Author's Chapter Notes:
Logan has a short recollection of the months prior to losing Marie.
As the flight back to the mansion progressed Jean couldn't help noticing the quieter and more sullen Logan got.

She's gone! She's gone! She's gone!

Jean heard him repeat the mantra over and over in his head. She assumed she would be the quiet grieving widow, but she wanted answers. She didn't want to believe Scott was really dead, and they couldn't repair their relationship. When her alter ego surfaced it had done quite the number on her relationship with Scott. She had to know all the details, so she proceeded to question Tony Stark on what happened to their teammates.

Logan could hear Tony relay the events of what happened, but it was like listening to someone speak while underwater. He was consumed with feelings of guilt, regret, and grief. And he couldn't help thinking of the events that led him on this path. Would his Marie still be alive if he had made different choices.

Six Months Ago

Jean and himself had been holding on an affair for the past year. She survived Alkali lake, but not without some noticeable changes. Changes that led to her embracing the darker aspects of her personality. She started becoming more sexually aggressive with Logan, and he wasn't doing much to fight her advances. Their first time was in the med-lab.

Come to me! I'm in the med-lab

If he thought harder on it, he would of sworn he was compelled to go down. There wasn't much that could interrupt his weekend routine of watching hockey with Marie. But he had wanted Jean for a long time and his gut told him, if he went down to the med-lab he would get lucky.

"Marie, I'm gonna have to end this earlier then usual. See you later." he said rather harshly.

He could immediately smell the rejection and hurt emanating from her, but she didn't rebuke him. She took a deep breath, nodded her head and walk out the room while whispering good night. He waited till he heard her own bedroom door close, and exited his to take the elevator down to the med-lab.

And... there she was a beautiful sultry redheaded seductress.

She kissed him, and he stopped her.

"One thing Jeannie, if this happens stay out of my head. Got it!", he said sternly no room for argument.

She gave him a predatory smile. He took that as her assent and they fucked. There was a time he would of called it making love, but he realized that what he felt for Jean was never love it was lust.

For a year their affair endured, and the more he slept with Jean the more he pictured a brunette bombshell with a white streak in her hair.

He remembered when it all came to a head. He could hear the professor's wheelchair arriving at the garage door entrance, before he got there. Logan will you come to my office we need to talk. Putting down his tools, and getting up, Logan followed the professor to his study.

"Logan, forgive me for my lack of tack, but what is going on between you and Jean."

Shocked by the revelation that he had been caught, he was about to be confrontational. He was planning to end the affair, finally knowing his heart belonged to Marie. The last thing he needed was it becoming public.

"I only say this, because if you are planning to end whatever might or might not be happening you need to govern that decision with some degree of caution."

Logan not understanding where the old man was telling him, raised his eyebrow and tilted his head conveying his confusion.

"Jean Grey is only one of a few class five mutants I've ever encountered, her potential nigh limitless. Her mutation is seated in the unconscious part of her mind and therein lay the danger. When she was a young girl, I created a series of psychic barriers to isolate her powers from her conscious mind. And as a result Jean developed a dual personality."

"You did what," Logan said shocked at the unethical breach the professor made in regards to one of his students minds, a child's mind.

"There was the conscious Jean, whose powers were always in her control, and the dormant side. A personality that, in our sessions, came to call itself the Phoenix. Due to this personality residing in her ID it became a purely instinctual creature, all desire, passion, joy and rage."

"Did she know of this or Scott?" Logan asked.

"Scott. No he didn't know, but he has been informed. It's unclear how much she knew. What is far more critical is whether the woman we are dealing with is the Jean Grey we know or the Phoenix furiously struggling to break free."

"You did this to a child Chuck."

"I choose the lesser of two evils, she had to be controlled"

"Controlled? How many other students have you controlled?"

Xavier got deathly quiet, and Logan knew Jean wasn't the last.

"So how would you like to handle this Xavier," Logan said drawing out his name not hiding his disappointment in his tone.

"It would be best to approach Jean as a team. Lets do outside as I fear the worst. I've been having Hank work on a power suppression chaplet, hopefully it will work "

Telepathically Xavier called the team to meet outside. Including Jean.

The X-men gathered around the garden and lake area.
Logan stood next to Xavier and watched the X-men walk out to join them outside, and when Marie came out he noticed the tense distance between Bobby and herself. It also didn't escape his scrutiny last week in the Danger Room that Bobby was awarding Kitty an inordinate amount of his attention. A small smile graced his face realizing cementing a relationship with Marie would be fairly easy.

"This is an odd place to go over a mission report."

"That's because this isn't about a mission, this is about an intervention. I feel one of our team members is losing her reign of control over her powers."

Surprisingly Jean didn't ry to keep up pretenses.

"Its about time, you're slipping professor."

"Phoenix you need to stop this, bring Jean back or suffer the consequences."

"None of your precious X-men can stop me old man," Phoenix said.

The ground beneath them began to quake and particles of the earth rose into the atmosphere. The garden bench disintegrated before their eyes.

Turning to look at Logan, Phoenix addressed him "I thought we were kindred spirits Wolverine. Two animalistic and passionate creatures finding pleasure in each others bodies. You've become weak, he's tamed you." she hissed at him.

He simultaneously heard the surprised gasps from his teammates. He looked from Scott, Storm and then toward Marie. He saw unbridled fury building within Scott, extreme disappointment within Storm, and his Marie who always wore her heart on her sleeve looked heartbroken.

"Look at me Jean. We can help you. We can fix it. We can make it like it was. Stay with me," Scott said to his wife.

Seemingly having a moment of clarity, the Jean they all knew came to the surface. "Scott' she's too strong you have to kill me. Please!"

"No Jean, the professor can help. He can fix it."

"I don't want to fix it," Jean said her voice becoming raspier and somewhat demonic. Her eyes darkened to black pools. Using her telekinesis she blasted the team towards the woods, knocking them out. Coming to Jean was gone, and the garden area was destroyed.

"JEAN," Scott yelled when he came to.

"PROFESSOR," Storm and Rogue yelled seeing him without his wheelchair splayed on the ground.

"I'm fine," he said a bit winded, "I just need my wheelchair." They found it not that far from where he was laying.

"Professor, do you know where she has gone?" Storm asked while holding his hand worried about her mentor.

"I'm try to reach her but she is blocking me. She is so strong." Holding up his hand he ask for silence non-verbally. "She's gone back home."


Logan....

Logan....

Startled out of his reverie, Logan unintentionally growled at the person who interrupted his masochistic trip down memory lane. It was Storm, and she was leaning on Hank to keep the weight off her ankle.

"We're back home, thought you should know. Let me know if you need anything my friend we are here for you," she said sympathetically. Hank nodded showing his support as well.
They walk off the Blackbird leaving Logan alone to grieve.
Chapter End Notes:
Let me know what you think should have the next chapter up next weekend.

This is the video that goes with this story

https://youtu.be/P9bpqiJubgo
You must login (register) to review.