What is taking them so damn long?” The inhabitants of the picnic table turned to look at the fuming boy pacing back and forth in front of them. Three girls and four boys waited none to patiently for their fate. They waited for the moment that they would know their destiny and where their future lied.

It wasn’t really fair to call them boys or call them girls for they were adults now, long past the time when they could consider themselves children. The time had come for them to rise up in this world and make a difference. That is exactly what they were excitedly anticipating.

All of them felt the excitement except for one. How could she feel excited knowing that her destiny was going to be harder to conquer than the others. They really didn’t know how easy they had it.

“I don’t know what you’re so worried about Remy. You know you’re in with flying colors, all of you are…except for me,” she stated angrily.

All of the others were used to the angry Rogue when it came to this particular topic. There had been many sleepless nights of hearing screaming and things breaking and today was no exception. The Rogue was making an appearance in all her angry glory.

As if on cue, the empty picnic chair went flying past the table, almost hitting an unsuspecting Remy LeBeau. The only thing that saved him from a sore shoulder, and possibly a broken bone was his great reflexes. Of course his reflexes couldn’t stop the heated look he sent towards the beauty known as Rogue.

“That almost hit me Rogue!” he said in his Cajun accent.

“Sorry,” Rogue mumbled.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to release some of the built up tension that the wait was causing her, really all of them, but mostly her because she knew exactly what was taking place. She could almost see it as if she were sitting in the room.

There was a light weight on her shoulders that brought her out of her thoughts. Turning towards her left, she saw the understanding eyes of her best friend Jubilation Lee. From the moment she had walked through Xavier’s doors, this slip of a girl had taken her under her wing and not once acted as though Rogue’s deadly skin scared her.

“Come on girl, you know why he acts the way he does. He only wants to protect you. That’s all he has ever tried to do. I know it’s hard but cut the man some slack. Believe me I would give an arm and a leg to have a hunk of meat like him fighting tooth and nail to protect me,” came Jubilation’s soft reply.

“He’s not protecting me on this one Jubes…he’s holding me back and it isn’t fair. I’m not the same scared girl that he met years ago. Instead of protecting me, he needs to respect me a little more.”

There was no reply to that. Jubes gave her friend a small smile and went back to talking to the others.

Rogue looked around at each one of her friends, waiting to know their fate like she herself was. Three women, including herself and four men.

The fiery sparkler, which she had affectionately become known as but to Rogue she was simply Jubes. Sitting next to her was the shy yet very technologically smart Kitty Pryde. Now this girl could walk through just about anything. Pretty awesome for getting yourself…and your friends out of sticky situations. Rogue smiled as she looked at her two best friends.

Next, Rogue watched the two men known as fire and ice. They were never really called that but their abilities were to control fire and ice. Total opposites yet they were more alike than even they knew. Bobby Drake, mister Iceman himself and St. John Allerdyce better known as Pyro sat as if they had not a care in the world.

Finally Rogues eyes rested on the strongest, yet shyest one of them all. Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin, Piotr for short. To this day, Rogue still couldn’t pronounce his entire name. He was by far the strongest of them all, probably the strongest living at Xavier’s. Piotr, or Colossus as he was known in the danger room, was able to transform is entire body into a strong metallic form, even without his powers he still cuts a physically imposing figure standing at 6'6".

And yet he was still a soft teddy bear. Rogue had caught him and Kitty making noticeable eye contact for the past month. When she would confront Kitty about it, the girl would blush ten shades of red and disappear through the wall. It was so unfreakin fair…and a little annoying.

All in all they were a great team. They had all come together a few years ago and gave their small but close group a name, The X-Men beta’s. Scott had beamed his proudest smile. Storm had hugged each one of us as if they had just told her they were all moving out. Professor Xavier had smiled and told them how proud he was. Jean had not really said much, just told them she liked it. Logan…oh wonderful, annoying, hard headed Logan had grunted, turned on his heels, and went for a smoke.

Coming back to the present, Rogue felt her hopes slowly fading. She knew all of them would be accepted. They had nothing to worry about, which made their concerns silly to her.

“What in the hell is the hold up? How hard is it to make a simple yes or no answer. It’s not rocket science, it’s a simple as breathing. How hard are they gonna make it for us to become X-Men,” John mumbled grumpily.

Sighing loudly, Rogue looked in the door, down Xavier’s extravagant hall towards the doors that held the original X-Men. “Don’t worry John, it’s not your yes or no answer that’s holding up the meeting…It’s mine.”

No one spoke as Rogue turned back to them. She saw, in their eyes, the one thing that angered her more than anything…pity. She didn’t want their pity. She wanted their respect and Logan was making that impossible at the moment.

“Congratulate yourselves guys, you all made it in. Me, on the other hand, I really don’t have a prayer in the world with Logan in there.” I swear, if he keeps me from becoming an X-Men I will drain him till there is nothing left but dust and adamantium! Rogue didn’t say the last part, but she meant it just the same.

“She ain’t ready and that’s the end of it!” Five people sat around the desk of Professor Xavier ready to spit nails. They had been at this for a solid two hours and had gotten no where. What should have only lasted a good thirty minutes had turned into a back and forth heated match with themselves and one angry Wolverine.

Ever so often they would hear the sound of metal slicing through skin as Logan would lose control of his temper. To say that each one of them were starting to have a horrible headache would be an understatement.

“Logan, we have been over this and over this. Rogue is more capable than any of them. I don’t see what the hold up is about her,” Scott Summers, the fearless leader of the X-Men growled.

“I just told ya One Eye, she’s not fucking ready!”

“Logan please…the language isn’t helping matters,” Professor calmly said.

“Well it’s helping me Chuck. I don’t know why all of you care that much. Ya got six good recruits, isn’t that enough?”

Logan was reaching and he knew it. He had been fighting against each one of them. When they would throw up a reason for Marie being accepted into the X-Men his only response was that she wasn’t ready. A little voice in his head kept repeating the same thing over and over with each passing moment. ’It’s not her that’s not ready…It’s you.’ He hated that voice, just as much as he hated this whole fucking meeting.

“Logan, we understand that you want to protect Rogue from any harm that may come to her as an X-Man, but this isn’t protecting her. This is only hindering her from becoming something more,” Jean Grey said softly.

‘Save it for Oprah Jeannie”

The little voice made an appearance again and he wished like hell that he could ram one of his claws through his head to shut it up. It was telling him that he knew they were right. He wanted to give in to the voice, Lord knows it would make the fights with Marie stop but he couldn’t or rather wouldn’t budge on this.

“She’s twenty-one Logan, you can’t stop us from voting her in if that’s what we decide to do,” Scott said defiantly.

Logan looked at “Mister stick up my ass” and wanted to gut him on the spot.

“I have a vote and a say so in this One Eye and if I were you I’d remember that!” Logan growled.

“You know, just for one minute I really wish you would put her selfishness aside and think about what Rogue wants here. She wants to become and X-Man. She wants to make a difference and all you’re doing is standing in the way of what she wants. To think, I actually thought you cared about her.”

Logan had had enough of this ass hole’s mouth. From the very beginning of the meeting he had to endure his ranting and team leader speech. Not anymore though.

The room was filled yet again with the sound of metal cutting skin. Logan took two long steps towards Scott before hitting an invisible barrier. Turning his raging eyes towards Xavier, Logan spoke just above a deadly whisper, “Chuck, you better fuckin’ let me go…now!”

“Not until you calm down Logan. This is getting out of hand and I need order in my office now.”

“Logan, you have had no problem saying yes to the others. Even Kitty, you thought she was ready. Rogue is twice as strong and ready as she is. I know you agree with me here,” came the beautiful-Goddess Storm’s voice.

Slowly, Xavier lifted his hold on Logan as he saw the conflicting feelings in the man’s eyes. He could tell he was fighting with himself on how to feel about this whole situation.

One part of Logan agreed with the mutants in the room. He was proud of the strong, independent woman that Marie had grown up to become. Still, there was a part of him that wanted to protect her from everything. He didn’t want her to know what evil was out there and the responsibility of wearing the X-Men suit entailed. This was not the life he wanted for his Marie.

“Logan, understand something here. Rogue is of age and she meets all of the criteria that we have established for the X-Men team. Some things she far exceeds. Like any other vote here, the majority rules. If we all vote to let her in and you do not, the yes‘s will still outnumber the no‘s,” Xavier said carefully.

Closing his eyes and exhaling loudly, Logan knew all to well that it would come to this. Even before the meeting started he knew his chances of talking them into keeping Marie off the team were slim to none, but he still had to try. He knew how the votes were done at Xavier’s School for the Gifted Youngsters. He had been on the receiving end of one of those votes years ago.

“Logan,” Scott said slowly, “I understand your hesitation on this. I completely get it but she’s ready and you know she is.”

“We want you to be on board with this Logan, all of us do,” Jean cut in looking dead at Scott as she said the last part.

“I can’t,” came the whisper from Logan.

There was an audible sigh that spread around the room. Xavier knew that this meeting was coming to an end and a vote would have to decide the young girl’s future. He was pretty sure how it would play out but it needed to be done and needed to be done now.

“Then you leave us no choice Logan.” Xavier said in his most business-like tone. “I will call upon the existing members of the X-Men to vote yes or no on Rogue being accepted on the team.”

Thus started the one by one vote of yes or no. First came the soft but firm yes from Storm. She did not dare steal a look at Logan for she feared seeing the Wolverine’s deadly eyes looking back at her. Next came Jean. Her yes was another nail in Logan’s coffin.

He wasn’t surprised to hear the “Fearless Leader’s” hurried yes. For a moment Logan wondered if Scott was letting Marie on the team out of spite for him or if he truly wanted her on the team. That thought lasted for only a split second. Logan knew that no matter how much the younger man didn’t like him, he would never put Marie in jeopardy if he didn’t think she was ready.

“Yes,” came the deep voice of Hank McCoy, better known as Beast. Logan had almost forgotten for a moment that the big blue haired man was in the room. He had been on the team longer than Logan, yet with his very public job he didn’t get to come around as often. He was always there when the X-Men needed him though. Logan wouldn’t admit it out loud but he rather respected the man.

Finally, the man that Logan respected more than any of them spoke, “Logan, if you do not think that Rogue is ready to be an X-Men then help her to become ready. You are the best at what you do. I can see no better person to help train her to be a stronger, better X-Men.” After a short pause, as if Xaiver was letting his statement soak in Logan’s head, he spoke more assertively, “My vote is yes as well.”

Sighing loudly, Logan closed his eyes. He was getting a headache which was a rare thing for him. He would not back down, even though he knew his answer meant nothing now. He was outnumbered five to one yet he would stand his ground. “No,” he whispered.

Nothing was said for a moment. Xavier could feel the pain and anger radiating off of the man standing before him. He knew, with time, that Logan would agree that Rogue’s future lay with the X-Men. He also knew that as long as Rogue was an X-Men so would the Wolverine. Xavier felt a sting of guilt knowing that that bit of information made him very happy. Since the moment he met the brooding man, he knew he would be a great asset to his team.

“It is settled then. With a vote of five to one, Rogue will be a part of the X-Men team along with, Jubilation Lee, Kitty Pryde, Bobby Drake, John Allerdyce, Remy LeBeau, and Piotr Rasputin. Our little family of six just grew by seven,” Xavier said smiling.

Everyone smiled except for Logan. He just looked out the window, waiting for the moment he would have to face Marie. He would have to watch as her face fell when she heard the vote count. She just didn’t understand…none of them did.