Title: Starting Over

Pairing: Well, several. Jean/Logan and Scott/Emma for sure. Maybe a bit of Kitty/Colossus and Rogue/Remy for fun and flair. We'll see what we get into. :)

Rating: T at the beginning (mainly for language, because dude...seriously...Logan swears a lot.), M (for fluff, maybe?) later on.

Author's Note: I've had some lovely messages from some readers and I thank you all so much for your kind words. I present, to you all, the proverbial shit hitting the fan. ALSO: I have some links on my profile page now! Pics of the Logan in my head, pics of Jean, the song that kinda fueled the rewrite of Chapter 1, and the cover of Devil Inside by London Grammar. Please let me know if you check them out!

Here come the woman

With the look in her eye

Raised on leather

With flesh on her mind

Words as weapons

Sharper than knives

Devil Inside - INXS (Best cover is done by London Grammar)

Logan paced back and forth along the base of the fire tower, stationed at the far end of the field where he'd agreed to meet Jean. He was feeling particularly twitchy about this meeting, unlike the previous ones.

Probably because you've had her come somewhere we've all been before. Smart, bub.

He shook his head, doing his best to shake off his fears. If she was concerned about the proximity, she would never have had him meet her in NYC, about the same distance from the school. Though it's easier to hide in a city of millions than in a state forest...

Shaddap. You're not gonna blow her cover. She's safe in Philly, and nobody else has caught on. She'll be fine.

It'd taken a few weeks of work and having to call in some favors outside of the X Men, but Logan had discovered where Jean had bene living and what she'd been doing. While he hadn't set up surveillance, exactly, he did have one of her neighbors reporting to him in case anything strange happened. While a part of him felt guilty about practically spying on her, he told himself repeatedly that it was simply because he was worried and wanted to be there, just in case.

In case of jack shit. She's fine.

He hoped.

The beam of a flashlight cutting across the field took his attention. The storm had settled some so that now it was just a light flurry of snow catching the moving light as it advanced towards him. The wind carried a faint scent of rose and her, and his body tightened almost reflexively as the bundled form came closer. Hat pulled down below her ears, scarf tucked into her coat and mittens on her fingers, she was unrecognizable from the figure who had worn shorts on the bridge a few months ago. It stopped about 5 feet away and the free hand raised to wave shyly at him.

"Hey, Logan."

He stepped forward, briskly rubbing his hands together in the cold.

"Didja bring your losin' ass with ya?"

An impudent grin flashed towards him, and for a brief moment his heart felt like it was going to flutter out of his chest. Internally he clamped down on his rising sense of desperation as she spoke.

"Oooh, I'm sorry, Logan. Unlike some people, I don't bring a losing attitude to a war."

His bark of laughter echoed over the field. He opened his mouth to reply, only to find a snowball hitting him smack in the face. With a growl, he wiped the coldness off his face to find the flashlight had gone out and the figure was retreating from him, a soft giggle in the air.

"So it's gonna be like that, is it, darlin'?"

With a growl, Logan paced off towards the north, circling in on his prey. Without a warning, a faint glow could be seen racing through the trees surrounding the field, providing just enough illumination to see the bank of snow Jean was telekinetically building about 1200 feet to the west.

She moves fast. Damn.

Crouching down, Logan started crawling quickly to a spot just south of the embankment she'd created. Her laugh floated over to him with a warning.

"You realize I can hear your thoughts coming, right?"

He smirked, and then emptied his mind, running only on instinct. He continued to crawl, this time further away around the pile of snow so he could circle on the other side. He felt the disturbance in the air of some snow hitting several feet behind him, but he was able to move fast enough to put some solid distance between himself and the woman aiming at him.

In a snap, unconscious decision he changed course and plowed himself directly into the fort, coming up underneath and heaving a huge section of the center pile onto Jean. Standing there, victorious, he sniffed for her and found a concentration of her scent right where he'd deposited the heap of snow.

Or so he thought.

The pelting of snowballs at his back made his head snap around and he saw Jean, floating a few feet in the air, hair loose and peppered with snowflakes, a grin on her face as she telekinetically made snowballs and sent them zooming in his direction. Logan's claws came out and he started cutting through the snowballs he was being pelted with, advancing on her intently.

Jean darted back, her hand making a scooping motion as she drove a bank of snow in his direction. Rolling to his right, he came up to a crouch and launched himself skyward, claws retracting. He connected to the figure suspended in air and twisted, taking the brunt of the landing as they reconnected with the ground. Logan let out a groan as his left hip scraped packed dirt and grass. His sight was a blur of red, and as he brushed away the hair that had gone everywhere he heard Jean's giggles.

Her face flushed, eyes watering with mirth, the giggles became a roar of laughter that seemed like it would never end. It finally hit Logan that here he was, laying in the snow, with the woman of his dreams clutched to his chest having the time of her life. He started up at her, face awash in wonder as her peals of laughter finally died down and she was able to catch her breath to speak.

"We need a rematch! You cheated!"

A slow grin crept across his face before he replied, "Not happenin'. Same rules as last time: use your powers as you can, don't hurt anybody, but have at and winner take all."

Jean waved a finger in front of his nose and snapped back, teasing, "Yes, but that didn't include getting tackled. I'm pretty sure I distinctly remember a clause being added about tackling since you kept getting Peter to throw you into groups of people. Cheater."

Logan chuckled low and tightened his arms around her frame.

"Hey, my challenge, my rules. You shoulda been more specific. 'Sides, not a bad way to lose, eh?"

Jean's eyes widened just a fraction as he saw her become aware of their current position. He was afraid she'd pull away, and ready to release her at the slightest hint of hesitation. She surprised him by crawling up a little higher onto his chest, legs straddling his waist. Jean looked him dead in the eye, hair falling in a curtain around them.

"I can honestly say I've had far worse."

Logan stared up at her, his heart pounding. Slowly, he used one hand to brush away the hair from the left side of her face. The glow of the lights from the edge of the field left one side of her face glowing and the other shadowed, fitting for the back and forth nature of their relationship. He managed to keep his hand from trembling (much) as he reached up to run a finger along her cheek. A faint smile pulled her check up, and he could have sworn she leaned into his hand just a little. He didn't want to breathe as his thumb caressed her lower lip, just barely, and he felt the soft sigh of warm breath against the pad.

He was in the process of cupping her jaw to bring her mouth down to his when he paused, scowled, thumped his head back into the snow.

"Shit."

Shit shit shit FUCK SHIT goddamn pissant bunch of USELESS buggering bastards...

Jean's head tilted to the size, quizzical.

"What's wrong?"

Logan moved, gently lifting her off of him and helping her to her feet. He couldn't look her in the eye, so he kept himself busy brushing snow off the both of them.

"We have a problem."

"I don't...I don't understand. What ki-"

With a start, he saw Jean knew exactly what kind of problem they had.

"Fuck. Logan, no. What did you do?" she moaned, backing away from him. "I've had a good start but I'm not ready. They're not ready! Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god."

She fell to her knees, panic vibrating off of every single cell in her being.

He walked forward, slowly, his hands held out entreating her.

"You know I didn't tell 'em anything. Read me an' you'll see. But they're on their way and there's no time. I'm sorry, Red."

She looked at him, face gone pale and sweat starting to form on her brow, and all he could see was fear. Behind him he felt and heard the Blackbird land, the steps folding down as the X Men marched out to find Logan standing over an alive and petrified Jean Grey.