Rogue could have been watching him in slow motion, for all the danger she was in. This guy was big, drunk, angry, and slow. He telegraphed his punch whole seconds before it would have landed. She had plenty of time to duck aside, get behind him, and give him a vigorous kick to the kidneys.
Down he went. Tables and chairs smashed and Skip landed in a tangle of chair legs and other bar patrons.
Some of the other bar patrons who had begun watching the scene with interest applauded her, but there were a couple of angry murmurs as well.
Logan hurried over and took her arm. "You okay, kid?" he asked, surveying the damage and the passed-out frat boy. He sniffed, smelling blood, but it didn't appear to be Rogue's.
"Never better, Wolvie. Guess I was in the mood for a beating after all. How 'bout you?" she asked sweetly.
He shot her a look that was deeply expressive of his satisfaction. "I'm cool. It was good of you to send out the other two for me. Now let's go before the cops show up." He put his arm around her and steered her toward the door.
As they were getting off the bike in Xavier's garage, he stopped for a second and asked her, "'Wolvie?'"
Rogue shrugged. "Don't ya like it? I didn't want to use your real name out there." She didn't mention that it's what she always called the Logan in her head, in order to distinguish him from the real one.
Logan shrugged and grunted. "Least it's not a nancy-boy name like 'Brett'," he said with just the faintest hint of a smile. He gave Rogue's shoulder a quick squeeze and just before he disappeared upstairs to his room he turned around and said, "Thanks for the fight, kid. It helped."
"Good night, Logan." Rogue wandered into the lounge, fully expecting Bobby to be there. She thought she would get all her confrontations over with at once.
Sure enough, Bobby was waiting for her in the lounge. "Hey Rogue, where've you been? I've been waiting for you for hours!"
"Oh, sorry, Bobby. The professor wanted to talk to me and Logan after the meeting, and then we went into town for some dinner. We're just now getting back."
"Just now? It's 12:30 in the morning! What were you guys doing all that time?" Bobby demanded, his voice strident.
Rogue turned sharply on him. "Look, Bobby, It's late, I'm tired, and I don't have to answer to you! I told you earlier I wanted some time to myself. I'm having trouble with John in my head, and being around you is not helping. You and John were best friends, and your being around me while he's in my head is confusing the hell out of me! Please, just… give me some space!"
"Well, Rogue, I'm a little confused myself. You say you need some time to yourself, but then you take off with another guy for seven hours and don't come back until after midnight! What's going on?" Bobby was determined to find out where he stood, and even if this wasn't the best time for it, he had started it and he was determined to finish it tonight. He folded his arms and didn't back down.
Rogue sighed. She really was very tired. "What's going on is that I wanted to spend some time with my best friend, who also happens to be going through a rough time," she said gently.
Her gentleness only seemed to exacerbate Bobby's aggression. "What about me?" he asked angrily. An interesting side note about Bobby Drake was that when he became angry, his eyebrows frosted over. "You saw what happened with my family. Didn't it ever occur to you that I'm going through a rough time too? That I might want to spend some time with my girlfriend to talk about it? But no, she's off with some disreputable cage fighter for seven hours because, oh dear, he's in love with someone else's dead wife!"
As he said the words, Bobby realized he'd gone too far. Rogue went pale with anger. She shoved him back against the wall and grabbed him by the collar just as she had seen Logan do to Brett just a little while ago. She brought his face down to hers.
"Don't you ever say anything like that again, Iceman," she hissed. "Or I will kick your ass till your brain hurts!" She glared at him for another second and then stepped back.
Bobby stayed still, but put out a placating hand. "Rogue, look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean –"
"Just get out." Rogue said, turning her back on him.
Tight-lipped and frosty-browed, Bobby wheeled and left the room.
A voice from the doorway opposite the one Bobby had used startled Rogue. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the reasons why Iceman isn't yet an X-man." The dull light glinted off the ruby quartz lens of Scott's visor as he came into the room. "I heard that you'd asked the professor about him. He needs to grow up, for one thing."
Rogue nodded, suddenly feeling very old. Perhaps it was the influences of her other personalities, but at that moment she could not even begin to figure out what she had seen in Bobby. She cleared her throat. "Have a seat, Cyc," she offered. "Sorry you had to hear that. Bobby's just too young to understand some things." Scott nodded once, and eased himself down next to her. "I never got a chance to offer you my condolences for Jean," she continued softly. "I am so sorry for your loss. I loved her too," she said.
Scott said nothing, but took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"And here's where I say, 'if there's anything I can do, just let me know,' but you already know that," Rogue went on after a moment. "Like baking you cookies or something is going to make you feel better for losing your fiancée. Isn't that ridiculous?"
"Actually, there is something you can do," Scott said quietly. She met his visor-clad gaze questioningly. "Try to make Logan stay, if you can. We need him on the team."
Rogue looked away. "Scott, I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I should do that. I suspect Logan is going to need to get away for a while before he's going to be much good to the team or anyone else. It's the animal aspect of his mutation – I think he's gonna have to crawl away and lick his wounds and heal, before he's ready to fight again."
"Good point," Scott said. "I should've thought of that. Hell, I wouldn't mind doing that too."
"Does it bother you?" Rogue said after a minute. Scott's eyebrows lowered and she went on, "I mean, that Logan loved her too. I know that's one reason you two never got along."
"It did," Scott said heavily. "Now it doesn't. Now she's gone, and I can't really blame him much for his feelings." He smiled grimly. "Now I think about it, I don't know why everyone in the whole place wasn't in love with Jean."
Trying to lighten the mood, Rogue squeezed his fingers. "Well for my part, it's 'cause I'm straight," she joked.
Scott gave a huff of a laugh and stood up. "Don't worry, Rogue," he said. "Your turn is coming, and the guy who ends up with you is going to be a very lucky man."
"And at this point it doesn't look like it's going to be Bobby," she muttered.
Scott shrugged and smiled. "If he begrudges you your friendships or your grieving time –" and here Scott looked pointedly at his watch, then grinned at her and added, "—even if it takes till after midnight – he's not good enough for you. It's as simple as that," Scott said. "I gotta go – catch you later." And he was gone.