Everything Important

Chapter Nine: The Big Goodbye

Abair stepped in to her room and closed the door behind him.

"This is goodbye." He told her plainly. "I'll be gone by morning."

"Ah knew this was coming." She said softly. "But it wasn't real until now."

He smiled ruefully. "It's been real for me all along." He told her. "Everything seems to scream it at me whenever we're not together."

She cast her eyes down and started to close the distance between them.

He cleared that distance in two steps and swept her up in his arms. She locked her arms around his neck and pressed her eyes closed.

"If I had my way I would take you right now, down the front stairs and strait to Las Vegas." He told her. "I would marry you. Tonight."

She shook her head, still locked against him. "Don't say that." She told him.

He pulled her back and looked her in the eye. "I need something." He told her plainly.

"What?" She searched his face.

"This." He said, taking two steps forward and pushing her down, on to the bed.

"You trusted me not to hurt myself, remember?" He asked her – and her mind flashed back to the guesthouse – and when she had let him first undress her – because he had asked her to trust him – not to hurt himself.

"Of course." She looked up at him, concerned yet wanting.

"Then I want to trust you." He said. "With my life."

"Abair – No." She said softly.

He leaned back, allowing her to rise if she wished.

"Xavier told me that there wouldn't be any permanent damage unless we touched for longer than forty five seconds." His big blue eyes seemed to hypnotize her. "I want my forty seconds." He told her.

"Forty seconds?" She considered this for a moment.

"For me." He told her.

She felt a chill run through her. Forty seconds …

"Come here." She said, grabbing his shirt and pulling him on to the bed next to her. "And you just listen to me for one minute."

She took a deep breath. "Mah power – it's a terrible thing to do to anyone." Her voice dropped to a mere whisper. "And to do it to you …"

To someone Ah love …

"Rogue." He said, looking her right in the face. "I've been pierced, tattooed, burned, beaten and cheated in this life." He spoke with authority and honesty. "And I would do any – or all of it – again, right now." He looked her in the eye and finished. "If I thought for a minute that it would prove my feelings to you."

"You already have." She said pleadingly.

He dropped to his knees, off the side of her bed, facing her as she sat before him. "Shown you, yes. But proved it, beyond any doubt that time might nurture? Rogue – I need this. I would regret it – as long as I lived."

And she could see it in his eyes – he would regret it – for the rest of his life.

"Thirty." She said softly – her voice shaking. "Thirty seconds." She pushed past him and went to Kitty's desk and picked up her watch. She set the alarm for twenty-five seconds.

She pulled off her gloves and strapped the watch to her wrist.

"When this alarm sounds – You no longer have any right to touch me – do you understand?" Her face and attitude had hardened considerably.

He nodded solemnly and respectfully.

"And I'm letting go the moment you pass out." She shook her head and set her jaw.

She reached out with one hand, her other hand on the watch's 'start' button.

She had almost reached his forehead when she pressed the button and it chirped softly.

And with a swift maneuver he snatched her by the belt and pulled her in to his arms.

His lips were full, warm and moist.

He pinned her to the bed beneath him and separated her lips with his tongue.

She was overcome with the sensation. His emotions were rippling within him like static and bridging the gap in to her at every point that they touched skin to skin.

The watch passed eight seconds.

He ran his hands up her torso, under her shirt, the emotional charge flowing from his fingertips through her – wherever he might touch her.

He forced his hands under her, and drew them slowly down her back – which arched uncontrollably under the constant flow of his energy.

The watch read fifteen seconds.

He ran his hands down over her back and … lower.

She shook, uncontrollably, with delight.

And he reached out with each hand, laced his fingers with hers and stretched her arms out, over her head, pinning her down as he kissed her.

The watch chirped softly.

His eyes opened, slightly, and he broke off their kiss. He let go of her hands and leaned back on his knees.

She took three quick breaths. She was alive and adrift in a maddening sea of fluid emotion. Ah love me … she thought – then she laughed - at her own confusion.

"Ah," She whispered. "Ah love you – too.'

And she forced herself to focus and to look at him as he straddled her on the bed.

He looked emptied, hollow and deflated, but thrilled. He was holding himself up by bracing his arms on his knees.

"Are you alright?" She asked, her concern very real.

"I feel … very funky." He told her, then he laughed at himself.

She pulled him down and rolled to one side so that he might fall freely on to the bed.

"Ah'm serious – most folk pass out before now." She told him.

"I didn't want to miss it." He shrugged without focusing.

"It should pass – most of it anyway – in a few minutes." She cradled his head on her lap, careful not to touch him again.

"I do love you Rogue." He shrugged, his eyes now closed. "I couldn't say it first– not while I was leaving."

"Ah wanted to say it – so many times this week – and never so much in mah life." She realized that she was crying as a tear fell on to his face. He didn't seem to notice.

"Promise me something?" He whispered dryly.

"What?" She asked softly.

"Love me." He told her. "And remember me." He sounded like he was pleading. "But let me go." This last one was a command.

"Is it really that far away?" Her face twisted in to a mask of grief. "Is anyplace?"

"This place is." He told her. "And I'm sorry it's so far." He sounded like he was drifting off to sleep.

"Oh." He said softly. "I'm feeling …" He blinked a few times, and she wiped her eyes and smiled through her tears.

"Like myself again." He blinked again and looked up at her, longingly.

"You're beautiful." He told her. "From the moment I first saw you – at sunset on the lake – I wanted to tell you." His eyes softened. "And you only get more beautiful – every day." He stroked her hair lovingly.

"Thank you." He told her. "For my life." He said coyly, smiling at her again.

"For being the best part, I mean."

And Rogue fell on to him, wrapping her arms around his chest and holding him tight. Any time … She thought as she lost the battle to fight back the tears and the sobs. Any- time – at - all …