Title: Reality

Author: Victoria (atlantic_iced_tea@hotmail.com)

Rating: PG-13 to be safe

Summary: a freak happening transports Marie and Scott into an alternate dimension, leading Marie to discover a thing or two about both her fearless leader and also Logan.

Feedback: is my drug of choice, even ahead of chocolate munchies and David Boreanaz. Well, maybe not David...

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters - Marvel, Fox and a bunch of lawyers do. But I bet they don't have half as much fun with them as I do.

Author's Note: A little different to my previous Logan/Marie fic's, I hope you like it. It's probably best if you read the preceding three stories first though - "Waiting", "Watching" and "Singular Moments".

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Dead? It didn't seem real – none of it did. That morning life had been simple, straightforward. She had been quiet, unimportant. She could fade into the background. Here and now… Everything had changed.

As Jean led her upstairs to an empty bedroom where she could rest, Marie was acutely aware of the stares from the other students. The ones who remembered Rogue…

It was a tragic accident, she had been told. But weren't they all. Tragic, that is. It wasn't some glorious death, heroic, iconic. It wasn't anything at all to do with her mutation or her life with the X-Men. In death she had achieved what she could not in life. Normality.

It was a Saturday. A rainy, dull sort of afternoon, Jean had said. It was darker than normal, the cloudy sky promising a cold and wet evening. She hadn't even seen the truck, just stepped out onto the street a few seconds to early. And then it was all over.

Jean hadn't told her any more and Marie hadn't asked. The story made her sick to her stomach – the thought of her own demise. The thought that she was dead but yet she was also still alive.

The room was bare save the standard furniture. Impersonal to the max. Sitting alone on the bed Marie felt herself start to cry. Partly for her dead self and partly the living. She was trapped in another world – one she clearly didn't belong in. No one seemed to know what had happened or if it was possible to send them back. Back to Logan…

She hadn't seen this world's Wolverine. Was he still up in the wilds of Canada, searching for his past? Or was he right here, in the mansion. If only he were, and he took her in his arms and told her everything would be alright because he was there and nothing could ever hurt her again… If only.

A knock at the door shook her out of her reverie. Scott stood, a small smile on his face. He's trying to be strong for me, she thought to herself. Even though he's terrified too. She felt her heart warm to the man who had always seemed so aloof, so perfect.

"Just thought I'd see how you were holding up".

"Ah'm alright, a'h guess. Marie gestured down to the bed. It's all just so…"

He gave a small smile.

"I know what you mean."

Sitting down next to her on the blue quilt, Scott sighed. Would this be Marie's bedroom from now on? Would he be assigned an identikit room to relocate his life in? his head throbbed with questions.

"Mr Summers? Do you think we're stuck here?"

"I don't know. I'm being honest here – I just don't know. And don't call me Mr Summers". He smiled, wrinkling his nose as he spoke. "I think that's a little formal considering the situation".

Looking back into Scott's open face, Marie felt a sense of relief. She wasn't alone.

"The professor is trying to find out what happened- why we ended up here. Jean and… I guess I'll have to call him this worlds Scott, are helping.  We're sort of surplus to requirements at the moment."

"Its better than being the centre of attention." Marie grimaced. You should have seen the looks the other students have been giving me. As if ah wasn't a big enough freak to begin with…" Her eyes welled with tears again.

"Rogue, you have to understand. Its like they're seeing a ghost."

They sat in silence for a moment. Marie could feel the walls closing in on her. Her stomach tightened, her breathing panicked. She started to cry. Her pain was palpable, and Scott understood every nuance of her anguish. Taking care to avoid her skin, he put his arms around her and she gratefully buried her face in his shoulder. Exhausted from the day's trauma, slowly her sobs subsided, to be replaced by the sound of calm, regular breathing – the sound of sleep.

Scott watched the young girl in his arms drift slowly off. The light outside was fading, and long shadows fell across her troubled face. It was hard to believe that as beautiful as she was, Rogue was deadly. That a single touch could end a life. Life was cruel enough for any adolescent, but what did the future hold for his young charge? And then he stopped. Because Rogue was no longer a teenager, she was a young woman who, if circumstances had been different, would be making her own way in the world. Moving out of home, maybe going to college, beginning relationships. Would she ever get that chance?

Marie stirred, as if she was going to wake, but instead she gripped him closer and fell back into R.E.M. Leaning back against the bedstead, Scott sunk into the pillows. However inappropriate this situation might have been back home, here and now, nothing seemed more right…

Holding each other, the misplaced pair slept soundly until a familiar figure cast a dark shadow over their bodies. The door swung open, framing the silhouette of a man so animal he could barely be described as human, a reluctant hero, panting in exhaustion and anticipation. He paused for a half second, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room, before he stepped forward.

Somewhere in Marie's brain, a connection was made. It must have been, because the moment he entered, her mind fought to wake her body. It was his scent that she felt first, that familiar odour, neither sweet nor stale, but unmistakably his…

Opening her eyes, her heart felt like it had stopped. Mouth dry, she couldn't even say his name. She didn't need to.

Dropping to his knees, Logan grabbed her gloved hand, encasing it in his own. In shock, she could make out the tears in his eyes as he finally spoke.

"Marie…"