Just Hold Me Close

He felt when she woke up, felt her stretch and then stop with the unmistakable actions of someone who's aching more than they're accustomed to. "Bathroom's clean, you wanna soak for a bit," He offered, brushing his lips over her forehead. "That'll help with the muscle aches."

Her soft laugh was rueful, "I should have known you'd notice me waking up. I was trying to let you sleep."

"And waste a minute with you? I'll sleep when I'm dead." He chuckled, the sound rusty, even in his ears and was rewarded with a poke from one delicate looking finger.

"Don't you dare talk like that," Her tone was unamused and he opened his eyes to find her glaring at him. "You're not gonna die for a good long time."

"I'll figure out a way darlin', the minute you're gone." He wasn't going to argue, that was pointless. It was just the way he was. She was his, he was hers, and without her, he'd have no reason to stay in the world.

"Well you're stuck with me for as long as you'll have me," She pushed herself into a sitting position, wincing slightly and he frowned.

"Stay there baby." He bussed her cheek with his mouth as he hauled his heavy body out of the bed and into the bathroom, first to use the facilities then to run a hot bath. A sprinkle of the powdered witch hazel made the water smell like herbs but he knew it would ease the aches. When he returned to the bedroom he was pleased to see she was still on the bed, half reclined. Scooping her up was easy she was so damn light.

Settling her in the tub and helping her pile her hair upon her head meant letting go and that was harder. But he finally got her reclined in the almost too hot water, knowing she'd feel better in a bit. "You feel like you need to see McCoy?" He asked finally. He could smell that there was a little blood, but nothing like he would if he'd torn her.

"I don't think so. I ache but I'm not in pain, if that makes any sorta sense." She smiled at him. "You okay sugar? You seem a little…off kilter."

"Guess I'm just waiting for something to go wrong." He shrugged and put the lid down on the toilet before taking a seat on the floor next to the tub and mirroring her position, his back to the wall. "And I guess my mind's kinda figuring a few things out. Stuff I'd let myself gloss over before, or was busy and didn't quite catch."

"That lost time." Marie nodded. "I know you got the impression that I called you three weeks after Alcatraz….it was more like six months." She smiled at him gently, "You're lucky Victor found me. He saved my life. Got me to a phone."

"Sabretooth?" He jolted so hard at that he nearly dented the wall behind him with his skull. "My brother? He found you."

"Yeah," She sighed. "I was pretty fucked up. But so was he really. Told me he might have left me where he found me but he owed you. Guess he figured the best way to apologize for all the crap on Lady Liberty was to help me."

"He sounded…surprised to hear from me, when I called him about Emma." Logan admitted. "He sounded different."

"He didn't say much but I think…something happened to him, around the time you two split, something bad. He said something about giving in to the animal for too long." Marie tilted her head when Logan's breath caught. "I guess you know what that means?"

"Yeah…" He nodded slowly. "Kinda hard to explain but…it means Victor's…well he's got the thinking and planning part of his brain back. He's not gonna be a one man slaughterhouse without discrimination."

"So the Sabretooth we've been dealing with hasn't been thinking ahead?" Marie shuddered. "That's a scary thought sugar."

"Best way I can explain is...ferals...its easy for us to get out of balance, too much civilization, or too little, we get..." Logan shook his head. "Victor's life...he grew up harder than me. I can't remember everything, but I remember that. The Sabretooth, its more bloodthirsty than the Wolverine, maybe because people have never been anything like kind to him. It's easier for him to lose himself to that side of his nature. Used to be being brothers was enough to help him stay in check. But too many wars, too many years of people being ugly to each other, and to us... he started to get jealous of anyone I cared about beside him. " He sighed. "I didn't have the patience I should have, told him I was done and took off. Probably about the worst thing I could've done to him."

He could smell Marie's sorrow and sympathy for his brother and guessed that Victor had been his usual crass, blunt, self but he hadn't actually hurt her. She smiled slightly and shifted in the bath, "He was different, like I said, he didn't apologize or anything but the last time I saw him, he'd have killed me as soon as looked at me."

"Marie...what happened?" He looked at her worriedly. "Something happened. I mean, your eyes are green. They were brown before. I thought maybe it was the Cure but...I'm guessing not."

Her sigh was heavy and she nodded. "The Cure... it was real. At least for most people I guess. But apparently some mutations are more interesting than others. For me it was more like...a lure. Victor didn't want to be Cured but they'd caught him somehow and he was too...unique to let go. The doctors...I think they were reporting to higher ups because they didn't give me the Cure right away. They sedated me and shipped me off to some lab."

He couldn't help the growl that escaped his throat at the thought of his Marie in a lab, being tortured the way he'd seen others tortured. The way people had tortured him. "Oh god...darlin'..."

"Well, it wasn't pleasant... but I managed." Marie sighed and let her head rest on the edge of the tub. "They made me absorb people...and did some of what they called 'genetic therapy' trying to make me more..."

"More what?" The words escaped him in a snarl before he could stop himself. "Sorry."

"More me, I guess." Marie smiled wryly. "It wasn't like they took a lot of time to explain their aims. But they wanted to make me retain the mutations permanently. They did something...it activated every mutation I'd ever take in."

"Did it hurt you?" He managed to keep his voice quieter this time, less of an outburst at least.

"It...wasn't comfortable." She shrugged, sending ripples through the water around her. "But it did help me to learn control. I wanted it to stop. It ached...and everything... it was like everything was happening all at once. I just...apparently went nearly catatonic but...it shut down my skin, the mutations, everything."

"You learnt to control it because it was too much..." Logan shook his head. "I shoulda been there. I should never have let you go." It wasn't the first time he'd wanted to kick his own ass when it came to failing to take care of Marie but it was the first time he was seriously trying to figure out how to do it.

"If you hadn't sugar...I might never have gotten control of it." She smiled at him gently. "Anyhow...they made me absorb someone until she died...that's why my eyes are green now. That's why I needed your help...why I needed to borrow the cabin. Victor got me up there. He told me you'd called him for someone to help me almost right away."

"I'm so sorry baby...I shoulda..." He shook his head. "Why didn't anyone tell me? You were gone for six months and nobody bothered to tell me? Did they look for you?"

She shook her head, "Hank tried. He and Mystique actually, she got her power back and they tried to find me once she was recovered. Everyone else...well they figured I'd gotten the Cure and gone home. As if that would have ever happened."

That was something he had to wrap his head around, the idea that Mystique had actually joined forces with Hank. The shapeshifter was almost as vicious as Sabretooth but Hank was the polar opposite, a kinder man he'd yet to meet besides Xavier. "Storm didn't try and look? None of the others? Not even Drake or Jubilee?"

Marie shrugged again. "I guess they had other things to do." She smiled slightly and tilted her head to look at him. "How about you help me outa this tub and we'll go see Hank. He might be able to explain what happened to you that you lost all that time."

Logan looked at her and smiled slowly, "Darlin' if you think me helping you out of that tub is gonna put me in mind to have my head examined...you better think again." He let his eyes roam over her exposed skin in the cooling water and was rewarded with a blush and a little smile of her own. "Or could you use a little break still?"

She stood up in the water and reached for a towel, still blushing but making no effort to hide her body from his frankly appreciative gaze. "What do you think sugar?"

He got to his feet, maybe a bit less gracefully than usual, but she didn't seem to mind from the way her scent quickened and she didn't protest when he pulled her out of the tub and carried her back to bed.

Author's Note: So I think maybe two more chapters? At the most. But I wanted them to have a little talk about Marie and her changes. And in the next chapter we'll find out what happened with Logan.