Miserable. That's the closest I can come to putting a name to it. We're in the lower levels and Marie's suited up ready to go on her first mission as pilot. I can't tell her not to go, even though I already have. It's not that I don't want her to do her own thing. Actually, I'm proud that she wants to help the team out in some way.

"I'll be fine. I'm not even leaving the jet." Her hand is on my sideburn, trying to be reassuring.

Things we don't plan on happen all the time. You get on the jet as your means of transportation, and then suddenly you're sucked out and falling through the air. It had happened to her before, in the other timeline, and I feel just as powerless now as I did then. I can't even find solace in the fact that Nightcrawler is going along.

I would normally go. But they didn't ask and I didn't offer. I think we all know I'm not ready to be part of a team yet. I think Marie is relieved I haven't been put back on the team. She's expressed a fear of losing me again. Probably the same fear that is making me miserable right now.

My time is spent in the communications room monitoring their transmissions while I study the information Hank pulled together for me. I listen for Marie's voice as I sift through research on sensory deprivation, photos taken and data collected from the facility I was at. Hank hasn't made heads or tails of what the program's final objectives for me were, but it's obvious they were trying to break me.

In certain ways I think they did break me. Physically, I'm intact, no worse for the wear. Mentally, is a different story. Everyone and everything points to the fact that all I need is time. Despite all of it, Marie has been the most successful at putting me back together.

Waiting patiently is something I've never been good at when I think action is required. So it is no surprise that I'm struggling when the jet lands in the hangar. Marie waves from the cockpit window and I have to suppress the urge to drag her from the plane.

I watch as she goes through the shutdown procedures, even as the other team members disembark. Slowly she exits the jet with Scott. She listens attentively as he gives her a few pointers for her next flight. Every time she glances at me I can see the sparkle in her eye.

Until this moment I didn't realize how much I love this Marie. She is the same person I left behind with slightly different quirks and I love her all the more for them. Her enthusiasm for being an X-Man, helping others, and trying to make a better world spills over. This coupled with her unending hope, is infectious and has a way of lightening my mood.

When Scott leaves, she practically throws herself at me. She is almost bouncing up and down as she tries to kiss me. I barely catch a word as she gushes about flying and being a pilot. Finally she settles down to a tight hug and a joyful giggle. My body of course naturally betrays my enthusiasm for her.

"I want you, Marie," I whisper in her ear.

Her amusement bubbles back up. "I can feel that, Sugar," she says pressing her hips into mine. "Just let me go change."

I don't want to wait. I want to be up in our room making love to her. Grabbing her hand, I pull her toward the elevator. Her laughter rings in the hallway as she tries to keep up with my longer strides. No sooner do the elevator doors close than she is in my arms again.

I kiss her breathless and she starts nipping at my jaw line and down my jugular. Her hands are busy freeing my cock from my jeans as she squats in front of me. I'm glad it's late and the elevator won't be making any stops. We certainly don't need to give any students an impromptu sex show.

"Marie, stop." I'm so close now, I can't take much more. She peers up at me; batting her eyelashes, her perfect pink lips still wrapped around the head of my cock. She pulls away with a quiet, wet popping sound. The doors slide open as she stands.

Winking at me, she gives me an amused giggle and runs off down the hall. After tucking myself in, I stalk her down the hall to our room. She's left the door open and is already taking her boots off. The door clicks shut behind me, I step toward her and she bumps into me as she wobbles on one foot trying to get her boot off.

She drops the boot and faces me, amusement dancing in her eyes. I quirk an eyebrow at her and the corner of her mouth twitches.

Lifting a hand, she carefully traces my eyebrow with a finger. "Do you have any clue how sexy that is?"

Her tongue darts out to wet her lips and I nip at it with my teeth. She lets me suck her tongue into my mouth. A low growl rumbles through my chest and she presses her body into mine.

We shed our clothes and she pushes me back onto the bed. I pull her down on top of me, devouring her mouth. It all happens so fast, one minute she's laughing and teasing, the next she is touching me gently and rubbing herself on me. Her wet folds against my cock are enough to make me come.

I sink back into the comforter with a heavy sigh. What happened to the legendary Wolverine stamina? One petite, innocent woman puts me to shame.

Marie sits astride me, biting her lip trying to suppress a smile. She plays with my chest hair and though I know it's meant to be soothing, it isn't helping my ego. Leaving the bed, she runs water and reappears with a warm washcloth.

This reminds me of the first day when she cleaned me up in the holding cell. That was months ago and it seems like all the little pieces of me still aren't put back together like I hoped. Maybe I've been broken in more ways than I thought.

Snuggling in beside me, it's almost as if she can see the dark turn my thoughts are taking. "You know," she starts, placing kisses on my chest. "It's kind of a turn on to know I make you that horny."

I snort at that and squeeze her hip. Marie is definitely my better half and I'm not sure I would have made it this far without her. In fact without memories of her as an anchor, I may not have made it out of that hole with my mind intact.

"Besides," she breathes in my ear as she rakes her nails up my inner thigh. "Isn't that what a healing factor is for?" She kisses her way across my jaw then down my neck to my Adam's apple. Nibbling and licking, she finds the sensitive spot at the hollow of my throat.

In mere seconds she's been able to relax and excite me at the same time. I roll on top of her and she's smiling at me with that coy look I remember. I want to make this right for her so that she will always look at me this way.

We start a slow rhythm. I try to be attentive to her every need, but she makes it difficult. She caresses the small of my back and runs her hands gently up my sides. I clasp her hands in mine, kissing her. I watch her as she falls apart underneath me. It feels like this is the first time I've truly seen her, truly understood what she means to me. I immediately know I'd wander aimlessly in this world without her. She pulls me down for a kiss as my vision goes hot white and I spill into her.

Later I wrap myself around her, content for the first time in months. I get lost in the smell of me on her skin, of sex and us.

"I need to get me one of them healing factors," she says sleepily.

"Just say the word, you can borrow mine anytime."

~*~
You must login (register) to review.