Disclaimer: One power crazed mutant was sedated during the production of this chapter. However after two weeks of rehab and therapy we feel confident she will be able to join us once again for more production.
Chapter 4 – Gifts and Curses
"Nice flower" Logan said when Rogue turned around to sit in her seat. She had been looking through the back window at Bobby and John, waiving until the bend in the road put them out of sight.
"Yeah," was all she could say as she smiled and stared at the dashboard reliving the past few minutes in her head.
"Nice boys" he said, mostly to himself.
Hearing this Marie turned her attention from her thoughts and the dashboard toward Logan. She closed her eyes and opened them in that all too mysterious and confident way, something that said "gotcha" when she said nothing.
"I thought you didn't like them?"
He turned his eyes from the road to glance at her. She was sitting there with a half crooked smile, one eyebrow up revealing eyes that told him he wasn't getting out of this one. He chuckled and looked back at the road while he thought of what to say.
"Kinda grew on me I guess" he finally replied.
"They do that."
"Actually it's how they treat you that got me. Remember you once told me that after you touched me you could still feel me?" When she nodded he continued. "I think it worked in reverse too. I kinda feel you too. It is like when we touched we connected more than just physically, ya know? I feel like you and I are joined because of that. I dunno kid, maybe I'm not making sense."
"I think that too. Ah' tend to feel everyone for a while, but you have stayed with me much longer then anyone else and this feeling is different then the rest. I think it's because you almost died trying to save my life."
They sat in silence for a while both thinking of what had happened, what they had talked about. In truth they had been through so much together, even before the x-men, that they felt they had ties to one another. Logan felt kind of like a father or big brother to Marie. She felt that too, but knew he would never admit it. She figured it was because he had been through so much of his life with no ties that he couldn't admit that he let her become one in his life.
"Anyway" Logan continued, "Your gift can be hard for the others in school to see past. Bobby does and accepts it, John does too."
Rogue was surprised and shocked Logan called her mutant power a gift. Most kept their distance at school. Because of their fear, she would have called it more of a curse. She was very deep in thought about this, so deep in fact that she was talking out loud. She snapped back to reality and realized her internal monologue was more external than internal when Logan began to reply.
"I guess you could think of it as a curse, but everyone has some issues they have to deal with from their powers...but think of all the benefits you have."
"Like what?"
"Like you have the ability to take anyone's powers, because of that you are stronger than everyone. They all have limitations, but you have unlimited power through them. Anytime you get hurt you can heal by touching me, and remember, you took John's power once to stop a fire he created. You are only limited by what other mutants have for a mutation."
"I never thought of it that way. But I would never hurt someone just to gain their power for myself. Killing someone, just for my own gain, that's something ah'd never do."
"But if you needed to, that is available to you. It isn't an option for anyone else."
"I guess so" Rogue said.
They sat in silence for a while not knowing what to say. Logan pulled into the train station parking lot and helped Marie get her belongings out of the trunk.
"You okay kid?" Logan asked when he heard her sigh.
"I'll be fine." She grabbed her bag and looked at the ominous station.
"You sure you don't want me to help you to the..."
"I'll be fine," Marie said to Logan, cutting him off. She said it with a smile on her face; she didn't want him to make a big deal of her. He said goodbye and watched her walk into the building. He was unaware of how untrue what he said really was. He told her that her powers, her abilities weren't an option for anyone else. He had no idea that there was another girl, and at that same time this other girls was talking to Magneto.
