Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Characters: Logan and Marie
Summary: It's about those people... those who never had children and yet, somehow, in the midst of things, became parents.
Those people who never had children… and yet were parents
Chapter one: Logan and Marie, the Wolverine and the Rogue
When he had first met her, she was sixteen and had spent the last two years on the road. She looked frail, she looked lost, and he hadn't been able to ignore the knot in his stomache when he had found her hiding beside his bike.
When she had told him about bad things happening when she touched people, he thought he knew why he hadn't been able to leave her behind. She was like him, in a way. A loner. A rogue. She had chosen her name well.
But then the accident had happened and he – he, Wolverine, the lone wolf who cared only for himself – he had been worried. For the first time since he had lost his memories, he had been worried about someone else. And he had been relieved only when he had been sure that she was fine.
Then came that night. He still had nightmares about it, and it counted amongst his worse memories, preceded only by one other. She had come to his room because she had heard his troubled sleep. She had intended to comfort him, and he had stabbed her through the chest. That night, he had thanked her mutation with all his heart, even if he had nearly died too – and if it had meant that she would live, he would have done so. Gladly.
He had wanted to see her as soon as he had woken up, but she had already left. She was running, again, from what was probably the safest place for her to be – and it was all because of him. And the professor had told him he couldn't go after her, that it was too dangerous for him to expose himself. He hadn't listened and had stolen Cyclops' bike. He had found her, too, way before Cyclops and Storm arrived. She had looked so young, so scared that day, that he couldn't help but take her in an one-armed hug. That's when he realised that the girl had gratuated from "someone like him" to "a friend".
But it is when she is kidnapped by Magneto and chained to that damned machine that he realise that she's more than that. When he desperately looks for her. When he fights Mystique. When Magneto attachs him to the wall. When he fights against Sabertooth. When he asks Storm and Jean to send him up, all he could think of was "Don't let her die".
And when Scott manages to hit Eric, when he manages to stop the machine, when he finds her and she's not breathing and she doesn't has a pulse, he panics and he takes off his gloves and holds her tightly against him, and it's not important that every piece of bare skin she has is touching his, because she's not breathing and please please please it has to work.
It takes a whole minute for her powers to kick in, and he feels her absorbing his regeneration power, and he's glad because its means that she's NOT dead and it's working and he doesn't let go and it doesn't matter that he feels his wounds starting to reopen because she's breathing and it's all that matters to him.
When he wakes up, he's in the infirmary of the mansion and Jean is there. She tells him that Rogue is fine, that she seems to have some kind of crush on him.
He smiles because it's not true, and he flirts with the doctor to hide his feelings from her.
He gets ready to leave for Alkali Lake, and she runs at him and looks ready to cry. So he gives her his dog tags and tells her he will be back to collect them. He hugs her, then leaves.
Six months went by before he came back, but she's there and falls into his arms as soon as he sets a foot in the mansion. The Icecube is with her, and he doesn't like that. But he makes her smile, so he allows it.
When the mansion is attacked, he tells her to leave but she comes back for him and even dragged the Icecube and the Match with her. Secretly, he's glad she did.
Pyro left, but she follows her orders – for once – and forces the Icecube to do the same. She's scared but she keeps the X-Jet out of Magneto's hands, and he wants to hug her but they have to leave now and Jean sacrifice herself for them and everyone is too shellshocked to do anything but cry.
Antother year later, and they find Jean, but she's not herself anylonger and it hurts, but Rogue stands by him and it helps. But then they hear about the so-called cure, and he sees the hopeful look in her eyes and he knows she will go to that center. And he understands. He knows how much she longs to be able to touch others. He knows – because she came to his room and cried and he could only hold her and tell him it would get better – that she saw Bobby with Kitty and even though she knows that her friend doesn't like her boyfriend that way it still hurts her.
He wants to hurt the Icecube, but she interfers. That night, when he caught her at the door, she asks him "You're not telling me to stay?" and he answers "I'm your friend, not your father." But they both know it's not true and she smiles because she knows she's not alone - whatever happens she'll never be alone again, not as long as he breaths – and he just reminds her to think about who it is that she's doing it for.
She's not there when they fight Phoenix, and for that he's glad. Some might think she abandonned them, but he's just relieved that she's safe.
He kills Jean, Jean who killed Scott, Jean who killed the Professor, and the first thing he sees when he gets back to his room with every intention of drinking himself to oblivion is her, and she hugs him as soon as he pass the door and just like that the guilt and the pain gets easier to bear.
She stills wears her gloves, and he's glad that she didn't threw it all away for a stupid idiotic bastard like the Icecube.
And he hugs her back and they stay like that a long, long time.
They're not friends.
They're more than that.
They're family.