Logan looked up from where he sat and saw Ariel standing in the middle of the room. "Is this still my imagination?"

"Yes. I'm just visiting. I see only what you want me to." She looked around and smiled. "What a lovely place you've made here."

"Can I really make it anything I want?"

"Yes."

He closed his eyes for a few seconds and opened them again. His expression was a kind of delighted surprise as he looked past her. Ariel turned around and giggled. "Wow." The back wall of the office now was no wall at all, but opened into a deep forest. There didn't seem to be a problem with that. "Nice place to wander off when you need a walk?"

"Yeah, well. I'm not a big indoor person." He looked a little puzzled. "Now what?"

"Now it gets interesting."

His eyebrow raised at her. "Really. Like making believe I'm in a room that suddenly feels absolutely real and then having someone show up in it that I didn't imagine isn't… interesting."

She laughed quietly. "You know, it really is much easier for the children. They pretend all the time. We really should keep in practice."

"So where is this place, really?"

"Oh, Logan. Don't make me start in about quantum physics and perceived realities. Let's just move on, and I'll recommend some books when we go back, okay?" Her smile was warm, and he nodded.

"So?" He motioned with his head toward the box. "What's in there?"

"Memories."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. Not all of them, they certainly wouldn't fit. But there's something in there, some memory of when you were traveling from town to town fighting, that you could show me that would explain why you were doing it. Do you want to look?"

"I told you why I was doing it."

"Yes, yes you did." She continued to smile at him gently, obviously not backing down.

"What will it look like?"

"That's what you have to tell me."

"I don't know, Ariel…"

She leaned back against a desk and sighed. "Listen, Logan, it could be anything. Papers. Tapes. Flowers. DVD's. Whatever works for you." She considered for a long moment, and continued. "Okay. For example. There was a little girl who had a terrible time in her first few years… and when she looked in the box in her mind – which was a big oak toy box, by the way – it was full of bubbles."

"Bubbles?"

"Yes. She opened the box and they floated out into the room. Quite beautiful. Until she broke one open, and all the mud and slime oozed out onto the floor."

"What?"

Ariel sighed. "She'd been abused, Logan. Physically. She dressed up her memories in these pretty iridescent shells." She took off her reading glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. "It was difficult. For a couple years, very difficult."

"Hell, why didn't you just leave the kid with her bubbles? At least she was happy."

Ariel felt herself tensing and took a deep breath. "She wasn't exactly happy. She had a part of a life, and a big box of fake life… you can't build on a foundation of bubbles."

Logan stared at her, then got up and moved to look out the window. He stood there as his breath fogged against the glass, shook his head. "I don't know, Ariel. Sometimes I think-" He stopped, rested his forehead against the glass. "Did she have any happy memories?"

"Oh, a few. Those bubbles didn't break when they were pushed. She could open them up, look inside, and put them back together again." She shook her head. "They even still floated."

He looked concerned when he turned. "Is she okay now?"

The counselor smiled. "Yes, Logan, she turned out alright, in the long run. It wasn't all easy, but I think she's going to be fine. The Professor helped her quite a bit."

Logan walked back to where she was standing and stopped in front of her. "When she got rid of all the bad stuff, what did she do with the bubbles that were left?"

Ariel laughed lightly, looked out the window and back to his eyes. "Oh, I keep them. The box is a rather fancy looking antique trunk, now."

"You kept them?"

"Yes, well, they're mine."

She stepped away from the desk, leaving him staring after her in mild shock. "So. Shall we see what's in the box?"

"Ariel, I-"

"It's alright, Logan. Part of the whole process is learning how to separate the past from the present." He frowned, started to move closer to her and stopped, his fists clenching and unclenching.

She waited for him to adjust. After a moment, she said, "Now let's see if we can get this open."

"Yeah. You know, if you don't want to right now…"

She turned a schoolteacher look on him. "Young man, if you're stalling…" Their eyes met, and he shrugged with a resigned grin.

"You're the boss."

"Yes, I am. Now. What's in the box?" She took a few steps away from the table.

He frowned at the worn wood. "I think it's a file."

"Really?"

"Yeah…" He pulled at the lid and it popped off in his hands. Reaching inside, he took out an ordinary manila file folder and stared at it. Looking at her incredulously, he flipped it open and shook his head. "Hey, it's got pictures, too."

"Excellent, Logan. May I see?" She waited where she was until he wandered over, reading as he came.

"Yeah, sure. I mean, there's nothing in here I haven't told you. It's the last time I fought, at the bar where Rogue hitched a lift." He turned it around and placed it in her hands. "Have a ball. But remember, it's not pretty."

"And this will make it clear why you fought?"

"I told you –"

"Logan. Will showing me this memory explain to me why you chose to fight?" He stopped, opened his mouth, shut it again, and frowned thoughtfully.

"Yeah." He turned away to walk back to the sofa, and stretched out on it when he did, his hands behind his head. "I've got nothing to hide."

She smiled softly, and walked back to sit in the chair that looked suspiciously like the one from her office. "According to what you told me, you were at that bar fighting for a week."

"Yeah." He yawned and closed his eyes, but the toe of his shoe kept tapping in the air.

Ariel watched him for a few moments, knowing that he was avoiding on a very deep level. As was often the case, she felt a little hesitant herself about just what she was getting into. Taking a breath, she looked down at the page. And laughed. Logan's eyes opened suspiciously.

"What?"

She handed the folder to him as he sat up. "I'm afraid you're going to have to read it to me. I can't make any of this out."

"Wha-at?" He stared at the page and back up at her. "It's typed. Why can't you read it?"

Ariel sat down on the couch next to him. "I have to assume it's because you don't want me to."

He tried to stare her down, but it was punching the wind. He looked back at the paper. "You're telling me that you can't read this." She nodded. "This is ridiculous."

She left the statement hanging in the air for quite some time. Then she said, quietly, "Would you like to stop now?"

He growled something under his breath and flipped through the papers in the folder. "Look, here it is, see? 'He'd put down a hundred bucks. The truck was acting up, and between that and what I'd made the night before, I'd be able to get the radiator fixed.' See, I told you."

"It's very good, Logan. Keep going."

"Although the car wouldn't be a problem anymore if I had my way. I knew this guy was big, and I just stood there while he gave me his best shots. I went down to my knees and he went for my kidneys… For a minute I let myself believe that this could be it. I was tired, I was desperate, and I was hoping that someone would finally, …'" Logan stopped, still staring at the page.

Ariel's voice was a bare whisper. "What do you remember, Logan?"

"'I was hoping… That someone would finally be able to kill me off. To get it over with. To get me out of this hell that I'm living. I don't know why I should expect that kind of mercy.'." He looked up from the file to her face. "I… I didn't know that. I swear to you Ariel, I didn't know…"

"It's okay. Really. Sometimes it's easiest to lie to ourselves. Let's put this away and go back to my office."

"But –"

"Don't worry." She put a hand on his arm reassuringly. "We'll talk about it."

His eyes were wide, more angry, more frightened than before. He whispered hoarsely. "I didn't know."

"Logan."

"I …"

Ariel's voice took on a firmer tone. "Logan. Stop. Now. Look at me."

As he turned to face her, she took his head in her hands and closed her eyes. "Go back."

They opened their eyes, sitting in her office on the couch, their hands clasped between them. Logan blinked, looked around nervously, and shook his head. "That was the strangest thing I've ever…"

She tilted her head at him and smiled. "I wouldn't go there if I were you."

"But-"

"Look. Just think of it as… a dream. A really detailed dream. You've had those, haven't you?"

The shocked expression on his face faded to an annoyed grimace. "Yeah, I get detailed dreams alright. I just can't remember-" He stopped, stared down at his hands that were holding an imaginary file folder. Then he slowly closed his fists and turned them to look at his knuckles. "I want to go back."

"Back?"

"You know what I mean!" He grabbed her hand again. "I want to be able to read it all over, the whole thing, I want to know-"

"Logan." There was something about her voice that stopped him dead. "It's not time yet."

"You've got to be kidding. We just did it! It was easy!"

She put her other hand on top of his and brushed her thumb across it. "It was easy because that was a pretty obvious memory. I'm the one with years of training, remember? If I say it's not time, then let's take it slow."

"And what if I don't want to wait?" He pulled his hands away, the words growling out of him. Lunging to his feet, he walked over to her desk and pounded his fist against it. "What if I want to do it now? What if I just do it myself?"

"Logan, you have to believe that-"

"No! I don't have to believe anything!" He clenched his fists and watched the blades slide out of his hands. "I need to know!" He turned quickly and punched the wall, his fist stopping only when flesh hit plaster.

It became very quiet in the office. When he turned around to look at her, Ariel was sitting quietly, watching him, her hands folded in her lap.

"I think we're done for today."

There was a slow whispering metallic sound as his claws retracted. "Look, Doc, I'm – I –"

"Thank you, Logan." She stood, picked up her notebook and walked over to her desk, sitting behind it. "Same time tomorrow, please."

He walked to the door angrily and opened it, stopped, looked back at her. "Ariel?"

She looked up from where she had started writing. "Yes?" He stared into her eyes, now a green as cool as the sea. Shaking his head, he left.

Dr. Waters stared at the door for a few moments, until she was quite sure he wasn't coming back. Her gaze drifted to the wall, where three slashes cut white lines into the pale lavender blue of the paint. Then she took a deep breath, and the tears finally came. She sent out across the mansion, broadband and loud enough to startle any telepath on the campus.

Charles. May I have a word with you?