[Logan, Marie] And me I'm up there waiting

[x-rogue.livejournal.com]

The phonecall from Charles. The testing programs will be shut down, but pardons are still being negotiated.


When the phone rang, Marie pulled it out of her pocket and checked the incoming call number. The call was from one of the mansion's cellphones that identified itself as Xavier. She left her suite and headed upstairs to Logan's room as she answered the call.

"Hi," she said quietly. "What happened?"

She let herself into Logan's room and closed the door behind her.

Logan looked up as the door opened. She was on the phone. Xavier, it had to be. He kept his distance, at first, just watching to see what she needed.

Marie made her way over to lean on Logan, ducking her head under his chin, seeking comfort, knotting the fingers of her free hand in his shirt. Her heart was beating so hard she could hardly hear Charles' words.

Logan wrapped his arms around Marie's back, holding her tightly. He knew what Charles was doing, was trying to do, and why he was calling. All that was left was to find out whether it had worked or not. He petted her hair: slow, soothing strokes.

There wasn't much to say. Charles explained things clearly, carefully. The testing programs would be shut down, McKenna was outraged. Her name would be off the lists. Pardons would not come so easily, but he'd talk to the team about it when he got back. That was all she needed to know. Killing Stanley had been self-defense and what were they going to say? To charge her properly would open up a whole can of worms. No. What mattered was the labs, and the woman who'd tormented her, and others Marie had never seen. And that was all over now.

"Thank you," she managed to say when Charles finished talking. "I'll see you when you get home then." She closed the phone and dropped it to the floor, reaching to cling to Logan with that hand as well.

"Good news?" Logan asked quietly, not letting her go.

Marie nodded wordlessly, shocked by her own reaction to the news. There were so many layers to it, from her own terror at the idea of being retaken and strapped back down at the mercy of people who hated her to her revulsion at the idea that her own country would sanction that kind of treatment of anyone... and now it was over. No tables, no straps, no needles, no lectures, no more lying in bed at night knowing that for someone, somewhere, it was still going on.

"They didn't know," she said at last, almost inaudibly. "They're going to shut it down."

Logan thought about Stryker. They hadn't known about that either. There was so much this government didn't know about itself, it was amazing. He kissed her hair, humming quietly. "Good. Mebbe now, they'll be more careful 'bout lettin' that sorta thing happen in th'first place, even if it was behind their backs."

"Oh. God." She pressed herself against him, shaking. She was crying now, ragged sobs that wouldn't stop so she could speak, she had to talk when they allowed her to breathe and not before. "How could it happen and no one know, no one who would stop it?" She shook her head, she didn't want an answer.

Logan murmured his agreement with her question. He had no real answer to give her and instead scooped her up and carried her over to the chair. He sat down, settling her into his lap, and continued to stroke her hair.

Marie cried for a long time, until it felt like she'd run out of tears and worn her jagged sorrow down to smooth, featureless exhaustion. Curled up in Logan's lap with her cheek pressed to his wet shirt, she sighed deeply and shifted to pull off her gloves that she'd been wearing downstairs. She threw them into the wastebin by his desk, tucked one inside the other, and they landed neatly inside. "It's over," she said quietly. It felt like she had been released from something heavy, something holding her down.

"Mmhm," Logan murmured, nodding against the top of her head. "An' it ain't gonna happen again. Not t'you or anybody else, from the sounds of it."

"I didn't know," she said, a little vaguely. "I didn't know it was so... heavy. And now it's gone... I don't think I quite believe it. It's not all fixed, but the worst is gone. It's like I can breathe again." She looked up at him, her face pale and tear-stained. "I can think about living again. For real. Not just waiting."

"'m glad t'hear it, baby. You just let me know what y'decide t'do with yerself, an' I'll do what I can t'help y'make it happen." His voice was quiet, gentle, as though he sensed that she was still fragile and he didn't want to spook her.

"This," she said, reaching up to brush her fingers across his lips. "Just this. I don't know anything more than that. Silly me." She laughed a little at herself. "Future opens up and all I want is now."