For a while, all that Marie could do was stare at Erik in shock. A mutant. He could turn her into a mutant. She had never even thought that such a thing was possible. Never even considered it. Yet here Erik was telling her that not only was it completely possible, but that he was willing to perform the procedure on her.
“Yer not bein’ serious, are ya? Y’ can’t really make me inta a mutant?” Marie murmured, allowing Logan to pull her back into his arms.
Erik nodded his head, an excited glint in his eyes. “Quite easily, my dear. It is not as difficult as one would believe it to be. You need do nothing but stand as you are now. If you are willing, of course. The choice is up to you entirely.”
Marie was floored by the information she had just received. If anything, Marie would have thought Erik would have been searching for a way to remove the mutant factor from their genes. Never in a million years would Marie have thought that they would create a way to turn an ordinary human into a mutant.
“So, if Ah... if Ah wanted t’, Ah could be a mutant like ya an’ Logan?” Marie stammered, her mind not yet ready to comprehend what she was being told.
“If that is your choice, my dear,” Erik affirmed, smiling amicably at her. “You need not make a decision right away. I will leave you and Logan to discuss this. While you make that decision, the two of you have full access to the compound."
Marie could sense more than see Logan’s nod. He then released one hand from about her waist and hold it out towards Erik who immediately clasped hands with Logan.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done,” Logan said gruffly as he returned his arm to Marie’s waist. He gave her a quick squeeze, resting his chin on top of her head.
Marie was beginning to notice that Logan was a great deal more clingy since he had woken up. She had never been out of his sight and had barely been more than five feet from him at any point in time. Marie could understand Logan’s desire to stay close and found it very endearing. Smiling softly, Marie placed her hands over Logan’s which were resting comfortably on her stomach.
“I will see the two of you at lunch then. Someone will find you and bring you to the dining hall,” Erik said as he turned towards the door.
Once the door shut, Marie and Logan found themselves alone once again. Not the least bit inclined to move, Marie remained standing wrapped in Logan’s arms. it was a very comfortable place and Marie wouldn’t be upset if she never had to move again.
“What say we head out t’ the garden and find Boris?” Marie suggested, swaying back and forth slightly to attract Logan’s attention.
“Boris is here?” Logan asked, sounding just as shocked as Marie had been when Erik had told her about the dog’s presence.
Nodding her head, Marie slid out of Logan’s arms and strode across the room in search of her shoes. “Yep. ‘Parently he managed t’ follow us t’ the compound where they had us an’ was attackin’ some soldiers when Erik and his men arrived.”
“That is one brave dog you’ve got,” Logan said with a grin as he grabbed the black boots that Marie had bought for him the day before.
As Marie watched Logan pick up the boots, she was hit by how quickly events were taking place. She had found Logan barely after eight the morning two days before. The following morning around the same time the government soldiers had invaded her home and taken both her and Logan to some top secret compound where they proceeded to “test” Logan until around seven o’clock at night. Eleven hours of watching Logan suffer in what, to him, had been an endless nightmare. It was now nine o’clock the following morning. Just over forty-eight hours since she and Logan had met and already she was considering giving up her life as she knew it for him.
Marie was actually seriously considering joining Erik’s cause and becoming a mutant. While his doctors had been examining Logan upon their arrival the night before, Marie had had a long talk with Erik. It had started out pleasant enough, but had rapidly changed into a serious discussion about the rights up mutants and how they were being persecuted in much the same way that Negroes and Jews had been throughout past centuries.
It wasn’t until she had begun talking with Erik that Marie had actually thought about the plight of mutants. When she had been living in Mississippi, mutants were just something that wasn’t talked about. After moving to the Alkali Lake area, Marie had become so far removed from civilization that there had been no reason to think about it.
Then Boris had come across a half frozen man in the snow two morning ago.
Since then, Marie had had little else to think about besides mutants. From the moment she had first looked into Logan’s eyes, she had been instantly felt connected to the wounded man who could remember nothing of his past.
Now, Marie wouldn’t give Logan up for anything. Though she had never thought it was possible to feel so much for someone after such a short time, Marie was willing to admit that she was in love with Logan. However, he was in such a fragile state of mind, that she wasn’t going to burden him with such information yet. It was difficult, though.
Especially since Logan refused to take a shower unless she was there with him. The first time it hadn’t been so bad, but the one they had just finished was completely different. Feeling Logan’s body pressed up against her so intimately. She could feel every contour of his body and had to restrain herself from moving their relationship from the platonic to the sexual. Next time that might not be possible.
“Ya feelin’ better now that yer all showered up?” Marie asked as they walked hand in hand towards the garden that Erik had showed her the night before.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Logan nod. “I’m all right, I guess. I still feel a little odd, but I can’t figure out why.”
Marie knew why, but she didn’t think that she could tell Logan about it just yet. Not when he was still so traumatized from the procedures themselves. It wasn’t easy to tell someone that they had a skeleton of pure metal courtesy of a bunch of government sickos. It would be even harder to be the one being told that you had a skeleton of pure metal courtesy of a bunch of government sickos.
“With yer abilities ya’ll be healed up perfect by lunch,” Marie assured him, smiling in his direction.
Logan smiled back and gave her hand a squeeze. He came to a complete stop and pulled Marie around so that she was facing him. Without speaking, Logan reached out and slid his fingers through the thick strands of Marie’s hair. His eyes slid shut and, as his face inched closer to hers, Marie did likewise. She could feel Logan’s face brushing against hers, his lips trailing lightly over her skin.
“I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” Logan murmured, his lips brushing against Marie’s.
“Don’t worry ‘bout it, sugah. Ah didn’t do anythin’ Ah didn’t wanna do,” Marie told him, struggling to keep the hands that were on his waist from going anywhere else.
Logan’s forehead was pressed against hers, their noses side by side and his lips soft against hers as he spoke. “I still want to thank you. You did so much that you didn’t have to. There’s a lot I don’t know, but I know that most people wouldn’t do for me what you have. They probably would have just left me in the snow.”
“What makes you say that?”
Logan was silent for a moment, his hands sliding from Marie’s hair to trail down her back and pull her body closer to his. Close as possible and still be separate skin. “I know that cause you still trusted me even after we found out that I could very well kill you in my sleep. I tried to go away because I was so scared that I’d hurt you. But you... you somehow made me believe that I wouldn’t hurt you. I’m still not sure how you did it. but I thank you for it.”
Marie pressed a kiss against the corner of Logan’s mouth. “Ya don’t hafta thank me fer that, Logan. Ah trusted ya because Ah knew that ya wouldn’t do anythin’ t’ hurt me if ya could stop it. Yer too good t’ willingly hurt me.”
“I wish that I could believe in myself the way that you believe in me,” Logan lamented and Marie felt a wetness against her cheek. A tear. But since she wasn’t crying that meant Logan was.
This time when Marie kissed him, she pressed her lips against his fully, relishing the softness of his lips. She heard Logan moan and he clutched at her tighter, his mouth beginning to move under hers. Logan was kissing her back. Not wanting to push him too quickly, Marie contented herself with playing with his lips. Marie came to the immediate conclusion that Logan had an amazing mouth. His lips were so soft, so supple, that she could go on kissing him for hours.
“Thank you,” Logan groaned when the finally separated.
“Ya don’t hafta thank me fer that, Logan. Ah wanted t’ do that,” Marie told him, opening her eyes and grinning at him. Logan’s eyes were still shut and his face was slightly flushed.
Both of them were breathing heavily. Logan more so since he could not recall experiencing something like that before. He clutched at Marie tightly, his lips moving soundlessly as he struggled to put his thoughts to words.
“Come on, sugah,” Marie whispered, standing up on tiptoe so that she could speak into his ear. “Let’s go outside an’ find Boris.”
Still unable to form coherent words, Logan settled for nodding his head.
Logan allowed Marie to guide him through the vast hallways towards the garden that was in the centre of the complex. It was a beautiful courtyard that looked like one Marie had once seen in an old painting of a girl and her lover. Perfect in every way.
No sooner had Marie and Logan stepped into the sunlit garden than they were assaulted by a frenzy of barking. Marie barely had time to catch sight of Boris before he pounced on Logan. Logan was grinning from ear to ear as Boris proceeded to cover his face with slobbering kissing, laughing and scratching behind Boris’s ears.
As Marie watched, the two of them took off into the centre of the garden, playing, what Marie assumed, was a game of tag. Marie loved seeing Logan so happy and carefree. For a brief moment, she could actually believe that nothing had ever happened to him.
It was then that Marie made her decision.
Marie was going to go through with the procedure. If the government sickos ever showed up again, Marie was going to be able to help Logan defend himself. She was going to keep him from getting hurt ever again and help out others in the process.
Marie was going to become a mutant.