Summary: After Jean's death, Logan runs again. He returns to find everything's changed once more. Logan/Marie, Marie/Scott
Warnings: It's rated R. Expect everything that comes with that rating. Later chapters may have more specific warnings.
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Finally. Finally after the long years, after the longing, after the denial, after the reluctant acceptance...finally, he was home. To see her again...to see her eyes, her face, her smile...the very thought was intoxicating. He wondered if she was still...attached...to that boy, and smiled to himself. If she was, it wouldn't last long, not when he was hunting her. She had always wanted him anyway...hadn't he seen it in her mind when she touched him? A doubtful voice in the back of his mind spoke up. What if she'd changed in the time he was gone? What if she wasn't even here? But he crushed those thoughts quickly. He knew better than anyone...this was the only place for their kind to be safe...to rest for a while. She would never give that up, not without a very good reason. She would be there waiting for him, as she had been the last time. The memory of her soft hugs filled his mind, and he walked faster. It was late...maybe she would already be in bed. As the mansion at last came into sight, he looked up at her window. No light. Good...she was up. Marie hated the dark.
His steps became ever more urgent. The need to see her, to hold her again, was becoming unbearable. Why had he waited so long? The question flitted through his mind, as it had many times on this journey. The answer was as it always was: he didn't know. He was a creature of instinct, always had been. Unquestioning. She had changed that about him, she who questioned everything. She had to, if she wanted to survive. God, she'd been through so much in her short life...too much. Shame washed over him at the memory of the pain he'd brought her, over and over. It seemed he was destined to hurt her, to bring her only trouble. But be that as it may, he couldn't go on denying his feelings. He couldn't go on living without her. Closer now...closer to her. He stormed through the front door, almost running now. Everything looked exactly as he remembered it, and that brought a rare smile to his lips. It was almost as if he could survive anything as long as he knew there was this place of sanctuary, always willing to take him in. He fled silently through the halls, searching. He had spent years searching...it had consumed his life for as long as he could remember. And what had it gained him? He despaired, now, of ever finding the answers he had been seeking. But now, with her, perhaps the past wouldn't matter. All he wanted to think about now was the future.
Through the kitchen, the classrooms, the offices, he ran, glancing quickly into each one as he sped by. Through a long hallway full of bedrooms...until finally, he saw a light. He didn't remember that particular bedroom ever being used, but it had been a long time. She very well could have moved. Anticipation overwhelmed him, and he burst through the door, not even noticing that it had been locked. And there she was, sprawled on the bed...his love, his desire, his obsession, looking like an angel in a white nightgown. She looked up at him in shock and fear, surprised by the intrusion. Later, he would lament first seeing her that way...with fear in her eyes, fear he had caused. But his mind was a haze of excitement, and all he saw at the moment was his Marie. She sat up, making no attempt to cover her somewhat exposed skin. "Logan?" she asked in disbelief. He grinned at her, holding out a hand to help her up. She took it, and he pulled her to him, wrapping her in a tight hug. He began to whisper in her ear all of the things he'd wanted to say to her for so long, to tell her of how he really felt. He'd dreamed of this moment, the moment of their reunion. She fit perfectly in his arms, just as he'd remembered. Just looking into her eyes again...it was heaven. Everything was just as he'd imagined it...until...
"Marie, what the fuck is going on here?" shouted someone from the direction of the bathroom. Logan froze in shock. He knew that voice. Marie looked terrified, and jerked away from him. Logan slowly looked up at the man standing at the foot of the bed, wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. Rage began to build inside him, and he struggled to keep a calm composure.
"Hey, Scott. I see you're doing well." he said through gritted teeth, his words dripping with sarcasm. The other man stared back at him, and though Logan couldn't see his eyes, he knew Scott was glaring at him. Marie stood looking from one man to the other, a hurt expression on her face. She tried to speak, but tears welled up in her eyes instead. Logan felt a pain he'd never known before shoot though him at the sight of her tears. He wanted to comfort her, to take her in his arms again and tell her it was all right...but somehow, he didn't think that would help the situation.
"You bastard. You think you can steal her from me, just like you tried to steal Jean! Well, it won't work, will it, Marie?" Scott said.
"Are you still accusing me of that? How many times do I have to tell you, she didn't want me. Do you think I would have forced anything on her?" Logan shouted, furious. Scott didn't reply, just looked at him stoically. Logan knew what he thought the answer to that particular question was, and he hated Scott for it. Marie was sobbing now. "Look, I didn't know, all right? How could I?" Logan asked.
Marie spoke for the first time since Scott had entered the room. "Yes, how could you be expected to know, since you up and left us again? Logan, I'm sorry, but when you left again, none of us thought you'd ever be coming back. What was I supposed to do, wait forever?" she asked.
Scott stared at her. "What are you saying, Marie? Am I your consolation prize, since you didn't think you could have your precious Logan? Is that is?" he shouted, advancing on her. Logan dashed in between them, claws extending.
"You don't lay a finger on her," he said in a low, dangerous voice. Scott looked hurt, even through his anger.
"You think I would hurt her? Her? But I forgot, you're just an animal. You don't know any better," Scott said. Logan growled in fury, and sliced his right-hand claws across Scott's face. Four long, shallow cuts appeared on his cheek, blood spilling out of each one. Marie screamed through her sobs, appalled at the sight before her. Scott didn't move for a moment...but then his hand began to move slowly toward the red shades covering his deadly eyes. Marie screamed again, and did the only thing she could think of. She threw herself at Scott, letting her power flow strong enough to knock him unconscious. He fell to the floor at Marie's feet. She turned to Logan, still crying.
"How dare you? How dare you leave me here to rot, and then just show up three years later expecting me to be here waiting for you? How dare you make me love you and then-" Marie started, but Logan broke in, shocked by one word in her ranting.
"You love me?" he asked, extending one hand to softly stroke her hair.
"Yes, damn it all, and I always have! But you never saw it, and you missed your chance. I'm with Scott now, and I'm not going to leave him just because you decided to show up again. How do I know you won't just take off again?" she asked, batting his hand away. He felt a tiny spark of the deadly power that was uniquely Marie, and it made him want more...he had long thought that the best death he could wish for would be being consumed by Marie, entwined with her as life slowly drained away.
"I won't leave you again. Never," he told her, looking into her eyes. She met his gaze for a moment, but then she turned away, filled with grief.
"I'm sorry, Logan. It's just too late," she said, an air of finality to her voice. He stared at her in utter disbelief, crushed. Then, casting one more spiteful look at the man who'd stolen his love, he ran from the room with a roar that shook the very foundations of the mansion. Children woke, screaming in fear, and chaos began to spread. Logan kept running, out of the house, out past the gates, out into the enveloping darkness, screaming at the top of his lungs, lost in grief and regret. Marie heard him as she looked out her window, and a fresh round of tears shook her. She let his cries overwhelm her, and there at the window she whispered of her lost love, telling her sorrows to the night.