Not Mine Alone

Chapter two: Getting Hit With A Clue-by-Four


Logan found himself sitting outside on one of the stone benches strewn around the expansive grounds of the mansion, chewing on the end of an unlit cigar. He was still in shock from the scene he'd witnessed in the showers. Scott and 'his Marie'. Yeah, he really had considered her 'his' all this time without even realizing or admitting it to himself, but apparently Marie didn't consider herself his sole property. Logan had never felt jealousy in his whole life, or at least what he could remember of his life, anyway. He was the one sparking jealousy in other people, never on the receiving end and he didn't like it one bit.

He had lots of questions to ask himself about Marie, questions he knew he had to answer honestly. What were his true feelings about Marie? Was it merely possessiveness, protectiveness, lust, or love? Jean had made Logan aware of Marie's crush on him after the incident with Magneto on the Statute of Liberty and he'd dismissed it at the time as a by-product of tntenntense situation they had found themselves in and nothing more. He'd left for three months on a fruitless search for his past before reluctantly giving up and returning to the one place in more than fifteen years he could actually call home.

Marie had welcomed him back enthusiastically and they had fallen into a best-buds routine that seemed to suit them both, neither one seeming to require or expect anything more from the other. Logan had openly pursued many other women without seeming to spark any ill feelings from Marie. Had she simply been covering, pretending not to care, when in reality she had been shattered by his actions? Had he been blind to her true feelings for him? And had she finally given up and turned to someone else, someoho aho apparently reciprocated her feelings? And why had Scott engaged in an affair? Scott and Jean's relationship appeared to be going along smoothly - didn't it? It had even survived the bump in the road of Logan's initial flirting with Jean and her not discouraging it too adamantly. Jean did spend extraordinary amounts of her time in the medlab and there was the issue of the never-ending engagement and the non-wedding. Had all of that contributed to Scott's dissatisfaction with the relationship and caused him to look elsewhere?

Logan didn't need to ask himself why Scott had chosen Marie - she was without a doubt the most beautiful girl at the mansion. Woman he reminded himself, no longer a child, but a woman. His failure to acknowledge that very important detail until now may have cost him a future, more intimate relationship with Marie - one he hadn't realized that he'd even wanted until someone else beat him to the punch. Logan felt like someone had just whacked him up-side the head with something extremely heavy as he realized he wanted Marie, needed Marie, loved Marie - yeah, he loved her - always had - from the moment he'd first eye eyes on her in that bar in Laughlin City. There's nothing like getting a really big wake-up call to make a person acknowledge such an awesome truth.

He had to give careful consideration to how he was going to handle the knowledge of the affair. He knew he wasn't going to share his unpleasant discovery with Jean, no need to inflict that kind of unnecessary pain. He may not have those feelings for Jean after all, but that didn't mean he didn't want to protect her from heartache. Apparently, Jean was completely oblivious to even a hint of impropriety between the two, or at least had been until his stupid comments in the dining room. Maybe she'd dismissed it as no big deal. What a dumbass he'd been. He hoped he hadn't shoved his foot too far into his mouth and aroused her suspicions. No, he had to go this alone and his dealings had to be only with the guilty parties at this point. But how? Confront Marie? Scott? Both? Try to out-seduce Scott and woo Marie away from him? Did she even want to be seduced and wooed away by him or was she happy with Scott? No, he couldn't imagine Marie being satisfied with the status of other woman for too long. Or maybe Scott was going to leave Jean to be with Marie and was testing the waters before making any big decisions?

That last thought sent shudders coursing through Logan. Was it too late for them? Had his blindness to his true feelings cost him his future, their fu? W? Whatever plan of action he was going to initiate, it had to be done quickly, before anything life-altering, can't-go-back kind of thing happened. He had to scope out the situation with Marie and now. Logan stood up and went in search of the object of his newly acknowledged love.