Author's Note: Hey everyone! Sorry I've been gone so long. The short answer is that I joined a writing group thinking I'd write more of this story, and instead wrote some other stuff which wasn't nearly as much fun. So I decided to come back to my favorite story. The good news is that I have a clear direction for this story now, and I've thought up a bunch of new plot bunnies for our favorite couple. I think you're going to like it.

Last thing, and really important, to me at least, if you get a chance, will you vote in the poll that's on my author page. I really want to know what my readers want to see as it could take the story in one of two directions.

Thank you and enjoy!

Chapter 10

"I can't pay for this you know, no matter how sleazy the place is." They were in a horrifying excuse for a motel, just off the beaten path. A place like this didn't even appeal to truckers.

The old geezer behind the counter had been lewd in his remarks and Logan hadn't offered a word against the implications of what was going to happen in their 'single with two doubles'. Instead, he'd just grabbed the keys and pushed her out the mud covered glass door and back into the truck.

"Trust me kid, it's either this or you go back out to the trailer." And though by now Marie figured he was kidding, she wasn't going to push her luck. "Besides, it was my idea to stop, so I'll cover it."

"You already bought me breakfast and lunch, just how do you expect me to pay you back?"

Logan growled low in his throat as he pulled the truck into a spot outside their door, "I don't need you to pay me back, I just need you to shut up about it. Deal?"

And despite the fact that he said it gruff, there was kindness in his words and Marie responded with a nod, a shy smile, and a mental promise that she'd find a way before they parted company. "Grab your gear, I'll meet you at the door; just gotta grab something from the back."

"Ok," she popped the door and swung her duffle bag over her shoulder before slamming the door shut. She now knew from experience that if you didn't slam it, it wouldn't shut. It was pitch black outside and it was barely 4pm. The single light outside their room door was out, but from the other lights caked with dead bugs, it didn't look like it made much of a difference cutting through the darkness.

In the freezing Canadian winter, Marie hopped up and down to stay warm while Logan fiddled around in the back of his trailer for something. Normally, she'd be worried about spending the night with a guy like Logan, but even Logan wasn't much like a guy like…well…like Logan. He was gruff on the outside, sometimes rude, even a little impatient, but above all other things he was kind hearted—and the fact that he understood she could kill him with a touch didn't hurt her chances of surviving unmolested. Plus, despite what she might say out loud, it had been nearly a month since she'd slept in a proper bed, and even if this one had fleas, lice, and bedbugs, she was still going to sleep like a baby tonight.

Logan came up behind her, his shoulder brushing her out of the way lightly as he reached for the doorknob, "Alright, let's get in there." As the door swung open, Marie raced inside. Throwing her bag on the floor, she heard Logan call her name before she found the light switch and flipped it on.

Five seconds later she was very, very proud of herself. She had refrained from screaming out right and had just given a loud shriek before jumping backwards and against Logan, who'd swung her around his side and behind him.

The inside of the room was as cold as it was outside meaning that there was likely an open window somewhere in the room, which explained the growling raccoon now standing on its hind legs, some dead animal behind it, covered in maggots. The sound of tiny little clicks were the source of her scream—no shriek!—when the light's had flashed on, dozens and dozens of cockroaches had raced across the carpeted floor and into hiding. Raccoon's and dead animals she could handle, but cockroaches were beyond her ability, which is why she had her claw like fingers buried in Logan's leather jacket.

"Logan," she whispered as her eyes focused again on the raccoon.

At her right hip, Marie felt Logan's hand squeeze, pulling her closer against his back, and she complied, sliding up against him. That's when she began to feel more than hear the subsonic growl coming from the man before her.

The raccoon shifted, and the tone of its growl changed as well, and as it did, Logan shifted too, his hand at her hip slid up her side, crushing her chest against his back as he curled forward, tucking in for the spring, and the subsonic quality of his vocalizing came into human hearing range, causing the hairs on the back of Marie's neck to stand straight up, and her heart to triple its beat.

"Logan!" She hissed, wanting out of that room as quickly in possible.

"Shhhh, he ain't goin' hurt us. That's his mate's body, he's protecting it." Came Logan's quiet reply, and with it, Logan moved forward slowly, very slowly, reaching for the handle of her duffle. "Take a really slow step back, Darlin' we'll leave them in peace."

Nodding against Logan's back, Marie, kept her eyes on the raccoon as she slid her left leg back towards the open door. Her movements caused the raccoon to shift its focus to her, and it dropped onto one front paw and gave a bark before baring its teeth.

Logan's reaction was immediate and beautiful to behold. Like a dancer, every muscle in his body shifted at his command, swaying to the right to cover her escape. The pitch of his sounds changed as well, and Marie knew it was a warning, a death promise if the creature attacked. "Slowly, Kid, really slowly." With another nod, Marie slid back another step noting that the raccoon's attention was all on Logan, where it stayed as she backed herself completely out of the room and out onto the crumbling, dark sidewalk.

A few seconds later Logan was by her side. His arm immediately went around her waist as he pulled her back towards the truck, opening her door before lifting her physically into the seat and slamming the door shut. Marie watched him round the truck before he opened his door, threw in her duffle, and slid in himself, closing the door behind him. His hands went around the steering wheel, and he drew in a deep breath, and it was then Marie realized she was holding hers. She let it out with a rush before drawing in a returning breath.

Logan turned to look at her before offering a sideways smile, "You ok, Kid?" She nodded, not trusting her voice. He returned the nod before fishing his car keys out of his pocket. He didn't turn the engine on though, just threw the car into neutral, allowing the truck to roll back away from the still open door, and the shining eyes of the raccoon, still watching them. Once he'd managed to turn the truck in the direction of the office, Logan turned the engine over and put it into drive, taking them back to the office. In their slot in front of the office once again, Logan turned to her, "Wait here, I'll be right back," and it was obvious from his tone that Logan was going to make sure they didn't end up with anymore surprises behind door number two.

Drawing in a deep breath, Marie imagined her happy place as the sounds of Logan's yelling at the sorry excuse of a manager made it through both the building and the steel truck chaise. Once centered, she turned to look at her bag, inspecting it for any roach guts from when she'd thrown it on the floor. While she thankfully didn't find any guts, she did find two wings, and she'd never been so grateful for her gloves then at that moment as she picked them off, and rolled down the window to throw them into the wind. It was then she noticed the silently falling flakes of white individuality, and despite her newfound hatred of the snow, she smiled anyway, somehow feeling that it was cleansing for both herself and the sad, angry raccoon located on the opposite side of the building.

She felt bad for the creature, how sad, to sit forever watching the rotting corpse of your mate. She wondered what it must be thinking now, having just stood up to a great predator only to know that the body it had once loved was still being slowly devoured by the natural order. Realizing the raccoon had no idea about the natural order of anything, she turned her attention instead to the falling snow, watching as it grew in steady speed, quickly covering the windshield and obscuring her view of Logan.

Logan, he was strange. She had a feeling he knew things, thinks like the fact that that dead animal was the raccoon's mate without even knowing he knew it. Ferals had instincts, that was true, they understood the natural order of life, read subtle signals better than any other mutant type, but she wondered if Logan wasn't somehow stronger than any of the other ferals she'd met before.

Maybe he was even stronger than Victor.

Naw, not possible. That jerk scared the beejesus out of her, like a real feral should. But Marie remembered the look in Logan's eyes as they'd sat across from each other in the diner, and suddenly she wasn't so sure. What she was thankful for however, was the fact that Logan was on her side. She had a feeling he was the kind of guy you wanted on your team during a fight.

Not that she was ever going to fight—ever!

The sudden intrusion of the popped driver's door, and Logan's gruff "Jesus Christ!" threw Marie out of her memories and forced her back to the present. She watched Logan slide in and once again fail to put his seatbelt on.

"What did he say?" she asked, curious, her southern drawl thick, she was tired.

Logan turned the engine over and threw the truck into reverse, "Doesn't matter, he won't be sayin' it again. Let's get inside, I'm fucking tired of this bullshit."

Hm, Logan in a bad mood, she wasn't really used to this yet, but she could see it as part of his personality. She decided to try and ease the tension, "Logan?" He nodded and gave her a quick glance as he pulled into another slot this time at the front of the building, and cut the engine. "Thank you." The confused look he gave her in the semi-darkness almost made her smile, but instead made her blush a little. "I mean, for saving me from that raccoon."

As Marie watched, the corners of Logan's mouth lifted into a half smile and he gave another nod. "Don't mention it, Kid. Besides, I thought it was the roaches I was saving you from."

She gave a shiver involuntarily, "Yeah, especially those, if I'd stepped on one, or had one crawl across my foot, I can't promise that I wouldn't have gone tearing out the room and into the woods never to be seen or heard from again." She smiled, pointing her thumb over her shoulder at the woods which surrounded the nearly hidden motel.

Logan scoffed, and rolled his eyes. "Don't be ridiculous."

Marie laughed, "I mean it. No one would ever find me again! I'd go insane. Roaches are the absolute worst!"

She watched something dark and frightening flitter across Logan's face before he nodded and popped his door. Then, as he climbed out, he threw over his shoulder, "What I meant was, you wouldn't be lost forever…I'd come for you."

The slamming driver's side door was met by complete silence as Marie stared at the place Logan had just been. He'd…come for her?

Deep within her chest Marie's heart began to ache, and against her will her eyes began to swim in the overwhelming emotion she felt. Logan, she knew, didn't say anything he didn't mean, and in that single moment, she'd been given a rare gift, a promise of protection, from one lone warrior to another. How was it possible? How could he care that much as to make such a statement? But he had, and he did, and her whole body ached from the desire to cry into her duffle.

The more rational part of her mind told her Logan had misspoken, that he didn't mean it, or anything else by his statement, but she knew that to be false. What could she do? What should she say? Maybe there was nothing to say.

Or maybe, just maybe, she could return the favor.

And in that moment, silent as the grave, slowly being blanketed by cleansing white snow, Marie made a promise to herself, when the time came, and with two mutant's traveling together, it would come, she'd keep the same promise Logan had just made to her, she'd come for him.

Marie would protect Logan.

Bang! Bang! Logan's flat hand pounding on the hood of his truck. "Marie, for the love of Christ, get your ass out here, it's freezing!"

And with a quick swipe of her gloved hand across her brilliant green eyes, Marie nodded, grabbed her gear and hopped out of the truck; walking towards the man huddling in his jacket, and stomping his feet to stay warm, who had just become the most permanent thing in her future.

"She looks ok, doesn't see?" Logan had just pulled out of Marie's mind, as he'd watched himself come out of the office with a new set of keys. The fact that he was allowing Marie to stay with him on the road seemed a little weird to him. He'd been a loner, and the idea of allowing a kid to tag along just seemed a little foreign to him. But if he tried, if he pushed his memory to those early days with Marie, he remembered thinking of her as a ray of light that had somehow entered his dark world, giving him sudden purpose and clarity—giving him something to live for.

Emma had stayed in a little longer but as she came round she nodded in answer to his question, "Yes, she looks fine. Just like I said, she was just sleeping, but she appears to have come out of her sleep very quickly. It looks like the entire afternoon and evening passed while you were down in the mess. How long did you say you were down there?"

Johnny answered from his place on the couch, "About five hours."

Emma nodded, the filtered sunlight catching in her white blond hair, making it glow, and giving her the appearance of an angel. "Looks like the time ratio was pretty normal this time. That makes sense, a mind new to the Canvas will only have its past concept of time to rely on. That'll change, but for now, she's doing fine."

With a nod Logan turned to look at the beautiful young woman laid out like a corpse bride, in her pretty white sundress, and perfectly brushed auburn curls. "Were you able to make contact with the real Marie?" Unconsciously, his hand tightened around Marie's, his thumb brushing back and forth to both offer and receive comfort. Emma was his only link to the real Marie, and he had to know how she was doing, if she was getting better.

But when he looked up it was to see Emma looking at his hand holding Marie's. "Frost?" he called to get her attention.

Emma did look up, but her eyes were haunted, and at his confused expression she turned in her chair and walked towards the window, allowing her right hand to curl around the frame. "No, I didn't try. Marie will need time to adjust to the Canvas, when she's ready, I think she'll try to make contact with me. For right now, I just want to give her time to adapt to her new reality."

He had to admit, that did sound reasonable.

"Emma, come on, don't do that." Johnny spoke up, worry in his voice as he stood and crossed the room, his hand rising to quickly brush a single tear which had escaped from Emma's chocolate lashes. Johnny's hand cupped her face and then drew her into the crook of his neck as Emma gave a soft sob and collapsed against him. From across the room, John shook his head when Logan stood, confusion and concern for the telepath. "Shhh, babe, it's alright. It was a long time ago, and he was a dick—"

"No he wasn't!" Emma cried, pulling back, her eyes red but her cheeks dry; she obviously wasn't the type to offer tears, meaning her last had fallen against her will. "He was perfect, and wonderful, and I loved him! And he loved me, Johnny, he did. He loved me so, so much, and we, we were going to…" But she died off before she could voice a future that hadn't happened, and turned away from both men, showing them her back, and the jungle landscape her pain.

Shifting, Logan caught Johnny's eye once again, but Johnny just shook his head moving back to the couch and giving the troubled woman some space. With nothing else to do, Logan too sat back in his chair, taking Marie's hand once again. They stayed like that for a long time, long enough for Marie's feeding tube to automatically change over to the second bag with a hiss and a slight tug of the blankets around her flat stomach.

"Vicktor will be home soon, Emma." Johnny offered five minutes later, when Emma had still not emerged from the silence. Logan watched her nod and then turned to regard John as he continued. "It's the not knowing part that's the worst, Em. He'll be back tonight maybe, and then you won't need to worry about this bullcrap." Johnny smiled, "You can't even remember your name the day after Vicktor comes home from a long mission."

For a second there was no sound, and then Emma gave a short chuckle and watery smile to Johnny who was obviously a very close friend. "That's true I suppose."

John jumped at the change in her demeanor. "Yep! Definitely. Besides, we haven't gotten any kind of damage reports in yet, so we might even be safe in assuming they're coming back unharmed this time. Maybe you and I won't have to spend the night down here with Logan after all." And Johnny turned and gave Logan a smile he didn't understand but accepted anyway.

Once again, Emma nodded. "You're right, I haven't heard anything, and I know they're supposed to come in tonight. It'd be nice if I didn't have to listen to him growl about broken ribs. I swear he can be such a baby sometimes."

At that Johnny gave a surprised cough, "Yeah right, baby my ass!"

"Anyway," Emma responded, finally turning around and looking at Logan with that same sad smile on her face, "we're being rude considering Wolverine's position in all of this, so let's change the subject shall we.

"I have a theory I want to test on you, Logan, and it stems from your—as I understand it—intense attraction to Dr. Gray."

At that Logan scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Trust me, I'm long over that piece of work."

Emma nodded but it was John that spoke up, "That's obvious from the way the word 'bitch' threatens to roll off your tongue every time you mention her, but Em is talking about how you used to drool all over her and dry hump her leg every time she came into a room."

"I did what?" Logan growled, leaning forward in his chair, and glaring at Johnny who sat knowingly across the room. "I never—"

"Please! Yes you did, at least be man enough to admit it. You'd've fucked Dr. Gray in a second if she'd been willing and you thought you could outrun Mr. Summer's optic blast." Johnny retaliated, folding his arms over his chest; challenging Logan to disagree.

And the sad part was he couldn't disagree, Johnny had pegged him, and no matter how much it pained him to remember it, in those early days, if he could have gotten Jean by herself he would have made his move, and he would have won. But his one attempt had been half hearted, and nothing had come of it. The last six months of living with her though, had shown him—in vivid Technicolor detail—what Jean desired from him, and he'd never been so disgusted in his entire life.

Finally he just shrugged his shoulder and looked back at Marie's serene face, "Back then maybe, but I learned my lesson."

"Or you lost the anchor for the suggestion." Emma responded, moving from the window to once again slide into the chair across from him. She offered him another smile, this one more genuine than the last. "Tell me what it felt like the very first time you laid eyes on Jean."

Startled by the question, Logan shrugged his shoulder again, squeezing Marie's hand, the action not going unnoticed by the blond. "The first time I saw her, she was standing over the top of me with a needle in her hand about to jam it into my arm." He scoffed, "I wasn't really all that impressed." Then he thought back, back to waking up after Marie had touched him to save her life, and he remembered her differently. "After Marie touched me the first time, I do remember really looking at Jean, seeing her and thinking she was more than just a pretty woman." He shook his head wanting to dislodge the memory, "But I think half the fun was the fact that she belonged to someone else; it was a game."

"Yes it was, but it wasn't your game, you were just one of the pieces." He regarded Emma silently as she drew a breath. "Let me begin by telling you some of my history—"

"Emma!" Johnny was on his feet and across the room, "Just tell Logan his piece of—"

"He deserves to know." She replied, defensive.

"You don't owe him anything!" John yelled back, and this was obviously not the first time they'd had this conversation.

But Emma just shook her head. "You know that's not true, John. I owe Logan a lot, and right now, I'm going to get to try to repay some of that debt by fixing what the Gray Witch broke in him."

"I'm right here," Logan growled, "and I'd appreciate it if the two of you would start making some sense." The room felt smaller with both sets of blue eyes focused on him, but Logan held his ground and watched as Johnny turned to communicate one last time with Emma before flinging his arms up into the air and growling.

"Fine, do whatever you want, just don't piss off the boss, alright," before returning to his seat, throwing his legs over the couch and settling in for what he must believe was about to be a very long conversation.

In reality it wasn't that long, it didn't have to be by itself, the implications, and the revelations would last the rest of Logan's life.

"Don't mind him, Logan, he's just cranky since Gambit isn't back yet." She sighed as Johnny turned his head, eyes closed, and stuck out his tongue at her. "Anyway, a slice of my history. Did you know that I used to be a student at the mansion?"

Logan nodded, "I figured you must have been after some things you've said over the last couple of weeks."

"Yes," she smiled, her eyes seeming to drift back to those old days. "I was a student there when both Xavier and Erik taught, though back then I called him Mr. Lehnsherr. This was about fifteen years ago, but for three of those years, I was dating Scott Summers."

"What?" Logan's eyes rounded in shock as he leaned forward in his chair. "You've got to be kidding me."

Emma shook her head. "No, I'm not, I was picked up by Xavier about 17 years ago, and taken to the mansion to learn about my abilities. At the time I was much like Rogue, no family, and few friends. But my one friend was instantly Scott. You see we were brought in together—"

"Together? Were you from the same town or something?"

"No, and just leave it at that. Move on, Emma." Came Johnny's response, and Logan became even more curious at the younger man's interjections.

Sighing, Emma continued. "For the first year Scott was there he was blind. The professor hadn't yet created his ruby quartz glasses. That meant a perfectly health 14 year old boy who could see fine one day, was suddenly blind, and because of what he could do with his eyes, everyone stayed away from him." Emma smiled, "It didn't help that he was a rebel, and a juvenile delinquent either."

Logan let out a bark of laughter, "Now I know we're not talking about the same Scott Summer's here. There ain't a rebellious bone in that square's body."

"Your wrong," Emma shook her head, "Scott was a badass in the day, boosting cars, souping them up, and joyriding until they fell apart. He started doing it while he was in the orphanage—"

"Orphanage?" And suddenly Logan realized he knew next to nothing about Scott. He didn't know the man had a rebellious streak, though the leather should have given that away, or that he boosted cars, though the motorcycle he'd stolen a few weeks after they'd met should have been a strong indicator. He also hadn't known that there'd been a time Scott had been forced into blindness to protect the other children around him…or that those children had treated him like a leper.

Maybe that was why Marie was always so close to "Mr. Summers"; they'd had more in common than Logan had ever suspected.

"Yes, Scott was orphaned very young, but more important than that was the fact that he had lived a life where he had no one to rely on but himself, and suddenly blind he needed to rely on others." She drew a breath, "Let's just say that didn't go over very well." Logan imagined it didn't. "Anyway, he was alone there, I was alone there, and we sort of just stuck together." Emma smiled, fond memories filling her mind, and Logan had a new curiosity to add to the list.

Emma nodded and then continued. "Breezing through the parts that are pointless, Scott and I were, well, lovers for a couple of years before Dr. Jean Gray showed up." That familiar bitterness filled her voice again, and Logan saw Johnny sit up, now looking at Emma with concern. But Emma held it together, "The Professor had invited her. I got the impress that he knew her from a long time ago, and to a telepath, it was pretty obvious he had a thing for her—"

"What?" He must have heard wrong.

Emma smiled, "I know, he looks so asexual, but the Professor is a full fledged male you know, and even I have to admit that Jean is a beautiful woman.

"Anyway, I mention that only because it became apparent that Dr. Gray liked men to like her, a lot. The more they obsessed over her the more she liked it. So when The Professor fawned over her, she ignored him and started chasing some of the other guys around the school. And amazingly they all fell for her, and fell hard. Over and over again, I watched it happen. I mentioned it to Erik, and he gave me a knowing look. That man is brilliant, he knew what was going on, and even though I know he talked to The Professor about it, it didn't seem to change things; the Professor kept fawning over her and she kept ignoring him.

"And maybe it would have gone on like that, one conquest after another, with no one standing in her way, but she'd managed to seduce a very happily married mutant in the group, and Erik became enraged. He asked me to do some digging since I was the only other telepath in the house at the time." Emma's eyes got distant, and Johnny shifted on the couch, and despite not knowing exactly what was coming, Logan gripped Marie's hand tighter. "So I did as he asked, I was always closest to Erik and when he asked me for something, I was happy to do it; neither one of us knew how much it would cost me."

Then Emma smiled, it was a sad smile, filled with lost dreams and deep regrets. "I wasn't as good as I should have been to attempt something against both Jean and the Professor. Jean caught me in her head not long after I started trying to figure out what was going on. She put up blocks and cornered me in the laundry room, making sure I knew that her mind and conquests were none of my concern. But I was young, too young to know what kind of fire I was playing with, and so I stood up to her. That turned out to be one of the worst mistakes of my life.

"By the next day, Scott was breaking dates, sitting across the dining room from me, and talking about needing space." She paused, locking eyes with Logan, "Scott may have been a bad ass, but he was also easy to read, I'd seen the ring box in his pocket for weeks, and despite trying my hardest not to look into his mind and invade his privacy, I'd seen him practicing how he was going to ask me to marry him."

While her voice didn't exactly catch in her throat, her words became thicker, and her pain seemed to fill him. He could understand, hell anyone could understand, and the sudden devious evil of Dr. Jean Gray was at once obvious and terrifying.

"I went to Erik of course, begged him to help me, and he went to Xavier, and demanded that he reign in his mind witch, but whatever he expected Charles to actually do, I don't know, and it never happened.

"Maybe three weeks after my confrontation with Jean, Scott broke up with me, and moved out of shared room." The false smile was gone now, replaced by a blank expression used to block the pain. "Erik was furious of course. He tried to talk to Scott, but it was pointless. By the end of the week, Jean made sure I was aware that she and Scott were sleeping together, and a few days later I left."

Determination entered Emma's frame them, and as Johnny came to stand behind her chair, she seemed to grow both stronger and angrier. "But I didn't leave without checking Scott first. What I found would have been obvious to the Professor if he'd just looked—he didn't want to look, he wanted to pretend his little angel was perfect.

"She'd planted a suggestion and a filter. Basically, she'd put a thought in his head that slowly ate away at his resolve, at his foundation for everything else. While I don't know exactly what that suggestion was, it obviously had to do with dumping me. I could see the suggestion in his mind when I finally managed to scan him, but then Jean was there blocking me, and mocking me, and I was…hurt. I chose to leave the mansion—there wasn't anything else left for me there anyway. I didn't believe in Xavier's dream, and had stayed only because Scott did.

"I was a little surprised of course, when Erik knocked on my hotel room door and invited me to the penthouse where he was currently residing. Turns out my leaving had caused a rift in the mansion. Most of the people there knew Jean was a piece of work and that Xavier was protecting her, but they didn't know what to do. I heard the arguments raged so loud and so long into the night that no one slept for two days. In the end, about 20 mutants left the mansion, including Erik. Some went with him like Mystique while others went their own ways, but Erik had tracked me down and," Emma paused, the tears drowning her so that Johnny wrapped an arm around her shoulders and whispered something softly soothing in her ear until she could breath steady once again. "He said he was sorry, truly sorry that he couldn't get Xavier to see the truth, but that he knew it, and that he would offer me a place, and together we could start to build a sustainable reality instead of a whimsical dream. And I accepted." She cleared her throat and blinked her eyes a few times, pulling herself together as Johnny's arm dropped from her shoulders. But he remained where he was, his hand resting comfortingly along her bare back.

Then Emma looked up at Logan and smiled, "I know this is too much information, and you're probably not ready to hear about Erik's good points right now; but he really is a good man—a determined man yes—but overall a good man. He's lived through some of the worst the world could throw at any one person, and from your story about Rogue, I know you understand some of it. But no matter what you may think, Erik does truly care about mutant kind, and because we're mutants, he cares about us."

For a full second, Logan thought about interjecting his own ideas about how Erik cared about mutant kind, killing them, and abandoning them in hallways when their powers got turned off by a drug more powerful than they were, but he held his tongue, now wasn't the time.

Emma understood his hesitation and offered a weak smile that this would not turn into a debate, and continued. "All of this is coming to a point. Jean likes one thing more than anything else in the world, she likes what other people have, and I think, as you were laying on that hospital bed after Marie drew in your powers, she read your mind and realized you're feelings for Marie were not completely platonic; and that made you desirable."

Ok, that was enough of that. "Emma, I'm sorry about what Jean did to you, really I am. If you'd told me that story a year ago I would have told you were full of it, but after the last six months I can see it. Something is off about that woman; how I didn't see it before I don't know, but I believe you. Hell I even respect your desire to leave the mansion with the mutant devil to get away from Scott, who you obvious—well loved. But I think you're off base with this idea that Jean did something like that to me about Marie. I mean, when I met her she was seventeen years old, and I'm a lot of things, but I'm not some child molester."

"No, no, that's not what I meant, Logan." Emma hastily interjected, raising her hands to forestall him. "I've been in your head, and you're not the kind of guy to take advantage of a girl. You've got a lot of honor living in that head of yours, and you would not have abused your relationship with Marie; of that I'm 100% sure." She looked down at Marie and smiled, brushing back a single curl that had managed to fall out of place and fall over the sleeping woman's cheek. "What I think, is that Jean felt the connection between the two of you, and realized that that connection would grow overtime into something very strong, and very powerful, and she envied it, wanted it for herself, and so changed the focus of your desire from Marie to her."

This was getting frustrating, "Like I said, I didn't and I don't desire, Marie. She's a kid for Christ sake!" And Logan felt his temper start to boil. He wasn't going to sit here and let this woman paint Marie as some kind of Lolita.

"Logan," Johnny said, moving to sit on the edge of Marie's bed. "Listen, I know you're pissed right now, but just listen for a minute ok. Let me see if I can't explain it." He didn't want to hear it, but the fact that Johnny looked so sincere made something in Logan want to listen, so he nodded. "When you first met Rogue, what did you think?"

Logan laughed, he couldn't help it. The frozen rat in the back of his truck, that was the first thing he'd thought, and he told Johnny as he chuckled. For his part Johnny smiled. "And when you finally let her in the truck."

"Same, only she wasn't quite so frozen." But that didn't seem right, and the smile on his face dimmed. He cocked his head to the side. "Actually, I felt sorry for her, tiny little frozen thing, hitching rides in the middle of the tundra, I knew she wouldn't last a half an hour out there in the cold."

"So you cared for her?" Emma asked, and he nodded, surprised. Despite his love for Marie, he'd never really thought back to when his caring for her had really started. Realizing it had started in that tiny truck cab made him both smile and his heart ache.

Johnny looked over at Emma, locked eyes with her and then gave a slight nod. He moved then to sit on the edge of Marie's bed, in front of Logan. He shifted to get comfortable, and he allowed his hand to rest on Marie's knee, running his thumb over the top of the blanket in a comforting gesture that made Logan sit up in his chair a little straighter. John offered Logan another smile, "When Marie ended up in the mansion with me and the rest of the kids, when you saw her there, what about then?"

Logan watched Johnny's thumb move over the cover, the soft thin one he'd bought Marie because she loved soft, comfortable things. "I was happy she'd found a place she could get what she needed and be around people that understood her."

Someplace she'd be safe.

Emma nodded, "What about after she came into your room to wake you up from your nightmare. After you pierced her heart with your claws and she took your powers."

Pain at that memory filled him. How could he have been so stupid! He should have know, those tiny gentle hands weren't the ones that had held him down against his will in that nightmare. He should have smelled her sweet, cool smell, felt her calming presence, heard her desperate words of comfort; instead he'd heard chorusing cheers, tinkling Champaign glasses, and the promise of more pain. How could he not have known it was her?

"You were deep in a memory, Logan, its natural not to recognize your surroundings when reliving repressed memories." Emma slid her hand across Marie's prone body and gripped his arm comfortingly.

"I should have known it was her." His voice was a whisper, his pain a living thing.

Johnny nodded, then asked, "And how did you feel about her after you woke up?"

He didn't hesitate. "Like I'd spend the rest of my life taking care of her."

Emma and Johnny both nodded, offering comforting smiles. But Johnny's thumb kept moving back and forth over Marie's knee, and the movement kept becoming more and more irritating to Logan, who found himself gripping Marie's hand even tighter.

"Logan," he turned away from that wandering hand to look at Emma. "And after, after you'd rescued her from the Statue of Liberty, after she'd died in your arms, after you'd risked your life to save her, to protect her, keep your promise, what then?"

He didn't hesitate with this answer either, "I found out she was ok, learned she had a crush on me, thought it was cute, but that was all, and then headed out to use the information Chuck had given me about my past." But as he said it, something about his feelings about it seemed so…clinical compared to how he had just felt a few moments ago.

Emma nodded again, "You left her."

The hairs on the back of his neck rose, and he glared at her. "She was someplace she'd be safe, stuck with my memories floating around in her head, and I needed to get out of there." He paused, catching himself, angry with himself, "I mean I had to track down the leads I had."

"Who suggested you track down those leads?" Emma asked.

He shrugged, but didn't feel all that blasé about it, something about it felt wrong to him. "Xavier did…and Jean."

"Logan," Emma waited until she had his attention, "It's my belief that while you were unconscious Jean planted a suggestion in your mind. The suggestion might be something like, 'Marie is safer without me here.' Or 'Marie's crush is cute, but she's just a kid…just my kid sister.' I believe she planted these suggestions in your mind and then installed what's called a filter. Basically every experience or thought you have about Marie has to go through this filter. So that your thought of 'Marie looks beautiful in that dress,' turns into 'Marie looks pretty today.' The differences are subtle, but the context is completely changed. You no longer see her as a woman, but instead as a little girl you need to protect. I believe Jean used your initial feelings about Marie against you to construct the filter and make it stick. Because a part of you does think she's young, especially compared to your unknown age, and her filter is feeding on your own insecurities to block you from really seeing what's right in front of you."

He opened his mouth, about ready to lay into Emma and Johnny for their idiot ideas, when he remembered Emma's story. And then he remembered the cruel look on Jean's face the few times he'd mentioned that Marie looked nice today, or he was going to have lunch with Marie, or he was going to go out and get her some nice warm socks.

"She's a fucking vegitable, she doesn't need socks. But if you want to spend your money, you could buy me something a little slinky. I promise you'll enjoy it more than socks."

Could it be possible?

He had to know. "How can you be sure, Frost?"

Emma gave him a sad smile, and Johnny moved to sit on the arm of her chair, his hands now far away from Marie, so that Logan could finally relax.

"It's easy really, you give me permission to enter your mind and I look for it. If I find it, I'll let you know. I doubt that Jean would have hidden it, she wouldn't have needed to hide her work."

And with a nod, Logan gave his permission, and closed his eyes, feeling Emma's mental mind enter his own.