A/N: So this chapter's almost purely Rogan… and was a lot of fun to write – so I hope you guys all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it….

Double Dilemma

Chapter Nine – Saturday Night

I kissed Logan one more time before I got up, and announced that I was going to go take a shower. If I was going to go to his fight, and potentially deal with the blond bimbos all over my man – I was going to be the hottest girl in that bar. I surprised even myself with this thought, I wasn't usually like that at all - that determined. What it really boiled down to was this: Logan was going to be the hottest man in the bar – Logan was always going to be the hottest man anywhere he went. And while I'm still able to, before I get old and wrinkly and everyone wonders why he's bringing grandma around with him – I should at least try to seem like I was good enough – pretty enough – for him.

I threw on my favorite new pair of shorts, they fit me perfectly and I smiled as I looked down at them. They were the perfect length, short, but not quite short enough to be considered at all trashy. There was a fine line sometimes, but I was going for hot, not to just join the ranks of the sluts that spent all their time in those bars. I went into my closet and found a cute halter top, Warren and I had gone shopping shortly after I had figured out that I could control my skin. I wasn't much of a shopper, but luckily Warren was about eight steps ahead of me the entire way. I slipped on a pair of strappy sandals and went to the mirror. I put on just a little bit of makeup and fixed my hair, leaving it down – the way Logan liked it. Then, I grabbed my purse and headed out of my room.

My plan was to stop by and check in on Tony before I went out to the garage to meet Logan. I was worried about him, he was in awful shape when I had stormed out, I just wanted to make sure he was being taken care of. I wasn't even sure that I was going to let him know that I showed, I would just peak in and make sure he was looking a little better – hopefully he would be sleeping anyways.

I stopped a few feet from the door of his room in the infirmary, mostly because I heard voices. It seemed as though Storm was taking care of him – good.

"Ow," I heard Tony complain angrily, "You know, I want my old nurse back."

"We didn't think that would be the best idea," Storm retorted, "Seeing as you and her boyfriend can't seem to get along, "Besides she ran, she wouldn't even let Wolverine go after her really."

"There's trouble in paradise?" Tony seemed hopeful.

"I doubt there's any serious trouble," Storm told him, "Once you have a guy like Logan….The way she has him… Anyways, he's not the type of guy a girl lets go of if you can help it."

"You too huh?" Tony sounded like he couldn't believe his eyes, "What is it about him that has all you women all wanting him?"

"He's simple," Storm told him, "Sure he's a guy – if he's not with someone he's going to go off and be a guy. But once he's found his girl, which he has in Rogue – everyone's just been waiting for it. He hasn't really gone out all summer, and the last half of the last school year – he's done. You can see it in his eyes, he's done with Rogue. And I don't want him, Stark – he's Rogue's. I want my version of him, if he's out there – somewhere."

"I could be that type of guy again," Tony mumbled.

"What?" Storm asked.

"Nothing."

"Anyways, you're lucky," Storm continued, "You've got a few lacerations, and a couple bruised ribs but nothing compared to what you could have. What did you do to piss Wolverine off? And why would you do it without your suit on?"

"I was checking Rogue out," He replied.

"Wolverine's a feral, you do remember that, don't you?"

"I don't expect you to understand, Storm," He said, "It's crazy, irrational, she has him. She doesn't want me, she's made that abundantly clear – I just, I can't stop thinking about her. I know she's not mine – I know she likely won't ever be – but I have so many plans for the two of us."

"You better not talk like that around Wolverine."

"I won't," He replied, somewhat sad sounding, "Has she been down to check on me yet?"

"What makes you think she will?"

"I don't know – just something."

I looked down, this outfit wasn't meant for him – it was meant for Logan. Coming to see Tony, especially dressed like this – no matter where I was going afterwards was not going to help anything. Sure, Tony would be hurt that I didn't come and check on him – but maybe that was the lesser of two hurts. Maybe that was the way to go. This way, it's not as blatant as if I were to have to vocally tell him later down the line. It was being a tease to see him tonight. I headed back towards the Mansion, back towards the garage.

I walked in the open garage door and saw Logan already sitting on his bike. He wasn't facing me, so he couldn't see me, but I could sure as hell see him. He always looked good straddling his bike, he reached back and ran his hand through his hair and I could feel my heart swell in my chest. I took a deep breath and started walking towards him, he heard me walking and turned. A devilish smile on his face, and eyes filled with lust as he watched me walk over. I thought my knees were going to give out before I even had a chance to make it to the bike.

"Hey, sugar," I smiled and he just blinked as I sat myself down on the back of the bike, nearly in his arms.

"Mmm," He whined as he pressed his lips to the side of my head, "My Marie, I don't know that I want to bring you anymore."

"Why is that?" I leaned back, away from him – taking him seriously, and I realized I shouldn't have when he smiled.

"Because, my Darlin'," He smiled, "The way you look – so sexy – this evening. I don't want to share you with anyone, much less anyone who might be hanging around tonight. The way they'll look at you – for my eyes only."

"Or," I smiled, leaning in and kissing him softly, "You take it in stride. There are definitely parts of me that are for your eyes only – but sugar, I'd much rather be on your arm all evening – with no one daring a glance anyways."

"You'll stay by my side all evening?"

"Sugar, I'll be by yourside til the day I die. "

He seemed to like that answer, kissing me deeply as he ran his hand down my side. He pulled away slowly, and then reached forwards to grab my helmet for me. He kissed my forehead, then slipped it onto my head, sliding down the eye shield – then he shimmied out of his leather jacket. He put it on me, carefully threading my arms through the sleeves and pulling it tight around me.

"Sugar."

"It'll get cold once we're going," He told me, turning around and grabbing the handle bars as I wrapped my arms around his middle, "I think I like it better on you anyways."

With that, he kick started the bike and carefully backed out of the garage. Logan had been right, with the wind whipping around me, the temperature dropped very quickly. I held onto Logan as tightly as I could as he drove – slightly slower than I was used to seeing him take off – towards the closest little town to the mansion – which was still quite a few miles away. He pulled right up to the front row of a small, hole-in-the-wall type bar on the outskirts of the town. There were a line of other motorcycles – and a couple of trucks in the row behind us. He hopped off, and then helped me off as well.

"You can leave the helmet here," He smiled, pulling it off over my head, and putting it on the handlebars, "No one'll touch it."

"I love you," I smiled up at him and grinned, running his hands over my hair to fix it from the helmet.

"You make me the happiest I remember being, kid," He smiled, pulling a cigar out of the pocket of the jacket I was wearing.

"You can have it back now," I took it off and handed it to him, he draped it over his shoulder as he lit the cigar.

"C'mon, darlin'," He ushered me towards the front door to the bar.

It was loud, there was hillbilly style rock-n-roll playing out of some dusty speakers – then there were people yelling over that. The whole place was a bit dusty, and actually the sort of place someone might expect to find Logan, especially if they didn't know him all that well. There was an old TV behind the bar that had some twenty-four hour new station playing in the background without anyone paying attention to it. There were peanut shells everywhere, and all the tables were pushed to the sides of the bar, a giant caged ring was constructed in the center of the room – complete with two large men already duking it out. The whole place was crammed with people, I had to just about cling to Logan to make sure that I didn't get swept up in the crowd. Though that soon was a wasted fear – the men kept fighting – but a large section of the crowd went semi-silent once they saw Logan.

"C'mon, Marie," He whispered in my ear as he held onto my hand just a little bit tighter – leading me up to the bar.

"Hey, Jim," He greeted the bartender, a nearly toothless man in his late forties – who grinned just seeing him.

"'ey, Danny-boy," Jim said, "Where you bin? It's been a while since you've made it down."

"I've been a little busy," Logan replied, leaning over and kissing my temple – showing me off – I blushed.

"I bet you have," Jim chuckled, "What's 'er name, boy?"

"This is my girl, Layla," Logan told him – Jim didn't seem to realize that was the song that was playing in the background, "Do me a favor and tell your bouncers to keep an eye on her while I'm in there, ok?"

"I don't think I'll have to ask very hard," Jim replied – and Logan nodded icily, then led me away to a table near the cage.

"Danny?"

"What's the matter?" He asked, sitting down – and pulling me down into his lap, and his arms, "I don't look like a Danny?"

"No, you do," I smiled as I leaned down and kissed him, "But why the secrecy?"

"Wolverine attracts too much attention nowadays," Logan said, "It's been all over the news, and most house rules exclude all mutants. And I don't use Logan because you and the professor are the only ones that are remotely allowed to call me that – well you're pretty much allowed to call me anything you want."

"Why're you so different with me?" I asked him, "You act different – a lot different when everyone's watching. It's always been that way though-"

"Marie," He took a deep breath, looking down at me lovingly, "I put up with a lot more from you than I would from anyone else – and you're right – it has always been that way. And I do, act a lot different when it's just the two of us somewhere, or just the two of us anywhere. It's because with you it's always much easier to just be – I trust you – I don't have to be on guard or anything when it comes to you. You come easy to me – always have. Because, Marie – you're my mate. I hid it from you, which is unforgivable – but you were a child, I couldn't put that on you. I wanted you to choose to be with me, not because you thought that was what you had to do. That it was somehow your responsibility to fill that role."

"I'm your—"

"All feral have them, something just clicks in our brains once we meet the person we're supposed to be with, stay with, protect, and love forever," He said, "And it happened – right away – with you. You were sitting in that bar and I knew it."

"You tried to leave me in that bar."

"You were sixteen," He replied, "And I figured if it was meant to be you'd find me later."

"Or I'd find you then."

"Yeah," He said, kissing the side of my neck.

"What about all the women?"

"What women?" He asked, "I haven't actually been with anyone else since before I met you. At fights, they were there but none of 'em really interested me at all. I wouldn't be able to do nothing without feeling guilty about it anyways."

"So why did it take you this long to tell me?"

"I wasn't sure I was ever going to," He kissed my forehead, "I thought it would be obvious to you if you ever found out about the whole concept—"

"Danny- Boy!" Jim called as the two previous fighters finished up, and he was escorting one of them out of the ring, "You're up."

The crowd roared, and I slipped out of his lap. He stood up and set his jacket on the table. He took the hem of his shirt and pulled it off over his head, setting his muscular torso free. He wrapped his arms around me quickly, and leaned in for a good, passionate, good-luck kiss as the whole bar jeered. He kissed my forehead, handed me his shirt and then made to walk over into the cage. I stopped him, grabbing his arm and he let me pull him back towards me just so that I could put a tiny kiss on the center of his chest.

"Good Luck," I smiled as he growled low in his chest – and broke away from my grip.

He walked into the cage to an increase in cheering, as I joined in, standing with his shirt over my shoulder. Jim grabbed his hand and rose it in the air to really get the crowd into it, but they were already about as loud as I could imagine them getting. I sat down as Jim had Logan shake hands with his apponent.

"Your luck's about to change, Danny," The fighter said as he bounced around him, and Logan nodded.

"Is it?" He asked, then threw one punch – not nearly as hard as he could .

It landed straight to the other man's gut, where he doubled over, and just about collapsed onto the mat. The crowd went wild, and I wondered for a moment if they would be at all as impressed if they knew that Logan - Danny – was working with pure adamantium fists. Either way, he was gorgeous, and he was taking down every opponent that he came up against, letting each one go just a little bit longer than the guy before them – just as to not raise suspicion.

"And for the last fight of the night," Jim hopped back in the ring, using the cordless microphone, and letting the last opponent out of the cage as I walked over to Logan and gave him some water, "Do we have any contenders?"

"I'll take a swing," A big lumber-jack of a man started making his way towards the ring, and blew me a kiss as he passed – I could feel Logan tense up behind me – this was not going to be good.

"Ok, then," Jim said as Logan returned to the center to greet the new opponent.

Jim made them shake, and money once again went everywhere. The whole betting system made me a little uneasy. How upset would these people be if they figured out Logan was a mutant? That all those people who had been losing betting against him had been set up? I shivered, I knew it wouldn't be good. But I trusted Logan, and figured that he knew the stakes of what he was doing.

He let this guy get a few punches in, and got in a few light – for him – ones. He was letting this go for a while – which surprised me thinking of the man's actions a shortly before the fight.

"Hm, you're not so tough, are you?" The man was starting to run his mouth, "You sorry excuse for a man. Maybe I can take that beauty off your hands, I'm sure she'll be delighted – to have a real man instead of such a showboating whipped-ass – oh she is pretty, if only you had the balls to do what I'd like to do to her –"

Logan stood up, out of his fighting stance and the whole bar went quiet. He pulled back one fist, and just let one go, a nearly full force, nearly lethal punch straight to the man's jaw. Within seconds the man was on the ground, out cold. Jim went over and rolled him over, a couple of the girls that hung around went over and checked him out. Logan didn't even wait for Jim to announce him the winner before he hopped out of the ring. The blonde bar-girls converged onto him as he walked out, and he waved them all off – walking over straight to me.

"C'mon, grab your stuff," He said, as I handed him his shirt, "We're getting out of here."

"Ok," I said as he pulled his shirt on, then went to help me into his jacket.

"He'll be around in a minute," Jim assured Logan as we walked over the the bar – where he had returned.

"I just need my pay," Logan said, "I think it'll be best if I get out of here before he comes to.

"Probably true," Jim said as he bent down behind the bar.

I looked towards the TV while Logan did his business. There seemed to be forrest fire in Northern California. From what I could gather over all the noise – it was giving locals, and local firefighters a lot of issues. The death toll at the bottom of the screen said it was up to twelve people.

"You ready, Darlin'?" Logan asked, tucking a white envelope into his jeans.

"Yeah," I replied, peeling my eyes from the TV to Logan and following him out of the bar.