"Come on Rogue, you can do it." She heard Logan's voice through a haze.

Assuming it was the piece of him inside her own mind she replied, "I did my best to protect him, it's your turn now."

"No sweetheart, you're not done yet, James still needs you." Came the distance voice again. This time it was followed by a sharp pain in her gut, a burn that grew steadily stronger, as the voice got louder. She cried out audibly, as a weight collapsed on top of her as more feeling came back, she cracked open one eye to see a familiar mop of black hair resting on her chest.

"No!" she screamed. "Move! Get off! Logan stop touching my skin!" she begged, as she tried ineffectively to push him away. A second figure appeared. It could have been Sabretooth for all she cared right then, so long as it was someone who could shift the enhanced bulk of Wolverine off of her and break the connection with her skin. "Help me, please, I can't get him away from my skin," she said through sobs.

His weight was rolled off of her quickly and she hurriedly pulled herself up, barely noticing the pinching and tearing of newly healed flesh as she moved. "Logan! Logan are you alright? Please, please be alright, " she sobbed, into his leather clad chest as the soothing voice inside her mind coaxed her to lay still and heal, promising he would be fine. She lay still, crying softly onto his chest as they both slowly healed. She could hear the sounds of fighting raging around them, the fight having spilled out of the truck into the surrounding desert. Mystique and Sabretooth appeared to have switched tack from trying to fight, to now trying to escape, either way she didn't care what happened to them, so long as they never bothered her again.

After a time, she felt the form below her groan quietly, she turned to regard him just as Logan opened his eyes to look down at her in return.

"It worked? You're okay?" he asked softly. She nodded, not trusting her mouth to be able to form words right now. With a smile his hand lifted to her face and he gently smoothed her hair back, before sliding his thumb over her cheek to brush away her tears. "Good, I'm glad," he continued.

"How did you find me?" she asked eventually, as she lay in his arms waiting for his strength to come back enough for him to move.

"Xavier couldn't find you, so he was tracking Sabretooth and Mystique, hoping that if they found you first, we could get to you before anything bad happened, we've been trying to find you since you left James behind... why didn't you stay? We could have protected both of you," Logan said, gently stroking her head as he recovered.

"I- I didn't know how the real you would react to me, I needed to keep James safe, if that meant sacrificing my life for his safety then so be it, I couldn't risk being thrown out, having him thrown out," Rogue replied sincerely.

They lay in silence until the sounds of fighting outside died away to nothing, at which point Logan slowly rolled to his feet. They helped each other stand gingerly before making their way outside, Logan's senses telling them both that Sabretooth and Mystique were gone.

Nervously Rogue followed Logan into the night, he seemed to be okay with her, even accepting of her, but would his teammates feel the same way?

"Don't be shy sweetheart," Logan coaxed with a grin, as he led her after the rest of the team toward the large black jet she hadn't even heard arrive. He led her on board, without a word, and buckled her into a seat, before buckling himself in next to her. The plane lifted off the ground within minutes, and they headed back to New York in silence. As soon as the jet touched down Logan had both their seat belts off, and he hurriedly pulled her down the gangway, and across the hangar.

“Where are you taking me?" she asked, suddenly unsure about just what his intentions were.

"James," was all he said, pausing to look back at her with a worried, pleading look until she nodded and continued after him again.

The sight that met her eyes, as they stepped into the medical area, caused her heart to skip a beat as she gasped in shock. A red-haired doctor was standing beside her son, rubbing her eyes tiredly. James was laid out in a tiny incubator, tubes and wires running haphazard all over his tiny, fragile looking body.

"What happened?" Rogue cried, rushing to his side, dropping Logan's hand in the process.

"We're not entirely sure," the doctor replied, looking surprisingly relieved to see her. "It seems he can't digest synthetic milk, when Logan started him on formula it began with vomiting, when it was obvious he wasn't keeping anything down we had to install a feeding tube but it still all kept coming either up or straight through the other end. I've had him on goat milk for the last twelve hours which he seems to be able to tolerate better than the synthetic milk but he is dehydrated still, we really need to get him back on breast milk as soon as possible, are you still able to feed him?" the doctor asked.

Rogue nodded, quickly, detangling herself from the torn and blood-stained clothes she was wearing, a moment later she had James in her arms. Gently she wiped her nipple across his lips, watching his little nose twitch adorably before he sluggishly opened his mouth and made an attempt to grab it. It took three tries for him to latch on properly but once he had it, he began to suck steadily. Rogue was so focused on her baby that she didn't notice the other X-Men filter into the room, or Logan move to stand protectively in front of her as she suckled their infant.

Everyone remained silent as she fed, not wanting to interrupt the reunion of mother and child, or upset Logan who had, understandably, been prowling around like a bear with a sore head since it had become obvious something was wrong with the baby.

After about ten minutes James released her nipple with a wet pop and burped, laying contentedly for a minute, eyes closed and a slight grin on his tiny little face, until he began to fuss and search out his food again. He didn't want the same breast, so she turned him around to offer him the other. This time he latched on immediately and began to suck hungrily, his strength, what little a baby possessed, was coming back quickly, to which both she and Logan let out relieved sighs.

As she began to contemplate the situation she was now in, now that her immediate worry was subsiding, she couldn't help the touch of sorrow at the thought that Logan had only been worried about her because he had been worried about James. Oh well, at least she had been right in her assessment of his behaviour towards the child, he had accepted him readily despite everything. She ignored the Logan in her head that was telling her she was wrong; he had been worried for her for a long time and was glad he had finally been able to get her somewhere she was safe. That it helped James was an added bonus, and he hoped it would be enough to keep her at the school long term.

When he was confident the parents were ready turn their minds to other important matters the Professor spoke, addressing Rogue calmly he introduced her officially to the X-Men, teachers at his school for mutant children. She didn't bother mentioning that she knew who they all were, knew a few rather embarrassing facts about each of them too thanks to the Logan in her head. Once the introductions were complete, he began to gently grill her on issues that had been concerning him for some time.

She explained her whole sorry story to him, from being turned out of home at fifteen when her mutation surfaced, living rough for two years, before being accidentally discovered and drawn in by the Brotherhood. She ashamedly revealed some of the things she had been made to do in the four years she was with them, apologising profusely for the things that had impacted negatively on the X-Men. When she got to the point in her story that concerned Wolverine's capture she clammed up. She was ashamed of what she had done but she also knew he was an intensely private person, he wouldn't want the others to know, as much for her sake as for his.

Thankfully the Professor didn't ask her about what had happened during the capture, instead he seemed most concerned about whether she had gotten the information the Brotherhood had been after.
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