Logan and Rogue dropped into seats across from Donella in her office. She set aside her batch of hydroponic reports and looked at them curiously. "I don't need a personal report guys."
Logan chomped fitfully on his cigar while Rogue tried to figure out what she wanted to say. "I take it things did not go as planned at the FoH headquarters?" Donella finally asked if only to break the silence that stifled the room.
"Oh no. It went off jus' fine." Logan growled shortly. "Everythin' happened the way you said it should."
"Then why are you in my office eating that cigar instead of smoking it and why does Rogue look like she has mental constipation?" Donella asked.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Rogue finally blurted out.
"Tell you what?" Donella asked baffled at her friends cryptic questions.
Logan had had enough. He stood abruptly his chair toppling over as he planted his hands on her desk. "Why didn't you tell us why yer brother wants you hurt. Why didn't you tell us about yer brothers fiance? That's why he's got a mad on for Mutants in the first place!" Logan snarled his face drawing closer to Donella's.
Rogue looked stunned. She hadn't realized Logan was more upset about the revelation than she was. She put a hand on his arm but he shrugged her off. "You knew how his complex would be set up. You knew how his soldiers would react, you even told Kitty where to find his god damned password! What else do you know? What else are you not telling us huh?"
His face was an inch away from Donella's, he couldn't even see her expression anymore with how close their noses were, all he saw were a pair of blue eyes filled with something he couldn't explain or place. He shoved away from her in disgust. "Maybe Jean was right about you." He snarled and turned to leave.
Suddenly there was a whirlwind surrounding him. Hurricane force winds buffeting him from all sides and an anguished howl. "What you don't know about me could fill a teacup Logan." Donella screamed. "I told you more than I ever told anyone but my Julien. Only he knew my shame, only he knew that I wanted to die. That I still want to die." Suddenly the winds were gone and Rogue was standing holding Donella up her bare hand against Donella cheek while Donella gasped in pain feeling the strength leave her body. Rogue let go of Donella's cheek and Donella slid mercifully into unconsciousness.
"Rogue! What'd you do?" He gaped.
She motioned around the room at the destroyed furniture, the walls ripped apart leaving gleaming metal exposed behind the shredded paneling. The desk was obliterated and Logan was standing a good ten feet from where he'd stood. "She would have destroyed the whole place." Rogue murmured.
The door suddenly slammed open and Xavier barreled in, his wheelchair whining in protest at the speed it had been forced to use. He looked at Donella. "What in gods name happened here?"
Logan sat heavily amongst the debris. "Where do I start Chuck?"
Xavier wheeled to Donella who lay on the floor. He motioned for Rogue to help him with her and Rogue lifted Donella so she was cradled in Xavier's lap. Rogue took a deep breath and started explaining starting with the mission to the FoH head quarters and ending with using her power on one of her best friends. Xavier looked grave as he cradled Donella. "She was wrong about one thing. Julien wasn't the only one who knew. Derek made sure I knew too." He brushed strands of blond hair from Donella's face.
"You knew?" Logan asked sharply.
"I did. It was her past, her shame. No one else needed to know and obviously having it exposed this way unbalanced her."
"Actually Professor Ah think Logan insinuatin' that Jean was right about her bein' a traitor's what did it." Rogue pointed out.
Xavier looked at Logan stunned. Logan stood slowly. "I ain't explainin' myself to you Chuck. I'll explain why I'm pissed to Donella and maybe to Rogue but this goes beyond personal." He walked slowly over to Xavier and Donella and gently touched Donella's cheek. "Though I do owe her an apology when she wakes up. I lost my temper and said somethin' I didn't mean."
He walked out of the ruined office leaving Xavier and Rogue wondering what was going on. "What are you thinking?" Xavier asked quietly.
Rogue sighed, she knew Xavier could read her surface thoughts even though the deeper part of her mind was too cloudy with other personalities for him to read. She knew he wanted to talk about what she'd learned about Donella but wondered if she did. She eventually sighed and spoke slowly and thoughtfully. "Ah think we all have secrets. Things we don't tell anybody about. Logan and Ah have fewer than most on accounta he can't remember them and I never had any to begin with. Ah think Donella and Logan were very close fer a while and she told him a lot about herself and it bothers him that she didn't trust him with it all."
Xavier kept his eyes on Rogue and was silently impressed with how mature she'd grown in the six years he was absent. She continued. "Ah'll admit I was kinda thrown. Mostly cause just a week or so before we'd been tellin' Jean she'd neva killed anybody and know we find out she's gone and made liars of us. But I know she didn't do it on purpose. She's ashamed and torn up over it even now. Like I used to be about Cody. There's other things she's keepin' secret that her brother neva knew about. She's hiding one really big thing about her late husband even from me and you and it makes her so sad she just wants to die." She looked Xavier in the eye a little stunned and afraid. "She's more fragile than any of us thought."
Xavier looked down at Donella as she lay in his arms and wondered how he could have not known so much about her. As if sensing his plight Rogue put a hand on his shoulder. "I can't read minds Xavier but I can read faces. You and she, you didn't have all that much time together before you were captured. Maybe a whole six or seven months. But I promise ya. She never went to anyone elses bed. Whatever happened in those six or seven months it was fer real." On an impulse she gave him a hug then lifted Donella out of his arms. "Come on, lets go get her to the infirmary."
Xavier watched Rogue walk ahead of him and was silently proud of the understanding, intelligent woman she'd grown into.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
A little argument that blows out of proportion.
Chapter End Notes:
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