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Chapter 4

When Logan woke up his neck felt stiff. He opened his eyes to check on Marie before he clicked his neck, working out all the stiffness. He rolled his shoulders too for good measure, loosening his muscles so they weren't too tight.

It wasn't long after that Marie began to stir. From sheer exhaustion she had slept through the entire night without a problem, but he'd be willing to bet that nightmares would be starting soon, possibly even the next time she closed her eyes and fell to sleep.

Her eyes opened, and immediately landed on the I.V. Marie moved to try and frantically disconnect it. Logan moved quickly, grabbing her wrist, and keeping her from pulling the I.V out. He could already feel her power starting to work, but it was weak. She looked up at him.

"You need to leave that in Marie. It's helping get the drugs from your system." He said, and he released her wrist.

"I don't want to be in here Logan." She said, her voice croaking.

"I know you don't, Marie, but after what those bastards did to you, right now this is the best place for you."

Marie nodded. "Can you get me some water please, Logan?"

"Sure kid. I'm going to have to pop up to the kitchen, alright?"

She nodded, uncertainly, as if unsure of whether she wanted the water now.

"I'll be right back kid." He said, ruffling her hair before leaving the room to get water. The trip up to the kitchen was quiet. In it he met Jean and Summers, who were talking about something. They looked up when he entered.

"Oh, is Rogue awake?" Jean asked.

"Yeah, she wanted a drink." Logan said, as he got her water.

"I'll get her something to eat and bring it down." Jean said.

"Right." Logan said, before leaving the room, and heading back for the medical bay. He got there to see that Marie had her knees pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped round them and her head on her knees. She was shaking quite badly. "Marie." He said, walking over, placing the water on the table, before pulling her into a hug. Logan rubbed his hand up and down her back, trying to get her to relax. It worked after a while and Marie relaxed in his arms. When she had he reached back, and grabbed the bottle of water, which he unscrewed and handed to Marie.

"Drink up kid." He said.

She took the bottle from him, and drained it just before the door opened and Jean came in. Marie tensed again, and peeked over Logan's shoulder at the doctor. Jean smiled kindly at her and held up the plate with the ham sandwiches.

"I come baring food." She said hopefully, trying to get Marie to relax while she was in the room. Marie just eyed her warily and shifted further into Logan's arms. Jean sighed, before walking over and placing the food on the bedside table, and checking the I.V. She prepared another bag, removed the old one, and replaced it with the new. "You should be alright to leave some point tomorrow." Jean said. "Have you told her the arrangements yet?" she looked at Logan.

"No."

"I'll leave you to it then. I'll be back to check in on you later." Jean said, before leaving the room.

Logan grabbed the plate, took the bottle from Marie, and handed her the plate of food. "Here Marie eat this." Logan said.

She ate slowly. Logan sat back down while she ate and rubbed his eyes. He was really going to have his work cut out for him trying to get her to trust others again. She wasn't even talking.

When she finished eating, Logan put the plate to one side. "The Professor's suggested moving you into the room next to mine, Marie." Logan said. "Because of your reaction when jean suggested I leave the room to let you get changed."

Marie nodded.

"You can't go round without speaking more than a couple of words forever kid." Logan said. She didn't reply, and Logan pinched the bridge of his nose. He sat up on the bed with her and wrapped an arm round her shoulders. She leant into him, and began to cry. Logan wrapped his other arm round her, and brought her into his chest. Tears soon stained the front of his shirt. Logan didn't know how long it took, but for quite a while, he just sat with her, and let her cry it out. Logan was well aware that there would be many more cases like this in the near future.

"I'm not going to rush you kid, but you're going to need to speak more than a few words to tell someone if something's wrong. You were talking earlier. Why the silence now?"

Marie just shrugged.

Logan frowned. "Is it because of the room change? Your stuff can be moved back if you want."

Marie started shaking her head, her hands tightening round his shirt.

"Alright, it's not the living arrangements… what I failed to include was that you can come into my room if you can't sleep, alright?"

Marie relaxed into him. "Alright Logan." She said, softly.

Maybe he'd be able to get her word count up to several sentences now.

The door opened and Jean once more entered the room. Once again, Marie brought herself as close to Logan as possible. Jean kept her movements slow as she ran through a check up of Marie. She took a blood sample, and ran it through several tests. She was shocked by what she saw.

"That's unusual." She muttered.

"What's unusual, red?" Logan asked.

"Hold on, I just need to do another test to make sure…" Jean said. She came back over, and took another blood sample. A little while later, Jean came back over to them.

"Somehow, Rouge's power has incorporated one of the powers she's absorbed into her DNA, making I a permanent ability." Jean said.

"What ability is it?" Logan asked.

"Yours, Logan. She has a healing factor just like yours."

Logan and Marie looked at each other in shock. She now had a permanent healing factor? That was unexpected.

"Well, the fact that you now share Logan's ability means that you're able to leave. The drugs are all out of your system, and any other wounds you sustained will have healed over. You're all clear." Jean announced, removing the drip from Marie's arm. "I'll inform the Professor." She said.

Logan got off the bed, and helped Marie down. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her out of the medical bay and to the lift.

"Lesson's are going on right now, so we won't run into anyone." Logan said.

"Right." Marie said, nodding.

Logan frowned, but didn't push her for more. He led her from the lift and to the bedrooms. Marie looked round her new room, chewing on her lip.

"What is it Marie?" Logan asked.

"It still hurts Logan." Marie said, wrapping her arms round her waist. "The physical pain is gone, but that doesn't change the fact that it hurts."

Logan brought her into a hug, and stroked her hair. "I'm not gonna lie to you Marie, and tell you that it won't hurt for long, because the chances are that it will hurt for God knows how long, but I'll be here to help you, and so will everyone else. You don't have to go through this alone."

"You won't leave?"

"No. I promise you Marie, if you need me, I'll be there. I promise."

She nodded, and took a deep breath.

"Now, why don't you go take a shower?" Logan asked.

Now that he brought it up, Marie did think that she needed a shower. She felt unclean after what those men had done to her. She pulled herself out of Logan's arms, but then realised that going for a shower would mean Logan was in another room. Logan seemed to realise this, if his next statement was any indication.

"I'll be right here, in this room, if you want anything. I won't walk out that door Marie."

Marie nodded, slightly relieved knowing that he'd be there, and went to the dresser. She found her clothes were in there, so she grabbed them and her toiletry bag and went to the bathroom that linked her new room with Logan's.

When she was in the shower, Marie was able to relax a bit due to the hot water, but that didn't lessen the pain. There had to be some way to lessen it.

That was when she noticed her razor. She picked it up. Maybe if there was a lesser, more bearable pain, she could concentrate on that and ignore the more consuming pain…

Logan had been waiting for twenty minutes when he picked up on the scent of blood. It was faint, masked by the cascading water of the shower, but it was definitely there. And it was definitely Marie's blood.

"Marie? Kid, you all right?"

He had no answer. Shit. He thought to himself.

Without another thought, he all but ran to the bathroom, and saw Marie in the shower, razor in hand, just as she ran it across her wrist. Logan opened the shower door, and pulled the razor from her hand. He put it next to the sink and helped her was off the blood from her now closed over wounds. Then, he pulled her from the shower, and wrapped a towel round her. She seemed to be in a daze.

"Marie. Marie! Look at me!" He growled.

She looked up, and met his eyes with her own. They were so different to what they were only ten days ago. Then, they were bright and happy, now however they were dull and full of pain.

"Self harm isn't the answer Marie." Logan said cupping her face in his hands. "It won't make it better."

"The pain lessened." She mumbled.

"But it won't work in the long run. You can't even keep the wounds open- which I'm thankful for. Now, you need to get dried off and dressed. You need to talk about it. Now, I'm probably not the best person to talk to about it, but you can if you want to, alright?"

She nodded.

"Right, now I aint leaving you on your own again, so I'm just gonna turn my back, for you to get changed."

Logan turned round. There was no chance in hell he was leaving her alone if there was a chance she'd try and hurt herself again.


A/N: So, what did you think? Please review and let me know!