I am so sorry it took a little longer than I said to update. I had a really hard time with this chapter for some reason. I guess working like crazy and being sick might have played a small part though, lol. I want to say thank you once again to my reviewers theisis70, Princesakarlita411, and lizzytish. You guys are great and inspire me to continue…I hope everyone likes the new chapter.


No one in the Mansion was particularly surprised to see Marie retreating to her bedroom upon returning from graduation. Everyone just assumed that she was still mopping around the same as she had been for the last 4 weeks. That however couldn't be farther from the reason that she was currently hiding in her room.

Marie was steadily pacing back and forth across her room trying to figure out what had happened earlier upon meeting Hank. She just could figure out why she had been so strongly drawn to him. "Ugh, I even told him my really name! How could I be so stupid? I've never told that to anyone other than Logan and look how well that went."

Marie suddenly stopped in her pacing and flopped down on the foot of her bed. "What's wrong with me?" she stated placing her head in her hands. "I just can't understand why I feel so drawn to Hank…it's like this unseen force is just pulling me to him. I just don't know how to make it stop!

Suddenly standing Marie stated with a great amount of certainty " One thing I do know though is that I can't work as his research assistant." Marie then left her room and went down stairs to talk to the one person who might be able to help.


The Professor was in his office grading the essays from his Ethics Class when he heard a knock at his door. Reaching out with his mind he instantly knew who it was at his door by the amount of confusion and frustration he sensed coming from them.

"Come in my dear" the door then slowly opened to reveal a very resigned looking Marie. "Ah, Rogue…what can I help you with on this fine afternoon?"

Marie approached the Professor's desk and took a seat across from him. Looking up to meet his gaze she stated "I just came to tell you that I think you should pick someone else to help Hank with his research. I just don't think I can make the time for it with medical school and all.

Skimming Marie's surface thoughts for the real reason behind her sudden change of heart he couldn't help but feel slight amusement at what he saw. He couldn't understand how a person who had someone like the Wolverine in her head could be so in denial of her basic animal instincts. "Rogue I am sure that I don't have to tell you how valuable this type of experience could be in helping with medical school. It is an opportunity that the other students in your program would jump at the chance for. Not to mention the benefit that it will have in hopefully helping you find a way to control your skin. I thought that was something you desperately wanted."

Rogue looked down at her gloved hands and sighed. "It is something that I want and I know your right about how great of an opportunity this is but I just don't know if I can do it."

Smiling sympathetically the Professor once again met her deep brown eyes with his own older wiser gaze. " I understand my dear but I think you should at least give this a try and see how things go before you toss this chance away." He stated in an eerie and all knowing way that gave Marie slight pause before she shrugged it away.

Letting out a small breath she didn't even realize she was holding Marie acquiesce to the Professors request. "Very well…I'll give it a try but if things get to be too much to handle I'm gonna hafta quit." With that settled Marie left the Professor's office leaving behind a thoroughly amused Charles Xavier. "Well that certainly explains some of the unusual behavior I observed earlier." he thought.


A few hours later Marie was taking a nap on her bed when she heard a sudden ringing. Waking slowly from her dreamless slumber she realized that it was her cell phone that was doing the ringing. Sitting up Marie reach for her phone and without looking at the caller id flipped it open. "Hello."

"Marie?"

Rogue's heart suddenly stopped beating for a moment…could it really be him calling? "Logan is that you sugah?"

"Yeah, it's me Kid. How did graduation go? I really am sorry I didn't get to be there and that it took me 4 weeks to be able to call you. Things have just been kinda crazy the past few weeks.

"Well first of all at 22 years of age I think I'm hardly considered a Kid anymore Logan." Marie stated with a joking tone. However, she couldn't have been more serious in her point that she was no longer a child. "To answer your question though graduation went really well. I just can't believe I'm about to be starting med. school in a few weeks, everything's changing so fast.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. It seems like it was just yesterday I was fighting in a cage in Alberta."

"For all I know it could have been just yesterday that you were fighting in a cage in Alberta." Marie stated with a casual laugh.

"True." Logan stated with a slight laugh of his own. "So…has anything else been going on since I've been gone?"

Suddenly Marie had a flash of meeting Hank earlier come to mind that brought another uncontrollable blush to her cheeks. Yet for some unexplainable reason she couldn't bring herself to tell Logan anything about Hank, so she lied. "Nope…nada thing."

Logan immediately knew that was a lie based on her slight pause. Just as he was getting ready to call her on it though Marie heard a loud knock coming from her bedroom door.

"Can ya hold on a minute Sugah I gotta answer the door."

"Sure" said a somewhat dejected Logan.

Placing her phone on hold and opening the door Marie was met with the heart stopping sight of Hank.

"Ah, I'm sorry to bother you my dear. I was just wondering if we could maybe discuss the details of our research. Is this a bad time?"

"No, not at all. I was just finishing up a phone call." Marie stated holding up her index finger to signal she need just one moment.

Closing the door softly she then returned to her call and an impatiently waiting Logan. "Listen Logan I hate to cut this short but I have something really important I need to take care of at the moment…maybe we can talk longer next time." Marie stated before hanging up the phone. Leaving a confused Wolverine with a slightly wounded pride to wonder what had just happened.


I really hope you like the new chapter. Am I doing an ok job with staying true to the characters? Please review to let me know what you think, want to see, or even how I'm doing so far.