"That sounds good," Logan agreed, "Any chance I could borrow a car for the afternoon? Got a few things I need to get for living in the cabin over winter before I can get it back to liveable standard," he justified. "And is there anything Rogue's going to need for school that I could grab for her?"
"Certainly," Xavier confirmed, "Take your pick of the vehicles on the left-hand side of the garage, the keys are all available on the board by the door." He also produced a list of standard stationery, which he handed to Rogue.
On exiting the office the pair were accosted by Jean again. "I need to complete that physical Logan, it won't take more than ten minutes, I'm free now if you want to get it over a done with and me not to bother you about it again," she informed him with a smile.
Logan acquiesced, and the two of them accompanied her down to the med lab. Twenty-five minutes later they were in the garage looking for a car. Rogue walked into the room first, looked down the line of cars, walked to one, and got in the passenger seat.
"Hey," Logan called out amused, "Driver gets to pick the car!"
"You were going to pick something else?" Marie replied, with a curious look.
Logan scanned the line of cars before his gaze came back to rest in the Hunter Green Camaro she had selected, she had called it right. "Yeah," he replied sarcastically, "I'd have picked that Prius but seeing as how the lady has spoken, the Camaro it is."
Marie was laughing so hard she was crying as they pulled out of the driveway, leading Logan to add an, 'it wasn't that funny', to which Marie replied, "The imagery is fantastic!" Logan sniggered at that; it probably would have been a pretty funny sight.
They spent the afternoon shopping, Logan grabbing some supplies he knew he would need urgently at the cabin, as well as two cell phones on phone plans that would allow cheap continental calling. They then scouted out and bought everything Marie would need for school, including a very expensive laptop that far exceeded the specs for general school work.
While they were in town, they stopped at a bank that Logan recognised had branches in both America and Canada, and opened an account in Marie's name, securing her a debit card and setting up a direct credit from one of his accounts to hers to give her weekly spending money. The Professor had offered her the same weekly allowance as the rest of the students got but Logan declined it, on principal and on her behalf. He looked after his, and Marie was his, she didn't need to take a handout from anyone; though he didn't tell the Professor most of that. Then they went clothes shopping, to replace the clothes Marie had to leave behind in the rush out of the cabin. She also purchased a sizable supply of gloves, saying she wouldn't need to keep her mutation turned off all the time with other mutants around, because they would be more careful than regular people.
By seven that night they had everything they needed, and stopped off for dinner on their way back to the school. Everything was as it had been before, and Marie could almost believe the last week hadn't even happened, and it was still just her and Logan and the open road. It wasn't until they finally stepped out of the car in the underground garage at the school that she let her first tears fall.
"I don't want you to go," she murmured, into Logan's chest when he wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her comfortingly.
"I know, I don’t particularly want to go either but it's for the best, and with all that studying you're going to be catching up on I'm going to be back before you know it," he replied, burying his nose in her hair to imprint her scent one last time.
"You're going to miss Christmas, and New Year's," she added, largely pointlessly.
"There'll be other holidays," he commented soothingly.
They stood in the dark garage, just holding each other, until the florescent overhead lights buzzed to life and someone cleared their throat from the direction of the door. Logan was getting the distinct impression that the little twat who was team leader, and would be one of Marie's teachers, really didn't like him. The feeling was fast becoming mutual. Pulling away from Marie, he placed a final kiss on her forehead, before releasing her to collect her stuff.
They slept in separate rooms that night, which led to a lot of restless tossing and turning for both of them. Finally, Logan heard Marie's breathing and heartbeat slow into her normal sleep rhythm, and he was finally able to drift off also.
Several hours later, in the wee small hours of pre-dawn Logan sat bolt upright in bed, he had no idea what had woken him. It hadn't been a nightmare like usual - though thankfully they were rare these days - but he couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. He was scanning his surroundings when he picked up Marie's accelerated heartbeat, he shot out of bed, and out of his room, just as the elevator at the end of the hall pinged and the door slid open. Logan ignored Jean, as she stepped out, while he rushed into Marie's room.
"Wake up, Marie, wake up, it's just a dream," Logan spoke to her, as he gently tried to shake her awake.
Without warning Marie sat bolt upright in bed, with a scream that was almost a roar, and socked him hard in the jaw, knocking him on his ass where he was crouched beside the bed.
"Oh my god, Logan are you alrig--" Marie started, before her eyes glazed and she paled. Logan reached for her again but she batted him away, launching herself off the bed and into the bathroom, where she began retching into the toilet. Logan followed and gently held her hair away from her face, while he rubbed soothing circles on her back. Jean followed them into the small bathroom, wetting a washcloth and handing it to him where he lay it across the back of Rogue's neck, she then got a glass of water for Rogue to rinse her mouth out with when she was finished.
Once Marie was done throwing up what was left of last night's dinner, and had cleaned herself up, Logan picked her up and carried her back to her bed. He tried to lay her down but she refused to let go of him, forcing him to sit down with her. Her eyes were welled with tears when she turned to look up at him but he placed a finger gently over her lips to shush her.
"I'm sorry, you were never meant to see that," Logan said gently.
"What they did to you!" Marie shuddered, "It was so real, I could feel everything, they didn't give you anything for the pain when..."
"Wouldn't have been any point, none of that stuff works on me anyway, but those memories aren't yours Marie you need to push them out of your head, shove them in the void where you never have to see them again."
"I can't do that Logan," Marie replied, "I can't pick and choose, I either keep it all or loose it all, and I like having you in here."
Logan sighed in resignation. "If I could have saved you and spared you all that shit I would have,” he murmured softly.
"I know," Marie assured him, "I'm glad I've seen it, I mean, hell, you saw me at my worst so I guess fair is fair right?" she joked.
He slipped her off his knee back into her bed, tucking the covers back around her with a soft smile. "Go back to sleep kid, nice dreams only from now on, got it?"
"If you weren't leaving in the morning that might be do-able," she grumbled but bid him goodnight all the same. As he stood up to leave the room she caught hold of his hand. "Don't leave without saying goodbye in the morning."
"Wouldn't dream of it kid," he replied, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Promise?" she asked with a yawn.
"I promise, see you in the morning," he answered, kissing her hand before turning back to the door. Logan noticed then that Jean was still standing in the doorway, and he ushered her out as he left.
"What was that all about?" she asked curiously, with more than a hint of concern.
"Has Marie told you how her mutation works?" he asked.
"Some," Jean responded, "She said she gets energy and memories from people, and some mutations too?"
"Yeah, that nightmare was one of my memories, I recognized the reaction," Logan revealed, "It’s from the lab, where they implanted the metal, it's not a nice memory..."
"I picked up her distress from the kitchen, it's unusual for non-telepaths to be able to project that far, even when under immense stress, it was one hell of a nightmare," Jean admitted.
Logan nodded with a scowl, looking even more concerned than he had before. "I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, leaving, I thought I was but now with this... she never should have had to see that..."
"You should never have had to experience it Logan," Jean stated, her attention turned towards Rogue's now closed door. "She doesn't blame you, if that makes you feel any better, she's more angry that it ever happened, that you have to live with that pain."
"Stay out of her head," Logan growled in annoyance.
"I'm not looking,” Jean replied with a smile, "She's projecting, she wants you to know. And don't feel bad about going, she's going to be okay, we can help her with the nightmares if they continue but it's probably just because it's new, once her mind calms the other memories should settle."
"I hope so, if it doesn't... keep me updated, if I have to come back I can, any time." Jean could tell, from his tone and obvious concern, that he really did feel a connection to the girl, she was picking up a strong protective instinct from him. His feral instincts had obviously attached a pack station to the girl, she was probably the closest thing he had to family judging by his propensity to keep others at arm’s length.
"I will do," she assured him. She sensed the conversation coming to an end but as he turned back to his room a thought struck her. "So, how long have you and Rogue been together?"
Logan paused, before turning back to her, an eyebrow cocked and an odd expression on his face. After a moment he responded, "Found her wandering a highway after skipping out on a ride that got handsy, she was half frozen and had nowhere near the right gear to survive even the Canadian fall on the road, let alone winter. Turned out we were heading in the same general direction, her to Anchorage, me to Whitehorse, so I offered her to tag along, got her enough gear to survive the trip through winter, then when we hit Whitehorse a storm blew in, she wasn't going to be getting any further for weeks, and I wasn't keen to just drop her off and leave her to fend for herself through winter, hell, kid had never seen snow before hitting the border, so I offered her to winter at my cabin and I'd take her on to Anchorage come spring, that's where that hairy fucker and you lot come in so, you know the rest." He shrugged and turned back to his room with a smile, bidding her goodnight as he disappeared through the door.
It wasn't until a couple of days later that Jean realised, he hadn't actually answered her question.
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