Hearing her pained yelp, Logan launched himself from the bed. He barely even noticed that throbbing pain in his knuckles, fully believing that he had killed her. She had been so nice to him. Sending the crowd of people away, taking care of his hands, holding him and taking softly to him to keep him calm.
Stumbling around the darkened room, Logan eventually tripped over something and fell to the floor. He cried out at the impact, twisting his right wrist slightly as he struggled to avoid stabbing himself with the monstrous claws that shot out of his knuckles. Whimpering at the new pain, Logan scrambled into a dark corner. He curled in on himself as tightly as possible, wanting to hide from the other people that Marie had sent away earlier. They would hurt him for hurting her. The one with the strange glasses had seemed more than willing to hurt him when the other man thought he’d hurt Marie. Logan had wanted to tell him that he’d never hurt Marie, but he’d been too frightened to.
The darkness surrounding him dimmed slightly and Logan choked back a sob, knowing that they were going to hurt him then. To his completely surprise and amazement, it wasn’t angry fists that pounded into him, but soft, delicate hands that trailed over his shoulders.
“It’s all right, sugah. Nothin’ is gonna hurt ya. Yer safe now, Logan,” the voice whispered as Logan felt a pair of arms wrap around him.
Logan began to sob earnestly then, sagging into the welcoming arms. He tried to tell her that he hadn’t meant to hurt her, but nothing came out of his mouth except ragged cries of intelligible gibberish.
“Easy there, Logan. Ah’ve got ya now. Ah’ve got ya....”
Logan tried to wrench himself from the comforting arms, not believing himself worthy of such care, but was too weak to succeed. When he tried, they just held him tighter. Hands ran soothingly up and down his back as the quiet assurances were whispered in his ear. The tears seemed to go on forever, unable to comprehend that he was being offered such tenderness after doing something so horrible.
Logan received a gentle kiss on his temple then, “Calm down, Logan, yer gonna give yerself a headache soon.”
“Hur... hurt.... hurt y-you....” Logan final choked out, not daring to look in her eyes for fear of what he would see.
“Don’t worry ‘bout it, Logan. Ah’m fahn. You only scratched me a bit,” Marie tried to assure him, but Logan would have none of it.
Shaking his head, Logan pulled away from her, wrapping his arms around his drawn up legs and staring at his bare feet. “I hurt you. My claws came... came out and I-I.... I stabbed you. Stupid fucking things!”
As his rage exploded, the claws slid through the tender skin of his knuckles. Logan felt a momentary wave of dizziness from the pain, but quickly pushed it away. With an angry growl, Logan grabbed onto one of the razor sharp blades and began trying to pull it from his hand. He screamed in pain, but continued to pull, wanting to be rid of the wretched claws that had hurt Marie.
“Logan, don’t!” Marie shrieked, making a grab for his hands. She placed both her hands on his wrists and attempted to pull them apart.
Glancing up at her face momentarily, Logan was shocked by what he saw. Marie was scared. Not for herself, though. Marie was scared for him. For what he was doing to himself. In his shock, Logan’s grip on the blade slackened and Marie was able to pull his hands apart. The claws slid away almost instantly and Logan was left staring at his torn, bloodied hands which rested in his lap.
Unmindful of the blood, Marie pulled him into her arms. She held him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. Logan was desperate to hold her, but didn’t want to stain her with his blood so he let his hands remain on his lap.
“Gawd, Logan, what were ya thinkin’?” Marie chided when she pulled away from him. Carefully, she took his right hand-- the one he’d grabbed the claw with --and cradled it lightly in her hands.
“I hurt you with them,” was the only explanation Logan could think to offer her, a single tear sliding down his damp cheek as he spoke.
Marie gave him a watery smile then, slipping a hand behind his head and pulling his face down so that she could press a kiss to his forehead. Logan let his eyes fall shut, relishing the comfort Marie gave him. For the most part, he forgot about the pain that radiated from his hands and instead concentrated on the warm feeling she created in him.
All too soon, Marie pulled away. “Let’s go inta the bathroom so Ah can clean ya up.”
Unable to really use his hands at that point, Logan was forced to rely on Marie to help him up. It was only as she was standing up in front of him that he noticed the scratches on her hip. There wasn’t much blood and Logan was incredibly grateful for that. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her. He would rather hurt himself than his sweet Marie.
Completely drained both emotionally and physically, Logan allowed Marie to lead him into the bathroom. He whined only slightly when she left the room to get the first aid kit which she had used earlier when he had first woken up.
Marie was just unwrapping his left hand when the door to the bedroom burst open and two people burst into the room. Logan recognized the woman as the one Marie had called Jean and the other person was the man with the glasses. The one who wanted to hurt him.
“Rogue, what happened?” Jean demanded as she burst into the bathroom.
“We just had a little accident,” Marie assured the older woman, giving her a quick smile.
Jean would not be so easily pacified. “Something happened, Rogue. Logan was screaming in my head. Logan is normally very good at blocking his thoughts so I assumed that something bad was happening.”
“Logan’s still a bit frazzled, is all. He’s not used ta guardin’ his thoughts,” Marie explained, running a soft hand up and down Logan’s arm. “It was prob’ly just his nightmare ya got a free samplin’ of. It’s over now so you an’ Scott can go back ta sleep. Ah’ve got everythin’ under control.”
“Rogue, you’re bleeding.”
Those were the first words Scott had spoken since entering the room. Logan whined when he heard it, fearing what Scott would do to him.
Marie flashed Scott a bright smile. “It’s nothin’, Scooter. Logan’s still gettin’ used ta those claws of his again and they tend ta pop out when he’s scared. Needless t’ say that nightmare scared him quite a bit. Ah just got knicked a wee bit.”
“Then what’s with all the blood?” Scott prompted, pointing her bloodied clothes.
Marie simply shrugged her shoulders. “Like Ah said, we had an accident. But Ah’ve got it under control so ya’ll can go back t’ bed.”
“Are you sure?” Jean prodded, inching her way closer to the pain.
Releasing Logan’s hand, Marie walked across the bathroom and started to push the Jean and Scott from the room. Logan could hear a mumbled conversation going on between them and tensed. He was fearful that at any moment Scott was going to come barreling into the bathroom and finish him off for hurting Marie.
To Logan’s ultimate relief, it was only Marie who came back in.
“It’s nice ta know they care, but they can be a tad bit smotherin’ at time,” Marie said softly as she picked Logan’s hand back up.
Turning on the faucet, Marie then began to clean his hands up. She was as gentle as possible. Cupping small amounts of water in her palm before lightly dripping it onto the mangled remains of his palm. Noticing the pain for the first time, Logan cried out softly. He tried to pull away, but Marie held his wrist firmly.
“Shhhh, Logan. The sooner ya let me do this, the sooner it’ll be over,” Marie murmured as she dabbed at the cuts with the remains of his old bandages.
Wanting to distract himself from the pain, Logan asked her a question that had been confusing him all night. “How come everyone calls you Rogue? You told me your name was Marie.”
Marie smiled at him and grabbed a towel to dry his hand with. “Mah name is Marie. Rogue is kinda a nickname of sorts. Everyone calls me it ‘cept you. To you, Ah’m Marie.”
Logan scrubbed tiredly at his eyes with the heel of his other hand. “How come I don’t call you Rogue?”
“Ya know what, Ah’m really not all that sure,” Marie admitted after a few moments silence. “Ya always called me either Marie or kid. Ah hated it when ya called me kid.”
“You’re not a kid,” Logan told her honestly as was surprised to see Marie’s cheeks turn red. He got worried and whispered, “Was I not supposed to say that?”
Marie shook her head rapidly, a smile appearing on her face. Placing his right hand back on his lap, Marie grabbed hold of his left one and began cleaning the blood from it. “Ah was just surprised. Ah’m not used ta you sayin’ what’s on yer mind so readily.”
Logan furrowed his brows. “I never told you things?”
“Yer normally more secretive ‘bout what’s goin’ on in yer head,” Marie informed him.
Logan went to go say something but ended up yawning instead. He was exhausted. All that he wanted to do was fall back asleep, but a part of him was scared to. If he fell asleep, he could have more nightmares and he could accidentally hurt Marie again. The scratches had only been small this time, but there was no telling what could happen the next time he had a nightmare.
“Let’s go back t’ bed,” Marie declared, yawning herself, as she finished wrapping the bandage around his left knuckles. “Ah think we’re both about ready ta drop.”
Logan looked up at her fearfully, avoiding looking at the hand which she was holding out in his direction. “I don’t want to hurt you again.”
Marie gave him a reassuring smile and grabbed hold of his wrist, all but pulling him to his feet. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, sugah. Ah know what Ah’m doin’.”
True to her word, Marie found a way for them to lie on the bed without having to worry about Logan accidentally stabbing her with his claws.
Logan was stretched out on his side with Marie pressed against his back. Her arm was draped around his waist, holding him close. Logan felt instantly at peace and drifted back to sleep, safe and content in Marie’s arms.
He didn’t have any more nightmares that night.