Enough

***I don't own em, just borrowin' em for my own dirty little bit of enjoyment and, hopefully, for yours***

Chapter One

Marie sat on the roof edge of the south side of Xavier’s School for Gifted Children and sighed. Life wasn’t turning out to be what she’d always thought it should be. Her long time, on again, off again affair with Remy was finally over with for good. She had taken the steps and ended it herself, desperate to be rid of the drama that came part in parcel with life when you were involved with him. He never seemed to be able to relax unless he exhausted himself in bed first and was exhausting to be around. There was no time to just relax and watch a movie or to sleep in on a Sunday morning.

Then there was the smell of stale cigarettes. She hated that smell with a passion and he wouldn’t stop smoking for anything, no matter how much she begged. The only tobacco smell she seemed to be able to stomach was from a pipe or from Logan’s cigars. Everything else just turned her stomach.

She didn’t even want thing think about the whole Cajun thing. When she was younger she’d loved being called “Cher” every time he spoke to her. It had made her feel romantic and like she was special, but that had rubbed off after several years of him calling every woman he spoke to by that same term…or calling Jubilee “petite”. It set her nerves into raw overdrive. The lustrous appeal of the relationship had tarnished over the years, making her feel a bit jaded about love and all that went along with it. The constant fights and turmoil were, now, more than she was willing to put up with.

The edge of the roof seemed to be just about the only place she could find that wasn’t hell and gone from the mansion where she could find a little privacy and when you were one of maybe two or three people that could fly in the area, you could find privacy in the strangest places. She had a lot to mull over and little freedom, it seemed, to just sit down and think about what she wanted to do.

In the years since she and Logan had come to the school so many things had happened. She’d always loved Logan, but had never felt that the time was right for them. He’d had his thing for Jean, which he had, mercifully, grown out of. He’d finally come to see what a bitter and vindictive bitch she truly was and Logan hadn’t like discovering that his “Jeannie” was less than perfect. It had taken nearly ten years for his eyes to finally be opened wide and it hadn’t been pretty when it had happened. Logan had been the one that Jean Grey had turned to whenever things had gone south between her and Scott, treating him like her “go-to“ guy. Fortunately, it never lasted and she always ended up going back to the boyishly handsome youth. After a time, Scott had started looking elsewhere and had finally taken notice of Kitty Pride.

The romance that had blossomed between the two of them had almost had a fairy tale quality that left so many of the girls at the school in awe of the couple. Scott had swept Kitty off her feet and had proposed within weeks of their first date. They had taken up residence in one of the cabins rimming the lake at the west end of the school campus and were now five months into their first pregnancy, expecting a little girl that they planned to name Emmalie after Kitty’s grandmother.

Jean, of course, had been livid. She’d run straight to Logan and had flaunted the fact that they were sleeping together at anyone that would listen or pay even the remotest amount of attention to her. Marie had simply given Jean what Logan called “the eyebrow”. She had no patience for the older woman’s lack of maturity and grace and refused to give fuel to her narcissism. What kind of a tramp flaunted her sex life to anyone that would give her the time of day? Marie merely quirked a brow and turned her back whenever Jean started up on how wonderful her love life with Logan was, refusing to participate in furthering Jean’s need to be the center of attention.

When she was younger, Marie had indulged in jealousy over Logan’s “thing” for Jean, but as she got older she realized that it wasn’t anything that would last any longer than the day Logan finally saw the red head for what she was. Once that happened, she knew Logan would finally be free of Jean’s hold. Upon realizing this, her jealousy had faded and she‘d developed a small amount of sympathy for him, knowing that it was going to be a hard hit to him when it came.

The spectacle of the breakup had been monumental. Jean and kicked and screamed in a tantrum fit for a two year old, she had flung malicious barbs at Marie that bit her to the core. Apparently Logan had residual feelings for her that he’d never expressed and had somehow allowed Jean to learn of them. The things that she’d said had been very private between the two of them and were now public knowledge. At first, she’d been livid with Logan, until he’d cornered her and explained that no, he hadn’t talked to Jean about her. The woman had “spied” on his dreams and used them to fuel arguments when she suspected that he cared for Marie. She’d used her telepathy on him when he wasn’t aware and had discovered things on her own that she’d had no right to know.

That had only been the beginning of the blow up with Jean. In the end, the Professor had stepped in, had used his telekinesis to stop Marie from killing Jean and had, in front of several witnesses invited Jean Grey to leave the premises and never to return. She was no longer welcome in the school. Marie had warned her to watch her back, knowing that if she caught up with her that she would likely kill her if there was no one there to stop her.

Now that she was free of her ties with Remy and she knew that Logan had feelings for her, she didn’t feel at all guilty about thinking of him once more and remembering how it felt to love him. She remembered the despair of knowing that he didn’t return her feelings, but that was gone now. She knew that he’d always had a soft spot for her, but she‘d never suspected that he might actually love her. She was still a little uncertain over whether her feelings would be met in kind or with disappointment. After all, a person couldn’t control what they dreamed and just because you dreamed of something didn’t mean that you really wanted it.

The sound of the window sash sliding open startled her and she sat quietly waiting for a sound, drawing her booted leg up onto the roof and considering finding another hiding spot, like maybe in one of the upper limbs of the massive pine trees that were so prevalent on the property.

Logan’s voice, along with the scent of the cigar clamped in his teeth drifted up from the window just below her. “You ok, kid?”

She smiled and let her foot fall back down to its dangling position. “How’d you find me, sugah?”

“I saw you from the lawn earlier. Thought I’d give you a little time before I came up to check on you.”

“I’m fine, Logan. A little melancholy, but nothing I won’t live through.” She shrugged and peeked over the ledge at him, only able to see him from his chest down, upside down, no less. He was leaning against the window jam with his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Funny you should show up just now, I was thinking about you.”

“Me?” Surprise was plain in his voice. “You just broke it off with that damned Cajun and you’re thinking about me?”

“Yeah, I was.” She smiled wistfully as she let her gaze wander out into the afternoon sky. “I was just remembering the days when we first came here, when you promised to protect me, when you brought me back to the mansion. It’s funny the things that you can remember in retrospect. I remember the smell of the aftershave that you wore back then. I remember the smell of the inside of that old truck before it burned. I remember that in those days, I could come to you for anything. Those were wonderful times for me, back in the days when I loved you more than life itself.”

Marie heard the distinctive sound of the screen being ejected from the window and the scrape of Logan’s boots on the windowsill. She wasn’t surprised when his hands clenched around the gutter and he swung his body out and up into the air, flipping over to land on booted feet next to her on the roof. He squatted and sat down next to her. “Back in the days when you loved me more than life itself? That’s a bit of a loaded statement, isn’t it kid?”

Marie sighed and shook her head. “When are you going to figure out that I haven’t been a kid for a long time now?”

His raised a brow and drew on his cigar before looking at the short stump and flipping it neatly, into the air, landing in the fountain three floors below. “Marie, I have called you kid since the day I met you. I will call you kid until we’re old and grey and dying in each other’s arms. I’m not likely to stop it, no matter how grown up and old you might get.”

She smiled in spite of herself at the notion of him being old and grey. “I can’t picture you old, Logan.”

“Darlin’, I already am old. I have no clue how old I am, but there’s been some speculation that my age might well be older than Chuck’s. Until I remember some shred of my past before waking up at Alkali Lake, there’s no way of knowing. It’s entirely possible that I could be more than a hundred years old given the nature of my healing power.”

“So, I can call you Geezer then?” She giggled girlishly at the thought.

“Only if you want your ass spanked til it’s glowing red, Darlin’.” He chuckled, letting his thigh graze hers as he adjusted his position on the roof edge. “You didn’t pick the most comfortable spot in the world for this conversation, Marie. My ass is going to be molded into roofing tiles if I stay up here long.”

She laughed playfully and took his hand. “Put your arm around my neck and hold on, sugah. We’re going for a ride.”

Marie slid her arm around his waist and pushed off of the roof, speeding through the air. The landscape below them sped by until Marie spied her aim in the distance. When she landed on the rocks just beside the rushing water Logan gaped at her. “Jesus Christ, Marie! Niagara Freakin’ Falls?”

She shrugged absently. “I like to come here when I’m sad or have somethin’ weighin’ heavy on my mind. It calms me and reminds me that my problems are small in comparison to this. I can get a sense of perspective here, Logan. I thought you might appreciate that.”