caught as her hands met the taut muscles of his stomach.
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Trailing downwards.
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He held his breath.
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How many times had he imagined her hands on his body?
Not a single time that he would admit.
One of her fingers slipped thought one of his belt loops, grabbing him and pulling him towards her, she was stronger then he remembered.
He closed his eyes, trying to draw up the strength to stop her, just as he lifted his hands to pull hers from his body, her left hand darted into his pocket.
His eyes flew open just as she pulled his keys out of his pocket and sat back on the bed.
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He suddenly missed her closeness.
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How many times had she crawled into his bed in the middle of the night?
He never slept with her in his bed.
He would stay awake untill she had fallen asleep, her head nestled on his chest, a sheet a barrier between their bodies. When she would fall asleep he would climb out of bed and sit in a chair next to the bed.
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He would watch her.
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Much like he was watching her now.
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She was staring at the keychain on his keys.
The very thing she had put on there herself.
“ah didn’t think you would have kept it.”
Logan met her eyes taking a deep breath before speaking “ it would have broken your heart if I had just thrown it away darlin”
Rogue looked nearly heart broken as she looked at him, the sound of footsteps drew her attention away.
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Footsteps.
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Normally she wouldn’t have been able to hear such a soft sound, but she still had most of logans powers floating around in her body. His very sensitive hearing was only one of them.
Gambit entered the room and immediately went to rogue “Mon cherie! You is awake, gambit was getting worried”
It was a subtle movement, but logan caught her nostrils flare.
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What was she smelling?
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Logan took a deep breath trying to find his way around the smells of the antiseptic, and the alluring smell of the shampoo kitty had used to wash rogues hair yesterday. Perfume, he smelled perfume, and faintly he smelled women.
He kept himself from saying or doing anything and instead just watched rogue and gambit.
“sugah, how come you aint came and seen me lately?”
“mon cherie, gambit has come to see his woman, came a lot of times to see his woman.”
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“so who was the girl gambit?”
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She didn’t use gambits real name this time, logan swore that this was getting worse by the second.
“what girl cherie?”
“ah can smell her, do you know how I’m healed? Logan touched me while I was unconscious and I sapped his powers. Did you know that along with his healing power I took some of his memories, and his powerful sense of smell?”
Logan was supprised that the beautiful southern belle sitting in that bed was being so blunt, maybe she had taken some of his personality too.
When gambit didn’t say anything she continued to speak “ah disgust you do ah?”
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“oh non cherie, you do not disgust gambit, very oppisate in fact.”
“bullshit, and if you wont tell me then I will find out myself”
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She reached for gambit faster then he could move away and she laid her hand full onto the side of his face pulling her hand back after a moment. She looked at gambit wide eyed for a moment before she slapped him with such force that he fell off of the edge of the bed where he was perched.
“twins Gambit?! You don’t visit your girlfriend for eight days because youre busy screwing a pair of twins six ways to Sunday?”
“rogue, calm down” logan said as he took a step forward putting himself between her and gambit.
“Logan, he was disgusted, your eyes didn’t lie.” she looked like she was going to cry “hes been spending the past few days with twins, I can see them logan, I can nearly taste them”
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She was crying now.
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When she spoke again her southern accent was nearly gone, she had taken more of his personality then he thought she could have.
“I love him Logan, but he thinks that nothing will ever come of us because I cant control my powers. I cant be intimate with him Logan, because of my powers.”
“Rogue, mon cherie, it aint what it seems” gambit spoke now.
In a split second rogue had used the powers siphoned from gambit to charge the keys she still held in her hand, and she launched them at gambit, striking him square in the chest, right over his heart.
Logan watched gambits face, the range of emotions conflicting over his face, gambits red and black eyes blinking rapidly before gambit spoke again.
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“cherie, youre right, gambit be sorry but he couldn’t help himself. He never could handle that he couldn’t touch and couldn’t kiss the woman he loved. You have to believe this thought, gambit was never disgusted by you. Dis gambit was always disgusted by the way that da mighty wolverine could touch what da gambit couldn’t. you touched him cherie, you touched him and it didn’t even bother him.” gambits voice broke as he spoke “every day when gambit came in here logan was holding your hand. Gambit couldn’t touch you like that, you never let him, you never stayed the night in gambits room when you was scared of the storms, cherie, you never really was gambits woman, your heart never was gambits either.”
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Rogue looked shocked and she peered past logan to get a better view of gambit as she waited for him to finish.
“cherie, gambit dun messed up, he knows that, but when we thought you was dying, you was calling for logan, reaching out for him, to kiss him when you found him.”
Gambit moved past logan, he moved to the edge of the bed and leaned over pressing a kiss to rogues forehead before stepping back “gambit hopes you will see what he wants you to know.”
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Gambit walked out.
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Rogue was too stunned to speak.
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Her breathing was unsteady.
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Storms.
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Logan remembered when rogue was younger, when she first had came to the mansion, if he remembered correctly she was just about sixteen, and scared of thunderstorms.
He could hear her crying, muffled throught the door, but it was clear as day to him.
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“Rogue?”
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Her name always slipped from his tongue so easily.
“Lo- Logan?” she asked stuttering.
He could smell her tears, smell the fear tainting her sweet scent. He stopped his minds wanderings, the kid was like a little sister to him, he wanted nothing to do with that, if he started checking out girls her age he needed to be shot.
He did care for her thought. Ever since he had met her in that shady bar in Canada he had looked out for her. Sometimes he thought he must be the only one she really spoke to.
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“Logan, make the thunder go away.”
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He had sat next to her inside the closet where she was huddled behind the clothes hanging there. He had allowed her to curl up to him, let her nestle herself inside his jacket, one of her hands instinctively wrapped around his dogtags.
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Dog tags.
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His hand darted up to his neck, he wasent wearing them.
His brows furrowed as he tried to remember what happened to them.
“you looking for these?” rogue said as she grabbed the chain hanging from her neck, tugging it from where it had slipped inside the neckline of her shirt, exposing the dog tags after a moment.
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Logan was lost.
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When had she gotten them?
Why did she have them?
His chest tightened again.
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“Im leaving kid, you need your rest.”
Logan walked out of the room, and he could have sworn that he heard her crying once the door shut.
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