I woke up in a comfy old chair in front of a fireplace, but I knew that was definitely not where I went to sleep. I looked around for Logan, but all I saw was an empty living room. Something about it seemed off though. Everything about it was strangely rustic, almost like the mansion, but not a room I had seen before I went to sleep. Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and two young boys came down. The dirty blond boy looked about ten, and the smaller dark haired boy riding piggyback on him was probably eight or so.

The blonde's eyes were golden, while the brunette boy had the hazel-brown eyes I knew so well.

"Vickie, Vickie, I wanna sit in front of the fire!" He pleaded.

It took me a moment to place everyone, but as a redheaded woman with blue eyes followed the two boys down the stairs, I recognized them as Victor, Logan, and Jackie. Er, Rachael. Victor always insisted her name was Rachael, so maybe this was who she used to be. Victor carried Logan to the area in front of the fireplace, where they started playing with little army men that hadn't been been there before. Were army men even invented one hundred and eighty years ago when they were kids?

"What's going on?" I whispered to Rachael-Jackie as she sat down beside me.

"You think I know?" She hissed, sounding like Jackie still. "I'm white and...ginger!"

"This has never happened before. Am I dreaming?" I muttered to myself.

"I have lucid dreams sometimes, so if you've never had one before, it might be my fault." She said.

I looked over at her, taking in her new appearance. "Are you Jackie or Rachael?"

"I'm Jackie." She answered. "But Sabretooth still thinks of me as Rachael."

"So is this your memory or his?"

She shook her head. "Definitely not one of mine."

"You said you remembered Victor as a child." I glanced at the boys, watching the firelight play on their faces.

"Yeah, but...like if you had a DVD that played all the scenes out of order, in really fuzzy low quality that sometimes didn't have audio." Jackie replied.

I stared at the boys as they played, looking similar to and completely different from the grown men I knew in the real world. What had happened to them to change them so much? They looked like best friends, but now they couldn't stop fighting. I wondered if this Child-Logan was a product of Sabretooth's memory or if the addition of Sabretooth had brought out the inner child of the Logan that was already in my mind. And were they running around like this all the time in the back of my head?

I turned my attention back to Jackie. "Is this where you've been all this time?"

She shrugged. "When I'm not trying to talk to you, everything's really fuzzy. Like being half-asleep, where you sometimes dream but kind of know what's going on too."

I tried looking out the window while I thought about what she said. It was snowing, but I couldn't actually see anything. No trees or other buildings. Just some snow drifting down in front of a blank screen. I had wanted to know what Victor and Logan were like as kids, and I got it.

"Logan." I called, but the boy didn't look up.

"Try James." Jackie suggested.

I cleared my throat. "Uhm...James?"

James lifted his head, and his face lit up like he hadn't seen me before. He spread his arms, fingers wriggling as he reached for me. I got up and knelt down next to him, pulling the adorable child into my lap for a hug. He nuzzled into my neck, happily mumbling my name. I tried to lay my cheek against the side of his head, but he started squirming, twisting around in my lap to address Victor.

"Look, Vickie! I got a pretty lady too!"

Although I grinned from the sincere compliment, I glanced unsurely at the other boy. James clearly knew him as Victor, but I'd only absorbed Sabretooth. He said they hadn't split until Rachael died when they were fourteen, so this memory must be from before that, when they were still one person. Since James called him Victor, I decided to go with that.

"She's your mate, Jimmy." Victor said seriously.

"Will you love me like Rachael loves him?" James asked me. "No one's ever loved me best."

I shot Jackie a glare, but she only made a what-can-you-do face. She held out her hand to Victor, and he went to her, ruffling James' hair on the way over. I hugged James tight while Victor crawled in Jackie's lap.

"Of course I love you best." I reassured him. "Where's your mother?"

"Out." Victor said.

I lifted up James' chin, and he gazed sadly up at me.

"She's always out because she has lots of friends...I don't think I'm one of them." He whispered.

I hugged him tightly again, and he sighed against my neck. I petted his hair, and he made a humming noise. Victor purred across the room in Jackie's lap, and I realized James was trying to imitate it.

"What about your father?" I asked.

Victor's purr turned into a growl. "Which one?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." James mumbled.

I didn't understand what Victor meant, but I could see the sadness in James' eyes. He made an odd gesture, pressing the backs of his hands into his thighs. I took one of his hands in mine and rubbed the spaces between his knuckles. He whimpered and leaned into me, humming loudly. I smiled and kissed the side of his head.

"You don't have to talk about that if you don't want to." I told him. "And you have Victor and Rachael to keep you company, right?"

His face brightened. "Uh huh! Vickie always plays with me, and takes naps with me, and he carries me too, even when I feel good enough to walk."

"Do you not feel good sometimes?" I asked him.

He nodded less enthusiastically. "I'm sick lots and lots, so I gotta stay in my room, and I gotta be real quiet when Ma has friends over. But Victor taught me to read, and he stays with me, so it's not so bad."

I switched to his other hand. "And is Rachael nice too?"

"Yeah, she takes care of me and the house and cooks and stuff." He said.

"Is Rachael your..." I looked over at her and tried to guess. "Nanny?"

James nodded again. "She lives in the servant room by the kitchen, but Vickie sneaks in and stays there at night. I'm not 'sposed to tell my parents that though, 'cause Ma doesn't like him much."

I gave Victor and Jackie another curious glance. "So Victor sleeps with Ja—Rachael?"

"Sometimes he sleeps with me too." James said. "But only when I don't breathe right."

"What's wrong with your breathing?" I asked.

"Sometimes he doesn't when he sleeps." Victor answered.

James squirmed around, then settled down in my lap again. "I make lots of noise when I sleep, but sometimes I stop, so Vickie's gotta sleep nearby in Rachael's room to listen for it so he can wake me up if I don't breathe right."

"Rachael takes care of him all day, but she has to sleep. So I look after him at night. My hearing is good enough that I always know if he stops breathing." Victor said.

I cuddled James and stayed still long enough to allow it. I thought I'd heard of a condition like what they were talking about it. Some people stopped breathing randomly in their sleep because of something in their throat...or nose maybe? It made them snore really badly, and I'd heard of some celebrity who died from it. Sleep abno—apti—apnea! It was called sleep apnea. Logan did snore something awful, but I'd never noticed him stop breathing. Then again, I'd never seen him get sick before either. He said he couldn't.

"Victor...?" I asked, unsure if he would prefer Sabretooth.

"Yes, Marie?" He had a very unnerving stare, even as little as he was in this memory.

"How much older is Rachael than you?"

Jackie had been content to stroke her hand over Victor's hair and listen in on our conversation, but now she actually looked interested. Victor just looked sullen and uncomfortable.

"He's ten, and she's twenty-two, so she's..." James scrunched up his face as he did the math. "Twelve years older?"

"Yes, James." Victor said grudgingly.

So Victor and Rachael hadn't been young lovers, Romeo and Juliet style. Victor had been fourteen while Rachael was twenty-six. I'd hoped Jackie and I would have some stuff in common with our feral boyfriends, but I never thought I'd relate to Victor. In their relationship, he was the young one, and she was the older adult. Did they ever actually get together, or was it just a childhood crush turned into obsession when she died? Did the Rachael of that time even know Victor loved her like that? And how old was Victor when he stopped sleeping with Rachael—if he ever did.

"Did we ever...?" Jackie clicked her tongue meaningfully.

The implication was lost on James, who reached out for one of the army men from my lap. I scooped them up and sat them in front of us, and he began intently arranging them on the floor. Victor however, understood the question and blushed slightly.

"No." He muttered. "You said I had to wait until I was older to marry you. I was gonna. I would've married you and been your mate and kept you happy!"

She wrapped her arms tighter around him. "It's alright. We can stay here together, and I won't leave again."

"Marie, Marie!" James tugged on my sleeve to get my attention. "Will you marry me? Vickie's gonna do it, and I wanna be married too!"

I smiled down at him. "Yes, James. I'll marry you too."

He started to say something, but got cut off by a yawn and buried his face in my neck instead. I rubbed his back, and he hummed softly.

"Bedtime?" I murmured.

"I wantcha to sleep with me li—iiiiiike them." He said through a yawn.

"Alright, sugah."

I picked him up and balanced him on my hip. He wrapped his arms around his neck and clung to me, and I gave Victor and Jackie one last look. She was still holding him and whispering that he was special and good. I wondered if he knew this was just a fake memory until I saw the tears on his cheeks. Sabretooth knew this wasn't real, that he wasn't ten anymore, and they'd always be stuck here in this fake world. I clutched James tighter and carried him toward the stairs, but he tugged at my sleeve again.

"Not thatta way. I gotta sleep nex'ta their room, 'member?" He mumbled sleepily.

I walked down the hallway instead, pausing in front of a door. The rest of the hall was indistinct, but the door was clearer. I cautiously pushed it open and stepped inside a room. It looked a little strange, like it was underwater somehow. Ripply and malleable. But as hazy as the memory was, the room obviously belonged to someone specific. This must have been James' room. I carried him to the bed and laid him down, crawling under the covers with him. For one strange second, it almost seemed like I was the one being tucking in instead, but this entire dream-memory-thing had been strange, so I just ignored it. We cuddled up together and quickly fell asleep.

But the next thing I knew, I was the one being picked up and carried like a child. I struggled to open my eyes, and I saw Logan's chest when I finally got them open. I looked around and saw the real Jackie sitting on a bed, having a glaring contest with the real Victor, who was standing in the doorway. I glanced back up a Logan, but he had Wolverine's eyes instead.

"Whaddi miss?" I mumbled out.

"Jackie's in trouble." Wolverine said, carrying me past Victor and into the hall.

The sudden scenery change and all the feelings from the weird lucid-dream-memory left me feeling dizzy and exhausted. When Wolverine laid me back down on another bed, I gratefully clutched at the covers. Someone tried to take them from me, and I felt an exhausted hissy fit coming on until I realized it was Wolverine, attempting to get into bed next to me. I let them go and clutched at his wife beater instead. As cute as Child-Logan had been, I didn't want to be the responsible adult all the time. I still wanted to be the one cuddled and tucked into bed, and I sighed happily when Wolverine wrapped one heavy arm around me.

"G'nigh, Wolvie."

"Night, kitling."


THUMP THUMP THUMP

I jolted awake, naked and in my mate's arms with someone pounding at the door. At first, the vision of Logan's old room swam in front of me, then the motel where Victor had taken me. Finally, Logan's room at the school came into focus. I glanced up at him, checking his eyes to see Logan had come back. He put his claws back in and squeezed my side briefly before getting up.

"Wait here, darlin'."

My reply got lost in a yawn as I slumped against the headboard. Logan was grumpy the way he always was in the morning, but not on edge. We were at the school, not in danger. His shirt landed on my face, and I yanked it off with a small huff at him for not warning me before he tossed it at me. He wasn't looking at my face though, and I blushed a little when I realized I was still naked from the night before. I tugged his shirt on while he waited, and he didn't open the door until I had it fully buttoned up.

"What?!" He growled, but I also heard Jackie shout the same.

I couldn't see his face, but he turned his head toward Victor's room where Jackie's voice had come from, and I knew he was probably scowling at her. It looked like Victor and I both had a grumpy mate in the morning.

"I thought you agreed the girls would sleep in their own room." Another voice grumbled.

Jackie laughed loudly at that statement. "...oh, you were serious? Let me laugh harder."

"You—"

The man's voice was cut off by a snarl, and then some mutterings too low for me to hear. I tugged one of the sheets up and worked on draping it over my shoulders. That voice wasn't Victor's, but it was definitely male. I leaned over to the side a bit and saw Scott standing in front of Logan, who kept his body in the middle of the doorway to block the view inside his room. His shirt hung down low enough on me to cover my hips and even the tops of my thighs, but seeing as how the professor had insisted on me not sharing a room with Logan, it would look pretty bad if Scott saw me in Logan's bed and wearing absolutely nothing but his shirt.

"Don't use all the hot water!" Logan snapped.

A door shutting marked Jackie's exit, and I figured it was a good time to get in on the conversation before Logan and Scott started snapping at each other or worse, she came back. I got out of bed and wrapped the sheet around me as much as possible, both for safety reasons with my skin and to hide that my "nightgown" was actually Logan's shirt.

"You know Marie isn't allowed in your room overnight." Scott said as I walked up behind Logan.

"Ah'm sorry. Ah had a nightmare. Ah haven't slept in a room without Logan since mah parents kicked meh out, an' this place is so new, Ah jus'..." I trailed off and looked down with my lip quivering.

Scott shifted his weight uncomfortably. "I suppose it's fine for tonight, but it really is improper."

"Ah understand. Ah'd like to go to mah room now." I said in my most demure voice.

Scott gave me a nod and stepped out of my way, but I glanced up at Logan first. Wolvie's voice growled in my head that I shouldn't take orders from other men. As much as the implication that I should take orders from Logan bothered my sense of feminism, if any one person had earned my trust and respect, it was Logan. He rubbed down over my shoulder blades and gave my lower back a gentle push with a nod. I walked over to my room and shut the door behind me, trying not to look like I was in a hurry. As I looked around what was supposed to be my room, I heard Scott's voice outside.

"Was that your shirt?"

I clapped my hand to my mouth to smother my giggles, and the sheet I wore fell to the floor. When I'd gotten my composure back, I picked it up and tossed it on the bed to the right. Jackie's bag sat on the bed against the left wall, nearest to the bathroom. I couldn't tell if I was looking forward to having a roommate or dreading learning how to live with her. But then again, I'd figured out how to live with Logan straight off the street with almost zero conversation for a full month, and if I could make it work with "the Wolverine" then I could deal with Jackie.

The room had a full wardrobe on Jackie's side, so I assumed she'd claimed that too, but my side of the room had a dresser and a nightstand next to the foot of the bed. There was only one desk against the back wall though, and I really, really wanted that so I'd have a place to draw, paint, and study. Maybe Jackie would be nice and give it to me. I was still trying to convince myself of that when Logan walked into the room.

"Could yah grab our stuff, sugah?" I asked him. "Ah'm not sure what's in mah bag or yeh duffel."

I'd go and get them myself, but I didn't know who was still hanging out in the hallway either. Logan grunted in a way I recognized as amicable and walked back out to get our bags for me. I sat down on my bed, bouncing up and down a bit to test its springy-ness. Not any worse than the motel beds I was used to, but now that I had a permanent bed, I wondered if Logan would be willing to buy me a mattress pad. He came back in and interrupted my thoughts again, and I took my backpack from him to look through it.

I had our shared toothbrush and toothpaste in a side pocket, and a half-empty package of a pads. Since the one bathroom was for all of us, I reached for the duffel bag next and pulled out Logan's bathroom stuff too. He had some generic hair and body wash stuff, because it apparently didn't make a difference to men, along with his razor and a small can of shaving cream. I had travel-sized shampoo and conditioner, with some natural body soap that I liked. I didn't realize we had so much bathroom stuff until I laid it all out on my bed.

"Your turn, sweetie." Jackie said, walking out of the bathroom in a towel.

Logan settled his hand on my shoulder. "C'mon darling. As soon as you take your shower, we can get breakfast."

He helped me gather up all our bathroom stuff and carry it in while Jackie rooted through her duffel. I'd grabbed a new change of clothes too, and I set them on the sink countertop so they wouldn't get wet or stepped on, and Logan kicked the door shut behind him. I took the shower stuff from Logan and arranged our shampoo and soap in the hanging shower rack while Logan took care of setting up the counter stuff. I finished a little before he did, so I grabbed my pads and stored them under the counter, then looked over at Logan.

"Will yah shower with meh?" I asked.

His grip tightened on the counter before he turned to face me. "Probably not a good idea."

"We don't have to do anything."

He didn't reply, giving me his stubborn silent look. I made an angry huff at him and yanked his shirt off over my head. His eyes wandered down my body, but he didn't move. Resorting to desperate measures, I turned around and arched my back when I bent down to turn the water on. I paused for a half-second, but didn't receive any horny, growling Logan at my back. I gave him The Look over my shoulder, still bent over, but he kept his grip on the countertop. It looked like he might break it. I finally scowled at him and climbed into the shower by myself.

"We gotta talk, darlin'."

"About." I said flatly.

"You can't tell anyone I'm your boyfriend."

I set the shampoo back down and ripped open the curtain. "What?!"

He couldn't meet my eyes. "No one's gonna believe nothing's going on if we're together."

"But..." I stuck out my lower lip. "Yeh mah mate."

"I am." He said, finally looking me in the eye. "And last night was...better than I thought sex could be. But if they found out, I could go to jail, Marie."

This ain't about you or not loving you, darlin'. It's about the law, and the sort of shit people are going to say about you behind your back in you're with me.

Fuck 'em, and what they say.

I couldn't argue with the law though, and I definitely wasn't trying to get Logan arrested. It just seemed like everything was working out for once, and then a giant mound of shit hit the fan all at once, and now everything had changed.

"They wouldn't have proof." I argued.

"Jean and Chuck are both telepaths. It wouldn't take much more than them knowing where to find one of your gloves stained with my DNA." Logan replied.

"That's not proof." I muttered as I pushed the curtain back.

"I love you Marie, but I'm a mutant with a shady past and no known age. You're a sixteen year old girl. It looks bad, baby."

I worked the shampoo into my hair and glared at the wall. "Well, why do we have to stay here?"

"A real school, kids your own age, getting help with your powers and the voices..." Logan listed off. "You know this place is good for you."

We won't let anyone take ya away or get between us. And if it ain't good, we'll run with ya.

I swiped my hands through my hair to wash out the shampoo and mentally sulked. Of course I wanted to go to an awesome mutant high school, and have a real home, and make friends. But I wanted Logan too, more than anything else.

This is what's best for you, and we'll still be together. Just...quietly.

"So what does this change?" I asked.

I was willing to compromise, but only to a certain point. Logan really was the most important thing in my life, and me in his. If I felt we were giving up too much because he thought he was doing "what was best for me," I would find a way to get through to him and call this whole school thing off.

"I ain't gonna leave. We can still cuddle and watch movies together. I'll take you out places and train you. Just no kissing or sitting on my lap when there are others around." Logan said.

"If yah even think about looking at another wo—"

Logan yanked the curtain open before I could finish. "I meant it when I said no one else but you, Marie."

I stared at my feet. I felt bad about saying that, like I didn't trust him, but to be entirely fair to me, it wasn't like he had the best track record. And I really didn't like the part about no one knowing we were together at all.

"Yah still had sex with women before yah told meh." I mumbled.

"That was..that was real stupid of me." He said softly. "But I won't ever love anyone but you, and I—"

He reached out and held his hand over my arm, waiting for my permission. I really appreciated that he did that for me, but at the same time, it was still a reminder that he had to wait, that I still didn't know what was going on with my skin. I stepped closer though, letting his fingers brush against my arm and then bump my chin up.

"I'm making you a promise, Marie. I promise I won't have sex with any other woman. Not even kissing or anything. Nothing."

I pressed closer and stood on my toes to kiss him. Halfway through, my skin turned on and off, but he didn't stop and neither did I. His healing factor could handle it, and I was starting to believe he really didn't mind.

I pulled back and asked, "What about when it's jus' us?"

"There's other stuff we can do." His hand moved down to my ribs, his thumb brushing the bottom of my breasts. "Gotta lot to show ya, darlin'."

"But..." I breathed, daring to hook my fingers into his belt loop and tug his hips closer.

"But...maybe if you're good around other people, we can have some special time when we're alone. Every once and a while." He growled in his sex voice.

I grinned and cupped the bulge in his jeans briefly. "It's 'in a while,' Logan."

He made a real growl deep in his chest and captured my hand, bringing it up to his mouth and swiping his tongue over my wrist. It was possessive and dominant, and it made me shiver. He kept eye contact with me the entire time, until he let go of my hand and allowed me to step back. I grinned at him as I let the shower curtain fall back into place. If he thought I was going to make this easy on him, he had another thing cumming.

Hah.


A/N: So are things still cool with Jackie and Victor popping up every now and then? Most of the reviews I got about the last chapter were pretty positive about scaling them down—and about the smut! Bit of a transitionary chapter here, but I mainly wanted to get Wolverine and Victor talking, and then let Logan and Marie have their own talk. While they won't be jumping straight to sex, fear not for the smut crowns! They will be applied liberally every few chapters, and if you guys have any requests, let me know! I have a couple of ideas about them making friends, taking/teaching classes, cute little fluffy moments, but I really want to start working smut in there too. Especially since I made you guys wait so long for it (nearly 50 chapters, lol), so you definitely deserve a say!

Coming up next in TBH: Breakfast at Xavier's—oatmeal means love, Logan's ability to satisfy a woman is questioned, and Marie and Xavier have a Very Serious Conversation about her and Logan! And Logan's chin is volunteered to be Marie's throne?! Marie is going to be a VERY sexually frustrated teenager...


"So what are we doing after our talk with the professor?" I asked.

Logan shrugged. "I'll give you a tour if you want. You might see some of the kids. Maybe they'll have those monster balls you like."

Victor and Jackie stopped their quiet conversation and stared at him. I looked up at him too, trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about.

"Um, what?"