" . . . . an' Kitty and Rahne and Piotr all say to tell you they hope it all goes well, an' Pietro Maximoff says he wants your stuff if anythin' goes wrong, an' Wanda says to ignore her idiot brother an' good luck." Jubilee snapped her ever-present bubble gum and regarded her roommate keenly. "You gonna be okay?"
"Huh?" Marie glanced away from her own reflection; she'd been brushing her hair when Jubilee came into the room, but as the younger girl's litany of well-wishing had gone on Marie had found herself tuning out, merely staring at the girl in the mirror.
"I said, are you gonna be okay?"
Rogue sighed. "Yeah, Jubes, I'm gonna be all right. I could just use a minute alone."
"Say no more, chica." Jubilee snapped her gum again and threw off a mock-salute. "I'll see ya tonight, 'kay?"
"Sure thing." Marie turned back to the mirror and watched Jubilee's reflection leave. She took a few more swipes at her hair with the brush, then pulled the majority of it back into its customary ponytail. As always, she left the two white streaks free – like ribbons, or medals.
Badges of honor. The ghostly voice that whispered it was rich, accented, melancholy. Erik's voice.
I like your hair like that. Bobby's voice, more ghostly than Magneto's – she'd learned control between Magneto's touch and Bobby's kiss.
Looks better down. David Cody's voice, finally starting after all this time to fade away. Marie wondered if that meant that somewhere in Mississippi her first victim was finally starting to regain himself.
Shut up. Bobby's voice again.
All ya'll shut up. Marie thumped the hairbrush down and strengthened the mental shields Professor Xavier had helped her build to restrain her own psychic peanut gallery. She had to do that less and less often these days; with long practice the shields were beginning to stay up all by themselves – restraining and mostly silencing Bobby's voice and Erik's voice and David's voice and . . .
"Hey. You all right?" Logan's voice -- Marie was startled to see him reflected in the mirror, leaning casually against the doorjamb behind her. She turned.
"Fine. You startled me." I thought you were only in my head.
"Sorry." He tilted his head and examined her. "You ready to go?"
"I suppose." She retrieved her gloves from the corner of the dresser and pulled them on, brushing a few stray hairs into place as she stood.
Logan moved aside and let her pass into the hallway, falling into step slightly behind her as they made their way toward the hospital wing. She could feel his scrutinizing look boring into the back of her neck, and made a frustrated noise. "Logan, stop looking at me like I'm gonna break. I'm ready for this. I am."
The Wolverine growled softly and quickened his pace to match hers. "You wouldn't be tryin' to bluff me, wouldja, kid?"
"Dangit, Logan, stay outta my head." She muttered, then quickly glanced sideway. "I . . . I didn't mean that the way it sounded."
Logan just chuckled. "All right, fair enough. I'll let Chuck do the head-shrinking." He sobered. "But listen, kid, if you aren't ready to do this . . . ."
"I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be." Rogue looked away. After a moment of silence she added "You wanna know somethin'?"
Logan raised an eyebrow at her.
"It . . . that ain't what I'm worried about." She tugged unconsciously at the hem of her left glove. "I mean, the Professor's gonna be there, and I've gotten better at controllin' it anyway. It isn't that."
"No?" He frowned. "Well, what is it?"
Marie fidgeted and flushed slightly. "We're talkin' about a big needle, Logan."
Logan stopped in his tracks. He'd been so concerned over the possible ramifications of Marie absorbing his personality that he'd never really thought about the medical aspect of the procedure."What, Hank can't put you under for that part of it?"
"No time." Marie shrugged and looked away. "Unless I absorb enough of your healin' factor to kill you. We gotta go quick." She caught Logan's scowl and added quickly "The Professor's gonna shut down the pain center in my brain – I'm not gonna feel anythin. It's just . . ."She shrugged again. "We're still talkin' about a Really Big Needle."
Logan flinched in sympathy – he had past experience with Really Big Needles, and no desire for anyone he cared about to have a similar experience. "I don't like that."
"I'm not too crazy about it, either." Marie took a deep breath and added "But I'm even less crazy about Shandra dyin', so let's go do this." There was a little bit of the ghost-Logan in those words.
The real Logan seemed to notice; he nodded and half-grinned at her and pushed open the door to the medical wing.
The halls here were white, cool, smelling of antiseptic; Hank McCoy looked up as the two of them entered the prep area, and nodded.
"Good, you're both here." He waved vaguely at several sets of white scrubs hanging from the wall pegs. "You're both going to need to put those on over your clothes – and you'll need masks and gloves as well." Hank gestured across the hall. "Come join the Professor and me in the surgery when you're dressed."
The blue-furred mutant ducked out of the room. Logan crossed to the scrub rack and pulled down a set of the white garments. "Well," He shrugged at Marie, "At least it ain't yellow spandex."
She grinned briefly, then turned back to exchanging her satin gloves for latex ones.
"Marie."
She turned, raising her eyebrows at him. "Yeah, Logan?"
"Don't watch Hank do it. Just . . . close your eyes and think about Georgia in the moonlight."
She snorted. "I'm from Mississippi, Logan."
"You know what I mean."
"Yeah." She reached out and grasped his hand in her own gloved one. There was nothing romantic in the action – just the gesture of two untouchable friends who had discovered that they still, sometimes, needed touch.
Logan squeezed her hand in reply. "You're a brave kid."
"I got that from you."
Logan snorted. "Yeah, speaking of which – if you really feel like you gotta sneak beer into the school fridge this time, at least don't make it cheap beer."
Marie slapped his arm. "Hey, it was your personality doing the shopping."
"My personality doesn't drink Coors Light." Logan replied gruffly. He squeezed her hand lightly and then let it drop. "Good luck, kid."
She smiled faintly. "Yeah. You too."
Logan? Rogue? Professor Xavier's telepathic "voice" drifted through their minds. We're ready whenever you are.
On our way. Marie thought back, tugging a surgical mask over her lower face. She glanced at Logan, who was similarly masked, and squared her shoulders.
Well, here goes nothing . . . .
To be Continued in Chapter Five . . .
A/N: In the comicverse, Rogue's first victim was named Cody; in the Movieverse it's David. I've named him David Cody here to try and merge the two canons.