Her headache was getting worse.

Three days and you'd think it would give her reprieve. But it was a constant roaring in the back of her head. It wasn't lack of sleep and it wasn't because she had absorbed anyone. It was just…there. It was driving her absolutely mad.

She stayed in her room most of the time. She avoided Scott and Logan, mostly because she needed to sort the jumbled mess of thoughts known as Scott's memories.

Yes, she had known what the fight was about…and because she knew, she couldn't face either of them.

Logan blamed her and Scott…

Scott didn't.

She rubbed her temples as she stepped out of the room. "You're going to wear holes into your head if you keep doing that.", someone mumbled. She turned her head to left and saw Scott leaning against the wall, waiting.

"It helps." she muttered, walking away from him.

"If it helped, then you wouldn't keep doing it. It'd be gone by now, right?" He asked, his voice rising to reach her as she walked further away.

She didn't answer.

She heard running and Scott appeared next to her, sending her a light smile before asking, "I wonder…when did you become so despondent?"

She stopped and turned to stare at him. "When did you start to actually care, Scott?"

He raised his brows and if she could see his eyes, she was sure she would've seen shock.

"What?"

"A year, Scott. An entire year and you ignored everyone in this house. You walked around like a ghost and the haunted look on your face was so obvious and terrifying, no one knew how to approach you. Sorry if I am a bit confused as to why you're speaking to me now."

"Maybe because you don't look at me with that pity in your eyes." he replied, his voice so low she had to strain to hear it. "Pity?" she asked.

"Yeah, pity. Every time I looked into someone's eyes and saw that pity, it reminded me of what I loss. That entire year that I was coping, you looked at me the same as you did before the accident. With you, I could forget for a moment that Jean was gone. In your eyes, I was just me. Not 'Scott who lost Jean'."

Why was her dumb heart doing flip-flops? He had only began talking to her three days ago and suddenly he was in her thoughts all the time. She needed to get away from him before she actually started feeling something more for him then friendship. Forget the fact that he just told her that the only reason he stayed sane was because of her. He was still dangerous.

He was still Jean's.

"So you ignored me for an entire year because I was your 'salvation'? That makes sense." she told him, beginning to walk away again. Scott stayed where he was, and a moment later she heard him ask "Rogue, are you alright?"

"Fine" she yelled over her shoulder, rubbing her temples. She didn't notice the picture frame on the wall was shaking.

X

"Maybe he feels bad."

"Or maybe Scott has finally lost his mind, Ororo."

The weather witch shrugged her shoulders. "It's possible." she muttered, her eyes clouding white as she scanned the sky. "Anything?" Rogue asked from her perch on the couch.

"No, the winds are normal, my child." Ororo answered, sitting down on the opposite couch. "Like always." Rogue murmured, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Are you expecting something to happen, child?"

"No, just…a feeling.." She answered.

Ororo leaned back against the couch and watched the young lady. There was something off about Rogue. Ever since the accident with Jean, Rogue seemed…empty. No grief, no guilt, not anything. Oh, she went through the motions and she did everything right, but something was…off. She couldn't place it. Rogue had never been adamant about her emotions, but it seemed she was intentionally keeping them secret from the rest of the mansion.

"How's Logan, child?"

"I wouldn't know." Rogue muttered, folding in on herself. Ororo raised a brow. "He hasn't spoken to you?"

"He hasn't spoken to anyone. He just mostly grunts and if he does answer, it's a monotonous tone that has you thinking you did something wrong just by breathing."

"He's been back for almost 3 weeks now. Isn't he leaving soon?" Ororo pressed, trying to hide her concern over Rogue's nonchalant attitude. In an area that used to keep her constantly talking, Rogue was now being frighteningly distant and silent.

Rogue shrugged and stared out at Ororo's garden. After a moment, she let out a growl and closed her eyes tightly. Her hand came up to the familiar spot near her temples and began forming small circles.

"Migraines?"

"It's nothing." Rogue murmured, before opening her eyes to stare at Ororo. A look crossed Ororo's face and had Rogue dropping her arms, the headache forgotten for a moment. "What?"

Ororo seemed to compose herself before she answered. "It was nothing, child. Nothing."

Rogue gave Ororo had odd look before she glanced down at her watch. "I have to go. I'll talk to you later, Ororo."

"Of course, my child." Rogue waved bye and disappeared out the door. Ororo brought her hands up to rest her chin on. Since when had Rogue's eyes ever been anything but brown?

She shook her head. It was a trick of the eyes. Nothing more. She turned to stare out the window and the clouds rolling slowly by.

X

She hadn't been in the danger room for almost 6 months. It wasn't because she felt useless whenever they had the sessions. At least during that time she had had physical combat. It was mostly because Scott lost interest after a while and Logan was never there to run a session. The danger room was just another room with too many memories.

She stepped off the elevator, still clad in jeans and a tank, and glanced around the large room. Everything was still the same. The way they had left it so long ago. There was still the dent where Piotr had ran into the wall. There was still the puddle of water where one of Iceman's ice balls had melted. There was still Wolverine's 3 marks on the other side of the wall. There were still signs of everything. She shook her head. Too many memories indeed.

Ten minutes later, she stepped back into the room clad in her X-men uniform. She tightened her gloves and gave the uniform an experimental tug. She hadn't worn it in almost a year. Last danger room sessions, she had only been allowed to watch. Now, putting back on the old uniform reminded her of Alkali Lake. And her failure. And…her secret.

She rolled her shoulders and let out a sigh. "Which session…which session?" she mulled out-loud, trying to dismiss the memories, and was struck with the fact that all the sessions she ever did, she had been practically useless in. Sure, she had been able to run and avoid the obstacles with the best of them. But, when it came to actually making any headway towards the enemy…she hadn't played a large part except for stealing information.

She looked around the empty danger room and wanted to scream. She was planning on working off the edge of the headache in the danger room but now, she wasn't so sure…

She didn't even know how to start a session. "great." she muttered and wanted to slam her head against one of the many metal walls. What had Scott or Logan ever done? They usually shouted out a letter and random number. Or they had someone in the control room with them. Rogue had never paid attention, the adrenaline of the session always overriding her system. Actually, now she thought about it, only Logan and Scott could start up the session with their voice. "great." she repeated. She worried her bottom lip with her teeth and shrugged. She had come to work a session and she wasn't going to leave until she did. She cleared her throat and shouted "A-1." She waited, but nothing in the danger room changed.

"A-2?" she shouted. Nothing. "Guess I have to go get help." Pity, she had wanted to be alone to see if she could actually do it. "How BA would that have been?" she asked herself. She began to make her way out, but stopped when the room began shifting and changing. She stepped back and barely dodged a falling car. Oh, she recognized this session. And this was bad.

She ducked and rolled, barely missed being hit by a droid, before she could get up and run. Her body responded automatically. It didn't matter if a year or a day had passed, her body knew what to do. She dived behind a car and covered her head as a machine blasted something, sending a spray of gravel near her. She smiled. This was exactly what she needed.

She grunted 20 minutes later when she felt something slice her cheek. She wiped he blood with the back of her hand before turning towards the machine. Well, this one was a new one. It was taller than her, and it's weapons were sharper then the others. It struck out at her again and she avoided it. She jumped and sent it a kick that sprawled it on it's back. It got up quickly and began to make it's way towards her again. "shit." she muttered, and turned to run. She jumped over falling debris and avoided low moving obstacles as the droid continued chasing. An active power would've been useful right about now. She skidded to a halt as another one of the same type moved out from behind an overturned building. "Oh boy." she whispered, barely being able to register that the room had sent her two big droids at the same time before this one opened it's arm and blasted something towards her. She juked and rolled, spitting out dust as it entered her mouth.

She jumped to her feet and narrowly missed a razor sharp disk as it zoomed past her face. She blew the white strands out of her face as she continued running. "I can handle this. I can handle this-shoot!" she shouted, tripping. She turned in mid-air so that she landed and slid on her back. She rolled to left to avoid the droid's sharp claw as it hit the ground. With it stuck, she slid out from between it's legs and scrambled to her feet in time to land a well placed kick on it's rear. If feel forward, landing on its own claw. "Yes!" she shouted as the machine sputtered and shut down.

But, she had forgotten about the second droid. She felt the blast on her back and would've let out a cuss if she had the breath. Instead, she fell forward onto her knees and fought to keep her vision. Usually, sessions stopped right when a team member got hurt. She wondered why this time it was different. She heard the droid as it stepped behind her. Twenty minutes of danger room had tired her and she did nothing more then weakly shout "stop" to see if the room would respond. It didn't. The claw of the droid wrapped around her neck and she closed her eyes against the pain. Funny how she never noticed how damaged she had got.

She heard a funny sound and opened her eyes in time to see a red beam fly over her head. The grip on her neck loosened, and a hoarse voice shouted "End session!" before a strong and warm body stopped in front of hers. She felt forward, and the last thing she remembered was smelling…Scott