author: Lucinda
rating: pg 13
Fourth story in the 'Happily After?' series.
main characters are Ororo, Logan, and Remy.
This fic contains past tense Logan/Marie, past tense Warren/Marie, and developing Logan/Ororo
disclaimer: I own nobody from the X-Men. Any characters that you recognize belong to the makers of the X-men movie and/or Marvel comics.
distribution: ask first.
Notes: Primarily movie-verse, Post X1 and ignoring X2 and X3, using some comics background for various characters. This series was began in response to a challenge that called for initial Logan/Marie, a breakup, and evntual Logan/Ororo. This story-arc does not treat Wolverine: Origins as part of the history and backstory of this Logan.
.HA-NB..HA-NB..
Ororo was convinced that Logan needed someone to help him with his emotional pain. Someone to help him heal the gaping wounds to his heart and spirit that Marie had left. Seeing the aftermath, she felt desperately sorry that she had ever wished to see proof that her feelings that Marie wasn't right for Logan was accurate. Not when that proof was seeing him in such horrible misery.
He wasn't even showing the agony in any obvious way. He hadn't shown the slightest hint of the pain he must have been in from being charred. She knew it had to have caused him terrible pain, there had been blisters, and she had thought that she had seen a glint of silvery bone one place, but she could not be certain. From what they had seen before he went to find his past, and before she went to New Orleans, his healing factor did nothing to stop or lessen pain. He wasn't showing his emotional pain in obvious ways either. He didn't socialize with anyone now, instead he would find somewhere to sit alone, and he would just...watch. He tended to watch the forest, but sometimes he watched the people instead.
He was short tempered, and cranky, but there was no emotion in his eyes. They were always the pale blue of a winter sky, and showed nothing. No anger, no sorrow, no emotion.
She didn't think the aloneness would help him heal. But how could she help him if he wouldn't let anyone touch his heart? She had the beginnings of a plan, and had decided to discuss it with Remy. After all, he had spent a good deal of time reading people and judging their reaction. Ororo suspected that he had some sort of telepathic or empathic ability, but he was rather reluctant to discuss his powers.
"Remy? Could I speak to you for a moment?" She spoke softly, trying to get his attention. He was currently sitting with some of the other young men of the school, watching a game of football on television.
He grinned at her, and left the couch walking over to her. The tone of his words was light, flirtatious. "Who am I to deny a lovely lady my company? Lead the way, an' I shall follow."
They walked into the garden, glancing at the lovely flowers. Ororo settled gracefully on one of the grey stone benches, and Remy lounged on another, his pose resembling a large cat. "Remy be thinking this has to do with more than wanting to see my handsome face. You bring me out here so nobody gonna listen to us?"
Ororo smiled faintly. "Yes. Let no one say you are entirely inobservant. I want to try to help Logan."
Remy winced. "He definitely needs some help. I really don' think he's just gonna go talk to a shrink though. Not too likely that he'd just open up to most of the people here either. I been keeping an eye on him. He feels like Marie cheated on him, no idea why. So, he felt betrayed by her, n' then everyone took her side, or Warren's side, and decided that he's the bad guy in all this. He figures that everyone who was here knew he an' Marie were involved. The fact that nobody tried to stop Marie and Warren from nothing or tell him when he got back... dat was like a slap in the face to him. Told him that none of the people here think he's good enough for Marie, none of them respect him enough to tell him."
Remy paused, gathering his thoughts after such a listing of his observations. He plucked a blade of grass, chewed it thoughtfully for a moment. "He's not gonna talk just because someone asks him to. Only person here he might have any trust left for is you. Don't think he's much given to talking anyhow."
Ororo nodded slightly. She could understand Logan no longer trusting the people that had stood by while his girlfriend took another as her lover. "The Professor has asked that I make certain that you and Clarice have some measure of defense training. Sufficient that you could defend yourself in a fight. However, my own skills at physical combat are... not the best. I was thinking perhaps Logan could help make certain that you and Clarice had adequate training. I rather suspect that you know more than a few tricks along that line already, but... I was hoping that you would help me. I can think of no other area that he would readily accept people."
Remy looked at her, his eyes thoughtful. "It's Logan, isn't it? De guy you mentioned in N'Awlins that didn't know?" Seeing her nod, he sighed. "Figures. The guy you want is the one with the most twisted up insides I've ever ran into... If he's willing, I can work with him on making sure I can do this. Sounds like he be the only one able to give me a good workout anyhow. Might want to give Clarrie a bit more time to get used to the idea, he might seem a bit scary to her."
Ororo smiled, delighted that Remy would help her with this effort. "I will go speak to him about this. Now, I must only hope he will agree."
Ororo found Logan after a bit of searching. He was sitting by the lake, skipping small stones across the surface of the water. He was wearing pair of faded blue jeans, and a worn tee shirt with the name and logo of a hockey team. He looked up at her arrival.
"Logan, I was looking for you. I had a favor to ask of you. As you might know, I brought two new students with me when I returned from New Orleans. The Professor has said that they must both be adequately trained in self defense, but my hand to hand combat skills are... perhaps not the best. I was hoping that you could help? Perhaps you could teach them? I have the feeling that Remy would know a bit more than Clarice..." She let her voice trail off slightly. He was looking at her, his eyes still emotionless, unreadable
"Remy's the one with the red eyes, right? And Clarice is the jumpy purple girl? Yeah, different skill levels is right. I guess I can help with them, not like I have anything better to do now." His voice was level, showing no emotion.
Ororo was happy that he had agreed to help her. It wasn't the keys to his heart, or a declaration of passion, but it was a step towards contact, towards dealing with people again. It was the beginning of the road to recovery for him, even if he didn't know it yet. "Thank you, Logan. This means a great deal to me. Shall we join you in the morning for a run?"
end part 1.
Marie had been trying to find an excuse to talk to the new guy, Remy, all day. He was certainly good looking, and she'd heard him answer a few questions from somebody earlier about New Orleans, and she'd decide that he had a great voice and a charming accent. Finally, she found him in the garden, watching water droplets from the fountain make patterns on the surface of the pool, the water glittering in the sunlight. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses.
"Hey there. I'm Marie. I thought I'd come over an' say hello."
Remy looked up at her, and she could see over the tops of his sunglasses to his eyes. They were unusual, red on black. Very definitely mutant eyes. He looked at her for a few seconds before he answered. "H'lo then. Don' know if you heard, but I'm Remy."
She smiled at him, one hand tucking her hair behind her ear as she sat on the edge of the fountain. "Would you maybe like to go out for coffee or a movie sometime?"
Remy blinked, thinking over everything he'd heard about this young woman. She was certainly pretty, there was no arguing that. But... when he'd met Stormy in N'Awlins last month, she had said that Marie was very involved with that Logan fellow. Then, when he got here, the whole place was full of how Logan had nearly killed her boyfriend Warren. Apparently, in the slightly more than a month that Stormy had been gone, Marie had separated from Logan, had an affair with Warren, and was now no longer seeing either of them. There was also a good deal of confusion over the detail on exactly how and why she had separated from Logan.
"Don' think so. Remy's heard some interesting things 'bout your dating style. I've got plenty of exes, still got some pictures. Wouldn't want someone to see a picture of somethin' that's over and done wit' and decide to get a new boyfriend over it. Thanks, but no."
That said, Remy stood up, and walked back towards the mansion. He would have to try to prepare himself for a morning run with the grumpy Logan, who would be in charge of determining if he was 'sufficient' in self defense.
Meanwhile, Clarice had found Ororo, who was in the greenhouse.
"Ororo? Or maybe I should call you Miss Munroe... um I was wondering how I could learn more about a person in the history book." Clarice's words pulled Ororo from her thoughts as she watered the orchids.
"Of course." They walked over to a small bench, and sat down.
Clarice opened her history book to the page with the picture, she had carefully marked it. "I wanted to learn more about this Lady Mariko Yoshida. It says that she was one of the major political powers at the time, and I'm really curious how she got involved with this guy, I mean, he definitely doesn't look Japanese..."
Ororo had been listening to Clarice, but when she looked down at the picture, she felt as if the world had started to spin. Clarice's words faded to a distant noise as she looked at the picture. The caption read 'Lady Mariko Yoshida and her consort, photographed 1892, Tokyo, Japan.' The picture showed a delicate looking Japanese woman, and standing behind her was Logan. He was dressed in the Japanese style, but it was unmistakably him.
Suddenly, she remembered Marie's words... ' a picture of him an' some Japanese woman.' Could this be the picture? Could Marie have been referring to a picture taken over a century ago? It was remarkable how Logan didn't look any older now that he did in the picture...
"There are some ways to learn more about the Lady Mariko, I can show you some of them. I have no idea how much we might learn about her consort from them... This is amazing. That's... in the picture, the man behind her is Logan. He can't remember his past, but it's definitely him." Ororo tried to gather her thoughts.
"Speaking of Logan, he's agreed to help teach you self defense. We're meeting him in the morning for a run."
end part 2.
Clarice and Remy had been there for the run in the morning. They had looked like they had tried to be prepared, although Remy was clearly not used to being up at this hour. Ororo was pleased to have an excuse to spend time every day with Logan, at least for the morning run.
Clarice had leaned over and whispered "He really does look just like the man in the picture... but how? I mean that was over a hundred years ago?"
Ororo could only smile faintly. "Logan has a healing factor. He can heal from any injury very rapidly, our medical experts have said it not only makes his age impossible to determine by examining him, but would most likely make him nearly immortal."
"Ladies, time to run. You can discuss people's mutations later." Logan had decided that they had talked about him enough. They were here to exercise. They could talk about him some other time. Made him feel odd, being discussed like that.
The run had gone about as he'd expected, and they had then moved on to a basic evaluation of the abilities of Remy and Clarice. He'd decided to work with Clarice earlier in the day, the Cajun didn't seem to be at his best in the mornings. So, they had established a schedule, morning run, then he'd work with Clarice. Remy's lessons would be later in the day. He had found the whole thing less frustrating than he'd expected. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad, teaching the new people...
After the morning run, Ororo went to have breakfast and consider strategy. She wanted to ask Marie if the picture of Lady Mariko was the one that she had seen. It might be best to consider her method first, too minimize the chances of wanting to electrocute Marie again. It wouldn't be fair to the baby.
Eventually, she had as much of a plan as she could manage. Armed with the history book, the page with the picture marked, she began to look for Marie. She found her in the living room, flipping the pages of a baby-name book. Reminding herself that she was supposed to be a peaceful woman, she spoke. "Marie? I have a question for you."
Marie looked up, looking a bit apprehensive when she realized that it was Ororo. "A question? Ah suppose a question shouldn't hurt. Go ahead, ask."
Ororo moved closer, opening the book to the page. "Is this the picture of Logan that got you..upset?"
Marie looked, and saw the picture. The one that had made everything fall apart on her. "Yeah, that's the one. Why are you showing it to me?"
Ororo felt something inside her shift. At the same time, she was both furious that Marie had thrown away her relationship over a picture over a century old, and understanding of the pain in her voice. She had once dated someone that had cheated on her, she remembered how much it had hurt. "Marie, did it not occur to you to look at the date under the picture? This was taken over a century ago. You should..." Ororo paused, reminding herself to remain calm. "If you couldn't have had more faith in Logan, you should have still looked at the date."
Ororo left Marie looking at the history book. She walked away, wanting to leave before the tug of war between sympathy and fury ended, because she had no idea which emotion would prevail. She wanted to do something, anything to burn away some of these emotions.
Sitting on the couch, Marie stared at the caption. She hadn't stopped to read it when she had first seen the picture, so certain that the man was Logan. Chances were good that it might actually be him, but... 1892. The woman had to have been dead for decades. The picture was over a century old, meaning that anything between her and Logan had to have been long since ended. Her own relationship could have continued, would have continued except...
She had let her own foolish insecurities convince her that Logan had strayed. As a result, she had practically fallen into Warren's arms, and his bed. Warren hadn't loved her, hadn't wanted a future with her, she had only been a temporary fling for him. That fling had cost her Logan. He had been right, she had cheated on him, nothing could change that. She couldn't even blame it on him anymore. It was all her own doing.
Marie dropped her face to the pillow and wept for her own mistaken fears, and the price they had cost her.
end part 3.
Ororo had shown Clarice how to find more information on Lady Mariko, suggesting that since there would be a report later in the semester about an influential political figure, that she might want to use Lady Mariko, since she found the woman interesting so far. As an ulterior motive, she was hoping that Clarice might find something about Logan.
Marie had been very quiet the past few days. She had been seen often sitting, staring out the window, or looking at a dried flower, a tear in her eye. She had finally realized how foolish she had been to throw Logan away, now when it was too late for her to salvage anything from what they had once shared. She had also given up trying to ask Remy out. Ororo had been watching her, and had found herself almost feeling sorry for her.
Logan was training Clarice in self defense, teaching her how to deal with someone without teleporting away. Clarice was not certain if she was actually learning, as they had only just started. What she was certain of was that working with Logan every day would either put her in great shape or kill her from exhaustion. They ran every morning, regardless of the weather, and Clarice had her lessons right after.
Remy's time with Logan, other than the morning run, went quite differently. After testing Remy, Logan had concluded that the Cajun did know more than a few things about fighting. He was quick, light on his feet, and could improvise easily. They still had a session every day. Logan was convinced that no matter how quick on his feet Remy was, he might still have gaps or weak points in his knowledge. They were searching for them.
Remy didn't seem upset by this plan at all. Not only was it good exercise for him, he knew that his lessons hadn't focused on fighting. Logan could probably teach him a few new things. It was also good practice for his mental shields. Logan was a tangled, twisted mass of pain and emotional knots. There were emotional scars, and a particular intensity to his feelings that made Remy aware of every weak point in his mental defenses. Time with Logan told him where he needed to improve his defenses without ever needing to tell anyone that he had them.
In fact, he had the feeling that the teaching sessions, both with Remy and with Clarice were also good for Logan. Not for his physical fitness, as was the case for Clarice. Remy thought that being around people that weren't looking at him as some sort of savage wild animal as likely to claw them open as say hello was good for Logan. He was feeling better. Not so much that he had probably noticed it, but the tangled mess of his emotions were feeling a bit less spiky, not quite as sharply jagged.
Another side affect was that Remy wasn't smoking as much. It had been one of the many not so good habits he'd picked up. Logan hadn't said anything about it beyond suggesting he not smoke while trying to run. It was partly the way he had phrased it, 'trying to run', and partly the simple fact that medical experts everywhere were convinced that you could run better, have better stamina without smoking. They ended up being mostly props now. Gave him something for his hands to fuss with when his fingers felt twitchy.
Ororo would talk to Logan, using the excuse of discussing how Remy and Clarice were doing. While she was interested in their progress, she also wanted Logan to talk to her, to feel again. He would talk for a bit, but the days of him spending hours relaxing indoors were gone. She needed a way to have him spend more time with people.
When the Professor asked her to organize a field trip to take some of the students to the art museum, she accepted, seeing this as a chance. After getting a list of student names, she asked if she could have another adult with her, to help keep track of all the students. Xavier had looked thoughtful, and replied that that might be wise, if she could find someone that had the time.
Ororo had nodded, saying that she was certain she could manage to find someone that wouldn't be busy. In her mind, there was really only one person that she wanted to take with her. All she had to do was convince Logan to go.
He was in the kitchen, searching for something in the back of the refrigerator. Ororo paused for a moment, looking at him, watching the ripple of his muscles, wondering faintly what had happened to the shirt that he was no longer wearing.
"Afternoon, 'Ro. Here, found one of your fancy fruit juices." He shut the refrigerator, holding in his hand one of her bottles of juice, a blend of exotic juices that she particularly enjoyed, and a bottle of cold beer. He handed her the juice, and sat on one of the chairs. "Your protégées are doing good. Cajun's good, though we need to work on his left a bit. Clarrie's making progress, and she hasn't got any bad habits to unlearn... but I mentioned that this mornin'."
Ororo smiled. He was willing to talk to her, staying in the room instead of meandering out. She could sit and watch him for quite a while, but she had a reason to talk to him, and it wasn't to stare. "I wanted to ask you for another favor. The Professor has asked me to take some of the students on a field trip, and I was hoping that you could... go with us? I thought another responsible adult would be good, I'm not certain I could keep track of a bit over twenty students in a museum."
He looked at her, as if weighing her and her words against something. Sipping at his beer, he considered for a few moments before speaking. "Who's going on this little trip of yours, anyhow? What time are you leaving?"
Ororo felt hope surge inside of her. Truthfully, she could probably manage on her own, but she wanted Logan to go with her. She told him about the schedule for the trip, and showed him the list of student names.
Eventually, Logan nodded. "Shouldn't be too much trouble. I think I even have something to wear that won't scare the other museum visitors. We're on."
end part 4.
Ororo spent the whole night worrying that convincing Logan to go with the group to the art museum would end up being a mistake. She worried that he'd lose his temper and terrify the museum staff. That he'd be reminded of his heartache and loose the students in the museum. That he'd hate the trip and never want to go anywhere with her again. Or that something unexpected would happen, and there would be a big horrible fight that would get them all thrown out. Even the simpler fear that he would be bored silly at the museum and regret ever agreeing to go.
She didn't mention any of those fears the next morning. Instead, she simply asked if he was ready to go, and hoped that things would be well. At his nod, everyone began to board the bus, and they were off on their trip. Logan looked a bit less than happy to be on the bus with everyone, but he didn't say anything about it. He was scanning his eyes over the kids, as if trying to decide who would be most likely to cause trouble.
As everyone got off the bus, stretching and talking about what sort of things they wanted to see, Ororo tried to keep everyone calm and somewhat organized. She was beginning to have a suspicion that this 'nice, calm trip to the art museum' that the Professor had promised wouldn't be so quiet or calm. With luck, things wouldn't end in disaster.
Complications started almost immediately after they had entered the museum. The students had grouped in front of the sign telling which direction to specific periods of art were, and there was an intense, if low volume debate about where to go first. To her surprise, Logan took matters into hand.
"Right. You all want to see different things. Part of the deal for you kids to come on this trip is that you have to stay with someone old enough to be considered supervision. Here's what you'll do. Those of you that want to start with the modern period, the assorted twentieth century works, to the right. 'Ro can take you lot through there. Those that want to start with the medieval European, to the left. That's the two choices on the ground floor, that's where we start. After that, each group can decide where to go next. Right or left people."
There wasn't too much debate, and the students quickly sorted themselves into the two groups. Whispering a quick 'thank you Logan' that she was certain nobody would ever hear, she escorted the group that had opted for twentieth century off to the right, into a large gallery with photographs and paintings, with some assorted sculptures in the middle.
There was one photograph, a group of soldiers from the 1920's that looked oddly familiar. Startled, Ororo drew closer, looking closely at the group, trying to determine what had caught her attention. One person, standing to the right side of the group and holding a cigar, looked like Logan. The large blond man in the back also looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place him in her mind. 'Heaven help me, I'm seeing him everywhere now...' Trying to dispel her thoughts, she moved the students onwards.
The rest of the trip went surprisingly well. On one occasion, when her group was going down a hall to see another gallery, one of African tribal artworks, she heard a voice, she thought it was St. John, asking about why someone was always painted in the same outfit, didn't they believe in changing their clothing back then? She heard a deep voice start explaining about how the medieval European populace were widely illiterate, and learned most of their lore about the saints and martyrs by listening to stories and looking at murals, so the people would always be represented in the same colors so that you could tell who they were. There was also a symbolism to the colors, and she missed the rest of the answer as they continued down the hall. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the answer was the fact that she was positive that it was Logan's voice.
Eventually, everyone met for lunch, smiling and talking about the things they had seen so far that morning. There was discussions of what they had liked, and two of the girls were discussing this cute guy that had been sitting with a sketch pad on the second floor. To her surprise, it also turned out that they had gone through a room of Japanese artwork, and Logan he been able to tell them quite a bit about the things, even identifying a few of the artists simply by looking at the painting, without looking for the name.
Who would have guessed that Logan knew anything about art?
end part 5.