"26 Cents"

Disclaimer: Whatever you recognize, I don't own. Whatever you don't recognize, I either own, or I don't and you just don't recognize it.

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The bus rattled as it whined and stopped on its way down the road again. It was still very early and the few occupants of the machine were curled up with pillows and blankets. Rogue fell into a seat when the bus pulled away without waiting for her to sit down first. She just shook her head absently and settled in for the long ride.

{She sat alone on a bus out of Bayville,
The courage of just 18 years,
A penny and quarter were taped to a letter,
And daddy's goodbye in her ears.}

She was looking through her bag for her cd player when she found the envelope. It was tucked discreetly into the neatly folded clothes she had now left crumpled up, her name scrawled (yes, scrawled) on the front.
"What in the-" There was some change at the bottom of the crisp whiteness, and the letter in with them was written in very familiar chicken scratches.

{She watched as her high school faded behind her,
And the house with the white picket fence,
Then she read the note that her daddy had wrote,
Wrapped up with 26 cents.}

Her world was, stop by stop, passing her by, but she couldn't for the life of her quit reading. Her decision to leave, once the most workable choice, now seemed extremely foolish. How could she have left behind someone like Logan? And that was definitely his signature at the bottom, though totally illegible.
"I thought he didn't know I was leaving. Should've known."
He wrote about how much he'd miss her, and how he knew she needed to get away from things around the institute so he wouldn't try to stop her. Rogue figured as much when she hadn't noticed him paroling the grounds as usual when she left. She knew he could easily smell the fear in her every time she... well, any time she did anything, really. He had had a talk with her in her room once. That was the day she told him everything. How the voices were ganging up on her, how the kids at school were treating her, how she had seriously thought of ending it all nearly every time she looked in the mirror and couldn't tell who it was who was staring back.
But the way he ended it nearly drove her to tears.

{When you get lonely, call me,
Anytime at all.
I'll be there with you, always,
Anywhere at all.
There's nothing I've got that I wouldn't give,
And money is never enough.
Here's a penny for your thoughts,
A quarter for the call,
And all of your daddy's love.}

His daughter. He called her his little girl. She knew he treated her like a child (A/N: couldn't resist) and he told her once or twice that he loved her like a daughter, but he treated all the kids like his own (more or less) and had never actually... His daughter.

{A penny and a quarter buys a whole lot of nothing,
Taped to an old wrinkled note.
And when she didn't have much she had all daddy's love,
Inside that old envelope.}

Rogue went through the motions up until that point. Facing one day before the next, taking each as it comes and never really looking ahead to much. She figured, 'I'm screwed anyway, may as well stick to what I'm good at.'
But now she knew she would find a way to make the older man proud of her.

{When you get lonely, call me,
Anytime at all.
I'll be there with you, always,
Anywhere at all.
There's nothing I've got that I wouldn't give,
And money is never enough.
Here's a penny for your thoughts,
A quarter for the call,
And all of your daddy's love.}

Not that he's old or anything. (A/N: Xx)

{Oh its been years since that girl's been gone,
But when she holds the coins she feels the love just as strong.}

It was after only three months of traveling that she finally managed to get some control over her powers, just enough to really shut up the voices. It seems that all she really needed was a chance to pull through all on her own. She knew Logan would be proud of her, but it would be another long eight and a half months before he would ever know. Rogue decided to do something with herself that would make him even prouder, so she enrolled in Liberty University in California, the only university to allow mutant students just yet.
After a while she decided it was time to go home. Her year or so had been wrapped up nicely and she really needed to talk to Logan. Her daddy. She'd needed to ever since reading his letter but didn't want to risk someone else answering and recognizing her voice. But finally she was ready to face everyone again, her running away from the team (hopefully) behind her. After all, she had too much to tell and they all owed her for talking her ears off what seemed like a lifetime ago.
She had taken route into Bayville that she could still remember taking to leave it, only to find herself left at a bus stop without quite enough for a taxi. She fingered the coins in her pocket and asked a random jogger where the nearest payphone was.

{When you get lonely, call me,
Anytime at all.
I'll be there with you, always,
Anywhere at all.
There's nothing I've got that I wouldn't give,
And money is never enough.
Here's a penny for your thoughts,
A quarter for the call,
And all of your daddy's love.}

It almost hurt to part with the token she'd been given over a year ago. But she slipped the quarter into the machine and it vanished as though it was just an ordinary coin and not a large piece of her heart. But unfortunately she was out of change so that was that.
'Aw well,' she shrugged, tugging back on the wire she had used Magneto's powers to magnetize and stick to it, the beloved quarter popping out and landing back in her hand. 'Right, like I would actually spend my good luck charm.' Rogue couldn't help but mentally scoff at the phone company as the other line rang. She asked for Logan when someone (who sounded something like Bobby) finally picked up.
An all to familiar and extremely welcome gruff voice growled at her moments later.

{Here's a penny for your thoughts,
A quarter for the call,
And all of your daddy's love.}

"Logan? It's me, your little girl."

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Alrighty. Not sure what to think of this. Finished it in a half hour in the middle of the night and heat so scorching I can't think straight. Damn you Canada, why can't you be stereotypically cold year round? Stupid 32C nights. Stupid three fans not one of which is helping any. Stupid heat- induced migraine. Ow.
Anyway. If you've read my other fic If You're Good To Mama then I don't have to explain this. But I only got counts quickly one review so I'm guessing you haven't, so I'll explain this. Xx
I've got about 26 songfic all set up to be written before summer is out. This is my second. I'm not very compelled to write the rest since the first (written on the first day of SV in an hour) a) sucked, and b) only got recounts to be sure one review. Please compel me! I want to finish (or at least start) all the purrty Romys and Lancittys I've got due!
Anyway. There are two more songfics to be written for this mini-arc. There are about 20 in my hopefully-soon-to-be-written-and-not-so-mini Romy arc. Please review. begs