Forgotten Promises, Forgotten Debts

All the usuals, don't own them, wish I did, and I could not have to work the grind, blah blah blah...

Logan can't handle the mansion after Jean's death, and Marie is hiding a secret. The two take off together on a little cage fighting expedition, not realizing they are being followed, but is this pursuit to help or hinder?

As always look for Victor Goodieness - or maybe not - in this one but I am writing another pure Rogan.

Chapter 1

Marie watched him walk down to the graves. He'd been going down there every day since they got back from Alcatraz and she never in her life thought she'd see him broken. She wished he'd let her help him, but he'd barely spoken to her since she got back.

"Hey, Chica what are you doing hanging out here?" Jubilee came up behind her. She saw Logan out the window and just said "Ohhh…so did you and Bobby make up after this last fight or is he available again."

"If you're askin' for Kitty, he's available okay, Ah'm tired of it." She said softly.

"What'd he do this time?" Jubes sat down on the bench seat.

"He just don't like takin' no for an answer, just cuz I can touch now don't mean Ah want ta go all tha way with him." She sat down next to Jubilee, watching Logan talk to Jean's gravestone just made her depressed.

"Well, with the cure…I mean he has ta think…"

"I know." She still hadn't told anyone, they all thought she'd taken it. She'd met a girl in line, and the two of them had started talking, a man behind her pushed on her to get the line moving and she'd brushed against her new friend, and somehow she'd stopped the pull, one accident and she'd found the switch in her head that gave her control.

"So are ya gonna break up with him?" Jubilee asked, and Marie just glared at her.

"Ah already did."

"Oh…so you wouldn't mind if…well, I asked him out?" Jubilee was actually blushing.

"Ah thought he and Kitty…." Bobby had tried to explain that he was just trying to make Kitty feel at home with the whole ice skating thing, but she didn't believe him.

"Oh hell no, Kitty and Pete have been together for months." Jubilee grinned.

"Well, sure if you can deal with Mr. Ice Hands Octopus, go for it." Marie said, not even feeling a wince of jealousy, not like she did when she looked out the window and saw Logan kneeling at a gravestone. She needed to get away from here, before someone figured out her secret.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, Red, I ain't been able ta tell anyone, what your dyin' did ta me. Storm wants me ta talk about it, but how do I talk about déjà vu while killin' the woman I love. I know I've done it before, I just don't know when – or who." He stroked the name on the stone, the earth still freshly turned. It had only been three weeks since they put her there. "And then there's the kid…she's hidin' something, and I can't seem ta figure out what. I just can't stay here anymore. It's too raw, and I need ta kick some ass and things are way too quiet. I know you would say 'I was right, you're the bad guy…the one you fuck but don't take home ta mom.' And maybe you're right. Maybe I need ta stop fightin' it. I'm tryin, Jeanie, tryin ta be the good guy, the one that sticks around."

He laid the red roses on the grave, and looked toward the mansion. He thought he saw movement in one window, and shrugged. He didn't care if anyone saw him here. He started back up the lawn but took a sudden left, toward the garage. He needed a drink. He'd done that a lot the last three weeks, go down to Case's and drink till the place closed and then come back to try to sleep. He was getting tired of the rut.

He was checking the bike, trying to decide if he was really going to get on and head to town when she came out the door from the house.

"You runnin' again?"

"No, just thinking about goin' ta Case's for a drink." He said running his hands over the bike, somehow he couldn't look at her much anymore; it caused a painful ache in his gut.

"Well, if ya do…run…can Ah come to?" That did make him look up.

"You and iceprick?"

"Broke up three days ago, no one noticed. Got tired of sayin' no." She gave him a wry smile. He took a sniff of the air, she wasn't lying…but there was something she was hiding.

"Why?"

"Ah got mah reasons, Ah need ta get away, Ah'm feelin' confined, and all tha looks like Ah've betrayed everyone…Ah just can't take much more." That he understood, more than she knew. She wasn't the only one they looked at like that. They looked at him too, for killing her, for not saving the professor, for not getting there in time to save Scott.

"Pack a bag, we're takin the truck." He said.

"You're serious?"

"Yep. I need a cage, I'm following the circuit, ain't gonna be pretty or easy." He glared at her, and she grinned. He just shook his head and grabbed the keys to the black pick-up truck from the board. "You pack; I'll clear it with Storm."

That took longer than expected, at first she fought him, and then when she found out he was taking Rogue she flat forbade it, then she pleaded, then begged and finally, as Rogue came in the door, gave in and handed him a wad of cash from the safe.

"Let's go kid." He said simply as he took the cash and grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair. He looked at Rogue for the first time and realized she had his bag packed too. He grunted and she followed him to the truck. She threw their bags in the back and climbed into the cab.

"Here, you handle that, just make sure we have enough for entry fees for the fights." He said, tossing her the wad of cash and then backing the truck out of the garage.

"You got it." She said, stuffing the money into a pocket of her green coat.

They drove in silence for several hours, and he glanced at her occasionally. She was staring out the window, lost in thought.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The first day wasn't bad. Logan was quiet and she knew he wasn't going to press her for any more answers. She wasn't sure why he'd asked her to come, and she wasn't sure why she agreed to go. She loved him, sure, but she knew he though of her as 'the kid' someone to look out for and protect, not a woman, not someone he would ever see as a partner or a mate, and the him in her head kept advising her to remain 'the kid' at least for now.

"We stoppin' ta eat?" He finally asked. They were almost to the border and she knew it would be easier to stop and eat before hand.

"Sure, Ah'm getting hungry." She didn't even realize it was the first thing she'd said since he handed her the money.

"Break-up with Iceprick that bad?' He asked, and she could hear concern in his voice.

"Not really, he just kept pushin for something Ah ain't ready for yet." She said. "Ah got tired of sayin' no and told him ta go find someone else ta give him his first fuck."

"Kid…was that necessary."

"Actually, yeah." She made a decision. Keeping secrets from Logan was never easy, better to just tell him. "Especially with the you in mah head givin' me hell."

"Me in your head?" He pulled into a diner parking lot. She started to open the door but he grabbed her arm…her uncovered arm. "I thought you took the cure…and those were gone?"

"No…Ah learned ta control it when Ah was in line, and decided it wasn't worth givin' it up, not if Ah could turn it on and off."

"And I'm the only person you've told?"

"Yeah."

"Why?" He looked angry. She knew that only the truth would work.

"Because, Ah didn't want everyone else ta say 'Ah told ya so' and after everything that happened, it just didn't seem the time, but if we're gonna be on the road, and with finding out the cure is temporary, Ah didn't want ya worryin' about it wearin off and accidentally drainin ya before a fight or somethin'. Can we eat now, Ah'm starved."

He just looked at her a moment and she watched him take a sniff to see if she was lying. She wasn't, that was in a nutshell why she hadn't told anyone, and why she was telling him now. It wasn't some big gesture of wanting him to be the first to know because she loved him, she wasn't stupid, and knew he wouldn't respect her if it was. She knew that he wasn't interested in her like that anyway.

"You sure, kid?"

"Ah'm sure, my stomach thinks mah throats been cut, can we eat?"

"Sure, kid." He actually smiled the first one since he got back and she smiled back and jumped out of the truck.

Dinner was burgers and fries and her telling him about Jubilee and Bobby. He nearly choked on a french fry when she told him Jubes had asked if she minded if she asked Bobby out.

"The boy better watch out, the Firecracker isn't someone to mess with." He laughed.

They climbed back in the truck and made for the border crossing. She'd remembered to grab their paperwork so the crossing was easier than anything but flying over it in the blackbird.

"So, a week, maybe ta get far enough from the border ta be able ta enter the cages without suspicion, and we just follow the cage." He said.

"Motels?"

"When we can afford it, we'll get a camper for the back for when we can't. If ya don't like it, go back to the mansion."

"Sounds cozy." She grinned at him, and he grinned back, echoes of their meeting making them both a little lighter of heart.

They stopped about two hours after dark, a double motel room. She curled up in one bed, tired, but feeling a huge weight off of her for the first time since before Stryker attacked the school. She hadn't realized just how much pressure she'd been under until it was gone.

"I'm gonna go find a bar, get a drink, and maybe somethin' else." He grunted.

"Bring back breakfast, and wear a condom, you can't get sick, but that don't mean you can't get someone pregnant, or spread somethin' gross." She said as she turned on the TV.

"Ha ha." He grunted as he closed the door. "Don't wait up."

"Ah won't…don't forget breakfast."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The bar was dark, and no one gave him any trouble. He noticed a red head at the end of the bar and decided today was his lucky day. He sent her a drink and she came down and started talking. He didn't pay much attention to what she said, nodding and grunting when it seemed she wanted a response. Her chest was about the right size and if she didn't move with Jean's grace it wouldn't matter when he was pounding her to the mattress.

"So you want to go back to my place?' She asked finally.

"Sure do, Darlin." He said and she slipped an arm around him. He followed her down the street, a faint scent the only thing that disturbed his pursuit, and that was only for a second.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He watched from the shadows. He thought he'd been scented, once but his prey just moved on, arm around a cheap whore. Why he was chasing that piece of trash when he had the frail with the skin back at the motel he didn't know. He watched from the window, his sharp ears picking up the sounds of their rutting, his prey reaching his climax and screaming a name, "JEAN!" He grunted and moved away. His prey wasn't ready yet. When the time was right, when that scream changed, when he stopped picking redheads and went for mahogany brunettes then...then would be the time to strike.