/Two Years Later/
Anya walked out of the shop with her two best friends Sandra and Fleur. "Ah'm tellin' ya the man was crazy he trahed to pay me to have sex with him, Ah'm a call girl not a prostitute!" The Southern Belle sniped.
Sandra nodded her approval. "Ya may be new to the business Anya, but you were right in sayin' no. It states clearly in our contracts that call girls don't have to have sex or do anything sexual unless we want to. If he wanted that then he should have hired a prostitute to go to the party with him." She replied.
"Oui, I 'ear vat you are saying. But you need to be more careful in future Anya, after all some of zese men can turn out to be preetty nasty ven zey feel like it." Fleur said gently.
Anya stopped walking, and turned to face her friends. "It's ok gahys, Ah'll be fahne, Ah always am. Ah thought ya knew that." She replied, her voice defensive
"We know it's just that we've seen some of the things that can happen and we don't want it to happen to you. Sure, we've only known you for two years, but you're like a sister to us. You know that."
"Oui, ve couldn't stand ze sought of anysing 'appening to you mon ami."
Anya smiled glad that she had good friends. After all that she had been through...'No Ah mustn't think about that, Ah promised Ah would never go back. Not for anything or anyone.' she thought to herself shaking the intruding thoughts out of her head.
"Anya, Anya?" Anya came out of her reverie to find Sandra waving her hand in front of her face.
"What? Oh, Ah'm sorry. Ah must have spaced out or somethin'. What did ya say?"
"I said are we on for tonight?" Sandra replied giving her a strange look.
Anya looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head. "Ah'm sorry, but Ah can't do it tonight. Ah've got a major headache and Ah just wanna sleep." She said tiredly while rubbing her temples making her all that more convincing. Truth was, was that she knew she had a lot to think about and probably wouldn't be getting any sleep that night.
"Zat is alright. You jus' get 'ome and get some rest." Fleur said whilst ushering her towards her apartment.
Anya waved goodbye and then went home to think about everything that had happened.
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Logan flicked his cigar against the wooden window ledge, watching the grey ashes fall, bored. Three years. Three long years, and nothing. Not a single clue to his past. Every lead was a dead end. It was almost as though his past had been connected to Stryker, and when Stryker died, so had all of his chances of ever figuring his past.
Sighing, Logan turned away from the picturesque Alaskan scene the window offered him. It reminded him of Marie, and he didn't want to think of her anymore. Her memory was tainted now...by his feelings for her.
Suddenly edgy, Logan stalked towards the door. He'd hit one more bar then head back to Westchester. If he was gonna dream about the damned girl the least he could do was figure out what she looked like now instead of lusting after a kid.
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Kitty Pryde rifled through her drawers looking for her phone, which she knew was somewhere amongst the mess of pens, gum, and scented stationary. Her hand stilled when it found the corner of a cold photo frame. The frame sat face down, and, years after the 'Incident' Kitty still feared to look at the photo, too ashamed that she'd never seen the trapped look in her friend's eyes, too ashamed that she'd never noticed how much the other girl had set herself apart.
The questions she thought she'd quenched ran through her mind again. Why? What did she do? What went wrong?
Secretly she knew the answers, even before the questions came to her. It was their fault; the whole thing was their fault. And the worst of it was, they hadn't even noticed they were doing it, shutting her out, edging away from her, keeping themselves 'safe' from her.
'If Logan had been here he would have noticed.' A small voice that sounded much like the girl in question sniped.
"Shut up." Kitty whispered.
'Why? You know it's true. The man you all dismissed as a stupid animal, someone like Sabertooth, only slightly less dangerous,' the voice was sneering, 'he noticed even before we got here. He noticed that I kept myself apart. He noticed that I needed to be touched, needed to have it pounded into me that I was still the same girl.
But you, Jubes, St. John, and Bobby, my friends never noticed. You always thought you were an intelligent girl, didn't you Kitty. Kitty the brain, Bobby the joker, St. John the hothead, Jubilee the motor-mouth, and me, the Ice Queen. But did I want to be the Ice Queen? Did any of you even ask me what I wanted? Did any of you even think to? No, you all thought I'd be so grateful that you wanted to be the freaky chick's friends that I would take whatever you gave me.'
"That's not true." Kitty whispered, tears prickling in her eyes.
'Oh, you gonna cry now? Want me to hug you? Too bad neither you or Jubilee, my roommates thought to hug me after my nightmares. None of you thought I might need someone to hold back my hair while I barfed up my dinner, or that I might like some soothing words when I crept back into bed. No, my nightmares were such a common occurrence that I would never need someone to comfort afterwards.'
"Leave me alone."
'Or what? You'll ignore me? You'll bore me to death? Why don't you try the first one. You and Jubilee are so good at it.'
Kitty crawled into her bed; photo frame still clutched to her chest, and cried herself to sleep.
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Logan drove his bike up the driveway of the mansion, exhausted. He'd ridden all night and well into the afternoon, unable to stop until he got back to the mansion to see Marie. Just the thought of her made his heart shudder, something he still wasn't used to, since before Marie he didn't realise he had a heart. He walked up to the front door and rang the bell.
"Logan," A surprised Storm said after opening the door to see who was there. "What a surprise. Come in." She moved out of the doorway so that he could walk in. "How have you been?" She asked politely still recovering from the shock of him actually returning.
"Never mind me. How's the kid, Where is she?" Logan asked as he took off his jacket.
"Umm, Logan? There's something I should tell you."
"What?" he looked at her expectantly.
She opened her mouth to say something but hesitated and closed it again.
"What, What is it? I deserve to know!" Logan was panicking now. Something bad had happened he could feel it now; Marie's scent was stale, not fresh, and still held the innocence of the very young.
"Rogue isn't here." Storm said softly. "She...she ran away...two years ago."
Logan blinked, letting Storm's pronouncement sink in. "WHAT?!"
Storm jumped at his sudden outburst.
"SHE RAN AWAY AND YOU DIDN'T BOTHER TO TELL ME???"
The usually serene Weather Witch bolted, only to stop short when Logan grabbed her arm. "Take me to Chuck." He growled.
Dark eyes wide, Storm nodded.
Professor Xavier looked up as Logan walked in.
'Not even surprised to see me.' Logan noted. 'Fucking bastard. He let Marie run off and he's a fucking telepath.' "You've got some explaining to do Chuck." He hissed spitting out the bald man's name with disgust.
"Logan, How nice to see you. I expect you are well? Please, take a seat." The Professor said calmly.
"Why, didn't you tell me that she ran away?" Logan snarled.
"She made me promise not to. She said in the letter that she left that if you didn't care about her enough to keep your promises then you had no right to know that she was gone."
Logan gaped and fell heavily into the chair next to him. "What?" He asked, voice cracking. "She...she said that?"
"Yes." Professor Xavier said. "I suggest you begin looking. The trail's two years cold, you'll want to start right away. Scott's bike is ready to go, and there's a new truck in the garage for you with $50,000 in the glove box. Make sure she's safe, will you?"
"You don't know?"
"Her shields are strong, and considering the...uniqueness of her mutation, I find it hard to get a hold on her mental signature as it is, so, even with the aide of Cerebro it's difficult."
"Can't you just concentrate harder?" Logan begged.
"I could." The Professor steepled his hands. "If I wanted to kill her. However, that is not my desire, or, I'm sure, yours. I suggest you start with warm countries that have a Southern like charm. I suspect Rogue always missed her old life. And she always loved dancing. Off you go now, every minute you waste is another minute our Southern Belle has to run."
Logan nodded jerkily, got out of his seat, and practically flew to the garage.
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"You may come in now, Ororo." Charles called out.
Ororo walked in, rubbing her wrist. "Why didn't you tell him Rogue was in Mexico?"
"Because he needs to find her by himself. It's part of the journey."
"That and you wanted to get back at him for barging into your office." Ororo said dryly.
"There is that." Charles allowed. "I'm sure he'll figure it out, Logan's a smart man."
"I really hope Rogue likes it in Mexico, she's gonna be there a while." Ororo muttered.
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Author's Notes: I'd like to thank these reviewers;
BrennaM: Thanks, I'm glad you like it. You have guessed who Anya is, right? My beta and I were talking about names while watching Buffy and suddenly this lightening bolt hit our t.v. and then I woke up. So I decided to name Marie Anya because well, I'm strange.
Surf-soccer-staR: Thanks. Sorry it took so long, my beta's a lazy arse. Plus, my computer hates me.
Balabalooza: Thanks.
Silver Sparklze: Crazy bitch. Stop giving me backhanded compliments. Just because you've known me all my life doesn't mean you don't have to be nice.
Brynnmissy: Thanks. Here's more.
Rogue212: Sorry it took so long. Beta and computer hate me for some reason.
Latina-Destiny: I am so glad you like it; my sister kept picking mistakes in the grammar after I posted it so I had to make her my beta to shut her up. She's mean to me sometimes. Then she gives me chocolate and it's all better...except I'm allergic to chocolate so she gives me coffee instead...maybe she's trying to poison me.
Lynn1415: It's all good, my beta has heaps of ideas...I think she worships some kind of evil hell-goddess...like Glory!!! Omigod, maybe she's Glory!!! ::eeps::
Beyond-The-Veil: Thanks.
Jakathera: Lol, I like that idea, maybe I'll send it out as a plotbunny disguised as a challenge. Heheheh...my sister will die!!!
KittieKat8: Thanks. I decided to do a story on it as you can see.
StraySarah: Well, I've written more.
Epi: I certainly wouldn't mind having you as a beta too if you don't mind.
Wildmage: Here's more.