Storm and Xavier were just starting to stir from their stretchers when all our earpieces snapped to life.
"He has the place wired to blow, we have to get out now!" I didn't often hear any panic in Logan's voice, and truthfully no one else probably would have picked up on it, but I heard it, and it made my blood run cold. It was the same voice that had roused me from my nightmare, and the same voice that had found me bleeding in the shower. Scott's voice replaced his in my ear.
"Get everyone to the back dock area now!"
Hank hefted Xavier into his arms, ripping off the last of the leads from his skin, none too gently. Kurt had Storm in his arms and had already teleported to the stairwell. Remy, Jean and I followed, meeting Kitty and Colossus as we rounded the corner for the first basement landing. No one knew how much time we had, so no one said anything, we just kept running. Remy ahead of me by now flung a handful of cards at the barrier, which had been erected in front of the loading dock doors, shattering them with his kinetic energies. Once free of the building, Kurt was easily able to port Storm several blocks away, all within his line of sight. We had set up a rendezvous point in an empty school parking lot about ten minutes away, I surmised he would be heading for there. Now in the open, Jean took Xavier from Hank's arms and bolted for the sky. I turned back to the doorway; Aurora and Northstar were emerging just behind Bobby and Scott. Silently to us at least, each scooped up a man under his arms and streaked down the street. I heard Scott protesting that there were still people left alive inside, but Northstar's grip on his chest didn't waver. Warren swooped in from above and took Hank in the same manner, leaving Remy and I alone, and without Logan in sight.
"Logan! Where are you?" I screamed into my earpiece.
"I'm coming darlin', don't wait on me!" I could hear the first explosion, deep in the core of the building, well not so much hear it, as feel it, like a great thud in my chest. I kept my eyes on the door, knowing we would have to move now that it had begun, and, bless him, Remy never left my side, even though he could have taken off running. We saw a few men scramble from the doorway, but I paid them no mind. A second thump and the roof of the building seemed to be falling in. And then, there was Logan amidst the rising clouds of dust.
"Run!" He shouted at me, I did, but not the way he had likely imagined, straight at him. After half dozen steps I thought I had enough momentum and I threw myself into the air, gaining speed, headed directly at him, he kept running despite his surprise, and I caught him around the waist as I banked left, around back the way I had come.
I had gravely underestimated his true weight, what with the adamantium skeleton and it was lucky that I managed, with forward momentum only, to get back to where Remy was before I had to drop him.
"Grab Remy and go!" He shouted. I did what he asked out of instinct, if I had stopped to think I would never have left him. I swung my aching arms around Remy's chest and bolted off away from the collapsing building. The second round of explosions nearly knocked the breath from my chest as it hit me full on the back, and I hit the ground with Remy beneath me, breaking my fall. We rolled to our feet and turned back to where we had come from. I could still see Logan's form, running towards us when the third explosion occurred and he dropped to his knees. I was ready to rush back to him but Remy's hands on my arms held me back.
"No Cherie!" The blast wave cleared us and we watched as the building finally collapsed in on itself, the explosions leveling it as neatly as a professional demolition team. I watched the tendrils of smoke clearing slowly in the dark, and tried to focus on where I had last seen Logan. I turned to Remy, my eyes saying everything.
"Go." He whispered into my ear and I did.
I found him still hunched over, and for a second, though the worst. But I should have known better. He began to stir, and stood slowly. I rushed to his side, helping with hands under his arms, as he righted himself, and splinters of glass rained down from his back. Some were mere shrapnel, but some, I could see, had cut him, and embedded themselves in his skin, but they were now being forced from his body by his healing abilities.
"Logan! I was so worried."
"I had to stop and get the front doors opened, there were so many men there trying to get out. Then I needed to come back around and make sure our team had gotten out." He looked at me quite seriously. "It's one thing to die in battle Marie, quite another to have someone else decide to sacrifice you."
"Then the other man, the one running things?"
"Travis Titan, he shot himself in the head just after activating the bombs. But," he turned to look back at the leveled complex, "Damn!" He muttered, I turned to him with my eyebrows raised in question. "That Titan guy really didn't mean to hurt any humans." Every building around the complex was still standing, untouched but for a few shattered windows. "I guess he wasn't completely psychotic. Oh, and by the way, when did you learn how to fly darlin?" He said it with quite a straight face, considering.
"You got a watch?" His laughter cut through the eerie silence of the night, which had settled after the last blast.
"You should probably warn me about these kinds of things Marie."
"But where would we be without mystery in our relationship my love?" Logan swung me up in his arms and kissed me full on the mouth, it was so easy to just sink into him at that point. My arms were aching after carrying the two men, and I knew I was going to be sore the next day, but right at that moment, everything was all right. I hadn't even begun to think that the most serious threat to my life over the last six years was now gone, or perhaps I would have been even more lost in my happiness.
The sounds of approaching sirens hastened the necessity of our retreat to the rendezvous point. Logan began to run, with me still in his arms.
"Let me down my love, I can run too."
"But not as fast as I can."
"But I can fly faster than you can run."
"Now that sounds like a challenge." He let me down and took off on foot, I began a run myself, and then leapt for the sky, finally allowing myself to feel the joy of flight, made even more wonderful by the encroaching lightness in my heart.
When we approached our group, Hank was busy over Xavier and Storm, checking out their vital signs with his medical kit, retrieved from the back of one of two large black SUV's. We had used them to come from the private airstrip where we had landed the Blackbird. If we had been able to purchase Radars, we surmised that this Titan person likely had his own, and we had needed surprise to make our plan work. It would seem we had met our objectives, and we were all alive, but no one seemed particularly pleased by that fact.
Bobby was just transitioning over from his Ice persona, and once finally back on human legs suddenly collapsed to the ground. The tear in his uniform leg, not previously visible, betrayed a ragged wound, which was now pulsing blood.
"Bobby!" Kitty shouted and ran to him. Hank's attention was drawn away from his two patients.
"We need a tourniquet!" He began barking orders, and Jean tossed him a long band of fabric from the first aid kit. He quickly tied off the wound, slowing the blood flow, and slapped on a pressure dressing. "We need to get back to the plane, and get him back to the school where I can properly look after him!"
Northstar, who had brought him from the complex, swept him up in his arms again and then motioned for Hank to climb on his back, he headed for the sky with nothing but a nod at Logan and then at his sister. She picked up Xavier, who was still drifting in and out of consciousness and followed her brother. Jean picked up Storm, who was faring marginally better than Xavier, and was trying to speak, insisting she could fly herself, not that anyone believed her. Warren looked Kurt, looking at Storm, and made his decision, picking him up and following the aerial procession. That left me, standing beside Logan, looking at Scott, and having to make a decision. It really wasn't a difficult one to make.
"You should be with them Cyclops, I'll take you if you want."
He turned to me with a blank expression on his mouth, damn that visor that hid everything. Only Logan and Remy behind us knew what had transpired back in the lab, the others who had heard were gone. Silence stood for a moment as we looked at each other. Finally he answered.
"Yes, thank you Rogue."
I turned back to Logan, "wait for me, I won't be long."
"You should go back on the plane, let Hank check you out, it'll take us a few days to drive back."
"My place is with you Logan, Hank will have enough to deal with. I can wait another few days."
"I don't know if I can."
"Please tell me you'll be here when I get back."
"I'll be here."
I turned back to Scott. "Hang on." I whispered to him, he wrapped his arms around my neck and we took off into the sky. I tried not to look him in the face as we flew. I felt uncomfortable. The forward motion of the flight and the g-forces I was generating had pushed his body into mine, and I could feel the length of him against me, and it felt too intimate. I tried to keep myself focused on my route, so I would not have to think about it, or think about the other images of myself that had been forced into my brain by the telepath. I was not aroused, no, more just a shade away from horrified that this man who had berated me only perhaps an hour before was now laid out against me like a lover. Thankfully there was no way of holding a conversation at the speed I was going anyways; not that I had a clue what I might say.
The flight was only a few minutes and I was able to land, with some skill I prided myself, on my feet, and set Scott down unharmed. Better than my first landings with Logan and Remy. He looked at me, at least I thought he had: damn visor again.
"Thank you Rogue." I nodded at him, still unsure what to do.
"Take care of them Cyclops." Seemed the best response, and I turned away from him to find Kurt, I had one thing I needed to tell him before he left.
The others were loading Xavier, Storm and Bobby on the plane, and Jean was doing her pre-flight. I grabbed Kurt very gently by the arm and pulled him towards me.
"I have to say something Kurt, before you go." I guess my tone was serious enough that he stopped and turned his attention to me.
"What is it Marie?"
"There's something you need to know Kurt."
"You are coming back to California aren't you? You aren't running away again are you?"
"Not that Kurt, I need to tell you that you're going to be an uncle."
He looked at me stunned for a few seconds, and then his eyes began to light again as his gaze drifted from my face to my abdomen.
"You're?"
"Pregnant, yes my friend. It's pretty early on, and I still have to get Hank to check things out, but I have a good feeling that things are going to be ok."
He pulled into an embrace. "Thank you for sharing your happy news with me Marie."
"I needed you to know, we have missed so much together, and I will spend the rest of my life making up for that."
"All that matters is that we are together now Marie. And there are so many happy things we still have time to share." The others were getting themselves settled in the aircraft; I pushed Kurt towards the door.
"They need you now Mr. Co-pilot, go, I'll see you in a few days."
"You promise?"
"I promise." He turned and ran, and I did the same. The lightness in my heart increasing as the truth of his words began to sink in. We would have many more years now, now that I didn't have to hide, to share in our friendship. Future threats seemed impossible in that moment. I took to the air, feeling the backwash of the blackbird as it rose into the air. I needed to get back to Logan now, and we needed to start making our way home.