CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE:

OCUPATIONS PART 1

AN: I wanted to make this a SUPER long chapter to make up for how long it took me to update, but I'm still at a block about what to do with Bunny, so I figured I'd just post this for you guys in the meantime. I'm calling the chapters 'Occupations' because it's about what the different characters are doing.

LAST TIME:

"You fight well, friend Victor. You are clearly worthy of Valhalla."

Victor eyed him suspiciously. "I didn't think I caused THAT much brain damage."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000

NICK FURYS INFINITY LAB
BERMUDA TRIANGLE

VICTOR CREED

In his MANY years of experience in battle, in wars, in fighting, Victor Creed had NEVER had one of his living victims come up and compliment him on his mastery of ripping people apart, so he wasn't kidding when he commented on the state of Thors brain damage. The man had a FLAP OF SKIN dangling from his FACE for crying out loud!

"What can ya say? He's a blonde." Tony offered by way of explanation, wincing when Steve turned to glare at him. "No offense, cap."

"Thor is an Asgardian," Nick Fury offered as a better explanation. "They value a good fight above all things. To them to die of old age, a 'straw death' as they call it, is the worst thing that could happen to a man."

Victor snorted. "Vikings….." Not that he couldn't relate. He turned away from the blonde warrior and sniffed the air, grateful that his sense of smell had returned. "Well, one'eye, didya find Lewis Evans or not?" he demanded of Nick Fury.

The Super-Spy drew himself up, stood straighter, obviously trying not to look like a total weakling beside the blonde behemoth. "Attempts to contact his cell and house-phone failed. He has no family to speak of except for a daughter who's away in college at Sara Lawrence. We activated the tracker that every one of my employees has inserted at their acknowledgment, however the signal turned up in a garbage can in New York."

Standing quietly out of the way, Steve Aswell withdrew his state-of-the-art cell phone and began typing in a few texts.

Victor gave a curt nod, signaling that he understood. "Alright, then, as I said before, one'eye, get all yer people in here, I wanna get a good sniff of all of'em."

"B-blood hound….." Tony mumbled under his breath, blue lips curved up in a smile.

Victor rolled his eyes and glared at the Man of Iron. "WHAT ARE YOU ALL STILL DOING THERE!? GET MOVE'N!"

Steve Rogers sighed and motioned to his 'team'. "Come on men….and lady. Fury, where IS your med-lab here?"

Nick Fury pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling another headache coming on. Then he snapped his fingers and a woman who appeared to be in her thirtys with red hair stepped up, looking shell-shocked.

"Yes, Captain Fury?"

"Take these men and lady to the med lab, Raquell." The spy ordered.

'Raquell' nodded. "Of course, Captain. Follow me, please." The red-head blanched at the sight of skin hanging from Thors face, but moved with quick efficiency, the others following.

Victor snorted to himself as he watched them go, increasingly glad that the rag-tag group of heroes wasn't part of his pack; he had enough cubs to worry about without having to take care of a smart-mouthed millionaire, and a guy who didn't seem to understand when he needed to get medical help.

Then he glared at the super-spy. "Well? Get yer people in here!"

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000

XAVIERS SCHOOL FOR GIFTED YOUNGSTERS

ROGUE

It was a dream. That was the only possible explanation. There was NO WAY her crush of so many years, her one true love, had finally, FINALLY opened his eyes to see how she felt about him.

It had been a dream of hers for years upon years, ever since finding herself in the back of Logans truck, trying to stowaway; Logan would realize that she wasn't a little girl anymore, see how she felt about him and ask her to be his wife, maybe while they took a walk in the woods Logan loved so much, or while she brought him an iced tea as they worked on their motorcycles.

But those dreams had been just that, dreams.

No matter how long she dreamed of it, yearned for it, her Canadian Feral refused to see what was right infront of him….until now…..Unless this was another dream…..

Rogue let herself be lead out into the hallway where Logan shut the door, then sat cross-legged on the floor infront of it, gently tugging her down so that she was sitting on his lap…On…His…..LAP!

The Southern belle immediately felt a mass of what could only be described as 'warm-fuzzies' fill her body from her current position. Yes, this was most definitely a dream. There was no way she would be lucky enough for this to happen in real life.

"-MARIE!"

Marie Darkholm, aka Rogue, started. "Yeah, Logan?"

Logan let out a huff of relief. "Geez Marie, I called yer name several times."

Marie leaned up against his chest. "Ah'm sorry, sugah. Ah was just thinkin' about how this is the most realistic dream ah've ever had."

Logan arched an eyebrow at her, looking definitely worried. "Marie, darlin', yer not dreaming."

Rogue gave a small smile. "Ah have to be."

Logan frowned. "Why do you say that?"

"Because it's the only way you would ever recognize that ah'm all grown up now. That ah love ya. That we're meant ta be together."

That put pain, guilt, in Logans brown eyes and Rogue instantly sought to soothe it. "Oh, don't be that way, Wolvie."

"Marie….." Logan swallowed hard. "…..Marie, yer not dreamin', darlin. This is real."

Rogue gave him a small humoring smile making the feral roll his eyes.

Then, Logan took desperate measures. He fisted one hand in his Maries-his Marie, HIS—long brown hair and crushed his lips to hers, hard. His tongue pushed past her lips to take over her mouth, dueling her into submission. When they finally parted he regarded her swollen lips with no small amount of pride. "Still feel like a dream, darlin?"

Rogue-Marie's big brown eyes were huge as she gaped at him. "B-b-but…..Logan….Why NOW? H-How do you know?"

Logan began to rub her back in soothing circles, starting up his purr. His mate, his Marie, was too stressed for his liking, and, it seemed like she was in a bit of shock as well, having believed this to be a dream.

Guilt, an ever-familiar parasite, hit the Canadian hard. Guilt that he hadn't recognized that Marie was his mate earlier…or maybe more that he HAD and had just kept himself away, because there was no way he was good enough for her. Heck, he STILL wasn't good enough for her, but the cat was out of the bag now, so to speak.

"Victor." Logan grunted and Marie arched a skeptical eyebrow at him.

"Your brother?"

He nodded. "Seeing him…..seeing him with Cassie. Watching that big psychopath take care of her…..Victor has ta have tons of people out gunnin' for him. Even more than I probably do. But, still, he doesn't leave her."

Rogue sighed. Maybe this wasn't a dream after all. She reached out and began to run her hands through the Wolverines spiky hair. "Sugah, ya aren't STILL worried about that are ya?"

"Do you have ANY idea how many enemies I have, Marie?" Logan asked, his eyes dead serious. "Magneto, Stryker, not to mention those who I probably pissed off that I can't even remember. I'm not exactly safe—"

Rogue rolled her eyes, ready to begin the familiar rebuttal, when Logan cut her off—

"—but if that fleabag can have whole armies goin' after him and still take care of his mate, than there's no reason why I can't be with mine."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000