Bobby turned, watching Logan and Dr. Waters talking animatedly as they refilled their coffee mugs. Well, he amended, at least as animated as Wolverine ever gets outside of a fight. They both erupted in deep laughter and walked back to her office. He shook his head. "Weird."

"What's weird?" Rogue was correcting his physics paper on the big kitchen table and hadn't looked up when the two came and went. Bobby turned to grin at her. He must be doing something right if she didn't even notice Logan in the room.

She smiled back at him, knowing exactly what he was thinking, and letting him think it. Logan was her best friend, her family. She talked to him everyday. But Bobby, well… he was something else again. He never looked at her like a little sister. He looked at her like… like he wanted to see her with her gloves off. She fought back a giggle and her smile grew warmer as they looked into each other's eyes.

His grin faded when he thought about how hurt she might be if she knew how much time Logan and the new counselor were spending together, but - he thought she still should know. Someone should tell her. Quietly cursing his honor system, he cleared his throat.

"You know, um, it looks like Waters might be able to do something for Logan. I mean, they seem to be able to talk… ah… you know?"

The young woman looked out toward the hallway. "I hope she does."

"Ah…Rogue?"

"Yes?"

"I think the Prof has him see her everyday."

"Yeah, I think so." She turned a page and crossed something out with her pencil. "I see her twice a week myself right now, you know, and I'm nowhere near as messed up as he is."

"Yeah… but they seem kind of… close." He tapped his fingers nervously on the tabletop. She put the pencil down and laid a gloved hand over his.

"She makes him happy, Bobby. He's got a friend. And someone he can talk to who can help him make sense of himself. I don't think he even knows how happy that makes him. How much more… I don't know. Peaceful."

"And you're okay with that?"

She smiled and leaned closer. "Now why wouldn't I want him to be as happy as I am?" Brushing her lips against his, she fluttered her lashes coyly and returned to his paper. "Now this section here, this makes absolutely no sense. And it's thermodynamics. I mean, if anyone is going to get thermodynamics right…" He stared at her profile for a long moment before a smile crept onto his face and he blinked back to the paper on the table.

Logan sank down into the overstuffed leather couch and sipped his coffee. Ariel sat to his right in the matching leather chair. He shifted and made squeaky noises in the leather until she looked at him. "Honestly, Logan. The kids don't even do that after the first visit!"

"Some kids are more difficult than others." He chuckled and sipped again. "So has he got you talking to anyone else?"

"Besides you and Rogue? A few people have mysteriously appeared at the door, which is fine. Scott came in for a while. He just wanted to talk about Jean, but he didn't know that until we got started." A frown furrowed her brow. "He's not a very happy man."

"Never has been, from what I can see. Got a stick up his…" He looked at her as she peered at him over the frames of her reading glasses. "Alright. He seems a little… tense most of the time. And if it's not in the rule book, he doesn't want to hear it."

"Yes, most men are so much easier to deal with…"

"Aren't we though." His expression grew thoughtful. "Hey… is Rogue doing okay?"

"Rogue is my shining star. You know she wrote her folks."

"Yeah, she told me. Ariel?"

She looked up from her coffee. "Yes?"

"You'd tell me if she … well… needed anything, right?"

She tilted her head and him and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "I think you and the Professor are the closest she has to family here. But I also think that you probably hear most things I do. Maybe before I do." Her voice went professional for a moment. "She's adjusting beautifully, I don't think you have to worry." Logan grinned as she wrote something down in her book. He knew already that she wouldn't discuss details of anyone else's business with him, just like she wouldn't discuss his. That fact made him more comfortable with her.

"So what happens today?" She looked up from her writing and grinned at him. Once, she had made the mistake of asking what he wanted to happen that day. His response caught her somewhat off guard. Once.

"Well, we've covered your time here… we've discussed the traveling time…"

He growled quietly. "Yeah." She watched as his expression grew more stoic.

"I suppose I'm still curious about the fighting."

He shrugged. "Money."

"Yes, you said… but that doesn't exactly make sense, does it?" She put the notebook on the small oak table next to her chair and crossed her legs. "With your strength, you could have done any odd jobs around. Why the fighting?"

"It was easy." She watched him tense, and knew for certain that this topic was not done. "Besides." Here it comes, she thought. "I felt like hitting people."

"Make them suffer?"

"Yeah."

"As much as you were suffering?"

He barked a laugh. "Don't make it sound so noble. I just wanted to punish the world."

"Did you." He turned and looked at her, frowning.

"You trying to get at something, Doc?"

She took a deep breath, and put her mug and pen down next to the notebook. "I think, Logan, that this might be a good time for you to show me your memories. Of that time, anyway. I'd like to see them."

"Show them to you?"

"Yes."

He bristled. "I don't know. The professor has already tried to read my mind…"

She smiled calmly. "It's not me reading your mind. It's you reading your mind, and sharing it with me." He frowned again. "Listen, you can think of it like … hang on…" She tilted her head to the side and looked at him thoughtfully. "You know your mind is like a big storage system, right?"

He looked more puzzled than before. "Yeah. I've heard that."

"Yes, but can you imagine it?"

"Imagine what, the inside of my head as a big computer?" He laughed derisively. "I don't think so."

"Hmm. Alright, we do this from the beginning. Do you mind if I sit next to you?"

"You're the doctor."

She smiled as she stood and moved to sit next to him on the couch. "It's easier if we're touching. May I take your hand?" He shrugged, looked annoyed, and held out his hand like a dead fish. She couldn't help grinning as she took it, resting their hands on the cushion between them. "You know, some of the kids find this relaxing. You might be pleasantly surprised."

He stared at her, shrugged again, and looked away. She marveled that all of the earlier friendliness they had established had been dropped. Defensive behavior. If he was any child, she would know that he was scared to death. Nodding to herself, she took a deep breath. "Okay. I need you to relax." She felt his hand tense immediately, and concern furrowed her brow. "What was that?"

"Sorry. It's just… well. Jean said that when…" He seemed, for a moment, to be less in control than normal. And hurting. Then it vanished without a trace. "Let's just do this, okay?"

Ariel reached over and touched his cheek, turning his face to look at her. "I'm sorry, Logan, for that loss." He met her eyes reluctantly. "Would you like to talk about Jean?"

"No. There's nothing to talk about. You can't lose something you never had." The force of his statement seemed to startle him more than it did her. He looked away, almost apologetic. "Not now, anyway."

She nodded, looked down at their hands. "If you ever want to, just say the word." He acknowledged her with a barely perceptible nod. "Alright, then. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath, and let your muscles… melt."

"Melt?" Their eyes met and she did her best to look stern.

"I said close your eyes, young man. Don't be a difficult child." She watched as he grinned in spite of himself, and felt him beginning to relax. "Good. Now. I want you to picture a room. A nice, comfortable room. One that feels safe. Can you do that?"

Logan almost opened his eyes to look around her office, but took a breath and controlled himself. "Yeah. Got it." For a moment he felt a strange disorientation, then looked around the room he was suddenly in. The room in his imagination was very similar to Ariel's office, but had huge windows like the Professor's had, looking out over a peaceful landscape. "Wow." Some part of him realized that his imagination must have been being helped along by one incidentally attractive doctor.

"Good. Now put a chair in it, if there isn't one, and sit down. Make yourself comfortable." She watched as a slight frown crossed his face, followed by a childlike smile. "Are you sitting?"

"Yeah."

"What's it like?"

He smirked again. "Well, the cushions make these squeaky noises…" She chuckled quietly.

"And?"

"And I feel okay."

"Okay?"

"Warm. Comfortable." He paused. "Safe."

"That's wonderful, Logan. Now, look around. There should be a box. Can you see it? What does it look like?"

"Yeah… there's an old wood crate over on that table… maybe an old ammunition box." She nodded, feeling him drift farther into the trance-like state.

"Alright, that's good. Now. I have a request."

"Yeah?"

"Can I join you?"

He frowned, eyes still closed, and she held her breath. This was the toughest part, the first time. If he broke concentration now…

"Join me? How?"

"You just tell me if it's okay, and I'll come over. Is it?"

He frowned again, then shrugged. "Sure."