A/N: Thank you all who have reviewed so far! I'm SOOO happy that you're enjoying this story, and I'm doing my best to keep updating as often as possible! Please keep Reading and Reviewing! I'm SOOOO addicted to reviews! I LOVE hearing what you have to say (good or bad).

Disclaimer: I don't own X-men or any of its characters, this is just for fun!

Characters: This is a Logan/Rogue fic mostly. The other characters will no doubt make appearances, but it's mainly Logan and Rogue and it will be a romantic involvement so if you're not a fan of that pairing then you may not like this fic, consider yourself warned! ;o) LOL!

Special thanks go to 'UKTara' (again and again) for proofing this for me!

Chapter 3: Logan's Return

Logan had been sitting outside the mansion for over half an hour already, the leather seat of the motorcycle getting colder by the minute and in turn freezing the hell out of his ass.

"Just go inside," he grumbled under his breath, "what the hell are you afraid of? Just get off the god damn bike and open the door."

Logan continued to sit outside on the motorcycle, his own arguments even unable to sway him. He knew what lay on the other side of that door, anger, rejection, disappointment, maybe hatred even, and he wasn't sure he was quite ready to deal with any of it.

Five years he'd been gone, five years he'd traveled the lonely roads of North America, he hadn't called or written and to be completely honest, hadn't really thought about any of these people at all since he'd left. He'd just been so relieved to finally be out of that house, away from all those memories of Jean, away from the people who would undoubtedly be hounding him, wondering if he was ok and how he was doing, forcing him to talk about his feelings. Ugh, just the thought made him nauseas. He couldn't handle that, he was a lone wolf, needing no one and wanting for nothing. He didn't need to be in touch with his feelings, and he knew everyone at the school would be trying to convince him otherwise. He just needed time; time to clear his head of all that was Jean, eventually he would be able to move on and - eventually, he did.

The years had been long and lonely, he'd filled his days mostly with traveling, his evenings with cage match after cage match and his nights with any beautiful woman who propositioned him. It wasn't much of a life, but it was familiar and that was enough. Just the fact that no one was demanding more from him than he was wiling to give was enough, the people in these bars didn't care what he did with his time, they didn't care if he drank himself into oblivion or even if he lived to see another day. He didn't owe them anything and they didn't owe him anything, those were the kind of relationships you needed, the kind with no emotional strings attached, no one cared so no one could get hurt. He'd learned his lesson about getting too close to people long ago and he wasn't about to make that mistake again. If you got close then you got hurt, he knew that for sure, and wasn't about to let it happen to him again.

Until.

One night about a week earlier he pulled into a motel and bar somewhere up in northern Canada. He'd been riding for nearly ten hours and his ass ached and burned with a fire he could only imagine coming straight from hell itself. Motorcycles definitely weren't made for long haul riding that was for damn sure. Next time he decided to take off on a whim he'd make sure to steal a jeep or a truck or something comfortable. Something that had heat would be nice too, all these long winter days were starting to take their toll on him, healing factor or not, you can only take blowing snow and ice cold winds in your face for so long before you're just bloody sick of it!

So he finally pulled off into this grungy little motel for the night, but quickly realizing he wasn't going to get any sleep until he got a nice cold beer in him he headed next door to the bar for a nightcap. His boots crunched beneath him as he drudged through the snow toward the front door of the bar, damn it was cold out, he'd give Canada one thing, they definitely had the best scenery around, but the weather left something to be desired.

But as he'd reached to open the door something stopped him, his hand held still, hovering just over the slim steel door handle and his nose began to twitch as he sniffed quickly around. Something wasn't right, he couldn't put his finger on what, something just felt wrong but somehow familiar at the same time. What the hell was it? Letting his hands drop to his sides he turned back to look around, his senses weren't usually wrong and he'd learned to trust them long ago, so if they told him something wasn't right, he was inclined to believe them. But after several laps around the deserted parking lot he came up with nothing, and even though he still couldn't figure why he felt so off about this place he decided to just ignore it and go inside to get his beer.

"Gimme a beer," he growled at the bartender who stood shadowed in the dim light of the rundown pub. His grey thinning hair was long but neatly pulled back into a tight ponytail, his clothes ratty and torn somehow matched the aged tired look of his face, eyes sunken in behind large dark circles, no doubt from many a sleepless night and wrinkles lining his forehead and stretching down both cheeks.

Finally after a moment or two the bartender made his way with a slow limp down toward Logan's end of the bar and handed him his beer, "that'll be five bucks eh," he drawled.

Logan slid the five dollar bill onto the counter without a word and turned to take a sip of his much needed beer. But unfortunately he wouldn't be getting that sip anytime soon.

"Outta my bar freak!" A gruff angry voice shot from behind him, followed closely by the deep click of a gun cocking.

Logan's mind instantly clouded over, flooding with memories as he let his beer drop to the bar with a clunk. What the hell was going on? There were flashes, pictures, memories in his mind, but they flashed by so quickly he could barely tell one from the next. But then they slowed, finally stopping on one in particular, once that he hadn't thought of in years - there she was, he turned to look down the bar. She sat on a wooden barstool only a few feet away, he couldn't see her face really, it was hidden, hidden behind a green cloak of some sort. She was young, it was obvious from the way she sat, almost like she was trying to be invisible. He could see her hands peeking out from the cloak, they rested gently on the bar cradling a glass of water. He watched silently as she fingered the glass ever so gently, then she turned - wait - he could see her face now. God, had she really been that young when they first met? Yeah, that's right, she was only seventeen at the time. She looked so frightened, though he could tell she was doing her best to hide it, trying to look confident, strong even, but he knew better. He watched her silently for several…

"I said!" That same gruff, burley voice came again, shocking Logan from his memory, "get outta my bar freak!"

The man stepped a little closer pressing the barrel of the gun firmly into Logan's left temple. And that's when it came to him, that's what he had sensed was so wrong with this place when he'd come in, there wasn't anything wrong with it, it was just that he knew it. This was the bar where he'd first met Rogue. Fuck! How could he have forgotten that? How could he have forgotten her?

Then the thought came to him, 'had he in fact, forgotten her'?

He sat there for a moment, paralyzed almost, not because of the shot gun pointed directly at his head, but because he honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd thought about Rogue, honestly thought about her. Memories of the past five years flooded his head as he wracked his brain trying to find a trace of her - somewhere - anywhere, but he came up with nothing. Somewhere along the way - he'd lost her.

"Hey buddy, are you alright?" The man finally lowered the shot gun, realizing that his threats were obviously getting him no where with this guy, and he took a step back from Logan waiting for him to respond.

After several moments Logan slowly rose from the stool and turned to walk out of the bar, but not before giving the bartender and the man with the gun a deep threatening growl, just to let them know he wasn't leaving out of intimidation, he was leaving of his own free will.

When he arrived back at his room he instantly began throwing his few belongings back into his bag, he'd leave first thing in the morning, he had to see her.

-

Still sitting outside the mansion on the motorcycle, Logan finally got up, kicked the kickstand down and walked toward the front door where he stood for several moments hesitating to knock.

"Fuck, don't be such a pansy," he grumbled under his breath, finally reaching up to pound his fist on the large oak door.

Only moments later the doors swung open, he half expected to see Rogue standing there, her face lit up with that brilliant smile, ready to welcome him home with a hug. But he knew that was never going to happen after the way they'd left things, so he wasn't really surprised when Storm welcomed him inside.

"Logan," she said, he voice filled with surprise, but pleasant just the same.

"Hey Storm," he replied, stepping in out of the cold and dropping his bag to the floor with a thud.

"Wow, you're certainly the last person I expected to see on my doorstep tonight," she said as she slipped his bag over against the wall with her foot, then turned back to face him with her trademark welcoming smile, "but it sure is good to see you."

Storm stepped closer, pulling him reluctantly into a hug, "yeah," he grunted patting her on the back uncomfortably and trying his best to get out of her embrace without hurting her feelings. "So how're things 'round here?"

"Good," she smiled, "everyone's really good, come on, follow me, we can catch up while I show you to the guest room."

Logan only nodded, picking up his large brown canvas bag off the floor and followed her up the stairs, all the while listening to her chat away about many of the goings on around the school. Bobby leaving to go off to med school, the professor's continued attempts to find Magneto, her new relationship with Night Crawler, just to name a few.

"Wow," Logan said softly when they finally arrived in the guest room, "sounds like it's been busy around here." He dropped his bag on the floor next to the bed and proceeded to scope out the rest of the room, a routine he'd become accustomed to since returning to the road, you never could tell who might be hiding out, just waiting to ambush you when you least expected it.

Once completing a full round, being sure to check the closet and the bathroom including the tub and shower he returned to the bedroom where Storm stood waiting, "thanks," he mumbled uncomfortably, not really sure what else to say. He wanted to ask about Rogue, was she alright? Or was she even still here? But he couldn't bring himself to say the words, he really had no interest in having that conversation with Storm, you know, the one where she told him what an asshole he was for leaving the way he did. Or how he was an asshole for not calling or writing all this time. Or how he was an asshole for some reason or another, really it all boiled down to the same thing, and he knew it. So he wasn't about to start anything with Storm, if he was going to have the 'asshole conversation' with anyone, he wanted it to be with Rogue.

Logan and Storm stood in silence for several moments, neither seemed to know what to say until finally Storm broke the deafening silence that had filled the room.

"Well I'll let you get settled then, see you in the morning Logan."

"Yeah," he replied feeling relieved that she didn't want to talk anymore. He'd been alone on the road for so long, the past half hour with Storm was the most talking he'd done with anyone in weeks and it was exhausting.

But unfortunately he wasn't going to get off quite so easily, just before she stepped out into the hall Storm turned back to look at Logan, her face suddenly serious, void of any humor, "oh and Logan," she hesitated for a moment, sighing gently before finishing, "don't mess things up for her, ok?"

He only looked back at her in silence as she turned and left the room. She never said who she was referring too, but she didn't have to, he knew, and she knew he did.

"What the hell am I doin' back here?" Logan grumbled to himself as he fell back to lie on the bed. He ran his fingers up through his disheveled hair and then back down scrubbing them over his face and eyes, he couldn't believe that he was back in that place; he'd swore he'd never go back. But then he remembered that night in Laughlin City, the night he'd remembered Rogue, and he remembered why he was there. He at least needed to see her again, to at least know that she was alright, safe. Then if he needed to leave again, or if she wanted him to leave again, he would.

Several hours later Logan awoke, he looked sleepily around the room, trying to get his bearings, almost forgetting where he was. He glanced over at the clock, "holy shit," he mumbled, sitting up on the bed, it was nearly midnight already. He hadn't intended to fall asleep, but his body obviously had other ideas. He quickly got up off the bed and crossed the room to the bathroom to splash some water in his face and try to fix his wind massacred hair. Squishing a blob of hair gel into the palm of his hand, he quickly mashed it around, letting it ooze between his fingers and finally rubbing it vigorously through his hair. The end product was something of a piece of art, slicked on the sides and down the back, with two perfect horn style spikes on top depicting his Wolverine alter ego. Midnight or not, he wasn't about to wander around the mansion looking like he'd just been in a train wreck.

Back in the bedroom he rummaged through his duffle finally pulling out a clean, or at least slightly cleaner, pair of jeans and a white wife beater, he quickly changed, throwing his laundry in a heap on the floor and headed out into the deserted hall.

Man that place was quiet at night, he'd forgotten the way you could hear a pin drop once all the kids had gone to bed. He'd always liked wandering the halls late at night or in the wee hours of the morning, seemed it was the only time a guy could get any real peace.

Up and down the halls he stalked, past door after door of sleeping teens and children, past the professor's suite, and what used to be Bobby and John's old room and finally past Jeans room which he imagined was probably just Scotts now. He paused for only a moment when he passed by Jean's old door, but then continued on in the deafening silence that filled the entire mansion.

When he reached the top of the stairs, heading back to his room, his nose began to twitch wildly as he searched for the source of the scent that had suddenly filled it and his ears pricked up catching the sound of something oddly familiar. He continued down the hall following the scent as it grew stronger and stronger with each step, he was sure to tread lightly trying hard not to make a sound and wake any of the kids so he was surprised when a voice called out to him from one of the rooms at the end of the hall.

"I know you're there."

The voice came only as a whisper but he knew who it was, he would have recognized it anywhere, it had been five years since he'd heard it but it wouldn't have mattered if it had been a thousand, he would have recognized it anyway.

He continued down the hall finally arriving outside the last door on the right, which was slightly ajar barely allowing the bedroom light to leak out into the hall. He pushed on it lightly and it creaked slowly open, revealing a young woman sitting on the bed, her back leaning up against the headboard, knees pulled tightly up in front of her and arms wrapped snugly around them. Her pale blue satin pajamas glimmered softly in the dull light coming from the small lamp that rested on her night table, her long dark hair brushing softly over her knees and down her arms while her brown eyes flickered with emotion when she saw him standing in the doorway.

Neither said a word.

Rogue sat motionless on the bed, her thoughts and emotions in a whirlwind around her, all mixing together unable to tell one from the next, she tried desperately but couldn't grasp onto a single thought.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, but was surely only several moments, Logan spoke up, "hey kid," he said, trying to give her one of his patented Logan smirks in hopes of lightening the moment.

"Hey," she replied, resting her chin on her knees as he stepped further into the room.

"So, uh…" he struggled to find the right words, fuck the right words, he struggled to find any words. Not knowing what else to say he ventured closer to the bed and when she didn't argue he finally sat at the end to look across at her.

Damn she'd gotten beautiful. He could hardly believe it was the same girl he'd left here all those years ago. Overall she looked the same, same long dark hair although it may be a bit shorter now, he wasn't really sure, same snow white streaks framing her face, same ruby red lips, and the same tiny girlish frame, although it had definitely filled out since he'd last seen her. But as much the same, she was equally different, no longer a girl but a woman.

Realizing he was gawking at her he cleared his throat uncomfortably and asked, "so how've you bin?"

"Meh," she replied uncertainly, barely able to meet his gaze. He'd been gone for so long, and then just suddenly appeared in her doorway, how was she supposed to feel about that? For two years she'd prayed every night that he'd come back to her, two years she'd held Scott at bay for fear of getting too close, two years she'd harbored unrequited feelings for this man in front of her. But now –

The silence was becoming too much and Logan began to wonder if it was too late, if he was too late, she seemed so distant, her body was there but her heart and soul were someplace else, someplace where she wouldn't have to deal with him. He couldn't smell her like he usually could. Before whenever they were together he could sense her arousal all around him, covering him like a soft blanket, he'd never really thought about it before but now that he couldn't feel that part of her, he knew he missed it. Now all he sensed was hurt and all he could smell was her perfume, there was no desire, no arousal, only tension.

He stood from the bed preparing to leave, she obviously needed time and he wasn't going to pressure her. Taking a couple steps away from the bed he turned back locking his eyes with hers, "I'm sorry kid," he sighed quietly, then turned back towards the door.

Just before he was out of sight Rogue cleared her throat and replied softly, "me too."

He looked back before passing through the doorway giving her small smile, it was barely noticeable but it spoke volumes.

-

She'd been sitting on her bed for nearly two hours since he'd left. Just thinking. His scent still lingered in the air, sweet cigars, a musky sweat and a hint of alcohol, it was unmistakably Logan and as hard as she tried to ignore it, it was somehow comforting. Familiar, even though it had been so long since she'd smelled it. She wanted to be angry, she wanted to be furious with him, hate him even for all the hurt he'd caused her. But she couldn't. As hard as she tried, the moment he'd stepped into the light of her doorway, she knew she wouldn't be able to stay mad forever.

She got up off the bed slowly heading toward the door and out into the hall, down the long corridor careful not to make a sound so as not too wake anyone, until she found herself standing outside Logan's door. There she stood for several moments, not really sure what she was doing, but at the same time knowing she couldn't go back to her room, not yet.

"Come on in darlin'," the deep husky voice finally came from the other side of the door.

Rogue smiled to herself, she'd forgotten about his keen sense of smell, he'd probably known she was there the moment she started down the hall. Realizing she'd been caught she finally opened the door to see Logan lying on the bed, covered only with a single white sheet, his bare chest exposed, arms folded up behind his head and a knowing smirk on his face, "what took ya so long?"

She only smiled shyly, settling into the cushiony leather chair opposite the bed, she pulled her knees up in front of her and tucked her feet down beside the cushions.

"So?" He finally asked when she only sat there in silence.

"How have you been?" Rogue whispered softly, her voice barely a whisper.

"Alright I guess," Logan replied, trying to sound as normal as possible in hopes of steering this conversation in a more normal direction. "Been traveling a lot."

"Canada?"

"Mostly. Was up in Alaska for a while, but it was too damn cold."

Rogue chuckled softly to herself finally letting a smile escape. A cold shiver ran through her entire body as she rested her chin on her knees and wrapped her arms tightly around them in an effort to warm up. Logan noticed and immediately tossed a small wool blanket over to her which she wasted no time in wrapping around herself.

"Thanks," she whispered, still feeling a little odd about the whole situation.

"So how have things been around here?"

"Pretty good I guess."

Logan's eyebrow raised in typical Logan fashion and the corner of his mouth curled up into a smirk as he asked, "so are you a full blown X-Man now?" His voice was filled with sarcasm as he pictured them all piling into the jet headed off on some lame adventure.

"Yeah sort of," she replied hesitantly, "I've been on a few recon missions, but the professor's pretty protective so he never lets me go on any of the exciting ones."

The room fell silent once again and the two just sat there watching each other carefully, both wondering what the other was thinking but to afraid to ask.

Finally Rogue broke the silence, her voice cracking with nerves as she spoke, "why did you come back?"

Logan hesitated to answer, unsure of whether to be honest with her or not, but then figuring he had nothing to lose he just came right out with it, "because of you."

After a comment like that she found it hard to suppress her rising emotions any longer and a tear escaped, trickling down her cheek, she quickly brushed it away but Logan noticed it anyway.

The two sat and talked a while longer, he told her about his travels and some of the people he'd met along the way, while she filled him in on some of the new mutants to move into the mansion, the new things she'd been up to but all the while, careful not to mention Scott or the ring he'd placed on her finger earlier that evening. Somehow she just wasn't ready for that conversation yet.

By the time the sun rose Rogue had passed out in the chair, completely unaware of the watchful eyes that looked over her. He never moved, just sat completely still and silent on the bed watching her sleep. She looked so peaceful he didn't dare disturb her, though he knew she'd be more comfortable in her own bed, something told him she wanted to stay there. Or maybe he wanted her to stay there.

Hope you all enjoyed this installment! I should have chapter 4 up soon!