Logan felt as if his body was weighted down with lead. His head was throbbing and his vision was swimming as he opened his eyes blearily. The ceiling seemed to spin above him.
What had happened? He tried to sort out all of the thoughts in his head. He had blacked out. The Professor had been upset - Rogue. Everything fell into place clearly. And now with a feeling of great anxiety, he wondered if she was okay. He tried to reason with himself as he lay there on the stiff mattress. She must be okay. He had seen her wounds mending themselves just before he had gone unconscious. He'd transferred his healing abilities to her, so she should be fully recovered. Still, he wanted to see for himself that Rogue was alright.
Logan made to get off the cot and go find her. But as he sat up, a sudden wave of pain in his temple made him shout in surprise. Clutching his forehead and wincing, he fell back onto the clean white sheets beneath him. The pain receeded in a few short moments and he tentatively made another attempt to push himself up. Once again it was like a bullet through his skull, and he was forced to lay motionless until the sharp stabbing had become a dull throb.
This time, however, the pain was accompanied by a stream of images that flashed through his mind; a playground, the sound of children jeering, a teacher yelling and trying to restore order, a moving van, a man and a woman arguing. And then it was gone.
He lay there, unwilling to risk any more pain and trying to figure out what had just happened. None of what he had just seen was familiar to him. It was as though he had experienced a glimpse of someone else's memories...it was plausible, he thought, that he had absorbed some of Rogue's memories.
It happened again. This time it lasted much longer and he felt a strange sensation in his body, as if he was being gently pulled into someone else's mind. "I didn't hurt him! I don't know what happened!" The words poured from his lips but the voice belonged to a girl, frightened and anxious. The body of a young boy flashed before Logan's eyes momentarily, sprawled out at the base of a blue plastic slide, the eyes rolled back in his skull and his breath coming out in short jerks.
Then he was in a hospital bed, not unlike the cot he was actually laying on right now. But the atmosphere was tense and a man and woman - the ones who had been yelling earlier - stood looking in through a glass window. His hands were chained to the railing of the bed and a doctor looked at him sternly, holding a long needle against his arm. "This is going to hurt, but I want you to be still."
It seemed like a million more memories passed through his mind before the stream finally ended. He felt exhausted as he sifted through what he had seen through her eyes. Most of the memories had not been too surprising, though they made him feel a much deeper feeling of sympathy for Rogue. The kid had really had a rough life. But some of the memories had shocked him a little; for instance, he felt a little uncomfortable after seeing the events that had unfolded today. He had almost literally walked home in her shoes after detention, he felt as if he was the one who had been called a "freak", he was the one who had seen Scott and Jean, he was the one who had driven a knife into his arm. He had even felt the sharp sting of the blade.
He had been there motionless for about an hour. He wished there was a clock in the room, but his growling stomach was telling him that it must be about dinnertime. Groaning, he rolled slowly over to his side and once more he raised himself into a sitting position. This time, there was no pain. The memories seemed to have concluded themselves, leading up to the point that he had found Rogue, and now he supposed the effects of their brief contact were wearing off.
Up until this point, Logan had not noticed that he was dressed in infirmary clothing; loose, blue drawstring pants and a white button-up cotton shirt. "What the fuck?!" He exclaimed loudly as he stood up and looked down at himself. For a moment, he felt like hunting Hank down and tearing his head off. But then he noticed that his jeans and shirt were folded and sitting on the stand at the end of his bed. He chuckled as he changed. Hank could be a real character...but he still might have to tear his head off. Was it really necessary to undress him, after all?
"What a freak," Logan muttered as he stepped into the subbasement hallway. He saw light coming from under the neighboring room's door, and as he came closer, he could hear what sounded like a hockey game. He smiled as he raised his hand to the intercom controls. He hoped the Ottawa Senators were kicking ass right now.
- - -
The speaker on the far wall crackled on once more. Rogue's heart jumped at the hope that it would be Logan, and yet she was also afraid to see him after what had happened this afternoon.
"I'm comin' in to see if my team's winnin', kid." The door slid open a second later, and Logan poked his head around the doorway before stepping fully into the room. "Dammit," he said as he sat down in the chair that Scott had brought over to her bed. "The Senators are down by five? You'd better be rooting them on, or I'm gonna have to pick a fight with ya, right here." He jabbed a finger playfully in her direction, then looked at her a little more seriously and leaned forward in his seat. "Are you going to be alright?"
She felt ashamed and looked away, staring down at the gleaming floor. "Yeah...I know what I did was real stupid. I mean real stupid." She snuck a glance at him, her eyes full of remorse. "I'm sorry for putting you and everyone else through such an awful situation." Rogue hoped he would believe her, because she was already getting tired of having to convince people that she was aware of how rash and inconsiderate her actions had been.
Thankfully, Logan looked as if he believed her and didn't seem to feel the need to push the subject by saying something like "Are you sure?" or "If you need anything...". He did shift as if he wanted to put a hand on her shoulder, but in the end he remained where he was. "Don't worry too much about it. I'm just glad you're okay." His eyebrows were slightly furrowed. "I don't know what I would have done if-"
Logan broke off and cleared his throat, looking firmly at the screen. "Hey, Mike Fisher just scored a goal! That guy always pulls through for 'em." There was a long silence as they both forced themselves to watch the game. At the beginning of a commercial break, however, Rogue thought of something to bring up.
"A little while ago I was sitting here and I...started seeing visions." She knew she had probably worded the sentence strangely, but Logan almost seemed to know what she was talking about. "They were like bits and pieces of memories." She paused. "Your memories."
He nodded and looked into her eyes. "I had the same thing happen. I saw little clips from your life...I guess it was an after-effect from when we 'connected'". He was quiet for a moment, and then shook his head in dismay, his eyes dark. "I don't have alot of pleasant memories. I'm sorry you had to experience 'em. I can't imagine it was too fun."
Rogue shrugged. "It's not your fault. And most of it, well, I figured out it was you pretty quickly. I've heard you talk about S.H.I.E.L.D before...and I know about the Weapon X experiments, and your claws." She tried to hide her own shudder as she remembered what she had seen. "After all, I'm not the one who actually had to go through that stuff. I should be saying sorry to you, 'cause you're the one it all happened to."
He laughed and his face lightened up a little. "This could go back and forth all day. How about we both decide not to be sorry, and just cheer on the Senators instead. They've still got another whole period to get back on top." She smiled, glad to have his company. Logan felt the same way about being with Rogue. He had even already forgotten that he was hungry, and the tension in the room eased considerably as Mike Fisher lived up to Logan's compliment and practically won the game for his team.