Author's Note: Apologies to all. I haven't been updating. This was supposed to be a simple little Kuroro love fic when I started it. It turned into a huge plot dinosaur, with the Hellfire Club to destroy, Professor X to rescue, and numerous X-men with such twisted love lives that I'm not sure how they can work together after all this is over. (But we'll try, of course.) Even with more regular updates (if I can do them), this will be a while before it's done. But in any event, this is the latest chapter. Enjoy, and do accept my apologies.

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We had all separated into different rooms at the Academy, taking some time to unwind and prepare for our assault on the Hellfire Club. I was wiping away the last of my tears when I heard her coming down the hall to my door. "Scott?"

I locked my arms across my chest and turned around, using all my hard-won self-control to look directly at her. Her face was thinner and the dark circles under her eyes were prominent against her pale skin. "Lynn."

She ran to me and held on tight, pressing her body against mine. I kept myself stiff, unmoving, though I wanted to just let go and wrap my tainted soul around her, losing myself in her taste. "I wasn't sure when you'd be coming back. I wasn't sure if you'd be alive, or if you'd remember me and the kids afterward. It's so good to see you!"

She hadn't been told. I had to tell her. I released my arms and pushed gently at her shoulders. "Let go, Lynn."

She snuggled against me. "Come see the kids. They've missed you." She pulled back and smiled into my sunglasses, my prison. "So have I."

"Sit down." I took a chair and turned it around, shielding my body from further frontal assaults, as my wife sat on the narrow bed and leaned forward eagerly.

"While Mastermind controlled us in the mansion … we all did some things we aren't proud of. He locked away or changed our memories of our lives to keep us the way he wanted." I looked at the Monet print on the wall and spoke to it, re-folding my arms and keeping my words as neutral as possible. "For me, he convinced me I was married to Jean."

Silence. Lynn didn't move or speak. I tried to concentrate on the painting. How would I feel if I put a hand into the dark water? It would chill my fingers, I decided.

"What do you mean?" Her voice was tentative, hesitant, suddenly loud in the uncomfortable silence.

I glanced at her quickly. She was suspicious, pulled into herself, her left hand nervously tapping against the blue flowers on the bedspread. I swallowed a little and spoke to Claude again. "I mean probably everything you think. I thought I was married to her. I acted accordingly." The muscles in my right cheek twitched a little from the strain. I released a hand and adjusted my glasses, which had slid down on my nose a little.

She made a little pitiful sound, then stood up. "What does that mean?"

I kept my eyes on the painting. "I … I don't know."

She sat down again hard. I looked over. Her left hand shaded her eyes, bright wedding band giving shape to my guilt. I looked away again. "And Jean … what about Logan? Oh, my God, Scott. Why are you still alive?" She ran over to me and pulled on my arm. "He's not going to kill you, is he?"

I faced her. Her anxious eyes searched out my face, a tear poised in her left eye. "Do you want him to, Lynn?" I couldn't say any of the things I was thinking. Please say no. Say you forgive me. Please, whatever you say, don't stop me from seeing Alex and Janet…

"Of course not!" She pulled back and looked at me fiercely. "I love you. I don't want you to die. Don't even think about it."

She loved me still? She loved me? I tried to keep it back, but the grief and amazement at her words overwhelmed me, and I started crying again. She pulled me to the bed and held me a little while, calming me until my breathing evened out and I was able to speak once more. She took my hands then and took in a large gulp of air. "I said I love you. I do. This doesn't mean, though, that what you did won't affect our relationship."

I tried to pull my hands out of her grasp, but she clamped down hard. "No. Listen to me. Once you're back, we can try to work things out, okay? I just don't want to make promises right now. But no matter what, you're spending time with the kids before you go and after you come back."