(no subject)
CHAPTER THREE
Hank awoke early the following morning. He knew Storm would be back with the Professor, he'd sat up most of the night analyzing the DNA sample he took from Rogue, she had told him about all those people inside her head but hi didn't realize that the actually existed inside her.
"Morning McCoy"
Logan's gruff voice echoed form the door of the kitchen taking Hank by surprise
"You're up early"
"Can't sleep" Logan yawned as he opened the fridge and reached for the juice
"Got a lot on your mind?"
Logan turned round carton in hand "You could say that" he gulped down the juice and slammed the half-empty carton down on the counter
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"God I mean I can't even drink...Hank? Do you ever get something stuck in your head and suddenly everything you do it makes you think of it?"
Hank looked down into his coffee cup stirring idly "Depends" he pushed out the chair opposite him, as a way of inviting him to sit and talk Logan strode over, sitting down he set the carton on the table in front of him and looked at Hank
"It's just" he paused "God I don't know if I can even talk to you about this" he clenched his fist "It's just, normally I got a problem I go to Rogue, the kid gets me, probably 'cus she got so much of me in her head" burrowing his forefinger into his temple, illustrating his point
"So why don't you go talk to her then?" Hank snapped
"I would if I could McCoy" he looked down at his feet "Ya see, the kid" he looked up at Hank "She's the problem"
"What's she done?"
"Gone and grown up on me is what shes done" Logan got up of the chair walking back to the center unit he lent on it crossing his arms he continued to look at his feet "I mean she ain't a kid no more McCoy" he looked up at Hank "I can't stop thinking about her McCoy"
"Logan!"
"I know Hank, she's a student, I'm a teacher, she's nearly twenty -one, she'll be up for team-leader soon, regardless god only knows how old I am"
"Then you know following this fixation you've developed into reality would be..."
"Wrong, inappropriate, yeah I get it" he leant back in his chair
"If she were older Logan then maybe but as it is..."
"As it is she's Marie and I'm Logan and she has Bobby, I get it. God" he ran his hand through his hair ans muttered under his breath "why did i kiss her?" but Hank heard him
"You what Logan?"
He sighed "I kissed her, in the rec. room it was just a kiss, trust me"
"How did that happen"
"If i knew I'd tell you fur-ball"
"Logan I can see this turning terrribly wrong for the both of you. And we've seen how wrong your infatuatios can turn out"
Logan threw Hank a venomous look his eyebrow raised a teeth bared
"The kid ain't anything like Jean.!" he exclaimed slamming his fist into the table
"I understand that but unless you talk to her about it what your feeling now your entire relationship will become no more than unrequited love. You could lose her entirely, besides Logan these feelings could be no more than "leftover" affections from Jean and you're attaching them to the only other person you feel a special bond with, which just so happens to be a very ravishing and intriguing young women" Hank got up from his seat and made for the door "made ever more intriguing by her inability to touch"
Hank left the room as Logan breathed in deep and slouched down in his chair, he wondered if his affections for Rogue were what Hank said they were no more than the feelings he'd had for Jean and maybe his "growing obsession" was no more than a coping device, did he really want to be with the kid, like he had wanted to be with Jean?
***
Rogue woke with a start. The voices screaming and shouting echoing around the room before dying out to no more than a ringing in her ears. "Will the madness never end" she muttered bitterly pulling herself out of bed. It was after twelve and the fact that no one had come and woken her up suggested that they were all a bit wary of her still. She ran herself a cold shower and huddled down in the corner of the shower as the icy cool water ran in sheets across her body, it didn't bother her, her skin was boiling to the touch, she felt like she was on fire. It was the same every morning, she'd wake up and the voices would echo about her room before disappearing, every morning she felt that same roaring blaze crawl across her skin and the only way to calm it was to freeze in her shower every single day.
"Rogue" Logan knocked at the door "Rogue?" he pushed the door open slowly and saw her bed was empty he stepped into the room caustiously "Marie?"
Rogue froze in the shower "Logan's in my room...and I'm in the shower...shit"
"Marie are you in here?"
"Be right out" she shouted "Marie D'acanto what the hell are you doing!" she stepped from the shower and grabbed a towel wrapping it around herself she stepped into her room. Logan had his back to the bathroom staring out her window "Logan?"
Her sweet southern voice caught in his ears and he turned slowly to her perfectly creamy white body in all its sumptous, curvacious glory, each curve just right , wrapped in nothing but a towel Logans eyes widened and his jaw dropped as she walked towards him smiling he watched her hips roll with every step
"You know" she lifted her hand and closed his mouth shut "stand like that long enough you'll get lock-jaw" she smiled as she brushed past him and stood at the window. He looked her up and down, from her long slender legs up to her where the towel folded on her hip and to where her delicate hands rested on her chest
"Beautiful view don't you think" Rogue smiled she could see Logan's expression in the window pane and how he was studying every part of her in immense detail "Don't you think Logan?" she cocked her head over her shoulder
"What? Yeah beautiful"
"Did you want something or did you just come up here to check out the view" she laughed walking over to her wardrobe. She pulled out a pair of sweats and a tank top, rummaging through her under wear drawer she figured "hell if Logan's going to be looking at me give him something to look" she walked into the bathroom leaving the door ajar
"So what was it you wanted then Logan?"
"I was just, I mean" he stammered and stuttered before pausing, Rogue heard him walking towards the door and heard the thud as he landed against the door frame "Marie we need to talk"
she stopped in the midst of pulling on her clothes, and stood in front of him. He had an expression on his face that worried her, she had never seen hims like this, not since Jean died anyway, she ran her hands through his hair
"Whats up sugar?" her southern twang caught in his ear and he looked at her, he didn't see Rogue "the kid" he saw Marie, a blossoming young woman with so much potential and he couldn't help it, he wrapped his arm around hier waist, placing his other hand on the back of her neck her pulled her in and kissed her, just as passionately as he had wanted to the night before. Her eyes were wide with shock as she stared at him before giving in and surrending to his passionate embrace, kissing him back she ran her hands up arond his neck, Logan lifted her hip up against his and turning to lean her against the wall he felt her delicate smooth hands run up his chest under his shirt. He let her slip from his hip and stepped away from her, breathing heavily he looked at her, Rogue stood there bewildered and dishevelled looking at him
"What?"
"I need to talk to you Rogue?"
"Rogue?" she straightened herself up "Whats wrong Logan?"
"About last night ?"
"What about it" she said moving forward towarsds him, reaching her hand out to walk his fingers up his chest Logan grabbed her wrist and pushed it back to her side
"It shouldn't have happened, none of this should have happened, its not right!"" he looked at her, his stern, teacher look he used on students when they were in trouble, the fact that he was looking at her with that expression made her feel so completely distant from him at that moment it scared her
"It was a mistake Roguee and I'm sorry"
"Logan?"
"No look kid, you're still a student here,"
"Logan look I..."
"Rogue its not like that, I don't feel that way about you, I never will, I'm sorry if I made you think otherwise" he snapped walking towards the door "I don't...I don't think of you as anything more than a friend" he opened the door as she stepped forward to grab him "I love Jean" he looked her square in the face and she stepped down, everything she had ever wanted had been thrown back in her face, and the man she had loved fsince she met him in Laughlin at the tender age of seventeen, the man who had been the only constant and suppport in her life walked out of her room and out of her heart forever.
***
Logan had been right. From the second she had come to everything had changed, and now with the Professor back in the mansion there was no element about the place that had gone unaffected. He and Rogue had grown so far apart in the short week that had past since they spoke in her room, she avoided him at every step, wouldn't allow herself to be left alone in a room with him and clung to Bobby for all it was worth even though the three of them knew there was nothing between them anymore.
***
It was early morning on the 13th June, Friday the 13th to be exact. She had an appointment with the Professor, just another in a long series since he'd got back little over a month ago.Rogue hadn't slept that whole night, the voices had been silent but still she didn't sleep so dragging herself to the Professors office became more of a chore than it needed to be, Bobby had gone with her more out of curiosity than anything else and while he waited Rogue waited patiently to find out what was wrong with her, relaxed like Xavier told her to be she lay calm on the couch but the second the Professor touched her, reading her thoughts, her memories, her entire being went into a roaring blaze of hate and anger and she felt it like never before that cool flame engulfing her and the buzz, the buzz she got every time she drained someone of their abilities. She bolted from the room once she realized what had happened although he was unconcious she could hear him inside her head and as she sped down the hall Bobby in hot pursuit she decided she had to leave the mansion.
She sped towards her room, Bobby had fallen behind before they had even reached the stairs and now she was just outrunning herself, the voices echoed of the walls, the owners appeared like smoke in front of her, the tears rolled in endless rivers down her cheeks, the pain was unimaginable and as it worsened the blaze crawled over her skin once more, she felt this weight crushing her, running became a struggle, her skin grew hotter, her breathing labored, she couldn't breath, collapsing to her knees she yelled out in anguish, as the blaze materialized into a fiery aura she heard things smash, crack and break, pulling her self to her feet she noticed how she looked like a human torch before realizing the class, the plaster and shards of wood scattered across the hall floor, the walls the ceiling, the windows had all felt the weight she shoved from herself.
***
Logan had been reclining in the staff room contemplating smoking the cigar he was rolling between his fingers when he heard the noise the scream, the shattering, the rumble that had shook the very foundations of the school, rising to his feet he sprinted to the hall only to bump into to Storm
"Where's Rogue!"
"What?"
"Logan where's Rogue?"
"I...I don't know"
Storm made to leave before Logan grabbed her by the arm
"What's wrong!?"
she looked him over "Follow me" she sped off towards the student rooms "Rogue, she had an appointment with the Professor"
"Yeah and?"
"I found Bobby Drake, said Rogue sped off from his office, so I go and check on the Professor, he's unconcious"
"What! Logan stopped short "What do you mean unconcious"
"Your guess is as good as mine Logan," Storm stopped looking him square on "somethings happened or is happening to Rogue, that none of us can fathom, and now it seems shes turned on the Professor" they look at each other as another shattering earthquake rocked the building from within.
***
Rogue stumbled into her room and slammed the door behind her, everything around her trembled, she had to leave had to get out. She went to her wardrobe as the doors flung open she grabbed her duffle bag unzipped it and started putting everything in it, clothes, shoes, underwear, trinkets everything she could into the canvas bag she'd come to the institute with. That wave of pain, of crushing weight, of endless voices, smoky apparitions, blaze consuming her, exploded from her for a second time, this time she felt the foundations shake, her room falling in around her, cracks in the wall plaster from the ceiling on her floor, boards lunging from under the carpet she collapsed back on herself crying, holding her head in her hands, the fire died, the voices died, everything fell silent and time itself seemed to stop, she looked about the room, the stat it was and dragging herself to her feet lifted her duffle bag and her coat, and left the room, she could hear voices, actual voices, Logan and Storms talking just down the hall she closed her door and heading in the opposite direction made her way down stairs, to the garage and into Scott's car, he didn't need it anymore.
***
Logan and Storm got to the room too late, stepping through th destruction in the hall they weren't half surprised to find the same in Rogue's room but it alarmed them nevertheless. As Storm looked as the mess Logan looked at the empty wardrobe and lest the room as quick as he'd come into it, he went straight for the garage only to see Scott's car speed off down the drive kicking up gravel as it went, he made for his bike, he had to catch up with her
"let her go Logan" Logan stopped short
"Professor?"
"There's nothing more we can do for her here, she needs her space, she has to work it out on her own old friend"
And just like that Rogue, his Marie was gone, he may never see her again and in a funny way he was glad, the kid, the Marie he knew and loved died when she took that cure, Rogue was gone from his life and from the X-men. For good.