Title: Reality

Author: Victoria (atlantic_iced_tea@hotmail.com)

Rating: PG-13 to be safe

Summary: a freak happening transports Marie and Scott into an alternate dimension, leading Marie to discover a thing or two about both her fearless leader and also Logan.

Feedback: is my drug of choice, even ahead of chocolate munchies and David Boreanaz. Well, maybe not David.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters - Marvel, Fox and a bunch of lawyers do. But I bet they don't have half as much fun with them as I do.

Author's Note: A little different to my previous Logan/Marie fic's, I hope you like it. It's probably best if you read the preceding three stories first though - "Waiting", "Watching" and "Singular Moments".

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A week ago, she would have traded anything for just one kiss, believing that the touch of his lips against hers would be enough. She knew different now though. Knew that one kiss could never be enough to satisfy her. A hundred thousand kisses could never be enough from a man like that.

The nights were the worst. Cloaked in blackness she lay alone on her bed, the weak whistle of the wind calling to her from behind the window. Everything was still, no hint of movement or life. It was as if a kind of death had settled around her and nothing she could do would ever lift its thick veil.

Marie felt as if there was some kind of shell around her that stopped her feeling anything but a dull numbness. She was void of all emotion. She just Was, going through the motions of her life, joyless and quiet.

The rest of the mansion didn't understand why she was acting so oddly, they didn't know. Apart from Xavier of course, because he could sense it and then Scott had filled in the details. Because Scott had been there.

A week ago she would never have even thought of calling the leader of the X-Men by his first name. He was always Mr Summers, or Cyclops maybe. But now, everything was different.

There are times when the balance between this world and the next is weakened, when the barriers grow thin and realities collide. Sometimes there clear reasons for this, tangible explanations. Sometimes there are not. Sometimes nothing can be done or said but to allow this to happen, and wait for the universe to right itself again, returning us to the proper place, time, dimension.

This is the story of a girl called Marie who was plunged through a wall of nothingness into an alternate reality, where everything was different and yet the same. Two timelines identical until that fateful night on top of the Statue of Liberty, where they separated, branching off into separate worlds.

The reality she had experienced was simple, and had seemed to her inevitable. Logan saved her life, almost killing himself in the process and after he recovered he left for Canada, determined to rediscover his past. She had remained at Xavier's School for Gifted Children, waiting for the man she loved to come home.

He had returned, and she had restrained herself, and now they barely said hello. They were strangers to each other, or so it seemed. But he had invaded her mind twice now, both times his skin had touched hers, and he had never left. He just sat there, this alien entity inside her.

Before her mutation had emerged from its hiding place deep within her, putting David into a coma for three weeks, Marie had dreamed of going on an adventure. Now her life was one, living with the X-Men, and she couldn't help but feel cheated. She didn't take part in the missions, only watched from the sidelines.

Her life at the school was filled with people who cared about her, maybe even loved her. She remembered that one time Bobby had asked her out. It was about a month after she arrived at the mansion. Logan was gone, searching out his past, and she had settled into some kind of life at the school.

He had come to her one evening as she sat in the dining hall alone, pushing the remains of her dinner around the white plate. He smiled at her, unsure and nervous. She couldn't remember his exact words, but he had asked her to go to the movies sometime. Marie didn't know what to say. She had never expected anyone to want to date her, considering the limitations that were placed on physical contact with her. Yet this boy liked her, wanted to see her.

Smiling shyly, she apologised. Told him she couldn't go out with him - with anyone. That's just the way it was. He had accepted her explanation never realising it was only a half-truth. She never told him she was in love with Logan - a man old enough to be her father, a man that couldn't have been more unattainable.

But she and Bobby had become friends, and she was grateful for that. They went out to the cinema at weekends with the other kids from school, or for ice cream in Westchester. In the eight months she had been on the road she had endured isolation and loneliness. Now she was able to mix with people just like herself. It was liberating. No one here wondered why she wore layer upon layer of clothing, material covering her from head to toe. They knew and they understood. Most importantly though, they weren't afraid. All of them had a mutation, most of which could be considered dangerous. They felt sorry for people like Rogue though, because her power was her skin, and couldn't be turned off.

She would never live a 'normal' life - hide her mutation and pretend to be human. She was to live in constant fear of 'accidents', of being touched. Something so natural and essential to others was a source of dread for Marie. She prayed that she could meet just one person immune to her power, someone she could touch, even if just for a little while. Then she might feel real, because as it was, Marie was cast adrift from the world, alone with herself.