Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to anything Marvel or the lyrics to this song used in this, the final chapter, which is called 'Broken'. I know I used some of them before, but this is the full song and it still fits in with the whole thing. I've got a virus and I've been sick and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to type this chapter up for a while, but I got some good medicine and was able to do so. I hope everyone has liked the story so far and I hope that you enjoy the last chapter!

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," I said back with a small smile.

"What happened to your hair?" he asked, noting that it was red.

I reached up and touched it. "I needed a change," I said.

He nodded his head. "I like it better the other way,"

"Me too,"

Our reunion was not going quite as I had planned. Allow me to introduce, erm, re-introduce myself; my name is Emma O'Brien, I'm from Ireland and if you ask me if I'm related to Conan O'Brien I might just scream. In those four weeks, I had lived with a very nice girl named Brooke who worked for the FBI. I was born the day that Chloe died. Let me explain; I died in Logan's arms, I stopped breathing, my heart quit beating but when the ambulance arrived and I was loaded into it, I was given a shot of adrenalin, shocked in the chest with a defibrillator and my heart began beating again. I'm not sure if it was just the shock alone that brought me back, or if it was the other electricity from my mutation along with it, but I was not only alive, but also came to and was quite aware of myself in the ambulance. The paramedics applied pressure bandages to my gun shot wound and helped to get it stopped from bleeding everywhere. When I got to the hospital I was treated for the wound in my stomach and, surprisingly to everyone working on the floor of the trauma unit, I was no longer in critical condition after just a couple of hours. However, during those two hours I had to speak to police officers who convinced me that I should go into a witness protection/relocation program of sorts. As my father was still on the loose, they said I could go back home because it might have put everyone else in danger, and so with the help of Brooke, the FBI agent, and her partner Agent Saunders; we created Emma O'Brien and cleaned the slate of Chloe Rynolds. I understood that going home and showing that I was alive would be a bad idea, and so I was easily convinced to not go back. But I had been told that there was a huge manhunt going on to search for him, I wasn't told, however, that once he crossed the United States boarder, they wouldn't do anymore to help catch him. I had to change me; I dyed my hair red, wore green colored contacts, dressed different and the most difficult to remember to keep up; I had to learn how to speak with an Irish accent. And so, after a month, I began to wonder if I would ever get to go back home. I received frequent updates on how Logan was doing through the Professor as he and Jean naturally knew of my situation. I would feel guilty about how he was dealing with my so-called 'passing' and yet I felt morbidly happy at times, knowing that his intense grieving meant that he loved me. So when I had been informed the day before by Professor Xavier that they had caught my father, he said that Logan and Jean, along with my half-sister Haylie, had gone to Canada to set him up so that the police could arrest him. Chuck said that Logan had been relentless in finding a way to get him sent back to jail, all because I had said that that's what I had wanted. It was torture having to wait to get clearance to go back home. I had to wait for them to have my father in US custody and then he had to admit that he was guilty. That was the easy part; he was proud that he had almost killed me. There was a hard decision I had to make after he had told them why he had tried to kill me. He told them the truth, because I was a mutant, and I had to choose between telling the truth and lying. If I lied, I could hide myself, keep it secret, but it would give his lawyer a chance to convince the judge that he had a mental illness and he could get a light sentence. However, if I told the truth I would not only be out in the open about being a mutant, but also because he had gotten only a thirteen-year sentence murdering and abusing a corpse of a mutant before, I thought that the charges of an attempted murder without any extra charges would barely be a slap on the hand. Of course, I took into consideration that he would more than likely be charged with a hate crime, but altogether, I knew it wouldn't be a very long sentence for him. I had changed me to the point I wasn't even speaking in my own accent anymore and so I decided that if the only thing I could keep from Chloe that couldn't be taken away no matter what name I was being called or color my hair was, was the fact that I was a mutant, I could keep it and be proud of it. Which is why in the end, I told the police that I was a mutant and that indeed had been why he had tried to kill me. Once that had been settled, I was told that I could go home, as long as I didn't make a big deal about it. When I found out, got all of my things together and was on my way to the mansion, the Professor said that Logan was at the cemetery and that's where Brooke and Agent Saunders drove me.

To what degree is it okay to deceive someone? Is it okay to put yourself into a position to possibly hurt someone if the end effect could somehow help to bring the big picture all together? Is it okay to make someone believe in something untrue when you know that it's a lie but you know that it's all for a very good purpose? What if what you were doing even hurt you, could you do it? Could you make everyone you know believe it? There's a quote that says; 'What the eyes see and the ears here the mind believes.' This theory had been put to the test and had proved to be true.

I walked up to Logan, expecting him to turn around and be extremely happy to see me, but instead, he seemed oddly expectant to see me. If you've ever read the book 'Peter Pan' that perhaps you remember the part at the end where once the Darling children had come home and were in their beds, Mrs. Darling had imagined and seen them in their beds so many times, that once they were really there, she didn't realize it was actually them. That was what was happening to Logan at that moment; he had seen me so many times that he just assumed that he was only seeing me and that I wasn't really there. However, I wasn't aware of the fact that he had been seeing me at that time and to be quite honest, I was confused and a little upset that he was being so calm and casual about seeing me for the first time in a month.

"I missed you," I said, trying not to cry.

"I miss you, too,"

"Well then, can I, uh…" I said, doing my best to keep my voice calm.

"Can you what?"

"Can I hug you, or touch you, or something?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding his head and stood up from where he was leaning against my tombstone. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. I felt his hands across my back. "You're warm," he said, sounding confused.

"I'm freezing," I said, finally letting the tears that I had been trying so hard to hold back, fall down my face.

He moved me back, holding me out at arms length. He frantically ran his hands over my face, back through my hair, over my arms. He looked at me scared, and bewildered and confused. There was a moment before it clicked and realized that I was real and there, and that's when tears rimed his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but shut it and just shook his head.

"Logan, I am so sorry, I wanted you to know that I was okay, but I couldn't no one was supposed to know,"

"What happened?" he asked, holding my face in his hands, which I held to me.

"When they got me into the ambulance, they shocked my heart and I came back. The bullet missed hitting anything major, it went through real clean and once they got me to the hospital and hooked up to everything, I was okay,"

"But I buried you," he said, his eyes wide with disbelief, the tears finally spilling out onto his face.

"I know, we had to pretend that Chloe died so that my father wouldn't know that I was alive,"

"You're Chloe,"

I shook my head. "No, I'm Emma now," I said, talking through my tears.

"What?"

"The FBI had this fake body-double thing made up to look like me, that's what you buried. Since everyone thought I was dead, I had to be someone else,"

He ran his hand back across my face and into my hair. "You're here, though?"

"Yeah, I'm really here," I said with a small smile. "I'm so sorry though, I didn't mean to," I began to apologize, but didn't get to finish as he cut me off with his mouth, crushing down on mine and kissing me. He pulled me to him, as close as he could, holding me tightly. I could taste cigars and something spicy in his mouth, mixed with the salty taste of both of our tears. I wrapped my hands up into his hair, pulling his mouth closer to mine. It hadn't been what I had wanted for a month, or two or three. I had wanted and waited for him to kiss me the way that he was since I had seen him six months before. I had dreamed about him kissing me that way since I had realized that I was in love with him. While I was gone, I thought and wondered if he loved and missed me as much as I did him. However, with the way that I was feeling as he held and kissed me so passionately, with such demand and urgency, it rebuked any doubt I may have ever had that what he felt for me was anything less than the strongest love I had ever felt.

We were more than just two people kissing; we were so much more than that. For him, he was given a second chance to right his wrong of letting me go, to fix the mistakes he had made when it came to me. For him it was answers to the prayers that he didn't believe would ever be answered. I was his hope, walking, standing, talking, touching him. I was touching him and it wasn't cold and faint. I was real and tangible and there. I was there with him, holding him and kissing him, just wanting him. For him it was hope for a future he had pictured and dreamed of me being in. I was everything that was good in the world and I was all his, there was no question about it; I belonged to him. For me, I felt like I was finally home.

After a few minutes, I had to pull away so that I could breathe. We both just stared at each other for a moment, what was there to say appropriate for the situation right then?

"I love you darlin'," he said to me.

"I love you, too," I said back, once again wrapping my arms around his neck.

"No, I mean it Chloe, I do,"

"I know, I believe you," I whispered to him.

"Don't ever do that to me again, kid,"

"I won't,"

"I went crazy without you," he said, placing kisses on my hair, face and neck. "I missed you,"

"I missed you too and I promise I won't ever leave you again. I promise, I promise," I said, clinging to him tightly.

"You can't leave me," he said, pressing his mouth to my ear.

"Will you take me home?"

"Can I?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding my head slightly. "I was going home when the Professor told me that you were here and I wanted to see you as soon as I could,"

He moved my head back away from the crook of his neck gently and gave me a small, sweet kiss that brought tears to my eyes. "So, do I get to keep you this time?" he asked, inhaling my scent. His lips lightly grazed mine as he nuzzled my nose with his. I could feel the heat of his breath on my mouth as he spoke and the weight of his words fell heavy on my heart. He wanted to keep me.

"Only if I get to keep you," I said back.

He kissed me once again. "You ain't ever gettin' rid of me, darlin', you're stuck with me now,"

I smiled at him. He had missed my smile so much. "I guess it could be worse,"

"How?" he asked with a bit of a smirk.

"Well, I could be stuck without you forever,"

He shook his head. "We're not gonna' try that,"

"I thought," I said and then paused. I didn't want to spoil our mood but I felt it needed to be discussed. "I thought you didn't want this, I thought you were scared to hurt me?"

He held my face in his hand and looked me right in the eye. "This is what I've wanted for a long time and I'm never gonna' hurt you,"

"And Wolverine always gets what he wants,"

He gave me a small smile and nodded his head. "I can't live without you again, I tried that for a while and I didn't like it,"

"My dear Logan, you've gone all poetic on me," I said teasingly with a smile.

"Whatever you want," he said.

I placed my hand on his shoulder. "You're shaking," I said worried.

"I'm fine," he assured me. "Let me take you home,"

I nodded my head and he wiped the tears that were left on my face with the pad of his thumb. "Okay,"

He walked me, with his arm wrapped around my shoulder, to Agent Saunders's car.

"You must be Logan," he said, reaching out to shake his hand. "I'm Agent Saunders; I've been taking care of Emma for you,"

"Chloe," Logan corrected.

"Legally she's Emma O'Brien now,"

"But everyone can still call me Chloe though, yeah?" I asked.

"Yes, but try not to out in public," Brooke said, handing me my only two bags of clothes that the Agency had bought for me. Where I had once wore jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers, I had been remodeled into an argyle sweater, pencil skirt, ballet flats person.

"Does she get to change her hair back?" Logan asked.

"Yes, as soon as we find out the ruling on her father, even though she'll be Emma, everything can go back to normal," said Brooke.

'Normal,' I thought. 'It will never be normal again.' And it was true. The person that I had worked so hard on becoming in my near twenty-three years of life was dead and I had to start all over again from scratch.

"Can I ride with him?" I asked, motioning to Logan. They exchanged looks with one another. "He's not going to run off with me or anything, we'll be going straight home, I promise,"

"I think…it'll be okay, we're going to follow you and we'll walk you into your house, though. After that, you're going to have to stay put until we hear the ruling on your father's case. Once that happens, we'll keep a look out on your home and you for about a month, if there's nothing suspicious, then you can slowly start doing things out in the public again. But until then, you're going to have to be on a house arrest type thing for a while," Agent Saunders said.

"Oh, I'm not going to mind having to stay in the house for a while; I'm just excited to get to see everyone again,"

"Okay, Agent Peters, why don't you ride with them and I'll follow you in my car," he said to Brooke.

She nodded her head, went to the passenger's side of the car and grabbed her purse. She checked to make sure her gun was still in place and then we all got into our cars and started our way to the mansion.

"How is everyone, what all's been going on while I've been away, is there any big news that I've missed of anything?" I asked as me were driving. Logan held my hand tightly, not wanting to let go.

"Well, me and Marie were havin' an affair," he said very casually.

"What?" I asked slightly confused.

He let out a small laugh. "Something someone started,"

"Who?"

He looked over at me. "Has Chuck been talkin' to you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Did he tell you about Haylie?"

"Yeah, she's my half-sister," I said, then realized what he meant. "She said that; why would she do that to you and Rogue?"

"Because she's a bi-" he started.

"Without swearing,"

"She's a spoiled little brat,"

"Wait a minute, who's Chuck and how have you been talking to him?" Brooke asked from the back seat.

"Chuck is Professor Xavier, the guy you talked to who owns the school. He told you that he was a mutant as well, a telepath, which means he can speak to people through thought." The Professor had told them that he was a telepath to show that I would not only be okay there at the house with him, but if anything was going to happen, he would know and he would inform them, who could inform the police. "He would tell me what was going on at home every now and then, but he failed to mention that rumor. How do you know that she started it?"

"'Cause she said she did,"

"She told you; is she completely thick?"

"Yeah," he said then picked up my hand and kissed it.

"So did he make her leave after that, or what?"

"No,"

"I can't believe the Professor would actually let her stay there after starting a rumor like that. Why didn't he make her leave?"

"I talked him out of it,"

"Why?" I asked, looking over at him.

"No…no, no, kid, I was…" he said, pausing and clearing his throat.

"Yes, you were…what? The Professor told me what she looks like Logan, although I was a little disappointed at the thought of you hooking up with the sister I never knew I had, I wasn't completely in denial about the whole idea. I mean, she is your type,"

"Which is what?"

"Female and breathing," I said and Agent Peters laughed from the back seat.

"Yeah, well, the only reason I did anything with her was because of you,"

"How's that?"

"You told me that you wanted your father to go back to jail and made me promise not to kill him. So me and Jean decided that since she liked me so much she could be put to some use and actually help us do something, instead of just takin' up space and eatin' our food,"

"Well, she must like you because of all of your charm," I said sarcastically. The longer that I was with him, the more right it felt and it seemed as though I hadn't been gone at all. "So you basically lied to and used her for your own selfish benefit?"

He shook his head and smirked at me. "Yeah, pretty much,"

"At least I know that the cranky little Canadian I fell in love with is still intact even through everything you've been through in the past four weeks," I said and he smiled at me.

I ran my fingers between his knuckles, massaging the skin there. There was a strong sense of power when I would touch his hands. There was enough metal to kill anyone just under the surface, and yet he chose to allow me to hold and caress his hands. I held his hand with no fear and I always would.

The ride to the school was nice and easy with conversation, mostly consisting of the two of us picking at and making fun of one another. Before we got home, Professor Xavier sent and told me that he had informed the whole school what was going on so that I wouldn't scare anyone when I got there. When we finally pulled into the drive and I watched the mansion become bigger the closer we got to it, my heart start speeding up at the anticipation of finally being there.

"Wow, it's huge," Brooke said, looking out the window as we drove up to the front.

I let out a happy sigh. "It's home," I said. No matter how melodramatic or sappy movie dialog it may have sounded, it was true.

When we parked, I felt as if I couldn't get out of the car fast enough. However, I had to wait on both Agent Saunders and Agent Peters to walk me up to the door and inside the school, where I was met, surprisingly, by Rogue. Rogue, Bobby and Storm were there waiting for me as the four of us walked through the front door. I gave Storm and Bobby hugs and they both told me how much they missed me, but when I got to Rogue, I didn't know what to do.

"The Professor said you've been taking care of Logan while I was gone," I said to her.

"Yeah, well, you tore him up quite a bit, he needed me,"

"He still does," I said.

"Look, I'm sorry, I know that I wasn't real nice to you while you were here, but I'm sorry, I'm glad that you're back, at least now he won't have to drink so much," she said with a small smile.

"Don't worry about it, it couldn't be farther from my mind right now," I said and she gave me a hug, careful not to touch me with the exposed skin around her neck.

"Welcome back home,"

"Thank you,"

I went to the Professor's office and he welcomed me back before I went upstairs to see Dr. Grey and Scott. Brooke and Agent Saunders stayed behind to speak to Chuck about all of my rules and everything that I needed to follow for caution.

As I walked up the familiar steps that I had climbed countless times in my dreams that month alone, I met a few of the student, most of which were the ones that I had recruited, and they all hugged me and told me how happy they were to have me back. I walked down the long hall, which was nearly quiet, as most of the students were getting ready to go to sleep because they had classes the next morning. I turned the corner that led to the staff hall, my hall, and I heard faint voices coming from my room. I then saw my door open and Scott step out into the hallway. He beamed his brilliant smile when he saw me and I ran to him.

"Scotty!" I said, wrapping my arms around his neck, hugging him. He hugged me back, lifting me off of the floor.

"We missed you, kiddo," he said to me.

"I missed you guys, too," I said, starting to cry again.

"Hey," I heard a voice say beside me. Scott sat me back down and I saw Jean standing in my doorway, smiling and crying at the same time.

"Hey," I said, going to hug her too.

"We're so glad that you're back,"

"Me too," I said as she let go of me and I caught a glimpse of my room. "Not to change the subject, but what happened, it looks like a tornado hit it,"

"It was something much worse than a tornado," Scott said to me quietly.

"Like what?"

"I hope that you are all proud of everything that you've done. You've lied to me, deceived me, used me and pretty much humiliated me the whole time I've been here," Haylie said, walking from her room with her bags in tow. "Scott, are you not even going to help me carry my bags out to the car? You are a man, that's what you're supposed to do,"

"I was aware that Scott's job was teaching, not bell boy, though I have been away for a while, so I suppose things could have changed since then," I remarked. Though I didn't know who she was right then, I knew I didn't like her.

"And who are you?" she asked smartly.

"Emma O'Brien," I said, putting on my Irish accent. "And who are you?"

"Haylie Robbins," she said, walking closer to us.

"You're Haylie," I said, nodding my head, finally understanding. "I've just been told quite a bit about you,"

"By who?"

"Me," Logan said, walking up behind me.

"Oh, did he try to kill you, too?" she asked me.

"You tried to kill her?" I asked Logan, turning around to him.

"Yes, he had this metal claw thing that came out of his hand and he had it against my throat,"

"Just one? He has five other and I'm quite impressed; I've pissed him off quite a few times and he's never threatened my life…unless you count getting in a car with him," I said.

She looked at me confused. "Wait…you…you look like Chloe,"

"It's because I am,"

"But you're dead,"

"Well, that can't be possible, now can, because obviously I'm standing right here in front of you,"

"So you're not even dead, you all lied to me about that too?" she shrieked.

"What exactly has been going on that Logan tried to kill you and they lied to you about?"

"He tried to kill me because I was cleaning out your room to help him get over you because we were supposed to be going out,"

"So you're the one who did this to my room?" I asked, pointing through my open door.

"Jean's actually cleaned most of it up," Scott said.

"Thank you," I told Jean, my Irish accent thickening as I became more used to it once again.

"I want an explanation," Haylie demanded.

"And I want a convertible, that doesn't mean I'm going to get it, now does it?" I said with a smirk.

"I have been used; wait until my father hears about this, he'll sue you!"

"For what? I'm sure you're father would love to hear what you're doing here in a house full of mutants. I could be guessing here, but I say judging from what I've heard of and from you, daddy-dearest doesn't know his little girl is a freak of nature,"

"You don't know anything about me," she said.

"Well I know that apparently you've been 'used' and you get quite the kick out of starting rumors about my friends, but perhaps I've not been informed of the proper information,"

She stood there staring at us all before she spat; "You're really not all that pretty," at me.

I heard the three of them all take in deep breaths, getting ready to reprimand her for her comment, but I spoke first. "Well, it's a good thing that my self worth doesn't rely on what other people think of me, isn't it? Otherwise I might actually care about what you have to say about me, which, to be quite honest with you, I don't,"

"Well, if you think that you're just going to come in here and take Logan away from me, you can have him, I don't care, but whether they admit it or not, he and Rogue have a little something going on with each other," she said with a smirk. "Just so you know,"

"Logan and Marie have known each other for nearly seven years, there's more than 'a little something' going on between them, that's how they are. But I suppose you don't know them well enough to understand that, do you? Because if you did, you wouldn't have confused it with having an affair,"

"So you all planned this and you were all in on it? You set me up and tricked me to meet out psychotic, murder father who could have killed me!"

"It's not that bad, sweetheart," I said.

"How do you know?" she shrieked.

"Because he did kill me,"

It took a while for us to all work through everything enough to finally understand what was going on and to explain to Haylie that she was not the only one who thought that I was dead and it wasn't just to 'trick' her into meeting anyone. After about an hour, everything in my room was back in place, Haylie was sent home and everyone went to bed. Except for Logan and me. They all left us up so that we could spend more time together. I was hungry so we went down to the kitchen so that I could eat some of the leftovers from dinner.

"I got the rose you left me on Valentine's Day,"

"I left it the day before,"

"I know,"

"Did Chuck tell you?"

"No…I saw you," He looked at me confused for a moment. "I thought you knew; you were staring at the car when we left. I went down there to check the grave because I wanted to keep anything that was left on it. I saw your car pull up and I wanted to stay so badly but they made me leave. I got to see you when we were driving away,"

I was the woman with the red hair that he had seen getting into the back car. He shook his head. "That was you?"

I smiled. "So you did see me?"

"Yeah,"

There was a bit of silence for a moment. "What's going on?"

He darted his eyes back and forth, looking into mine. "What do you mean?"

"Today's been kind of complicated and I don't really know what's going on now,"

"You mean this," he said, motioning his hand between us. "What's goin' on with us?"

I pushed around the food on my plate with my fork and then looked up at him in the eye. "Yeah," I said, nodding my head. "I mean, was what went on just because we missed each other or…what?"

"No,"

"So we're…together now?"

"Do you not want us to be?"

I gave him a small smile. "That's what I've wanted for a long time,"

"You've not changed your mind,"

"No, I've not changed my mind, but I don't want you to feel like you have to do this because I was gone and you feel like you have to make something up to me,"

"I don't think that,"

"So you still…" I paused, not knowing where to go with the conversation. I wanted to know how he really felt but I didn't want him to feel like I was pushing him to do something that he didn't actually want.

"I love you darlin'," he said, looking me straight in the eye. "I was stupid before and didn't do anything about it, but when you weren't here, when you were…when I thought you were gone, I know that what I did was a stupid mistake and I would have done anything to change it,"

Tears slide down my cheek and he wiped them away. "Why did you act like it was so normal to see me when I went up and talked to you?"

He brushed the hair from my face. "'Cause I had seen you before,"

"What?"

"I saw you in the hall just a day after your funeral, you were on my bed wantin' to try on my boots, you were in here lookin' out the window, I saw you in my room and you wouldn't let me hold you. When I saw you tonight, I didn't know it was really you,"

"You thought about me that much?"

"You were all I was thinkin' about,"

I moved his hand from my face and kissed it. "So we're good then yeah, you and me? We're 'us' now?"

"We've been 'us' for a while darlin'," he said.

I let out a small laugh through my tears. "That's true,"

"Yeah, we're good," he said.

I stood from my stool and hugged him. "I love you, I love you, I love you," I whispered over and over in his ear.

"I love you too, baby,"

I pulled back, he stood up and he kissed me. There's no way for me to describe how it felt to finally feel comfortable, safe and loved after what I had gone through that month. My life had been full of ups and downs, never knowing quite where I was going to wind up next, after finding years of being shuffled to and from different states, homes and countries. But Logan had been there for me when he could since I met him and feeling his arms wrapped around me as he held and kissed me left me with a strong sense of safety and comfort. I loved him, I always had, and for me there was nothing better in the world than to have him showing just how much he loved me.

We alternated between talking, eating and kissing for the next hour and a half, after that I was so tired I nearly fell asleep in the kitchen, but he made me go to bed. Together we walked up the stairs, his arm around my shoulder and my arm around his waist. I didn't want to go to sleep, but I was too tied to argue that to him, so instead, we kissed for a few more minutes and then he sent me to bed.

It felt good to sleep in my own bed for once and I fell asleep fast, not able to keep my eyes open. My day had been so excited, but I knew that my excitement for seeing him was nothing compared to how he felt about having me back. He had spent four weeks, almost to the day, believing that I was dead, never to come back home. While I, on the other hand, had known full well that I was a live, a little sore through my stomach at times, but altogether, just fine.

I fell asleep knowing that the next day would be better, easier, because I was home. I had felt like the mansion was my home while I was there, but it took leaving it and everyone there to really understand what it felt like. When I had seen Logan again and he had shown me to my room for the first time, I looked at him and knew that he felt at home there, with the school and the actual people and I felt that he had betrayed me. We should have been living out on the road, with no special place in mind to go, but together and he had settled down as a teacher? No, that wasn't Wolverine. Getting attached was weak, who needed other people, they only ever let you down. And then I became attached to the same exact people. Once that happened, I realized that I had never been mad at him, I had been jealous. My homecoming was something I would have never have imagined to have ever mattered to anyone, but it was my home, they were my family and I had never been happier in my life.

I woke up in a panic, looking around my room frantically. It took me a moment to realize that I was in my room. I had been having nightmares and that night was no exception. I sat up in bed, panting. There had barely been a sleep that passed where I hadn't seen my father pulling out his gun and shooting me. Though I had never actually seen him pull out the gun at the time, my imagination filled in all of the details, and each time I would hear the crack of the gun in my dream, I would wake up with a pain shooting through my stomach. If I ever did try to go back to sleep, I would only see Logan holding me and crying, which caused more hurt to me than with the pain in my stomach.

I stood from my bed, there was no way that I could go back to sleep and I knew the one place that I could rest, so I left my room and padded down the hall. I opened the door to Logan's room and saw him lying in his bed, sleeping quietly. I stood there watching him for a moment; he looked so peaceful, which he hardly ever did, and so I wanted to see him where he was okay. There with nothing after him, nothing to hurt him or the people he loved. He wasn't an animal or an experiment. He wasn't someone that the world hated because he was different. When he slept, he was just a man.

I closed his door as quietly as I could and walked over to him. I folded the covers back carefully on the empty side of his bed and lay down facing him. He stirred a bit and then he opened his eyes sleepily.

"I had a bad dream, is this okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine," he said. He ran his hand across my cheek, down my arm and rested it at my stomach. My shirt had lifted some and he could see my scar. He carefully ran his hand across it. "Does it hurt?"

"Every now and then, it's getting better though,"

"Good,"

"Do you know what happened to the photo of us from the Christmas party, I had it in my room but it's not there anymore,"

"It's over there," he said, pointing behind me to his nightstand.

I looked over at it and smiled. I had loved that photo and wanted Dr. Grey to send me a copy of it while I was gone, but I wasn't allowed to ask for anything from how. "We're an awfully good looking couple, aren't we?" I joked to him.

"We're a couple and you're good lookin', so yeah," he said and I laughed.

"You're not too terribly shappy yourself there Wolvie," I said and then saw the book that was sitting on his nightstand. "Is that my journal?"

"Uh, yeah," he said.

I looked back over at him. "Were you reading my journal?" I asked in mock shock.

"Well, I didn't think you were ever gonna' find out about it," he said with a bit of a smirk.

"So did you find out anything of any interest about me that you didn't already know?"

"Yeah,"

"And what was that?"

"I was in love with you first,"

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, you lost me way back in October," he smirked.

I smiled and blushed at the thought of Logan, Wolverine, being 'lost in love' with anyone, but especially me.

"Well, to be quite fair, I was in love with you when I got here, but I didn't want to admit it just yet,"

"Doesn't count,"

"Why not?"

"'Cause I win,"

"Only because I let you," I smiled. "And besides, you should have fallen in love with me first, I'm much more charming than you are," I said sarcastically.

"I'm not gonna' argue with that,"

"You should,"

"Why?"

"Because you are quite charming, I mean, hey, you got me to fall in love with you and in case you haven't noticed, past experiences prove that I should be very jaded and cynical about the whole love thing,"

He grabbed my hand and held it against his chest, to his heart. "I'm not gonna' hurt you like they did,"

"I know that, I know you're not them and I trust you completely," I said and he pulled our bodies closer together, holding me. He kissed me on top of my head. We were quiet for a few moments as we lay together, just happy to finally have the other one back again. "You know, I could get used to this; I might do it for a while," I said.

"I could do this for the rest of my life," he breathed in my ear.

I blushed and pulled back to look at his face. "Mr. Logan that sounded like a proposal" I joked with a smile.

"That was the idea," he said, brushing the hair from my face.

"Really?"

"Yeah,"

I nodded my head slowly. "Okay,"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," I smiled. There was another stretch of silence as I thought about what had just happened. "So we're engaged now, then?"

He smiled and I couldn't help but remember the very first time I had seen him smile at me. So many things had changed since then and yet so much was the same. "Well, I've not proposed to anyone in a while but I think that when I do and you say 'yeah' that's what it means," he smirked.

I thought for a moment. "I'm okay with that," I nodded.

"Me too, kid,"

"Okay, but that has to stop; we can not get married and you call me kid, that's just a little bit creepy," I said and he laughed.

"I'll see what I can do," he said, pulling me back closer to him, wrapping his arms around me.

We didn't sleep much that night; we just stayed awake talking. As the early March sun rose over the trees of the forest just out beyond his balcony, he watched me sleep. The situation that we both thought would year us apart, had pulled us together. We had gotten to start all over again with our lives, our second chance, and he was going with it. He held my sleeping body in his arms, relishing in the feeling. He wondered how I managed to do what I did to him. How had I, that talkative, blonde teenager, turned into a woman that at the mere sight of me made his chest puff out with pride because I was his? To someone that when I spoke, it pulled him in, hanging on every word that I said. Out of all of the years that he had remembered of his life, he knew that all of the woman he had thought he loved, he had never felt once for them what he had for me. He thought that he had loved Jean, but it had just been lust. Not that he wasn't attracted to me as he was her, but with me, there was something different, something more.

If you're expecting me to say 'And they all lived happily ever after,' I'm afraid that I'm not going to. Because, you see, that would mean that it was over with and done, when, in fact, it wasn't. We were only at the start, just beginning and I couldn't have been more excited about seeing how our life would go. For once, I had something to look forward to and as far as I could see; it looked pretty good.

I wanted you to know I love the way you laugh
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away.
I keep your photograph and I know it serves me well
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain.

'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away.

You've gone away, you don't feel me anymore.

The worst is over now and we can breathe again
I wanna hold you high, you steal my pain away.
There's so much left to learn, and no one left to fight
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain.

'Cause I'm broken when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough.
'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away.

'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away.

You've gone away
You don't feel me here anymore.

The End.