-------------Chapter 7-------------


When she came to, Rogue found herself back in the school. She was laying on Ms. Winters’ desk, her head raised on a thick book, her feet elevated on the back of a chair, and a cool cloth on her forehead. Noticing her eyes were open, the teacher spoke.

“Oh, Mr. Dunn, Edward! Come quickly! She’s awake!”

Rogue couldn’t really tell what Ms. Winters had said, her ears felt like they were full of cotton. But it didn’t take much to realize she must have called to Logan. Quick as lightening, he was at her side, grasping her hand, much as he had been before she felt herself fall. He was speaking to her, but she could still not clearly make out what he was saying. She glanced at Ms. Winters and noticed that her mouth was moving also.

Unable to hear what they were saying properly, Rogue spoke up, knowing it was impolite to interrupt someone when they were speaking, she figured though, if you couldn’t hear them, it would be more impolite to let them prattle on.

“Ms. LeRouge! You gave us quite a scare there! How are you feel----?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Winters, I can’t seem to hear you very well, my ears feel like they’re stuffed with cotton,” with the conclusion of her statement, Rogue felt the grip on her hand tighten. She wriggled herself to a sitting position, feeling her ears begin to clear, as if she’d been swimming, a strange draining sensation. She was slightly shocked to find Logan’s head on her shoulder, his voice cracking with emotion.

“Oh! Marie, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to ---!” He was immediately cut off by Ms. Winters, “Now Mr. Dunn,” her voice taking on a strong, authoritative tone, “Please! A little decorum! Really! There is no reason for such a display!”

Her words cut straight into Logan, and almost immediately he was once again standing upright, hands clasped together behind his back, head down as if he were a scolded five year old, “Y-yes, Ms. Winters, O-of course. I apologize for that extremely un-manly display, I-I don’t know what came over me,” he quickly turned and walked out of the building.

Puzzled and shocked, Rogue rose to her feet, but teetered a bit. Ms. Winters caught her arm and tried to convince her to lay back down, if even for a moment longer. Rogue would not hear of it. She had to get to Logan.

“Thank you, Ms. Winters, I’m fine really, just a bit of low blood sugar or something, I probably just stood too quickly,” she was trying anything and everything to explain the way she swayed toward the door of the school building.

Realizing she would not be able to convince her to rest a bit more, Ms. Winters simply called after her, “Well, take care getting home, Ms. LeRouge, sit and rest every few minutes, you don’t want to overtax yourself!”

Rogue waved a hand absent-mindedly over her head to acknowledge the advice.

Logan had slowed his determined pace. Having heard Ms. Winters call after Rogue, he knew she was following after him. Not wanting to be the cause of another ‘episode’, he waited for her to catch up. When she did, she was slightly out of breath.

‘pant – pant’ “Wh-what was all that about?” ‘pant’

“What was ‘what’ about?” he questioned.

Rogue took a moment to properly catch her breath.

“What was with the stalking out on me? It’s not that I don’t like Ms. Winters, but I know that she can’t tell me how I ended up laid out on her desk!”

Logan glanced sideways at Rogue, then sat down rather dejectedly on a large boulder, “I-I’m sorry about that, Marie. I just…I just don’t like getting reprimanded like that. I’m not at all comfortable with letting my emotions out, and when I do they seem to just flood out, uncontrolled. There’s no middle ground and I don’t like others seeing me like that; especially an adult.”

Rogue moved to sit next to him, and Logan slid over on the large rock to make room. She didn’t quite know what to say in response to his revelation over his emotions. “Why don’t we go back to how I ended up on her desk? Hmmm? Then we’ll see about this uncontrollable flood.”

Logan flashed her that smile once again and all seemed right with the world. He explained how she had ‘swooned’, and he had carried her unconscious form back to the school. He honestly reveled that he hadn’t the slightest idea of what else to do, but he figured Ms. Winters would.

“What I was most afraid for is that I didn’t know what had caused you to swoon. Ms. Winters asked what was happening just before you did and I told her we had just been talking.”

Rogue now clearly recalled what they had been talking about. Logan had just told her, in not so many words, that he hoped they could explore their friendship evolving into something more. That if she were to investigate a career as a teacher, the arcane rules set out by the School Board would preclude the possibility of any sort of relationship from even beginning. Why such a declaration on Logan’s part should bring about so intense a reaction on her part puzzled her.

She suddenly realized she was speaking, “I recall our conversation, Logan. To be completely honest, I was both surprised and pleased by what you said. I have to admit that I hadn’t dared hope for such a change in our friendship. I was happy to have you in my life any way I could,” the heartfelt and honest statement seemed to surprise them both. A third party would have seen them both with wide-eyed expressions of shock, hope, happiness and several other diametric emotions.

When one of them could finally find their voice, it was Logan. It was again full with wonder and emotion. He hopped up from the rock, reaching for Rogue, “Do you really mean it, Marie? Oh, if you did, darling, I’d make you the happiest woman in the world, I swear it!”

Rogue found herself giggling at the outrageous display before her, but she was laughing with Logan in his emotions, not at him, as she realized that she did mean every word, “Oh, yes, Logan! I mean it all, more than you know!”

At this point she found herself hoisted into the air, Logan’s strong arms around her waist. They were twirling and laughing and reveling in the new direction they would take their relationship.



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I awoke with a start. I was dreaming, dreaming that I was spinning, or falling, or something. And just as I was sure I would hit something in the out of control way I was moving, I woke up. It took a moment or two to clear my head, and once it had the dream hit me full in the face like a brick wall. I’d been dreaming about Logan! Ok, not all that unusual under normal circumstances, but this was Edward Logan! The man in my dream was the Logan from 1912!

I heard myself groan as I flopped back down on my bed. My clock flashed at me, in angry, red numbers: 1:21. It was still the middle of the freakin’ night, I’d just woke myself up from what has to be the strangest Logan dream so far to date, and I was in no mood to try and go back to sleep. So I decided to do what any intelligent, red-blooded, American woman would do in such a case – I grabbed my robe and fuzzy slippers and went on the hunt for some ice cream!!

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I always seem to do my best thinking with a spoonful of frozen dairy product in my hand. There’s just something about a mouthful of cool, creaminess. I just let it sit there on my tongue, tilt my head back a little bit and let the melting wonder just glide down my throat.

Tonight’s choice was simplicity incarnate – Vanilla Bean. Ask anybody, if a company can make a good vanilla, the quality of their other flavors can only go up from there. If the vanilla sucks, there’s no hope for anything else.

So, I sat there at the center island in the kitchen, with said half gallon in front of me, and I reviewed what I could remember of the dream that woke me. I was up to maybe the third or fourth detail, when certain similarities with the real-life present began to make themselves known.

One - I was apparently one of Logan’s classmates. Not all that strange, unless you consider that when he’s here, Logan and I are companions within the walls of a very large school. I suppose we could probably be called “classmates” under the loosest definition of the word.
Two - I was considering becoming a teacher. Here, I am a teacher, albeit a part time one, but a teacher non-the-less, and I digress.
Three - Edward Logan and I were apparently very good friends. Ditto for the present, no need to explain further.
Four –

and this is the one that stood up, hollering and yelling, waving it’s arms, and insisted that I notice it,

Four – in both time lines (I’ve got to stop watching Quantum Leap re-runs on the Sci-Fi channel with Hank!), I’m hiding from Logan my desire for our friendship to deepen into something more.

On the upside of this, Edward Logan has the same thing goin’ on! On the downside, with present day Logan; I have no earthly clue!! Other than the fact that he seems to tolerate me better than almost everybody else in the place, there’s not much else in the way of evidence that he’s nursing a secret longing to drop to his knees and proclaim his ever undying love for me.

But it sure sounds damn good when ya say it like that!! Don’t it??

I realized there were a few other similarities, but the ones I’d already come up with were scary enough. Not that the similarities in and of themselves were scary, but the idea that the dream was more than a dream and that maybe there’s more to all this than just a few crossed wires in the old brain pan. Which at this moment is flashing brilliant with multiple ideas that will simply NOT wait until the light of day. If I’m gonna find out something that’ll freak me out, I may as well get it over with.

I put the Vanilla Bean away, toss the spoon in the sink and head up to my room to retrieve some papers. Then I’m on my way to the computer lab, again.

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