DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of this, it belongs to Marvel, all I've done is borrow and direct.

(Fostersb, Chica De Los Ojos Cafe, SilverWolf77, cara410, my dear LadyMageLuna, Ondjage, ONIX-21, the lovely anon goddess, chrono-contract and peppymint, thank you all so very very much for reviewing and being such lovely people for doing it! You all rock! KHwhitelion, thank you, too and thank you especially for your lovely replies, I'm glad to be of service anytime. AshmandaLC, you are, to quote my dear Pyro, a peach, and I completely agree with your sentiments regarding Rogue. I hope you'll tell me if I did her justice here too ^^ All of you, I am so glad you decided to review and I hope you will continue to do so and let me know how you think things are going. Have a fantastic day!)


Who Knew

Part Three

It was Kitty who found her in the conservatory, curled up with her arms around her head like she'd fallen asleep trying to shield herself from something. It was Kitty who alerted Logan to the fact and it was he who carried her up to her room and put her to bed. It was Kitty who smoothed the hair from her face, careful not to touch but every gesture laden with enough sympathy and gentility for it to be as good as a caress. But it was another who lay strapped down to a gurney in the med bay receiving an injection that would silence him for hours and hours while he dreamt of control and green eyes and guilt.

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He sat by her bedside just as he had done the day they'd brought her home after she nearly allowed them to take over, to wrest what little control she had from her. The power of decision, free will. He sat there and waited until her lashes flickered on those bruise-like markings painted under the green eyes she opened to see him with. Just like then, he was afraid. Afraid to speak and to hear words spoken. Afraid something might break but not about to admit what it was.

"Scared me shitless there, Stripes..." Her mouth twitched.

"Ah'm sahrry Logan... Ah didn' know what ta do..."

"You ain' gonna be doin' anything until you feel better and Hank's done his tests," he said firmly, and she sighed.

"Are ya sure this is alraght? What about – "

"You just do as you're told and rest up. Focus on that. That's all we need you to do." Her eyes brightened.

"So he's better?"

"You just concentrate on you," Logan said, suddenly feeling so very tired. This was the one person he'd ever viewed as an extension of himself, the closest thing he had to a child. His little girl. And she was fading away.

"Hows Kurt..?"

"The elf will be fine. He's got a few scrapes and he's a little singed but he'll be okay." Her eyes closed in relief but the thick, pearly tears that leaked from them didn't seem to care.

"Oh, Gawd, Logan... Ah thought – Ah thought – " he put a hand on hers, squeezing her fingers gently, his gloves thin enough that she could feel the slide of his adamantium bones beneath them.

"You thought wrong. It's all going to be okay. You didn't give in this time either. You fought it. I'm proud of you." His voice was rough, an edge to it that usually wasn't there no matter how much of a growl his usual tone might be, and she looked at him.

"Thank you..."

"We're gonna get through this, girl. We're gonna win this one," he said quietly, and she smiled weakly.

"Ah need your help."

"You don't have to ask."

~*****************************************************************~

The shrieking woke up everyone in the mansion. It couldn't be described any other way than the sound they imagined a man made when his soul was forcefully removed. And none of them were sure they wanted to know if that was really what was happening. Except Hank McCoy and Professor Xavier who were drawn to the confines of the med bay by them – Hank looking like a hunted animal and the Professor clutching his temples in agony as they entered the room where they had left the patient.

"Charles! Charles, help him!" Hank yelled over the unearthly, harrowing sounds the young man was emitting, his features contorted in an agony different to the Professor's but every bit as real and quite a good deal more disturbing. Charles reached out to the youth but the waves of pure unadulterated terror and suffering clinging to the Cajun threw him back, driving like spikes into his mind and festering there, horrors pouring into it from the attempt to siphon off the young man's pain and help him. It was too much to bear and he wrenched his mind away from them, the torment unbearable.

"Charles!" Hank moved to help him but the psychic motioned for Hank to subdue Remy instead, and for the second time they were forced to sedate him, Hank's hands shaking with the effort of holding the lad down and injecting him. The thickly corded muscles on the bare arms stood out and then the Cajun slumped back against the steel of the gurney he was lying on and was finally still.

"Oh, God, Charles," Hank said in an undertone.

"What is this?" Charles stared at the figure before them and shook his head at his old friend.

"Demons... Demons that need fighting."

"You saw? I know I saw you struggling with it, Charles, why was that? The boy has no psychic abilities!"

"No, but the bio-kinetic energy within him creates a shield mechanism to protect his mind from unwanted lookers-in, and at the level of power he has reached it all but repelled me. This combined with the sheer amount of projecting he was doing in his fear was more than enough to completely keep me out and indeed cause me some considerable discomfort." Hank nodded, agitated.

"Yes, yes, but did you see? And why was he projecting fear instead of thoughts?"

"He wasn't. He was projecting pain, the excess pain he was feeling. It was... quite disturbing..."

"What did it stem from, could you read anything from it?"

"No – but I believe it is vital that he and Rogue begin therapy again before it overpowers him again. At this rate of growth his powers are going to kill him."

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"Absolutely not, Charles." The Professor fixed the bulky man with a serious gaze.

"Logan, the boy could die. She has to consider it. She has to at least be told of the consequences if she refuses to continue helping him."

"None of you are going near her until she's well again. You have no idea what it did to her – thinking she'd hurt her own brother with powers that aren't even her own. She can't even control her own powers and you want to stick her with someone else's that can't be controlled either! No. You're not guilt tripping her into this. Leave the girl alone, she's done enough for you." The anger in Logan's voice was tempered with a grief Charles knew was not for himself but for the girl in the bed just beyond the sealed doors, and he sighed.

"Logan, she cares for Remy's state of health, just as we do. I understand that she is afraid, but we will not let any more accidents happen. We will not allow any more mishaps. I promise you that."

"You can't promise anything Charles. That's one thing she's learnt the hard way." Charles narrowed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Will you at least tell her how things stand? Give her the opportunity to choose for herself?" Logan looked away, hand poised over the keypad to punch in the code for her isolated room.

"I'll talk to her."

Charles nodded, having to accept it, as Logan entered the code and strode through the doors, not looking back. He had hoped the Canadian wouldn't be quite so stubborn, but he had set himself against it and Charles knew he wouldn't budge on this. Rogue was to all intents and purposes Logan's own child in his eyes, she might as well have been so biologically for the big man had wholeheartedly adopted her, taken her into his heart and his confidence, more so than with any other person Charles knew. He was the one they would have sent to the bedside of any of their charges who might cause a violent accient at any time, but he had not even volunteered to sit by hers. He hadn't said a word, simply carried her in and settled himself in the chair beside her. He hadn't spoken to anyone, hadn't moved from his post until she had woken up. Much the same way he had acted after she had been posessed by the numerous psyches fighting for control of her, much the same way he had acted after she had defeated Apocalypse. Storm said that Rogue was the child of Logan's heart, and Charles couldn't help but disagree. She was the child of his very soul.

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"What did they want..? Ah heard things..." she asked wearily, as he came to sit next to her in his chair, and he heaved a sigh.

"I know you don't want to hear this so I'm gonna tell you the way it is and we are gonna deal with it as it comes, okay?" She nodded.

"Charles wanted me to let you know our friend the Cajun is getting worse. Charles and Hank can't help him because it's not a medical problem and he has shields around his mind that keep Charles out."

"They want mah help," she whispered.

"They do. I told them to go to hell and let you think about this properly. You don't have to do this if you don't feel you can handle it. You've done enough, Rogue. You've served your time. This is your choice, take it or leave it. I on't let them pressure you into this." She looked at him, fearful tears in her eyes.

"Is he – Logan, is he gonna die?" Logan put a hand over hers.

"I ain't gonna lie to you Rogue. There's a chance he could die. He's not fighting it and they can't help him." Her breath choked in her throat and the tears spilt over silently.

"Ah can' let him die! Ah can' touch him again but Ah can' let him die! What am Ah gonna do? What if Ah hurt someone again? Kurt was lucky!Ah – Ah can' hurt anyone Logan. Ah jus' can' do it!" Dissolving into tears, she collapsed into his arms, trembling and sobbing, and he held her quietly and stroked her hair, for all the world like a parent soothing their troubled child.

"You're gonna do whatever you want to do, Stripes. And whatever you do will be the right thing. No one can tell you different..."

"But Ah can..."

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