Accepting Miracles

By: Kryptonite

*****

*Four Months After*

" Ahh!" Rogue's voice cried out as she backed into the door, trying to get away from Logan. Rogue had crawled into the corner next to the wall by the time someone opened the door.

" Rogue?" Cyclops's voice called into the darkness. He flipped a switch to see Rogue crying softly in the corner, cowering from something. " Rogue what's wrong?"

" Make the screaming stop. Just make them go away." Rogue's hands were clamped over her ears tightly, tears streaming slowly down her face, one after the other.

" Shhh." Scott said, pulling Rogue closer to him as he sat down on the floor with her, rocking back and forth. Rogue's hands moved from her ears to his shirt, gathering it in both fists and not letting go. " Everything's going to be alright, no one's going to hurt you."

" Rogue?" Storm called, slamming into the room in her nightgown.

" I got it Storm. Go get Professor Xavier." She nodded once and turned back to the hall.

" Go back to bed, all of you. It was just a false alarm." Storm closed the door behind her but it was opened minutes later by Kitty and Jubilee.

" Rogue? Rogue sweetie, are you all right? Please answer me." Rogue had lifted her face at Kitty's voice and Kitty's hand had found her cheek.

" Serves her right." Rogue's eyes flashed up to where Jubilee lounged against the wall in her bright yellow pajamas. She automatically started biting her lower lip and turned her vision back to Kitty, hoping for reassurance.

" No it doesn't. Why are you being such a bitch towards Rogue?"

" What do you mean?" Jubilee asked pleasantly, fake smile directed at Scott, eyelashes batting quickly.

" You know what I mean. For the past ten months you've been acting like you've got a bug up your shorts."

" It's not my fault."

" And it sure as hell ain't Rogue's. Scott, could I talk to you for a minute?" Kitty asked, standing up abruptly, still glaring death at Jubilation Lee. Rogue made a whining noise in her throat as Scott disentangled himself. Kitty and Scott stepped out of the room, leaving Jubilee all alone with Rogue.

" So, you got Scott wrapped around your little finger now." Jubilee's lips turned into a sneer. " You don't deserve him being so nice to you. You don't deserve anyone being so nice. You kill everything you touch with your bare skin! How can you force someone to forgo touch just to be with you? You're selfish." Jubilee hissed before Kitty came back in.

" Jubilee, Kitty get out. Professor and I'll take care of Rogue, just go back to sleep."

" You're going to let him touch you? How can you be sure you aren't showing skin? You'll kill him and he's just trying to help you!" Rogue backed further into the corner, away from Scott.

" Don't touch me." She breathed out, eyes wide with terror.

" Stupid girl, you'll kill him anyway. You'll get everyone killed that lives inside the mansion's walls." Rogue whimpered, trying to block out the voices ringing in her own head. Scott took advantage of her distraction and wrapped his arms back around her, dragging Rogue back into his lap.

" Shh. I'm here, you aren't going to hurt me. No one's going to hurt you I promise. Shh, shh." The two sat in relative silence, Rogue choking on sobs and Scott whispering comfort into her hair, rocking back and forth.

" Rogue?" Professor Xavier called, entering the room and shutting the door behind him, plunging the room back into darkness, relieved only by the sun starting to come up on the horizon.

" She's better now."

" Rogue, I'm going to enter your mind okay? It won't hurt and it will only take a second." At Rogue's nod, Xavier rested a hand on her hair and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath and then Scott could tell he was rooting around in her brain.

" Well, well, well. Nice to see you again Charles. It's been a while." Magneto answered, being the first that Charles saw in the house that was Rogue's mind. Everything was a mess.

" Eric? What are you-"

" Doing here? Funny you should ask. When Rogue touched me-"

" You forced her to take your powers so you wouldn't die."

" Picky, picky." Eric stated, waving his hand around. " I've been in here ever since. Rather boring, I might add."

" Who else is here?" Charles asked nervously, knowing that Eric was enough to drive anyone insane.

" It's nice to see you walking Professor X." A young male voice called, causing Charles to turn around in shock.

" John?"

" Yep, been here since the cop car incident. Rogue took my powers to stop the cars from blowing up. Everyone else is upstairs. Eric, I'm gonna get a sandwich, you hungry?"

" Not now." Eric answered, sitting down on the couch to watch t.v.

" Okay." Charles Xavier backed away from the normal every-day scene and all but ran up the stairs. As he reached the top he saw a long hallway of open doors, of rooms without doors at all, bright lights going languidly between the rooms.

" Hey Chuck." A voice called from one of the rooms behind him.

" Logan?"

" Yeah." A voice called from the smoky interior. Surprisingly enough the smoke was staying in the room. " I'm in here too. Heh." The shadow Charles Xavier saw shrugged his shoulders.

" Who else is in here?" I don't want to know, I don't want to know.

" Boss lady's in the very last room, the only one with a door. Cody, David, a couple a truckers and I don't know about anyone else. I'll be seeing ya." A red light from cinders on the end of the cigar fell off to the floor, disappearing before hitting the rug.

" Breathe Charles." Xavier had to remind himself as he walked slowly down the hall, peering into the rooms. The very last door on the end was closed but it swung open as he neared.

" Looking for me?"

" If you're 'in charge' around here." Charles answered slowly, trying to see into the room A snap of the fingers and the lights were on.

" Come in, I won't bite. Hard." A young girl was standing in the middle of the sparse room.

" Who are you?" The door shut without a seam behind Charles, locking him in.

" No one and everyone. I am what I want to be, or what Rogue needs me to be. I have always been here and I will always be here. Trapped, just like the rest of them but in charge."

" You mean… you're Rogue's conscious?"

" I was Marie's first, then Rogue took over. I like Marie better, she was easier to manipulate. It took a long time to get Rogue to listen to me."

" You're talking like they're two separate people." Charles was confused. The scenery blurred past, as if moving very, very fast before it settled onto a living room scene.

" They were. Once. Then what little was left of Marie died when Logan shoved her into the dresser. Now Marie is gone and in her place is little old survivor Rogue. Should of known it would take more than a lake to get rid of her. Brat just had to scream."

" You haven't answered my question."

" Oh yes I have." The girl smiled viciously. " You just don't want to believe it. Go back to your own world old man." With that, Charles was shoved out of the door, down the hall and into the living room where he was jerked back to his own body.

" Teacher's meeting, now. That includes you Scott.

" But-"

" Go. I have a few things I need to do anyways."

" Scott." Professor Xavier's tone was warning.

" Coming." The two hurried out of Rogue's room and to Professor Xavier's office as he mentally called a teacher's meeting. Rogue stayed in the corner of her room.

" Xavier won't help you now. He knows everything. Say buh-bye. Ahahaha." The voice kept cackling away in Rogue's mind, scaring her worse.

" He will help me. I know he will. He has to." Rogue's voice sounded out pathetic and pitiful. " Someone will."

When in doubt, repeating a belief does not make it stronger. It makes your acceptance of the situation that much more painful. Never give up, but also never believe that miracles will happen. Miracles generally happen to people who don't deserve them. Tough luck.

*****

A/N: Okay since silverCross is the only one who reviewed, here's a cookie *hands silver a cookie* And on that note, boo hiss to everyone who didn't and the site for being down. *frowns* Anyway, I know most of you probably thought this was a continuation of the last chapter, gotcha! But I wanted to set the stage for a 'recovery' of Rogue's mind. *rolls eyes* I know, sounds stupid but I was thinking about this for a while.

Now obviously Rogue has feelings for Logan in both the movies, whether that's cause she actually likes him, he saved her life or she absorbed him I don't know. I'm going to play around with that a bit before I put in the actual romance… if I have any.

Also be aware that some events of the book were neglected/changed/left out of the first movie (I haven't gotten the second book yet) and I'm using that as my main reference since it's readily available. In the second chapter I mentioned Logan saved her life twice.

Now someone correct me if I'm wrong (cause I probably am) but I can't remember Logan saving her life in the second movie other than the usual AAARRRGGGHHHH *snikt* moments that are Wolverine. So that's where the first book comes in.

In the book, Rogue was traveling with four truckers and they were planning on killing/raping her. Logan ended up fighting them and Rogue disappeared. Then there was the whole side-of-the-road and Statue of Liberty thing. Three times. Okay, I'm going to stop before the A/N becomes longer than the chapter. Have a nice (insert random time phrase here). Catch ya on tha flipside.