"Were you scared?" I ask as she kneels beside me, bowl of warm water next to her.
"Yes," she answers, wringing the washcloth out.
I drop my head. The Professor was in earlier, said this was my third day. The first two I had been in a feral rage. The room bears the scars of it. He's afraid I have brain damage, the way I've been acting like a wild animal and raving about time travel. "Understandable," he had said, when I couldn't tell him how long I'd been in that hole. Telling him I had no idea how long this timeline's Logan was in there before me? That only earned me a placating nod and an "I see..."
I can't tell if he doesn't remember what happened back in the seventies, or if he just doesn't want to remember.
Marie talked her way into my holding cell, to clean me up, since they won't let me leave. Looking at the walls here, I don't blame them.
She tilts my head up, pushing the long hair from my eyes. "Wasn't scared of you." She wipes the warm cloth across my face. "I was scared for you."
Turned out she wasn't the hallucination I thought she was. My first chance in this timeline to tell her I love her and I fucked it up. The Marie I left behind in the other timeline would have appreciated the dark humor in that.
She finishes up my face and starts on my hands. "Sorry, I couldn't get your hair cut. I was lucky they let me shave off the beard."
Finishing, she leans back. "Are you hungry?"
"No." Know I should be. She purses her lips together. I know it's the thing everyone's looking for, a healthy appetite, but I don't care.
"Do you need a shirt?" She follows my eyes to the air vent where I'd stuffed it in the slats earlier.
My reward is a small smile. "Too much? Do you want me to get them to dim the lights?"
I shrug. I'm not sure slowing the stream of smells pouring in has helped.
She glances down at my hand, I'm absently caressing her thigh. She places her small hand on mine. Her smell shifts, brows knitting together.
"Rogue." Hank's in the doorway signaling that her time is up.
"Strict schedule." She gives me a sad smile. "I'll be back later."
The door closes behind her. After a while the lights dim just enough to not be glaring.
~*~
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