3.
Rogue shifted her weight from one foot to the other, she was pretty tired but didn´t want to leave Logan there alone. She envied the kids on their comfy beds upstairs, she knew that sleeping after such a night was a bit insensitive but she was just a minute away from falling on the floor exhausted.
Logan was staring at Jean, he had been doing so for the last hour and a half. He couldn´t believe he was in front of her again, and he was divided between the deep happiness it brought to him and the fear that it all could happen again. Jean could become Phoenix, go mad with power, killed people she cared about and then force him to kill her in order to stop the destruction of the world. It was just too much. Killing her one time was brutal and the worst thing he had ever experienced but the mere idea of having to do it again was overwhelming. Logan heard a noise and raised his head to see that Rogue had crashed against one of the glass shelves in the room. She had dark rings under her eyes and she had the most adorable sleepy face ever.
-"Kid, you should go and grab sleep before you trash this place. I think the mansion has already been destroyed enough for one night"- Logan walked to her, he wanted to touch her face but he wasn´t wearing any gloves so he didn´t risk it and just smiled at her. This girl was the closest thing he had ever had to a sister. He felt responsible for her, after all, if it hadn´t been for Rogue and her powers he would have never met the X-men and he would have continued living day after day without a purpose, a family, friends and Jean.
-"I promised the others to stay here and take care of you"- Rogue said
-"I can take care of myself, I am pretty tough, not like you, darling, you look like you need a good 48 hours sleep right now"- Logan nudged her towards the door-"don´t worry, I will be careful not to wake sleeping beauty here"
-"What if she wakes up?"- Rogue asked-"You weren´t ready for her last time"
-"I will be ready this time, now go to sleep and make sure Kitty and the others are resting too…I swear, that girl cannot be stopped"-Logan´s smile grew bigger and warmer thinking on the X-kids-"poor Piotr, he doesn´t know what he is asking for"
-"What?"- Rogue turned to look at him but decided that asking was dangerous, he could actually answer the question. Rogue left the room.
Logan returned to the spot where he had been standing, watching over Jean still body.
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Ororo closed her eyes and tried to sleep but the images of what have happened were too vivid and painful. She sat on the bed and covered her face with her hands. Now that nobody could see her she sobbed for the dead girls, for losing Scott and for the rage she knew everyone was feeling. The Sentinels were real, not monsters in the closet or under the bed, the danger was real and coming for them. No place was safe anymore, not the school, not anywhere else, but she was the leader of the X-men, the last hope of mutantkind and she have to find the stength within herself to lead his people to victory. She wished the words Kurt had told her were true. He had said that dark times go away but heroes remain forever. And now they have the Phoenis problem to worry about too. Storm loved Jean Grey as a sister more than a friend but Ororo Munroe was sure of one thing, she was not letting her break havok on their lives again, she will stop the Phoenix this time before it tear Logan apart. The X-men could afford to lose one of their best fighters.
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Kurt Wagner prayed on the early hours of that morning for each and everyone that was hurting in the mansion, he also prayed for Scott Summers and the Maximoff twins. God had not done much for mutants in these situations in the past but they were needing all the help they could get, so it wouldn´t hurt to try.
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Warren flew over the mansion for the last time, checking the perimeter was free of sentinels, brotherhood acolytes or any other threat. He felt so responsible although deep down he knew he was not the one to blame, but still it was hard to accept the truth of what had happened.
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Scott sat on the floor, his back against the bed where Wanda was sleeping. Scott was feeling confused and a little scared but he knew what he was doing and he only hoped that his friends would be able to understand the reason why he had chosen to walk the darker path this time.
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-"NO!"- Jean opened her eyes terrified and trembling
Logan ran to her side and with his hands forced her to remain still. He remember what have happened last time, the memories quite fresh on his mind. Jean looked at him questioning why he was doing that.
-"Logan, what I am doing here?"- She asked scared and trying to free herself from Logan´s strong hands
-"Stay still, please Jean, it is for the best, believe me"- Logan started untying her, he knew that the Phoenix would not be confined by such things but he had the feeling that the woman in front of him was the Jean Grey he had been missing.
-"Logan, what is happening? Where am I?"- Jean was so disoriented she started crying in panic-"I was in the lake, I felt the water coming, it was going to engulf me, I could feel everything, every detail of the world, your toughts, your tears. I heard Scott shouting inside my head and you…you were repeating: she is gone, she is gone"
Logan touched her face, unable to talk.
-"I felt the water, Logan, What am I doing here? I should be dead"- She asked him, fixing her green eyes on him
-"Jean, the water did engulf you, it is a long story, but you are back, here, in the mansion, with us. You are safe"- Logan said, how was he going to explain to her all that have happened since the moment the lake took her away from him.
-"Logan"- She pleaded-"I need to know"
-"I have to call Chuck, okay, he can give you answers, but he has to check on you"- Logan wanted to use the intercommunication device but he couldn´t move away from her. –"You are okay, aren´t you, Jeannie?"
-"I am confused"- Jean answered-"Logan, I need to know, whatever has happened must be bad, look at you, Logan, you are covered in scars and you shirt has bloodstains all over"
-"We have had a rough night"- Logan admitted-"Jeannie, it is dangerous, Xavier should be here"
-"Why is it dangerous?"- Jean asked
-"Okay, I will help you, but you have to promise me that you will stop if what you see is too much for you, deal?"-Logan surrendered
-"Deal"- Jean raised her hands and slowly placed them on each side of Logan´s head-"Try to relax"
-"Easy to say, hard to achieve"- Logan said looking in the eyes of Jean, she was there, her scent was just as he remembered. She was not the Phoenix, at least not yet.
Jean closed her eyes and concentrated on the images coming from Logan´s mind. She wasn´t ready for what she was seeing and feeling.
Logan tried to prepare a selection of memories, there were things inside his head that he didn´t want to share with anyone, least of all, Jean. But some of the memories were too strong and came with painful feelings attached.
Jean felt his pain when she was dead in the lake, the odd behaviour of Scott, she saw herself coming back to life and felt Logan´s extreme happiness when he found her. She saw herself in the med-lab, Charles was talking to Logan, she couldn´t believe it, Logan was so angry, she was angry too. Then all went crazy, she was kissing Logan with a ferocity she had no idea she could show. The images were mixed with Logan´s feelings and she knew then and there the strength of Logan´s lust for her. It made her shudder. Logan tried to break the psychic bond created between them so she wouldn´t find out anymore of his secrets but it was too late, Jean was seeing her old house, how she had destroyed Xavier´s body and how Logan and Ororo had cried in the ruins. The forest, Alcatraz, she was watching it all with a heavy heart, crying in silence while she uncovered the past, she saw Logan´s face moments before he killed her, how he said he loved her, how she could feel that love inside her head now. Then the memories were full of pain, a constant reminder of what have happened. Scott was alive, Xavier had a new body and the X-men were facing a terrible threat. She let go of Logan and collapsed on his arms.
Logan watched her, she was unconscious, too much information to absorb. She felt weightless and he stroked her hair with tenderness. He had opened his heart to this woman more than once but now he have given her all that he was. Logan could only hope that she would appreciate it for it was.
(Hope you like it...)
