May 25 – June 11 & 18, 2010

Rated for mention of … "violence…"

Title comes from the song "Borrow Mine" by...somebody. "You can borrow mine, when your hope is gone; borrow mine when you can't go on. This world will not defeat you when we're side by side..." It really has nothing to do with the story unless you squint, but it was all I could think of.

This was sort of inspired by a few fics. I'm too lazy and "distraught" to go look them up, but I think the authors were margaret2u, Nightcrawler's Shadow, and a couple others. I think i'm a quitter and maybe fyd818?

The main one was a Psych fic called Apple Jack Tears, I believe.

I'd had this ALL TYPED OUT and then when I went to save another ROLO I was working on, I accidentally saved it under this title. Dang Enter key…

Retyping this was fun. I'd had it almost memorized, but still… Ugh.

So, some of this is exact dialogue and stuff, but some I had to kind of guess and revamp. Who knows? Maybe this version will be better (and maybe shorter) than the one I saved over.

And that one evolved anyway. It was supposed to be one thing, then changed to something else, and then ended up being what I saved over. And now it's this.

Romance in the midst of trial, set after NSAA.

Notes: I own nothing. As was mentioned above, this was inspired by several things. And Ro and Logan belong to Marvel, etc.

"Ro?"

The question was laced with concern, and he saw Ororo bite her lip to keep the tears at bay.

"Ro? What's wrong?" Logan asked, reaching for her.

Today had been their second anniversary, and little Zuri was being taken care of by the students for the weekend.

Ororo had gone out tonight, saying something about needing a few extra things, coming home nearly an hour later than he'd expected.

He held her now, stroking her hair as she tried to find the right words to explain her fear.

"I was coming out of the store… He grabbed me and pulled me into an alley…"

Logan's eyes widened, but he kept silent as Ororo finished, "Logan, he… He assaulted me! He attacked and almost raped me and I didn't do anything to stop him…I was so scared…I just shut down…"

The statement came out a strangled cry and Logan tightened his embrace, his emotions going haywire.

The rage was strongest at first, flaring up quickly. He wanted to rip the guy to shreds, to make him fear for his life as Ororo had feared for hers.

Slowly, the rage disappeared, fading into sympathy. His wife had been attacked; better to cry with her than go storming off after the guy. He was probably gone by now anyway.

After a few minutes, Logan realized that his shirt was wet. It was then that he remembered it had started raining around half an hour earlier.

"Ro, you're soaked!" he gasped, eyes wide as he held her at arm's length. "And you're bleeding!"

Her face was scratched up, he'd noticed that when she'd walked through the door, but he hadn't realized until right now that her dress was stained as well.

Gently, he led her to the master bathroom, reaching over to start the water in the sink and then pulling a towel from the rack.

"Uh, Ro? Can you… Do you want help washing off?" he asked tentatively, and she nodded miserably.

Gently, he peeled her soaking and stained dress and undergarments off, holding the towel in front of her with one hand throughout the process.

Though they'd been married for two years now, Ororo still valued her modesty, and Logan wasn't sure he wanted to see the bruises.

He winced as he spotted a few of the purplish marks, the rage flaring up again. He pushed the emotion back down, wetting the washcloth and gently washing away as much of the dirt and blood as he could.

When he was sure Ororo was clean, Logan wrapped her in the towel, rubbing away the moisture and chill. Gently, he sat her down on the edge of the tub, peeling off his own rain- and tear- soaked shirt and dropping it onto the pile of wet clothing before retreating into the closet for a minute. Grabbing the first item of clothing his hands came into contact with, he returned to Ororo and suggested, "C'mere, darlin'. Let's get you warmed up, huh?"

Gently, he helped her pull the shirt—one of his button-downs, he realized with an inward chuckle—on over the towel, glad for her sake that it fell to nearly her knees.

After a moment's thought, he rushed to her side of the closet and grabbed a pair of underwear, which she promptly snatched from his grasp and attempted to pull on herself.

After a minute's struggle, Logan sighed and helped slide the garment up her legs.

Blearily, Ororo leaned into him, her arms wrapping around his neck, and Logan carefully lifted her into his arms and carried her over to the bed. Gently, he set down, slipping under the covers with her when he realized she was still shivering.

Ororo snuggled into him, her forehead resting under his chin, and Logan rested a hand on her cheek, spending the rest of the night just gazing at her.

He was so used to Ororo being strong, encouraging, and immoveable that it was difficult for him to see her like this: fragile, discouraged… vulnerable. It was almost disturbing.

When Ororo finally stirred around ten the next morning, Logan was still staring at her, his thumb still caressing her cheek.

"Good morning, Beautiful," he whispered, smiling.

Ororo blinked at him, glancing down as her outfit registered.

"It looks good on you," he assured her, winking.

"I might have to keep it…" Ororo decided, asking, "But since when do you wear plaid?"

Logan grimaced. "It was a gift from Kitty and Rogue. I haven't thrown it out yet."

"Hmm… Well, I don't think they'll mind if I wear it, do you?"

Logan lifted himself up and leaned over Ororo, one hand on either side of her shoulders.

"I know I don't," he assured her, his head inching closer to hers. "Although I'm sure it would look just as good—"

Ororo's blush and the way she began to tremble in terror stopped that sentence and Logan stiffened as he sighed in sympathy.

She'd been assaulted twelve hours ago and here he was bringing back those memories. Some husband he was…

"I'm sorry," he whispered, pushing himself back up to hover further above her. "I shouldn't… I'm sorry."

Ororo's hands slid up around his neck as she returned, "I trust you."

"But last night…" he argued, frowning at her.

"I love you," Ororo assured him, pulling his face closer to hers.

Logan smiled slightly, giving in as Ororo pulled his head down to hers in a kiss that started off gentle but soon turned into something much more earnest and demanding.

A few moments later, he was surprised when Ororo somehow flipped them over, straddling his abdomen.

"Ro?" he asked, confused, as she leaned down to whisper, "I missed our anniversary. I think I ought to make it up to you…"

Logan's eyes widened as his wife stared at him suggestively and he let out a slow breath.

"What'd ya have in mind?" he asked, and Ororo smiled slowly before showing him exactly what she meant.

Notes: Well, this isn't quite the way I'd originally written it, but a lot of it is close. I was getting tired of trying to remember how this was before I accidentally saved over it.

And I didn't want to continue with how this was going, so I left it to your imagination.

Pretend the bad guy got caught.

And, um, Ororo's a tough cookie. She can get through stuff…

Idk why I said "almost." Maybe something interrupted him. I dunno.

Words: 1000

Time: WAY too long. Mostly thanks to the fact I saved over my original file.

Influences, Borrowed Ideas, and Other Random Crap:

Mentioned at the beginning. But also a few others that I can't remember titles or authors for. =\