AN: I decided to keep it as one story, for ease of knowing continuity and fear of losing readers!
Thanks again for the reviews and encouragement.
O o o o o o o O
It hadn't stayed quiet for very long. They hadn't tried to hide, but Marie was still surprised at just how quickly word spread around the mansion. Jubilee saw Logan going into their room and that was that. Once all the initial odd looks and questions were over, they settled into a nice routine.
When Logan left for the first time after he and Marie got together, people were walking on eggshells for a while around her, expecting that she was putting on a brave face and was going to lose it at any moment. The odd thing was that she wasn't. She really was ok with him taking off. He had followed the rules; he had talked to her about it before he left, he promised to come back and she knew there wouldn't be other women. In her mind, it was no different than people who were involved in the military or other career that required travel.
She tried to appreciate the time that he was gone as well, go out and do things that she may not have wanted to do when he was there, like sappy chick flicks with the girls. She painted the walls of their room, knowing the paint smell would have driven him crazy were he there. But it just seemed wrong that every night Logan was going to bed in a room with lavender colored walls. The taupe she had chosen instead seemed much more appropriate.
He was only gone for three months, a short time period as Logan goes. When he came back, if anyone didn't know about the two of them beforehand, they did afterwards. She had met him at the door and had grabbed her by the waist and made a beeline to their bedroom.
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"This was your secret trick for making sure I didn't go away too long, wasn't it?" he later smirked.
Marie batted her eyelashes innocently, "Moi?" She ran her fingers up and down his chest.
Logan grumbled good-naturedly, "I got addicted to touching you all the time. Don't like to go too long without it."
"I know how you feel," she said with a happy smile. "Welcome home."
Logan thought about it and realized she was right, not because the mansion was his home, but that she was. Wherever Marie was, he wanted to go back to. He kissed her. "Thank you, darlin'." The idea of having a home wasn't such a crazy thought for him anymore, he liked it.
She smiled and nodded as she drifted off to sleep in his arms.
O o o o o o o o o O
The next morning, Marie awoke before Logan, which was unusual, but she chalked it up to whatever he had been doing before he returned, coupled with what they had done upon his return. She slipped out of bed and into the shower to get ready for her day.
When she got to the kitchen, she greeted Jubilee and Kitty with a wide smile. "Morning, ladies." They both grinned at her in response.
"I heard Logan was back," Jubilee said slyly, looking at Kitty.
Kitty nodded with a wink. "I think everyone heard that Logan was back." Marie blushed and rolled her eyes as she reached for the last banana in the fruit bowl. Kitty had gotten there a split second ahead of her and grabbed it. She laughed and said, "You snooze, you lose."
Suddenly, Marie heard a growling in her head and she instinctively turned to the doorway to chastise Logan at ruining the good fun, until she realized it was her growling and both girls were staring at her.
"You've been spending too much time with Logan. You're starting to sound like him." Jubilee broke the tension with the joke and they all chuckled.
"I suppose you're right. I didn't even realize I was doing it." She grinned sheepishly. "He's a bad influence I guess."
Scott chose that moment to walk in the door and she greeted him with a cool nod. "Hey Scooter." That short phrase caused everyone to freeze. Marie never called Scott by Logan's nicknames. Well, except when… Marie got a look of sudden fear in her eyes and mumbled an apology before darting out of the kitchen.
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"Logan! Logan!" She was trying to keep herself from screaming and panicking as she ran through the door of her room, but she was holding on by a thread.
"Mrhmph. What?" he asked drowsily, struggling to wake up more as he saw the abject fear in Marie's eyes. He was definitely concerned with feeling so lethargic and his eyes immediately went to scan for threats as he tried to stand up and reached for Marie.
"NO!" she shrieked and nearly fell as she backed away from him. "Don't touch me!" She was starting to hyperventilate as she moved to the furthest wall from him, having severe flashbacks to right before she left home.
"Calm down, Marie. It's alright, I'll be there in a moment." The professor's serene voice was in her head but she was no longer entirely in her room at the mansion. She was in her room in Meridian, cowering in a corner as the first boy she ever kissed convulsed on her bed.
"Any time now, Chuck." Logan paced the floor in front of Marie, not making an attempt to get closer at this point, because it was just upsetting her more. But he was upset. He still felt sluggish and foggy and Xavier had not explained exactly what was going on, just that he would be there soon. He crouched near the end of the bed, trying to speak calmly to her, but all she would do is sob.
After what seemed like an unbearable length of time, their door opened and Storm and the Professor walked in. Logan stood up, giving Charles a pleading look before looking back at Marie, feeling helpless to fix whatever was wrong.
"Ahem." Storm coughed politely. Logan frowned and looked at her. She pointedly averted her eyes.
Logan growled, grabbing a pair of sweat pants. "More important things to worry about, Storm. Like why is Marie having a break down? And why did I feel drugged when she woke me up?" He shifted his gaze to Charles, waiting for the explanation.
Xavier shook his head and put up his hand in a 'not now' fashion, as he crouched down to communicate silently with Marie. "He's fine, Marie. It's alright, you didn't know."
"Oh god, I didn't mean to, I didn't want to hurt him, I'm so sorry Cody." Her mind kept repeating the same phrases over and over again. Charles winced at the emotional onslaught from the young woman.
Charles reached out with his mind and forced the flow of thoughts through her brain to a standstill. "Marie. Look at me. You're at the mansion. Logan is fine. We're going to figure this out."
She blinked in confusion, her eyes thick with tears, staring at the Professor. Her eyes cut over to Logan, looking at her, fear shining in his eyes. Not of her, but for her. She looked back to Professor X. "How can this be happening?" she said out loud.
He shook his head in sympathy. "I don't know, we'll get you to medlab and figure it out." He had his suspicions, but he thought she could quite possibly do with a sedative before she heard them.
Storm came over to Marie, holding her arms out to her carefully to show they were gloved and wearing a long sleeve shirt, and helped her up. Marie stood, gripping Storm's arm tightly, walking by as if a zombie.
"What the fuck is going on?" Logan demanded after Marie left the room, glaring at the Professor.
"I'm afraid, Logan, that the Cure may not have been as permanent as Marie would have hoped." Charles followed Storm and Marie out of the room, leaving Logan to stand there in shock.
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Logan had thrown on a long-sleeved shirt and grabbed his leather gloves hastily as he padded barefoot down the halls, heading to the medlab. Scott moved quickly over to him. "I heard Marie scream. Where is she?"
"Taking her to medlab." Logan said impatiently, brushing off the deformed former leader of the X-Men.
"What did you do?" Accusation was clear in his tone.
Logan rounded on him, punching him quickly without thought in the gut, really not in the mood for talking. Scott gasped and collapsed and Logan kept walking without looking back until he was in the medlab with Marie.
She shied away from him initially but he forced a smile, "Hey, I came prepared, I have protection." He put his gloves on and sat close to her, putting his arm around her and resting his head carefully on her hair.
"I'm sorry, Logan," she said dully, leaning onto him.
"I'm fine, darling', just worried about you." He spoke quietly into her ear.
She shook her head, "No. I mean…You know what this means." She looked up at him with agonized eyes.
He was very worried because he had never seen her look so defeated and crushed before. It was almost as if he could see her soul dying in front of him. "Doesn't make any difference. Still love you, you still love me; it'll be ok." His quiet words did little to ease the anguish she felt, but she let him hold her as they waited for Hank.
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"It's quite remarkable, really," Beast began, then realized what he was talking about and sobered quickly. "It seems the mutation was not completely eradicated with cure. I won't know for sure unless I had bodies to test on,"
Wolverine cleared his throat impatiently, "Get to the point."
"I suspect that certain organs may not have been completely affected by the cure. Maybe it was her bones, it's possible the liver…" He looked up, realizing he was going off on a tangent again. "But it would seem as though her body is re-establishing itself as a mutant. She's mosaic right now." Wolverine gave him a blank look to tell him to explain that.
"What I mean is that parts of her are mutated, parts are not. I would guess that, given time, her entire body will revert back to the previous state."
Marie sat stone-faced with Logan's arm around her as Beast continued on about time lengths and probabilities and manifestations. She felt bile coming up her throat and Logan quickly responded by grabbing a trashcan for her to throw up in, holding her hair back from her face.
Her mutation was coming back. Hank might as well have told her she had six months to live. Strike that, Marie would have preferred that to what he was telling her now. She was losing her ability to touch.
She was acutely aware of Logan's arm around her, trying to comfort her. She couldn't ask Logan to deal with this. She knew him and she knew his mind, it wouldn't be fair to ask that of him. When he whispered to her, "Darlin', let's go back to our room," she nodded, allowing him to lead her.
Vaguely, as Logan led her out of the medlab, she heard Hank muse to Charles, "I wonder if this means everyone who was 'cured' will be reverting?"