Nibbling at her bottom lip, Marie watched her boys sleeping from the doorway of their bedroom. Both of them were sleeping so peacefully. Even Hunter who had twenty-five stitches in his right arm was out cold. It was only about seven o’clock at night, but Marie didn’t think that they’d be up until the next morning.
Even though the entire situation with Logan broke her heart, there was an upside to it. Despite his memory loss, Logan still instinctively protected his sons. He had fought to keep them safe from Sabertooth, putting himself at risk in the process. The sight of Logan fighting to protect the family he couldn’t remember was what Marie had woken up to following the blow to the head she had received from Sabertooth. She had a bit of a goose egg on the back of her head and a dark bruise on her left cheek, but she was otherwise all right. Watching Logan fighting had made Marie forget all about the headache that was pounding in her skull.
“How are you holding up?”
Marie jerked at the sound of Ororo’s voice, startled by her sudden appearance. “Ya scared me, ‘Ro. Ah didn’t hear ya come in.”
The weather goddess smiled as she walked across the room to stand next to Marie. “I came to see how you were fairing. In all that’s been going on, you’ve pretty much been ignored.”
“Ah’m fine,” Marie mumbled, turning her head back to watch Hunter and Chase as they slept. “Mah head doesn’t hurt at all anymore.”
“I’m not talking about your head. I’m talking about your heart,” Ororo said softly.
Marie felt the tears build up almost instantly. “Mah heart feels like it’s been blasted inta thousands o’ pieces Logan didn’t even fight me when Ah took off his weddin’ ring. Not one bit. He just sat there watchin’ me.... It feels like a part o’ me has died.”
Ororo wrapped her arms around the younger woman, holding her as she burst into tears. “You are too much a part of Logan for his heart to forget you. His mind may have, but his heart never will.”
“Tell that t’ Logan,” Marie whimpered. “`Cause it sure as hell didn’t look that way t’ me. It looked like Logan had completely fergotten ‘bout me.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Ororo said as she stroke the other woman’s hair.
Marie lifted her head. “Whadaya mean?”
“Well, according to the Professor, he felt a great deal of mental distress from both you and Logan at the same time though you were the only one in any real distress,” Ororo told Marie, a soft smile playing on her face.
“Y’ mean... y’ mean Logan felt what Ah was feelin’? Like he normally does...? Ya sure yer not just sayin’ that t’ make me feel better?” Marie demanded, hopeful yet, at the same time, very wary.
“If I was only interested in making you feel better I would have told you something much more hopeful than that,” Ororo assured her. “I could stay here with the boys if you would like to go speak with him.”
Marie considered that for a moment then shook her head. “Ah’m not sure. Ah think Ah’ll just stay here with Hunter an’ Chase. Ah wanna be here in case they wake up.”
“As you wish. You know where to reach me if I am needed,” Ororo offered. The other woman gave Marie a quick hug before leaving the suite.
Alone once again, Marie shut the door to Hunter and Chase’s room and headed to the bedroom she shared with Logan. As soon as she stepped into their bedroom she was assaulted by the smell of cigars and Logan’s cologne. Tears in her eyes, Marie staggered towards the bed and flopped down on her stomach. She grabbed hold of Logan’s pillow, clutching it to her chest and inhaling a scent that was purely Logan. She could smell him on it even though it had been two nights since he had slept on it.
No matter how hard Marie tried not to, she burst into tears. Reaching into the pocket of her jeans, Marie pulled out Logan’s wedding ring. It was a plain, sterling silver ring. Logan hated gold so Marie had opted for silver. On the inside of the band, she’d had the jeweler inscribe a message to Logan. A place and a date.
Laughlin City, November 30, 1999.
Marie clutched that ring tightly in her hand. So tight that she could feel the indents that it created in her palm. When she opened her hand, Marie knew that she’d have the outline of a circle on her hand. Marie didn’t care though. All that she could see, think, feel and smell was Logan. The small pain that the ring was causing as she clutched it so tightly was minor compared to all that.
“Ya promised you’d never ferget me!” Marie sobbed into the pillow.
“They could come back here and take me again. They could cut me open and give me a whole new skeleton. They could pull whatever kinda shit they wanted to on me, but they wouldn’t be able to make me forget you. That’s just not possible, darlin’. Nothing could make me forget you.”
Six years ago, Logan had promised her that he’d never forget her. Never leave her. It was the first thing he had said to her upon his return from his journey up north to search of his past. It was the only time in the almost seven years that they’d known each other that they’d been apart for even a night.
Until now.
Marie didn’t even know where Logan was at this point and it was killing her.
“Are you sad, Mommy?”
Marie’s tears stopped abruptly at the sound of Chase’s sleepy questions. Rolling over so that she was facing him, Marie held her arms out to the little boy who bolted across the room and jumped onto the bed. Marie held him close, pressing a kiss against the top of his head.
“Where’s Daddy?”
“Yer Daddy had t’ go away fer a little while,” Marie whispered, holding back the rush of tears that was threatening to overwhelm her. “But he’ll be back soon, sugah. Ah promise.”
“But I want Daddy to come back now,” Chase insisted, snuggling deeper into her arms.
Marie couldn’t help but smile at that. She could all but hear the pout in Chase’s voice as he spoke. “Ah want yer Daddy t’ come back now, too, but we’ve gotta be patient. He’s real busy right now an’ prob’ly can’t wait t’ get back t’ us either.”
~*~*~*~*~
“Oh God! Erinne! I thought that you were dead! I thought I’d never get to see you again,” Logan rambled as he held his wife’s slender body tight against his own. He squeezed his eyes shut tight, forcing back the tears that he could feel building up inside of him. “God, I’ve missed you so much....”
“I’ve missed you too, Logan. I was so scared that they’d killed you,” Erinne whispered in his ear.
Something about her didn’t smell right. Logan noticed that right away. His mind kept telling him that Erinne was supposed to smell like pine needles and the wind. Logan immediately pushed that thought away, though. After everything that had been done to him, Logan knew that he couldn’t trust his memories. He could only go by what he knew at that moment. The past was a hazy mist for him that he couldn’t completely penetrate.
Logan felt Erinne start to pull away from him. She didn’t stray far, staying within the circle of his arms. Erinne had pulled back only far enough so that she could see his face. She was cupping his cheek lightly with her right hand and smiling up at him, a wide, brilliant smile that Logan remembered vividly. Her eye coloured seemed wrong, though. Logan remembered the smile, sure enough, but he could have sworn that Erinne’s eyes were darker. Deeper.
“I am glad that my associates were able to locate you,” Erik said, interrupting their reunion.
Erinne turned to Erik then, giving him the smile that Logan was sure was only supposed to be for him. “Thank you for rescuing Logan. I love him so much and I can’t bear the thought of him being hurt in any way.”
“Us mutants must stick together, my dear Erinne,” Erik told her and Logan could tell that he was seconds away from giving another big speech. Instead, though, he turned his head and smiled at the person standing in the door. “And here we have your valiant rescuers. I trust that Toad and Quicksilver behaved themselves and didn’t try to take advantage of their brother’s wife.”
“You worry too much, Father,” the white-haired kid said, leaning casually against the doorway. “Erinne over there was too worried about her pet wolf to even give us the time of day. Isn’t that right, Mortimer?”
Logan jerked slightly at the name. Mortimer was what his sons had called the frog they had been chasing through the hallway of the mansion.
“She’s a very devoted woman,” Mortimer agreed.
Something about the look on his face told Logan a different story, but he shook it off as well. His senses were still a little frazzled after everything that had happened. Still, Logan held Erinne a little tighter in the wake of Mortimer’s somewhat lecherous smile.
Erinne turned to him then and pressed a kiss to his chin. “Don’t worry about it, Logan. I love you. You’re the only man for me. Got it?”
Logan nodded his head and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ve got it. I love you too, darlin’. More than anything.”
He’d said that before. Logan was sure of it. He knew that he’d said that exact phrase before. Logan held Erinne a little tighter, unwilling to let her go any time soon.
“Ahh, Mystique. I was wondering where you’d gotten to,” Erik said suddenly.
Logan looked up in time to see a blue skinned woman walk into the room.