Disclaimer: Ya-Ya I don't own any of 'em 'cept Katie.
Notes: Umm...none right now.
***
Chapter 3
Logan watched her from the little monitoring booth far above the danger room. She was everything one could want in a woman. Strong, beautiful, deadly and mysterious. Despite how hard he tried to distance himself from her, it hurt all the more seeing her luscious pucker of pink carnation pout and those sparkling orbs of emerald jaded as thoughts of the Cajun ran through her mind. He watched her swatted like a flay by the huge arm of a sentinel, a grunt passed through his lips as she got up, shook her head to clear it and broke off that same arm, using it to beat it's owner into nothing but scrap metal.
***
It had been six weeks since she had her little talk with Logan. Had it helped? Logan thought so. Did Rogue? She didn't know. She didn't get to spend a week in bed and pig out on mint chocolate chip ice cream like every other girl who has had a break up. But she wasn't every other girl, and this wasn't every other break up.
She didn't get that chance because every day at approximately 6:15 Logan came into her room and turned her mattress over. This happened for about two weeks before Rogue got the hang of it and was dressed and ready to go when he came into her room. A girl learns stuff like that when you have to make your bed for the tenth time in a week.
They would practice together, eat together, and talk. Very few of the last one though. She finally figured it out after the third week that Logan was taking charge of her life so she wouldn't have to run into Remy. Everywhere they went, he never was. She expected to see him turn a corner once and a while, but he never did. He was protecting her. Normally she would throw a fit and throw him into the next county so he'd leave her alone. But she really didn't think that she was ready to turn a corner and see the reputable Dr. Bower sitting in Remy's lap and feeding him grapes or something. A little exaggerated, yes, but it was the exact thing that ran through her mind when she came to this conclusion.
So here she was, the sixth week of her little makeover. It was about 6:00 and she was just about to change clothes and get ready for whatever exertion that Logan cooked up for them today. Large green eyes peered into the mirror in nothing but cotton panties and a matching bra. She didn't usually look at herself in the mirror. Alright, ever since the afternoon Logan had left her room after he had talked to her.
She had gone into the bathroom to shower and change. Stripping off her clothes she caught sight of herself in the mirror and it was enough to draw a gasp from her throat. Her ribs showed through the pale flesh that served as her skin. Her eyes were sunken into her skull and her hands looked old. Thin whisps of hair that framed her face were brittle and horridly sparse. She raised a bone like hand up to her face, and her thin shoulders started trembling...as thin as it was, it still had the force to crack that mirror with barely a hares breath of a touch. It was replaced the next morning.
Now she could see the improvement. It had been so hard. To choke down three meals a day when she wasn't hungry for one, and to exercise to within an inch of her endurance. It paid off. Her muscles gained tone and strength, her skin flushed back to it's milk white and she gained a whole forty pounds that she had lost somewhere in the last two years. Her hair was shiny and full of luster again. Today was the day, she had made up her mind.
He knew it. When Logan walked into her room unannounced, as always, he knew that familiar fire that had once ignited in her eyes had returned. And he even knew the words that were going to come out of her lips before they did.
"Ah wanna see 'im."
"I know ya do darlin'. He's in the danger room."
He knew it wouldn't take her long to get there either. At the rate she flew out of her room.
***
Remy had purposely avoided Rogue ever since he saw her on the rooftop. He wasn't ready to see her again, wasn't sure if he'd ever be. He had a new life now, and the only thing she would bring would be trouble with a capitol T.
Katie on the other hand had kept tabs on Rogue. Since she knew virtually nothing about her, it was interesting indeed to probe Logan's mind on what they had been doing. Rogue was a very powerful mutant indeed, and she wasn't even up to her potential yet. It was because she had set up this little arrangement that she knew where Rogue was going this morning.
***
Rogue took the corridors at breakneck speed, her heart pounding and her adrenaline pumping. She knew that if she went any slower or stopped to think about what all might go wrong, she might lose the nerve. Landing a few feet from the danger room she gives herself a minute to compose taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly. "Come on Mississippi, yer actin' like a scaredy-cat an' ya ain't got no reason."
Walking up to the door, she punches in her code to enter, and the door opens, she quickly steps inside, and it closes behind her. She has to let her eyes adjust to the scenery and she almost chokes back a sob. It was Antarctica. The harsh wind and bitter cold all too familiar.
***
He was in a crouch, trench coat flapping behind him and one muscled forearm over his eyes to keep out the icy wind. Peeking out from behind it, he nearly faints. Rogue, standing right in front of him. Tangible. He knew he didn't program that into the simulation. It was just like he had dreamed it so long ago. He, near death and just about to give up all hope when she comes, like an angel out of the sky to rescue him. Lost in the moment, he falls to his knees at her feet.
***
Spotting him, for the first time in over two years her eyes fill with tears. She expected one of a million reactions to him seeing her. But what she got was definitely not something she expected. He fell to his knees and reached out to her. It scared her, and she took a step back.
A most strangled cry fell from his lips and he huddled on the ground in a ball as it happened again. The woman he loved rejecting him. Eyes darted from one place to another and she looked up at the seemingly real bitter Antarctic sky. "Computah: End Simulation!"
Immediately the surroundings left them and they were there, in the middle of a large metal room. Rogue fell to her knees beside him, arms aching to touch him, eyes feasting on his body like a man long without food.
His body spasmed and his head shot up, tendrils of red falling to shade his demon eyes. Once full of longing and hope, now of anger and pain. "YOU!"
Rogue stumbled back to her feet. "Remy...Ah...Ah."
Remy jumped to his feet. "Didn't torture me 'nough, did ya? 'ad ta come in here while Ah try ta face my one fear an' punish me s'more." The red in his eyes flared with anger. "Ah can't live t'rew it again, chere. Go 'way!"
"Fine ya dirdy Swamp Rat! Ah see ya've replaced me. Go find in her arms what ya could nevah have with me!" Her eyes blazed with anger that surprised her. But it was better than tears. The anger made her stronger.
"Ah didn't chose her ovah you, chere. You made de choice when ya left me ta die! So don' tell me dat Ah chose her. Ah want'd you." As he spit out accusations at her it seemed to do nothing but anger her. An anger so intense that you could see those clear eyes fill up with rage and boil over, affecting her entire expression.
"Mistah Lebeau, Ah've shed 'nough teahs foah ya. All yoah doin' is stickin' yoah hand in tha' crawdad box, an' boy, soonah or latah yoah gonna get pinched."
"Dammit! Whatcha don' u'dnerstand is dat Ah don' love ya no more. Leave me da hell alone, chere, an' stop hurtin' us bot'." A flourish of his coat signals his end to the conversation, and he leaves Rogue standing there, stewing in her own broth.
She lifts off the ground and hovers there a moment. The tension building in her shoulders and betraying her in the clench of her fists. She pitches herself straight as an arrow and just as swift into the wall. She bounces off of it, the metal collapsing under her pressure and popping back into place with a sound that just hurts to hear. With a guttural cry from her lips she begins pitching herself over and over into the walls, trying to spend some of the anger.
***
He knew it wasn't right, but he was worried about her. Worried about them both. So he followed her to the danger room and watched in that little booth made for monitoring. It wasn't technically like spying. After all, that booth was there for a reason. In the end, he didn't really give a damn if it was spying.
He saw the whole exchange between them and he took it all in with the solemn expression of one that doesn't care. But the very fact that he was there showed he cared more than the rest of the team, as all they did was avoid the situation as though doing so would make things go away. It really burned his cigar to see the group that was once so much like a family torn apart. He got up after Rogue slammed herself into the wall, intent upon trying to knock some sense into that Swamp Rat. Literally or figuratively would be the Cajun's choice.
Atleast things hadn't changed much. Remy went to the same place that he always does when Rogue and him had a fight. It was the first place that Logan checked too. The roof. Can't teach an old dog new tricks he figured.
Taking a large puff on his cigar he looks down at the figure of a guy he could have once call his brother.
"Ya know, homme. It's sometime's bettah if ya keep ya nose outta udder people's bi'tness."
"Not when ya'll 're tearin' the team apart, bub. Then I make it my business." Gruff voice barked out those words and he shifted his weight, eyes peering up to the sky halfheartedly. "Look. I'm not sayin' that ya have to love 'er, or even like 'er. Just try an' get 'long with her.
With the lack of a response he knew that the Cajun was giving in. Him and Rogue had both been hurt too many times to try and continue it. And even though he was stubborn, it looked like Wolverine wouldn't have to use adamantium force. "Ya don' know what it was like. Bein' left alone ta die." Voice weak and signaling surrender.
Logan shakes his head. "Nope, I don't. But I do know that she almost killed herself with guilt and comin' back here shredded whatever pride she had left. That doesn't make it right...doesn't make any of it right. But it doesn't give you any reason to treat her like ya are. Put tha past behind ya'll 'n move on."
A deep, stress filled sigh filled the calm, blue sky as he stood up. "Alright, homme. Ah'll talk to de femme in de mornin'."
With that, Logan was done with the Cajun. He made his way back to Rogue's room to try and cool the fire that Remy had burned in her heart.
***
Breath heaving and knuckles barely split even though she had put her full force into trying to knock down that wall. She did like Logan had told her. Don't aim for the target, aim for knocking something on the other side of the target, through it. Too bad those words were wasted on an inanimate object.
She couldn't take it, it had been too much for her. She would give Remy back his card as a symbol only he would understand, pack up, and leave tonight. It was the only thing she could think to do. Too bad she couldn't go back to Bandera. That place was nice. They would look for her there. She plans it all out, just leave the card on his pillow ...like old times. But this time she wouldn't come back. Be just as silent as the wind. Mind filled with these thoughts as she set her body on auto-pilot from the danger room to Remy's. A path she knew well. Whenever dreams would overtake her sleep and she would wake up in a cold sweat, she would find her way, in the dark, and he would hold her, hold her like no one dared to.
Turning the knob, she lifts her head as the door opens wider and is paralyzed. Shock and pain run through her eyes in pulsating waves and if there was anything in her mouth she surely would have choked. She falters, falling heavily the foot or so to the ground where she had levitated and landing hard on her feet.
There, in the romantic glow of scented candles two lovers were finding comfort in their own embrace. Remy delivered passionate kisses to his fiancee like he could never do to Rogue. So much love. Everything that she had always wanted and could never have. They weren't making love, they didn't need to, a picture is worth a thousand words and seeing it in real life is worth the whole book. As soon as the 'thud' of Rogue's feet hit the ground, they parted, eyes wide at being discovered. They quickly recovered upon recognition of who their intruder was.
Rogue barely heard Remy's cry out for her, mind so jumbled with emotions. She turned sharply, card fluttering to the ground in her attempt to get away. She needed to get to her room, needed to get there and pack, pack and leave, that's what she needed to do. Gloved hand raised and raked through her hair sharply, pulling it back from tortured eyes that stung with tears she refused to let fall.
***
He waited for her in her room still and calm with the patience of a predator that he was. He could tell that when she zipped inside and slammed the door she didn't notice him. Even when she got that old worn suitcase from the top of her closet and perched that hat on top of her head, ridiculous when paired with her training outfit that she didn't know he was there.
"Bein' that unaware could get ya killed darlin'."
He gave her points for not jumping and only when a slight salty scent made its way to his nostrils and he could see her shoulders shaking did he realize that she was crying. In an instant the tough he-man Canadian was reduced to nothing. His heart melted and in that moment he knew he hated the Cajun.
***
Remy had comforted the startled Katie and drew on some sweat pant bottoms, racing out of the room after Rogue. A million thoughts raced through his mind. Part of him was glad she saw them, glad he hurt her and glad that she could finally feel some of the pain he had felt. The other part wanted to throw himself out a window. Somewhere deep inside he still loved her, and hated himself, as well as her for letting it get this far. Logan was right, and he'd only made it worse. They needed to stop torturing each other. But was there ever going to be a common ground between them? Would they ever be able to look at each other in the eyes and not only find bitterness and pain? He didn't know the answer to these questions any more than he knew what he was going to say when he found her.
***
Logan placed a strong hand on Rogue's shoulder, turning her around to face him. "Darlin'...what's wrong? What'd he do?" His tone was firm, but gentle and it further baffled him when she threw her arms around his neck, sobbing, barely able to make words.
It didn't last long though. When you've cried the better part of two years, there just aren't many tears left. "Ah saw 'im, Wolvie...Ah saw 'im and 'er. Ah can't do it...Ah just can't."
She didn't need to say anymore. The pieces quickly fell into place and he smoothed back her hair until she looked up at him. "It'll be okay Darlin'...I promise."
Rogue saw something in Logan's eyes. Something that she couldn't explain and hadn't been present in anyone's eyes for a long time. Love. In that moment she forgot everything. Forgot her powers, her pain and everything but those brown eyes, those brown eyes turned black on red. In a motion that seemed to take eons to complete, she lifted her gloved hand and stroked his cheek, pulling his face towards hers and pressing those rare peach tinted lips against his. Rare because not many men had tasted those sweet lips, and those who had hadn't lived to tell about it.
Logan's body reacted to her touch, the animal in him grabbed a fistful of those auburn tresses, pressing her mouth to his more firmly, their bodies warm and pulsing with passion. Sadly, it was short lived. As Logan welcomed the darkness that came over him, images of Rogue's lips still on his mind, he barely heard her utter the Cajun's name under the grip of passion that was slowly releasing her from it's clutches.
***
They didn't see him. They didn't see him as he watched what he couldn't never have with her. He didn't hear her utter his name, or wasn't able to make residence inside her mind when she pictured Remy instead of Logan. He didn't know that she still loved him. If they would have seen the anguish that filled his eyes when her lips touched his, and the raw, pain filled sound that came from his lips as they pulled each other closer, they would have known that he still loved her. Katie did. Katie had followed him, as curious as one person could get, the mystery just deepened. Her heart broke with the look in his eyes and shattered with his sound from his lips.
There were four hearts broken that night, and four lives changed. How will they ever make it out the same?
****
Ha! No one knows how proud I am of that. I sure hope ya'll enjoy it and it wasn't as predictable as I fear it might have been. I know there are a lot of things unexplained, but I'm really interested in this one and know where it's going, so it shouldn't be long before more is up. Thanks Randi! You've helped me a lot so far, I hope this one is up to your standards. Okay, grammer is probably not the best, and the accents suck to hell and back, but I'm proud of it!
Notes: Umm...none right now.
***
Chapter 3
Logan watched her from the little monitoring booth far above the danger room. She was everything one could want in a woman. Strong, beautiful, deadly and mysterious. Despite how hard he tried to distance himself from her, it hurt all the more seeing her luscious pucker of pink carnation pout and those sparkling orbs of emerald jaded as thoughts of the Cajun ran through her mind. He watched her swatted like a flay by the huge arm of a sentinel, a grunt passed through his lips as she got up, shook her head to clear it and broke off that same arm, using it to beat it's owner into nothing but scrap metal.
***
It had been six weeks since she had her little talk with Logan. Had it helped? Logan thought so. Did Rogue? She didn't know. She didn't get to spend a week in bed and pig out on mint chocolate chip ice cream like every other girl who has had a break up. But she wasn't every other girl, and this wasn't every other break up.
She didn't get that chance because every day at approximately 6:15 Logan came into her room and turned her mattress over. This happened for about two weeks before Rogue got the hang of it and was dressed and ready to go when he came into her room. A girl learns stuff like that when you have to make your bed for the tenth time in a week.
They would practice together, eat together, and talk. Very few of the last one though. She finally figured it out after the third week that Logan was taking charge of her life so she wouldn't have to run into Remy. Everywhere they went, he never was. She expected to see him turn a corner once and a while, but he never did. He was protecting her. Normally she would throw a fit and throw him into the next county so he'd leave her alone. But she really didn't think that she was ready to turn a corner and see the reputable Dr. Bower sitting in Remy's lap and feeding him grapes or something. A little exaggerated, yes, but it was the exact thing that ran through her mind when she came to this conclusion.
So here she was, the sixth week of her little makeover. It was about 6:00 and she was just about to change clothes and get ready for whatever exertion that Logan cooked up for them today. Large green eyes peered into the mirror in nothing but cotton panties and a matching bra. She didn't usually look at herself in the mirror. Alright, ever since the afternoon Logan had left her room after he had talked to her.
She had gone into the bathroom to shower and change. Stripping off her clothes she caught sight of herself in the mirror and it was enough to draw a gasp from her throat. Her ribs showed through the pale flesh that served as her skin. Her eyes were sunken into her skull and her hands looked old. Thin whisps of hair that framed her face were brittle and horridly sparse. She raised a bone like hand up to her face, and her thin shoulders started trembling...as thin as it was, it still had the force to crack that mirror with barely a hares breath of a touch. It was replaced the next morning.
Now she could see the improvement. It had been so hard. To choke down three meals a day when she wasn't hungry for one, and to exercise to within an inch of her endurance. It paid off. Her muscles gained tone and strength, her skin flushed back to it's milk white and she gained a whole forty pounds that she had lost somewhere in the last two years. Her hair was shiny and full of luster again. Today was the day, she had made up her mind.
He knew it. When Logan walked into her room unannounced, as always, he knew that familiar fire that had once ignited in her eyes had returned. And he even knew the words that were going to come out of her lips before they did.
"Ah wanna see 'im."
"I know ya do darlin'. He's in the danger room."
He knew it wouldn't take her long to get there either. At the rate she flew out of her room.
***
Remy had purposely avoided Rogue ever since he saw her on the rooftop. He wasn't ready to see her again, wasn't sure if he'd ever be. He had a new life now, and the only thing she would bring would be trouble with a capitol T.
Katie on the other hand had kept tabs on Rogue. Since she knew virtually nothing about her, it was interesting indeed to probe Logan's mind on what they had been doing. Rogue was a very powerful mutant indeed, and she wasn't even up to her potential yet. It was because she had set up this little arrangement that she knew where Rogue was going this morning.
***
Rogue took the corridors at breakneck speed, her heart pounding and her adrenaline pumping. She knew that if she went any slower or stopped to think about what all might go wrong, she might lose the nerve. Landing a few feet from the danger room she gives herself a minute to compose taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly. "Come on Mississippi, yer actin' like a scaredy-cat an' ya ain't got no reason."
Walking up to the door, she punches in her code to enter, and the door opens, she quickly steps inside, and it closes behind her. She has to let her eyes adjust to the scenery and she almost chokes back a sob. It was Antarctica. The harsh wind and bitter cold all too familiar.
***
He was in a crouch, trench coat flapping behind him and one muscled forearm over his eyes to keep out the icy wind. Peeking out from behind it, he nearly faints. Rogue, standing right in front of him. Tangible. He knew he didn't program that into the simulation. It was just like he had dreamed it so long ago. He, near death and just about to give up all hope when she comes, like an angel out of the sky to rescue him. Lost in the moment, he falls to his knees at her feet.
***
Spotting him, for the first time in over two years her eyes fill with tears. She expected one of a million reactions to him seeing her. But what she got was definitely not something she expected. He fell to his knees and reached out to her. It scared her, and she took a step back.
A most strangled cry fell from his lips and he huddled on the ground in a ball as it happened again. The woman he loved rejecting him. Eyes darted from one place to another and she looked up at the seemingly real bitter Antarctic sky. "Computah: End Simulation!"
Immediately the surroundings left them and they were there, in the middle of a large metal room. Rogue fell to her knees beside him, arms aching to touch him, eyes feasting on his body like a man long without food.
His body spasmed and his head shot up, tendrils of red falling to shade his demon eyes. Once full of longing and hope, now of anger and pain. "YOU!"
Rogue stumbled back to her feet. "Remy...Ah...Ah."
Remy jumped to his feet. "Didn't torture me 'nough, did ya? 'ad ta come in here while Ah try ta face my one fear an' punish me s'more." The red in his eyes flared with anger. "Ah can't live t'rew it again, chere. Go 'way!"
"Fine ya dirdy Swamp Rat! Ah see ya've replaced me. Go find in her arms what ya could nevah have with me!" Her eyes blazed with anger that surprised her. But it was better than tears. The anger made her stronger.
"Ah didn't chose her ovah you, chere. You made de choice when ya left me ta die! So don' tell me dat Ah chose her. Ah want'd you." As he spit out accusations at her it seemed to do nothing but anger her. An anger so intense that you could see those clear eyes fill up with rage and boil over, affecting her entire expression.
"Mistah Lebeau, Ah've shed 'nough teahs foah ya. All yoah doin' is stickin' yoah hand in tha' crawdad box, an' boy, soonah or latah yoah gonna get pinched."
"Dammit! Whatcha don' u'dnerstand is dat Ah don' love ya no more. Leave me da hell alone, chere, an' stop hurtin' us bot'." A flourish of his coat signals his end to the conversation, and he leaves Rogue standing there, stewing in her own broth.
She lifts off the ground and hovers there a moment. The tension building in her shoulders and betraying her in the clench of her fists. She pitches herself straight as an arrow and just as swift into the wall. She bounces off of it, the metal collapsing under her pressure and popping back into place with a sound that just hurts to hear. With a guttural cry from her lips she begins pitching herself over and over into the walls, trying to spend some of the anger.
***
He knew it wasn't right, but he was worried about her. Worried about them both. So he followed her to the danger room and watched in that little booth made for monitoring. It wasn't technically like spying. After all, that booth was there for a reason. In the end, he didn't really give a damn if it was spying.
He saw the whole exchange between them and he took it all in with the solemn expression of one that doesn't care. But the very fact that he was there showed he cared more than the rest of the team, as all they did was avoid the situation as though doing so would make things go away. It really burned his cigar to see the group that was once so much like a family torn apart. He got up after Rogue slammed herself into the wall, intent upon trying to knock some sense into that Swamp Rat. Literally or figuratively would be the Cajun's choice.
Atleast things hadn't changed much. Remy went to the same place that he always does when Rogue and him had a fight. It was the first place that Logan checked too. The roof. Can't teach an old dog new tricks he figured.
Taking a large puff on his cigar he looks down at the figure of a guy he could have once call his brother.
"Ya know, homme. It's sometime's bettah if ya keep ya nose outta udder people's bi'tness."
"Not when ya'll 're tearin' the team apart, bub. Then I make it my business." Gruff voice barked out those words and he shifted his weight, eyes peering up to the sky halfheartedly. "Look. I'm not sayin' that ya have to love 'er, or even like 'er. Just try an' get 'long with her.
With the lack of a response he knew that the Cajun was giving in. Him and Rogue had both been hurt too many times to try and continue it. And even though he was stubborn, it looked like Wolverine wouldn't have to use adamantium force. "Ya don' know what it was like. Bein' left alone ta die." Voice weak and signaling surrender.
Logan shakes his head. "Nope, I don't. But I do know that she almost killed herself with guilt and comin' back here shredded whatever pride she had left. That doesn't make it right...doesn't make any of it right. But it doesn't give you any reason to treat her like ya are. Put tha past behind ya'll 'n move on."
A deep, stress filled sigh filled the calm, blue sky as he stood up. "Alright, homme. Ah'll talk to de femme in de mornin'."
With that, Logan was done with the Cajun. He made his way back to Rogue's room to try and cool the fire that Remy had burned in her heart.
***
Breath heaving and knuckles barely split even though she had put her full force into trying to knock down that wall. She did like Logan had told her. Don't aim for the target, aim for knocking something on the other side of the target, through it. Too bad those words were wasted on an inanimate object.
She couldn't take it, it had been too much for her. She would give Remy back his card as a symbol only he would understand, pack up, and leave tonight. It was the only thing she could think to do. Too bad she couldn't go back to Bandera. That place was nice. They would look for her there. She plans it all out, just leave the card on his pillow ...like old times. But this time she wouldn't come back. Be just as silent as the wind. Mind filled with these thoughts as she set her body on auto-pilot from the danger room to Remy's. A path she knew well. Whenever dreams would overtake her sleep and she would wake up in a cold sweat, she would find her way, in the dark, and he would hold her, hold her like no one dared to.
Turning the knob, she lifts her head as the door opens wider and is paralyzed. Shock and pain run through her eyes in pulsating waves and if there was anything in her mouth she surely would have choked. She falters, falling heavily the foot or so to the ground where she had levitated and landing hard on her feet.
There, in the romantic glow of scented candles two lovers were finding comfort in their own embrace. Remy delivered passionate kisses to his fiancee like he could never do to Rogue. So much love. Everything that she had always wanted and could never have. They weren't making love, they didn't need to, a picture is worth a thousand words and seeing it in real life is worth the whole book. As soon as the 'thud' of Rogue's feet hit the ground, they parted, eyes wide at being discovered. They quickly recovered upon recognition of who their intruder was.
Rogue barely heard Remy's cry out for her, mind so jumbled with emotions. She turned sharply, card fluttering to the ground in her attempt to get away. She needed to get to her room, needed to get there and pack, pack and leave, that's what she needed to do. Gloved hand raised and raked through her hair sharply, pulling it back from tortured eyes that stung with tears she refused to let fall.
***
He waited for her in her room still and calm with the patience of a predator that he was. He could tell that when she zipped inside and slammed the door she didn't notice him. Even when she got that old worn suitcase from the top of her closet and perched that hat on top of her head, ridiculous when paired with her training outfit that she didn't know he was there.
"Bein' that unaware could get ya killed darlin'."
He gave her points for not jumping and only when a slight salty scent made its way to his nostrils and he could see her shoulders shaking did he realize that she was crying. In an instant the tough he-man Canadian was reduced to nothing. His heart melted and in that moment he knew he hated the Cajun.
***
Remy had comforted the startled Katie and drew on some sweat pant bottoms, racing out of the room after Rogue. A million thoughts raced through his mind. Part of him was glad she saw them, glad he hurt her and glad that she could finally feel some of the pain he had felt. The other part wanted to throw himself out a window. Somewhere deep inside he still loved her, and hated himself, as well as her for letting it get this far. Logan was right, and he'd only made it worse. They needed to stop torturing each other. But was there ever going to be a common ground between them? Would they ever be able to look at each other in the eyes and not only find bitterness and pain? He didn't know the answer to these questions any more than he knew what he was going to say when he found her.
***
Logan placed a strong hand on Rogue's shoulder, turning her around to face him. "Darlin'...what's wrong? What'd he do?" His tone was firm, but gentle and it further baffled him when she threw her arms around his neck, sobbing, barely able to make words.
It didn't last long though. When you've cried the better part of two years, there just aren't many tears left. "Ah saw 'im, Wolvie...Ah saw 'im and 'er. Ah can't do it...Ah just can't."
She didn't need to say anymore. The pieces quickly fell into place and he smoothed back her hair until she looked up at him. "It'll be okay Darlin'...I promise."
Rogue saw something in Logan's eyes. Something that she couldn't explain and hadn't been present in anyone's eyes for a long time. Love. In that moment she forgot everything. Forgot her powers, her pain and everything but those brown eyes, those brown eyes turned black on red. In a motion that seemed to take eons to complete, she lifted her gloved hand and stroked his cheek, pulling his face towards hers and pressing those rare peach tinted lips against his. Rare because not many men had tasted those sweet lips, and those who had hadn't lived to tell about it.
Logan's body reacted to her touch, the animal in him grabbed a fistful of those auburn tresses, pressing her mouth to his more firmly, their bodies warm and pulsing with passion. Sadly, it was short lived. As Logan welcomed the darkness that came over him, images of Rogue's lips still on his mind, he barely heard her utter the Cajun's name under the grip of passion that was slowly releasing her from it's clutches.
***
They didn't see him. They didn't see him as he watched what he couldn't never have with her. He didn't hear her utter his name, or wasn't able to make residence inside her mind when she pictured Remy instead of Logan. He didn't know that she still loved him. If they would have seen the anguish that filled his eyes when her lips touched his, and the raw, pain filled sound that came from his lips as they pulled each other closer, they would have known that he still loved her. Katie did. Katie had followed him, as curious as one person could get, the mystery just deepened. Her heart broke with the look in his eyes and shattered with his sound from his lips.
There were four hearts broken that night, and four lives changed. How will they ever make it out the same?
****
Ha! No one knows how proud I am of that. I sure hope ya'll enjoy it and it wasn't as predictable as I fear it might have been. I know there are a lot of things unexplained, but I'm really interested in this one and know where it's going, so it shouldn't be long before more is up. Thanks Randi! You've helped me a lot so far, I hope this one is up to your standards. Okay, grammer is probably not the best, and the accents suck to hell and back, but I'm proud of it!
