Author's Notes: I AM sooooooo very very sorry I've not updated in a few days. I had a bit of writers block added to some computer problems and other distractions that kept me from getting any writing done lately. Not to fear though, I think I'm getting back on track! :-)

Here's the next chapter and I'm happy to say that this series is drawing toward its conclusion. Huge thank you to all readers and reviewers who've staid with it and I hope you continue to enjoy. Again, my apologies in the delay for this chapter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Redeemed

"Come on now, wake up."

Frowning in the midst of her much needed post coital nap, Rogue shook her head "no" on the pillows and tried to ignore the wicked man who'd so worn her out.

"You're gonna miss dinner if you don't wake up, darlin'."

Who cared about food, she thought as she buried her head under the pillows to block him out.

Smiling, Logan straightened from whispering in her ear to try waking her and went with a method he'd accidentally learned to be effective during their stay at the lake.

Sleep began fading from her mind as Rogue felt her right foot being pulled to the edge of the bed. She was just removing the pillow from her head to tell him not to even think about it, when her lover began tickling the sole of that foot without mercy.

"LooooooooGAN!" she screamed with uncontrollable laughter. "Stop, stop! Ah'm awake, Ah'm awake."

"Are ya now?" he teased as the tickling continued while she writhed on the bed with giggles.

"Yes, Ah am, stop it!" she squealed.

Chuckling himself, he gave one last little tickle then bent to lift her into a sitting position.

Gasping for breath and wiping tears from her eyes, she sat on the edge of the bed and placed her hands on his neck to pull him toward her.

Thinking only of how much she loved this man, Rogue met his lips with hers for what started as a gentle teasing kiss and grew into a deep embrace that had them stretched out on the bed grinding against each other.

Reluctantly their hungry mouths parted for breath. She arched her head back to gulp air into her nearly empty lungs only to freeze as his mouth went straight to the curve of her neck.

"No fair," she moaned as he took advantage of her weakness for throat nibbling.

His lips curled into a smile against her skin before he pulled away to smirk down at her.

"Maybe from now on you'll just wake up when I tell ya to."

"Maybe ya shouldn't wear me out so much Ah need ta sleep so much," she countered with a pouting smile.

"Ya complainin'?" he openly leered at her, making her skin all tingly.

The mere thought of her tingling skin got her thinking of her skin period and remembering that it was untouchable again.

But … he'd just touched it.

"Ya touched me," she whispered with awed eyes.

"That I did, darlin'," he smilingly pulled her body under his. "Need me to do it again?"

Though she was tempted to say yes and forget about the little realization developing in her head, Rogue instead sighed and pushed him away so they could have a serious discussion.

"Ah mean, ya touched mah bare skin and nothin' happened, shuga."

"The Prof. said ya could control it, Rogue, looks like he was right."

"But … how?"

"I think only he knows the answer to that, darlin'," Logan said with his hand moving to stroke her hair. "I know you're still hurt by their lyin' to ya, Rogue, but whaddya say we give him a chance to prove himself?"

Hopeful but unsure, she snuggled against his chest and asked, "Do ya really think he can help?"

"Yes, I do, darlin'," he hugged her briefly then rose from the bed and pulled her up as well. "Now how 'bout we get you all cleaned up, eat some dinner and then go see what Charles can do for ya?"

Happy with that plan, Rogue took a step to go into the bathroom and change before stopping dead in her tracks as she felt a bit of a draft. Blushing a fiery red, she placed her hand on her lower abdomen above the crotch of the uniform he'd sliced open earlier.

"Ah am nevah gonna be able ta wear this again," she groaned. "How do Ah explain to the Prof. Ah need a new uniform?"

He looked at her with a playful leer and winked.

"I think it still has its uses, darlin'," she blushed at his meaning. "and we'll just tell Chuck tha truth, it got torn."

~*~*~

Dinner was awkward.

Everyone knew what Scott had done and why he was in the infirmary still unconscious rather than seated at the dinner table with everyone else. No one blamed Rogue for what happened, Scott would be ok eventually and it was an accident, but still none of them knew of anything to say to their friend and teammate as she sat quietly next to her lover.

The whole room was quiet during the meal with the exception of the sounds of eating and the odd whisper for someone to pass something.

It made Rogue feel isolated and alone except for the moments Logan sensed her discomfort and gently squeezed her hand or thigh under the table or gave her one of his heartwarming smiles.

Near the end of the silent feast Logan nudged her in the side, gave her a meaningful look and jerked his head toward the Professor who sat at the head of the table.

She frowned at him slightly and shook her head "no," which had him arching his brow sternly and again indicating the Prof. until she rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Professor," she said, turning to face Charles, "if ya've got tahme aftah dinnah Logan and Ah would lahke to see ya in yer office."

Charles' eyebrows shot up in surprise and he looked at her as if trying to gauge the reason for her request. Then he smiled almost gratefully and sank back in his wheelchair with a slight sigh of relief.

"I'll have all the time you need," the bald man assured the couple, "we can begin as soon as you're both ready."

While Rogue smiled weakly back at the man and Logan again squeezed her hand, Betsy, Brian, Jean, Kurt, Kitty and Tabitha all exchanged slightly worried glances at what this cryptic meeting would be about.

Neither Betsy or Jean wished to probe the other girl's thoughts, but they sensed great nervousness and uncertainty from Rogue.

~~ You don't think she'd actually leave do you? ~~

Betsy's blue eyes held that same fear as they met Jean's across the table.

~~ I certainly hope not, luv. ~~

I certainly hope not, the British girl repeated quietly to herself as they all watched Logan and Rogue push away their empty plates, stand and lead the Professor from the dining room.

~*~*~

Charles preceded the couple into his office and moved his chair toward the less formal sitting area of the room indicating they should sit on the sofa.

Logan sat first on the couch and smilingly pulled Rogue down onto his lap.

The young woman blushed at the display of affection in front of the Professor and tried to squirm off her partner's lap, but the man growled playfully and refused to let her go.

Thrilled to see that somehow his friend had calmed the girl after her earlier ordeal, Charles smiled indulgently at the couple then turned his attention to the books lining the walls of his office as the pair started kissing.

He gave them a moment to enjoy each other before pointedly clearing his throat to remind them of his presence and their location.

"I didn't forget ya, Chuck," Logan said as he stop teasing his girl to get serious, "we're decent."

Turning his attention back to the sofa, Xavier was glad to see Rogue now sitting beside her lover on the couch while their gloved hands laid entwined on the cushions between them.

For a moment his brown gaze lingered on those joined hands as he reflected upon how very different it was to see either of these two people truly happy or casually touching someone else. To see them both breaking their solitary habits of the past together was heartwarming to the man who had played a small part in bringing them in to each other's lives.

As that 'small part' came to mind, the Professor shook off all but serious thoughts about how to help Rogue recover from the shock of learning she had been mislead by most all her friends and also teach her to control her mutation if she would allow it.

"I thank you both for requesting this meeting," he began while folding his hands casually in his lap. "I was afraid it would be days before I got the opportunity to fully express how deeply sorry I am that you had to learn the truth about Hank's serum in the way you did, Rogue."

Under his sincere gaze, the girl smiled weakly and shrugged a sheer green shirt covered shoulder.

"Ah kinda already know that and it wasn't yer fault, but that ain't whah we're here," she bit the inside of her lower lip and raised her hopeful green eyes to meet his. "Ya said Ah can control it. Teach me how."

~*~*~

With the loving support of Logan who never left her side, the determination of the Professor to make amends immediately and the desperate need she had to be able to touch her lover without fear of harming him, Rogue slowly but surely began to understand and control her mutation.

They worked tirelessly through the night.

Many times it was simple exercises where Charles told her to think of anything but her skin then had Logan touch that skin while she was deep in those other thoughts. Not once during any of those exercises had she slipped up and allowed a doubt to stray in and activate her absorptive flesh.

Other exercises involved the opposite. Her deliberately thinking of her skin as dangerous, as a weapon, while her lover touched it longer enough to prove it responded without actually draining him of any of his lifeforce.

The hardest part was the distractions. Throughout the session, between exercises where her thoughts were focused on either her skin being on or off, the two men in the room would draw her into conversations about nothing in particular. They'd get her mind wandering in all kinds of random directions and then surprise her with a touch to her bare hands or, as Logan preferred, to her face.

Many times she'd be so lost in thought about what they'd been discussing that her skin would not react for many minutes if at all before the contact ended.

It was the other times when she'd be startled by the unexpected touch and her skin would react instantly and sometimes powerfully that scared her and kept the training session going until breakfast was about to be served to everyone at the institute.

Hank came to the office and knocked upon the door to let them know that they should come to the table while the food was still hot and his arrival reminded them all that they had gone without sleep.

Even with the nap she had had the previous afternoon, the mental and emotion strain of the session left Rogue feeling nearly exhausted. Still she nodded her head in acceptance of the Professor and Logan's suggestion that they all get some food before catching up on their lost sleep.

She almost regretted the decision when they, accompanied by Hank, all entered the bustling kitchen with all its early morning chatter among the students.

That chatter slowly ground to a halt as the students began realizing she and Logan were entering the room from one direction while Scott had just practically stumbled through the other entrance.

The deeply shamed Cyclops froze at the sight of Rogue as did she when she spotted the jerk.

Growls came from her throat and Logan's behind her as they both focused on the boy who had caused such turmoil in they still new relationship.

There was a telling separation of the group as they all seemed to move to one side of the kitchen or the other leaving a wide open path between Scott and the now angry couple.

Cyclops simply slouched forward as he stood across the room and waited for one or both of the pair to beat the shit out of him.

He'd accepted that he deserved that and more the second he'd seen the betrayal in Rogue's eyes as the Professor confirmed that her mutation had not been cured.

Hell, he thought with self-disgust, if the girl had killed him when her skin kicked back on he would even have deserved that.

When neither member of the tense couple in the doorway made a move toward the boy, Betsy cautiously stepped from her position against the refrigerator to enter the path cleared by the others and stand directly in front of her friend.

"How you feeling, luv?" she asked the girl hesitantly, unsure of how angry Rogue still was with her.

When her friend stepped back to lean against Logan's chest, Betsy's blue eyes dropped to stare at the floor as tears of hurt and regret filled then.

Obviously, the British girl thought with the image of Rogue backing away from her seared in her mind, her friend was still very angry.

"Ah'm," Rogue broke the silence by answering the question, "Ah'm gonna be ok."

Startled, Betsy's watery eyes jerked from the linoleum to the couple in the doorway. She gasped at the sight of her friend wrapped lovingly in Logan's arms while Rogue's bare hands were entwined with her against her stomach.

"Rogue, you're - " the sentence broke off and as the British telepath rushed forward to hug both her friend and Logan. "My God, luv, you're touching!"

Pulling out of her lover's embrace, Rogue started getting tearful along with her friend as she returned the other girl's hug.

"It worked, Betts," she said still in some disbelief of the fact. "Ah can touch."

The telepath leaned back, tears of joy running down her face.

"It did? It really did?!"

To prove the fact, Rogue stepped back and clasped her friend's bare hands in her own and gave them a little shake.

"Really."

"Oh, luv, I'm soooo sorry we had to lie to you," Betsy again threw her arms around the other girl. "I, none of us, ever meant to hurt you and you'll never now how sorry I am that we had to trick you. I swear I'll make it up to you."

Tears running down her own cheeks, Rogue looked over her shoulder at Logan who raised a hand to cup her cheek and brush a tear away. Though there were still a few kinks to work out, she was happier in that moment that ever before and kissed his palm then returned her attention to her friend.

"Ya already have, Betts," the girl said as she pulled away to smile at her friend. "Ya gave me Logan and tha ability ta touch him. Ah really don't care how ya did it now. Ah just luv ya for it."

Those words seemed to break all the tension in the room and the two friends were quickly joined by Brian, Jean, Kitty, Kurt and Tabitha who all offered their own apologies and were forgiven with tearful hugs.

Happy he hadn't wrecked to many lives with his stupidity, Scott quietly turned and left the room unnoticed.