Story Notes:
Almost pure dialogue.
When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me,
I want no rites in a gloom filled room,
Why cry for a soul set free.

Miss me a little - but not too long,
and not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared,
Miss me - but let me go.

For this is a journey that we all must take.
And each must go alone.
It's all part of the Master's plan,
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick of heart,
Go to the friends we know.
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds,
Miss me - but let me go.

-----

"Hey Marie," Logan murmured softly, kneeling down before her in his usual spot.

"I know it's been a while since I've been to see you, I'm sorry... I haven't forgotten you baby, don't you worry about that, I just... well, I did what you said darlin," he continued, running his fingers along the worn lettering carved into the marble headstone that stood before him.

"I missed you a little... I missed you a lot...

"I remembered our love...

"I spent time with our friends, and did some good I think you'd be proud of...

"Now I just have one more thing to do darlin," he shifted restlessly, as he felt the first tears slip down his cheeks.

"I'm here to let you go Marie...

"I still miss you, I always will, but I need to set you free...

"I loved you with all my heart, and you'll always have a piece of it darlin, but I'm not lonely anymore...

"I just wanted to say... thank you, Marie...

"Thank you for showing me I was a person who could be loved, and thank you for loving me while we had each other...

"I wish we'd had more time to love each other, the last nineteen years without you have been even harder than the fifteen before you were...

"I don't want you to think I'm replacing you darlin, I never could, but... you've taken a road I can't follow you on... and I've finally stumbled across a break in the trees, that little path I stumbled across, well, I can see my road up ahead now... and for a time it's merged with another...

"I think you'd like her, I know I haven't talked about her before... I wasn't sure I was ready to walk that road for a while...

"Her name's Nora... it'll probably surprise you but she's not a redhead, you always used to tease me about that after all...

"Seems I have a particular way for meeting the women of my dreams... drunk in a bar I decided to head home, get halfway back to the mansion when I realised someone had stowed away in the back of the pick up... I knew she was a mutant the minute I laid eyes on her... her eyes, they're like cat eyes, and iridescent green...

"At first, when I brought her back, I didn't want anything to do with her... it reminded me too much of meeting you, except, minus Magneto and Liberty Island, which was good...

"She's a healer... has heightened senses but she's not a feral, I'm still not sure how that one works...

"Turns out she’s Sabertooth's granddaughter... his son was a human, hates mutants, when she started manifesting... well, she didn't hang around...

"Sometimes she reminds me of you... she's got that same stubborn streak a mile wide, she set her sights on me and no matter what I did or said, she wasn't giving up on me... even when I'd given up on myself... lying in the mud and the rain, too drunk to move...

"I wanted to die Marie, I wanted to give up, I wanted to crawl in there with you and never come back out... I woke up at sunrise with a soggy kitten of a girl curled up on top of me trying to keep me warm." He chuckled as the memory came back.

~*~*~*~

It had been a bad night, not the best morning either, the young dark-haired woman reminding him of all the times Marie would curl up with him when he had nightmares to soothe him.

He had woken clutching the girl, and murmuring Marie's name. When the face and the scent didn't match, he had pushed her away in anger, grief, agony... He'd run from her, not coming back to his senses until he had been collapsed on the floor of his shower, hot water raining down over his dirt smeared body. Then she had been there, again, kneeling slightly behind him, her arms wrapped around him, and she whispered for him to tell her, tell her about Marie.

For hours they had sat on the floor of the shower, he hadn't realized the water could stay hot for that long, and he had talked. About Marie, from the minute they met, almost losing her to Magneto, teenage romance, his own stubbornness, until they both finally admitted they were in love. He talked about the years they had spent as almost lovers while waiting for Marie to grow up, and then the night they claimed each other. He told her about their wedding, their baby lost to miscarriage, the war and how they had fought side by side, a well-oiled machine, each working in perfect tandem.

When he told her about Marie's death, how he had been trapped, unable to get to her, and having to watch her as she died, not even able to hold her, and comfort her as she left him. They had both cried. He talked about being haunted by her memory, how the scent of her around the mansion had taunted him with its presence, and then, eventually, with its absence. How some days he hated her for leaving him, and others he hated himself for his inability to follow her.

Eventually, she had pulled him to his feet, almost catatonic, lost in his memories. She stripped him, washed him, dried him, and later he had woken in his bed with no memory of how he got there. It hadn't taken him long to realise he was in trouble; the new girl had gotten it in her head that he was hers now. At first, he had been angry with her, feeling like she was trying to replace Marie, then he was angry with himself as he found himself seeking out her presence and her companionship, and eventually her comfort.

It had taken her four years, four years in which she grew from a gawky runaway teenager into a beautiful young woman, rivalling Marie in her beauty, though it was all unique to herself. The first night he dreamed of them, fantasized in the sleeping hours, he had woken in a panic and spent the rest of the night sleeping at Marie's grave. It hadn't stopped the thoughts, and eventually the longing. Like it had been with Marie though, he didn't long for the physical pleasure her womans body could give his mans body, so much has he wanted the contentment her beautiful soul could give to his twisted and battered one.

One night as he sat agonizing over his thoughts and his competing desires, he had heard a gentle whisper. Nora had been watching him, that little half smile on her face, the same look Marie had worn when she caught him 'thinking', the one that told him she knew exactly what he was thinking.

Her words had rung inside his head all night.

--She wouldn't want you to be alone Logan.--

--How would you know what she wanted, she died before you were even born.--

--Because she loved you Logan, and when you love someone, you never want them to be alone, and you never want them to be hurting.--

--And what do you want?--

--I want you to never be alone, and I never want to see you hurting.--

~*~*~*~

"And you know what darlin... everything she said is true... she might not have ever met you but I did, and I know she's right...

"So I'm letting you go Marie, for you, for me... I need to take this road, just like you had to take yours...

"So this is goodbye darlin... until we meet again."

Pressing a kiss to the single white rose he had brought with him, he placed it on top of the headstone, before turning and walking away, letting the gentle breeze dry the tears on his face. Opening his eyes again, he spied the young woman who was waiting for him, strong and silent like she had been all these years. A soft smile greeting his, as he stepped up to her and took her hand, smiling down at the ring he had slid on her finger only hours before.

"You ready sweetheart?" he asked, as they turned toward the driveway, toward the packed vehicle waiting to take them away from the mansion.

"I sure am handsome," she replied with a grin, giggling when he rolled his eyes at her, even as he too grinned broadly.

Casting one last look over her shoulder, toward the white marble headstone, Nora whispered her own thanks to the woman who had given Logan, and by default her, so much. Marie would never be forgotten, by either of them.
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