Empathy's Echo
Chapter 8
by
NYC
Disclaimer: All X-men and X-villians are Marvel's characters. Please don't sue me.
"Fear," ~ By Sarah MacLaughlin
Morning smiles like the face of a newborn child, innocent, unknowing.
Winter's end, promises of a long lost friend
Speaks to me of comfort.
But I fear I have nothing to give
And I have so much to lose here in this lonely place, tangled up in our embrace
There's nothing I'd like better than to fall.
But I fear I have nothing to give.
Wind in time rapes the flower trembling on the vine, and nothing yields to shelter it.
From above they say temptation will destroy our love, the never-ending hunger.
But I fear I have nothing to give
And I have so much to lose here in this lonely place, tangled up in our embrace
There's nothing I'd like better than to fall. But I fear I have nothing to give
And I have so much to lose.
I have nothing to give.
We have so much to lose.
"Wait," ~ by Sarah MacLaughlin
Under a blackened sky, far beyond the glaring street lights,
Sleeping on empty dreams, the vultures lie in wait.
You lay down beside me then, you were with me every single hour
So close I could feel your breath.
When all we wanted was the dream,
to have and to hold, that precious little thing
like every generation yields a newborn hope unjaded by their years.
Pressed up against the glass, I found myself wanting sympathy
But to be consumed again, oh I know would be the death of me.
And there is a love that is inherently given,
a kind of blindness offered to deceive
and in that light of forbidden joy, oh I know I won't receive it.
When all we wanted was the dream, to have and to hold that precious little thing
Like every generation yields a newborn hope unjaded by their years.
You know if I leave you now, it doesn't mean that I love you any less
It's just the state I'm in, I can't be good to anyone else like this.
When all we wanted was the dream, to have and to hold that precious little thing
Like every generation yields a newborn hope unjaded by their years.
Melody let go of Logan and got to her feet. He tried to keep hold of her hand, but she shook him off, not angrily, but with a firmness of purpose that was rising into her face, giving it the look of a stone wall. She was considerably weakened--Logan could feel it. And yet, she was prepared to do what she had to do.
"It's over, Magneto," she said. "Your new pets have broken their leashes. It's only going to get worse from here. Why don't we try to salvage the day and just call it a night?"
New pets? What was she talking about?
But the rage on Magneto's face was growing. "I don't know what you've done," he said, "but no one betrays me and walks away."
"You knew what was going to happen," she shot back, but her voice was still so calm. "You knew what touching Sabertooth's homicidal rage would do to me. You knew it wouldn't last. How long did you think it would take before I came back to my senses?"
"I never wanted to do that," he said, his voice cold. "I tried to make you see the light. I tried to make you understand what we are facing--all of us," he added, giving the rest of them a scathing glare. "But you wouldn't cooperate. You insisted on Charles' way. And look at what it's cost you? Your lives."
Logan stood up. He was surprised that he was even able to move with Magneto around. "What are ya gonna do, bub?" he asked. "How many times do ya think you can use your metal powers to chain us all up before we figure out how ta get free? We're just running in circles. Nobody's gonna win."
"I'll win," Magneto said.
"Only if you slay us," Melody declared. "And you're not a killer, Magneto. What you want isn't wrong--you want to save your brothers. We want that, too."
Logan looked at her. She was using her gift, now. He could feel the tendrils of empathy, what ones she could muster, straining across the void between them and Erik Magnus Lehnsherr.
"It doesn't have to be this way," she said, daring a step closer. "You don't realize it, but we're all on the same side. But if we kill the humans, we're no better than they are!"
A flash of red-hot rage simmered inside the depths of Erik Lehnsherr's soul. "Charles once sought to convince me as you do," he said, his voice a hiss. "He failed. And I do not take lightly to manipulation any better than you."
"You can't kill us all," Iceman shouted, even as the room around them began to rattle and hum. Logan felt his metal-coated skeleton lock up at the joints.
Magneto sneered at him. "Hush, boy. You don't understand anything."
Quite suddenly, there was a blast of red energy from behind them and it shot over their heads and hit some of the rock from the ceiling, bringing it crashing down. Cyclops had lifted his visor from his head and Jean was using her telekinesis to focus the blast. Quick as a whip the visor was back down over Cyclop's eyes, and the rock tumbled down over the entrance, over Magneto's head.
It was a desperate move. But it worked for a moment--Magneto had to contain all his power to create a bubble over his head that would keep the rock from crushing him.
"What was that about running in circles?" Mangeto taunted, and then he hefted the rock and hurled it at the X-Men.
They scattered.
Logan darted forward, letting out his claws. If Magneto could stay distracted long enough maybe he could get in a serious enough injury to take the guy out--of course, he would have rather killed him, it would have been easier, but something told him that that wasn't the wisest route to take.
Storm attempted to counter the throw with a draft but there wasn't enough wind. A rock hit her square in the chest and slammed her against a wall, and she fell, dazed.
Jean tried to catch some of the flying debris with her telekinesis, but she was too weak after containing Scott's optic blast.
Only one person hadn't moved. Melody.
Rogue tried not to panic. She hadn't felt this helpless since Magneto had locked her up into his machine and she'd at there, screaming, crying for help.
She would not scream this time. She refused to let the tears fall. She was an X-Man now. Her team needed her. Melody needed her.
She tried to focus what was left of Melody's power and send out some kind of empathic call for help. But as soon as she let loose, she bounced up against something.
Someone.
She got to her knees, straining against the manacles, trying to look out around the curve of the stone wall. Was it Remy? Had he changed his mind and come back for her? But this mind...no, she didn't feel the same emotional charge as Remy had had, directed at her. This one was so different, so stone calm and sure of himself, and yet there was an unshakable barrier of--
It felt like humility.
There were footsteps, and they were getting rapidly louder. She braced herself, but knew, somehow, that this person was coming to rescue her.
He cleared the corner.
Before her stood a man who looked exactly like Logan. Slimmer, with less hair, and considerably less sharp eyes, but in the face, the features were identical. Frighteningly so.
"Hello," he said, offering her a smile. "You're needed upstairs."
He knelt down, pulling what looked like a lock-pick from his pocket. Within seconds, one of her wrists was free.
He looked at her. She could only stare at him in shock. "Who...who are you?" she asked, her voice refusing to work correctly.
He offered her another smile. "I guess I could tell you, but it won't mean much to you. My name is Andrew Logan."
*Logan.* Her other wrist was now free and Andrew grasped her gloved hand and pulled her to her feet. "Are you...do you know...Logan? Wolverine?"
"Wolverine?" He repeated the name as if it was distasteful to him. "Is that what he uses as his X-Man name?" Andrew shook his head. "Oh well...I can't blame him for it. But the answer to your question is, yes. I know him, from a very long time ago. He was a different person back then."
Suddenly, it came back to her--Logan's story. The doctor, the house, how he and Melody met, the man whom Melody had gone to visit all those months ago before she had finally be able to come to grips with her feelings for Logan. "Wait a minute...Ah know who you are!" She scowled. "Melody said you changed for the better, but you're helpin' Magneto?"
He gave her a rather pointed look. "Does it look like I'm helping him?" he shot back, but there was no anger in his voice.
She looked down at her hands. "No, Ah guess not," she muttered.
He nodded. "I was taken by force just like Melody was. I was made to cooperate, and-- well, it's a very long story." He sighed, seeming very tired. "I managed to distract him for a bit, but now it's up to you, Rogue." He gestured over his shoulder with his thumb and gave her an encouraging smile. "You'd best get going."
"What about you?" she asked, even as she stepped away, prepared to do as he said.
"Don't worry about me," he said, patting her shoulder. "Now go."
She rounded the corner, only to see Gambit approaching. He paused, and Rogue sensed him tensing for an attack. The last traces of Melody's empathic gift just gave her enough to realize that he had come to free her.
"How did you get out?" he asked, looking at her still-gloveless left hand.
"Andrew freed me," Rogue said, turning. But it was too late. He was gone.
Gambit almost smiled. "Well," he said, "at least dat explains de alarm. Magneto won't be happy." This time, he did smile--a pure, mischievous grin. "I can't wait to tell him."
Rogue smiled back. "Hey," she added, waving her bare hand, "you don't happen to have my glove on you, do you?"
Gambit hesitated, and then, slowly, almost shyly, produced the leather glove from his belt. "And here I thought you had dropped it for me."
She took it, grinning flirtatiously. "Trust me, sugah," she said, pulling back on, "you want me ta wear it."
"Maybe not," Gambit said, turning and guiding her back down the tunnel toward the battle. "Let's go find out, shall we?"
Melody pressed forward, seizing hold of Magneto's rage and sucking it into herself. But he recognized her move immediately, and with a single motion of his hand, the metal floor under her feet rose up and sealed itself around her legs. It was pulling her in.
Melody looked down, shock breaking her concentration. The metal snaked up and enclosed around her hands, and she struggled to stay upright, but the pressure was enough to tear her arms from her body.
"Full attack!" Cyclops screamed, and charged forward, lifting his visor off his face and looking straight on at Magneto. Unfortunately, he didn't see Logan coming around from the other way. As the uncontrolled optic blast showered down on top of Magneto, Logan was thrown back, hitting his head hard against the remains of the shattered table that Storm had crushed earlier.
Magneto used his powers to lift himself up, barely clearing the huge crater that the red energy made in the wall behind him. But with more metal freed, it was just more weapons for him to use. He flung a huge rock right into Scott's face as the visor was coming back down, and Scott fell back, temporarily knocked out.
Iceman watched everything happen before him in a dream-like haze. Freezing Sabertooth had been hard work--the man was a miniaturized mountain, and it hadn't been easy containing him in a block solid enough to hold him but not kill him. The only thing he had left to do was pick up the great block and hurl it at Magneto.
It almost worked. But Magneto dodged, and the makeshift sculpture hit the arch, shattering. Sabertooth fell toward the ground, and as he hit he let out a low, dangerous growl.
Fortunately, no one could hear it over the chaos.
The liquefied metal closed over Melody's knees, and continued up. It reached her waist, pressing it, cutting off her ability to breathe. She filled her lungs with a final gasp of air as the metal closed around her chest, rising higher and higher with each second.
"Iceman!" Jean cried, lunging to the side and grasping Bobby's hand. She pointed toward Melody and showed him in his mind what she needed him to do. Bobby let out a cold gust of air and it slowly snaked around Melody's waist, freezing the metal and causing it snap. Little crumbs fell away, all he could manage without freezing her as well, while Jean used her telekinesis to try and push down the rising ridge of liquid death.
Seeing what they were doing, Melody calmed just a bit, and focused her mind on Magneto. She may have pissed him off before, but she knew better now. If only she could remember what she had done to Sabertooth--
As soon as she touched his mind, she felt a piercing pain through her gut, and screamed with its intensity. Magneto had made the metal spike inward and it was digging into her torso.
"None of that, Echo," Mangeto said, his teeth gritted as she used her pain and rage to intensify her attack. She gritted her teeth, biting down so hard she was sure her teeth were going to crack.
"Magneto!" she growled, pulling with all her might. But he wasn't about to let her---
She felt new strength. It flowed through an empathic bond buried deep in the back of her head.
Logan.
She could barely look to the side to see him sitting there, his head closing from the huge gash the impact of rock had made in it. He was looking at her, realizing that physical might was useless against a man who could freeze his body as easily as Iceman could freeze water. If he was going to get close enough to Magneto, the man had to have a real distraction.
His emotions--his rage, his fear for her, the incredible power of his love--all of it came through her, giving her will a boost it badly needed. She pulled harder at Magneto's mind, trying to draw away his anger, his determination, all those emotions that gave him so much power.
But she could not touch his will. Will was not an emotion. Stubbornness and determination and courage were emotions, but not will. Will existed on its own and sustained the body and mind when the heart could not.
If there was anything that Magneto had, it was will.
She screamed again as a spike drove into her chest, puncturing a lung, piercing an artery. It hurt too much to scream.
"NO!" Logan screamed, getting to his feet. He vaguely saw Jean and Iceman grasp hands, bonding together to try and keep Melody alive, and Scott moved in the rubble, regaining himself. If he could just get to Scott, get him close enough to blast Magneto within an inch of his life before--
The metal rose higher, closing around Melody's throat and squeezing. Blood started to run from her lips, dripping down onto the silvery surface, looking like rose petals on a mirror. From that moment on, she couldn't have screamed if she'd wanted to.
Magneto noticed him. He took his attention off of Melody for a mere second to pick Logan up and blast him all the way across the room. He melted Scott's visor, sealing it onto the man's face, covering the ruby quartz lens.
He turned back to Melody. She was still looking at him--her eyes would not leave his face. But instead of hatred and rage, or pleading for her life, they carried with them one single feeling.
Pity.
It stabbed into him as surely as the spikes in her body. She pitied him. Because he had become what he hated most.
It made him falter. For just a moment.
It was all Rogue needed.
Her hands closed around his face, and her nails sunk into his flesh, unwilling to let go. Magneto tried to turn and throw her off, but Rogue hung fast, long enough for Gambit to get a telekinetic blast in, right across Magneto's jaw.
He slumped.
Rogue sucked in his power, draining him within an inch of her life. Gambit saw what was happening and used his staff to push her away.
"Not dat way, chere," he said, reaching out to steady her. "You are better dan him."
She blinked, her anger still bright in her eyes, but the piercing, pitiful cry brought her back to her more compassionate self with in a blink.
"Melody!"
It was Logan. He ran toward her, where she stood in the middle of the room, more of a metal statue than a flesh and blood being. Her head had lolled to one side, the blood running thick out of her mouth, her thin breath rattled and stifled.
Rogue was at his side in seconds. She pressed her hands against the base of the metal encasement, and using Magneto's power, slowly, she began to melt back, trying to get a grip on the control of the magnetic gift and yet not move too quick so that Melody could stay still.
Jean was there, leaving Scott with Storm and Iceman. Iceman froze the metal visor so that it cracked off his face, and they were carefully peeling it away. Thankfully, it wasn't embedded deep and it came off pretty clean. With his eyes firmly closed, she knew Scott would be okay.
Melody was an entirely different story.
As Rogue let the metal slide out, more blood came. The spikes withdrew from Melody's body, but they left wounds that made Jean gasp. She used her telekinesis to scan the injury. Her face turned white.
"We've got to get her back to the school," Logan said, his voice choked, but he pressed on. "You can help her."
"Easy," Jean whispered, blinking back tears. Why was she crying? She was a professional, a doctor. It wasn't like she hadn't seen people die. Even people she loved. Or maybe it was just a side-effect of witnessing an empathic death.
Slowly, gently, Jean and Logan laid Melody down, but Jean sharply warned Logan to keep Melody as upright as possible, so that she could breathe.
Melody's face was white, slowly turning blue. Her hair was thickly matted and clotted with blood and bits of metal. Her eyes were hazing over, growing distant.
"I'm...sorry, Logan," Jean managed.
Logan looked at her, stricken. "No," he said, rage snaking through his voice like the tendrils of a deadly mythological beast. "No..."
Jean shook her head, pulling back just a bit. There was no use in explaining to him now that if they dragged her back to the jet, even gently, she would only die there. Better let her lie here, in the arms of the one she loved.
Still, she tried. Not with words, but through thoughts. It was too much to try and talk at the moment.
"No," Logan said a third time, shaking his head, finally cracking. He leaned over Melody, pushing her hair out of the way, pulling off his glove with his teeth so he could feel the cold flesh of her cheek under his palm. She opened her eyes, which had started to drift shut.
"Lo...Logan..." she managed, but it was a horrible sound, breaking his heart. "I'm...sorry..."
"Shh," he said, the tears wanting out of his eyes, down his cheeks, to be free, but he wouldn't do that to her. He didn't want the last thing she ever saw to be his grief-filled face. "It's okay, Mel. You did good."
She almost smiled--the corners of her mouth pricked just a bit, but either on purpose or from the final death pang in her body, he didn't know. "Don't...blame yourself...beloved..." she said, using all she had left. "It'll be...alright..."
"I know," he said, reaching down and kissing her lightly. The taste of her blood was thick on his tongue. He grit his teeth against the emotions that threatened to consume him.
She shut her eyes, letting out the last of her air.
Logan pulled her up into his arms, crushing her to him, burying his face in what was left of her beautiful hair.
As if in one unified breath, everyone began to cry. It was almost...peculiar.
They took her back to the X-Jet and traveled home, Gambit coming with them, welcomed into their fold for his help in defeating Magneto, and of course at Rogue's insistence. Sabertooth and Mystique were shackled firmly to the ruins of the wall, and Magneto's unconscious body was placed in an ice capsule, neatly packaged for the authorities, which were called from the X-Jet radio. It was the third time that the X-Men had had to call attention to themselves to have Magneto properly contained. It was only a matter of time before their presence became widely known, publicly.
Jean did not ask Logan to allow her to place Melody in a protective body bag. She let him carry her to the jet, let him stay with her the entire way, even let him carry her into the medical lab downstairs and lay her down on a table. Only when they covered her with the thick white cloth did she ask him, gently, if he wanted to go to her room and find her something better to wear, and give Jean time to clean her up.
It was a lot to ask him, Jean knew. She was so consumed with her own grief, so aware of the incredible grief that was enveloping the others, that had penetrated the whole school upon their return like some malefic cloud, that she could barely think past her request to realize that seeing Melody's room might make Logan crack.
She did not even notice that Melody's body was anything but cold.
Better for Logan to crack now, Jean told herself dully, and get it as much out of his system as possible. She couldn't bring herself to touch his mind--the darkness there, the bleakness, the overwhelming thought of life without her, was too much for her to even imagine.
Scott was there, his glasses on, and he patted Logan on the back, the most comforting gesture that had ever transpired between them. Then, unexpectedly, as Logan turned away to honor Jean's request--and also because he could no longer stand the sight of Melody's bloodied body and wished to do something to change it, as minimal as a change of clothes would be-- Scott put his arms around him.
Jean should have been flabbergasted to see them embrace. Instead, it barely fazed her. She turned away, hearing the distant echo of Logan go through the door and head up the stairs.
Scott wandered over to some medical supplies and began cleaning himself up. He did not bother to ask Jean for help. She vaguely heard him finish and leave the room.
Everything felt so heavy. Like something was sucking on her soul...dragging her down...
No...she examined the emotion. It wasn't like that. It was a heavy drawing. Like someone clinging to her, a drowning being grasping for straws. But the straws got thicker, the grip became firmer, and there was a low level hum in her ears, like the sound of a working battery.
Jean looked up. Something in her lifted. She heard a vague noise behind her, maybe someone coming in for treatment, because the showdown with Magneto had been physically hard on them all. She hadn't been very attentive to Scott, which was completely unlike her. She hadn't been very attentive to anyone, but she knew that they were okay. And if Melody was gone, she was gone, and no amount of grief was going to bring her back.
So Jean turned, casually, feeling her step much lighter, lighter than it should have been. And so casual was her movement that when she rounded about and saw Melody sitting up straight, the cover gathered on her lap, her blue eyes staring right into hers, she did the most natural thing in the world.
She screamed.
Logan had just reached the top of the stairs and was looking at the door to Melody's room, asking himself how he had ever thought he was going to be able to go in there, how he was going to be able to withstand this pain a single second longer. He felt as if someone was tearing out his heart and making him watch it beat right in front of him, but forcing him to live on without it.
And then he heard Jean scream.
For a second, he didn't react. He turned and looked down the stairs and his heightened senses felt a change.
Then he felt the change inside of him. The bond that had suddenly disappeared from his soul was now back again, breathing, *alive...*
He leapt down the stairs, all fifteen of them, in one single bound. He rounded the corner and sprinted for the downstairs steps, charging so quickly he almost lost his footing on the slick surface.
The doors to the medical lab were swinging slightly. His incredible hearing caught words over the roaring in his head--
"--lay down!"
"--told you, I'm fine!"
"Fine! You were dead!"
He threw the doors open so hard that they made an awful, banging noise. Every face in the room turned to him.
She was standing there. Beside the table where they had stretched her out, bleeding, broken, gone from this world. She was leaning slightly, supporting herself, and her face was still pale and there were beads of sweat on her forehead.
He drank in her wonderful, alive scent. His feet refused to move, afraid that the slightest change on his part would make the vision fade. He would take this madness over reality any day.
"Hey, Logan," she said, a smile forming. "You look like you've seen a ghost." She pushed away from the table, her feet slightly unsteady, but with an even stride, she reached up, pressing her warm hands against his face. "I told you I wasn't going to leave you again," she said. "Don't you think I keep my promises?"
He did not speak. He did not know what happened after that. He just knew she was close beside him, so close he wanted their bodies to fuse together into one, inseparable being, forever.
Professor Charles Xavier regarded Melody and Logan, sitting close together in the soft couch of his study the next day, after Melody had been able to rest and regain her strength, with a rather uncharacteristically giddy feeling. It was so nice to see them happy. Especially after--
"Near as I can tell," Melody said, "I somehow managed to heal myself. It seems my ability with emotions has a will all its own."
"It could be some kind of healing factor," Jean pointed out.
"I don't think so," Scott said. "Melody, you said that Magneto told you you could heal people with your powers. You even healed Jean."
Melody shot a quick look at Jean, a flash of guilt on her face. But there was no opportunity to say anything yet.
"Maybe somehow your empathic powers can allow you to regenerate--heal yourself," Scott continued.
"It's possible," Xavier said, folding his hands, pressing the fingertips to his lips. "If emotions are the source of your mutant ability, then it's possible that you can feed off of them to create whatever is necessary. In this case, an ability to heal."
"You make me sound like some sort of psychic vampire," Melody said lightly. "Although I know I hardly rose from the literal dead. I know that it was the grief around me, the power of those emotions, that enabled me to heal. But I didn't do it consciously. Not that I remember."
"Well, if you weren't dead," Rogue said, her tone skeptical, "then what were you?"
"We didn't have any monitoring equipment," Jean pointed out. "What we perceived as death could have been some deep form of hibernation. A healing trance, in a roundabout way. It's happened before. As little as a hundred years ago there was a sickness that causes seizures that would result in the patient appearing to be in the state of death."
Bobby shuddered. "Being buried alive," he said. "I'll pass."
Melody grinned. "Me, too." She snuggled her arm around Logan's waist and he pulled her closer.
"Me, three," he added, kissing the top of her head. "Whatever it was, it was a miracle. Thank God it didn't take too long ta happen."
"Thank God is right," Melody murmured. "He made me this way. And if it had been my time, there wouldn't have been any coming back."
"Speaking of coming back," Rogue interrupted, clearing her throat nervously--for she was right beside Melody and Logan on the couch and she knew where they were going to end up at this rate--"what about Remy?"
Xavier smiled at her, his gaze drifting from a quick, jealous expression on Bobby's face. "We are all grateful to Mr. LeBeau for helping," he said. "But it will be a time before we can admit him into the X-Men."
"Hopefully, a very long time," Bobby muttered.
"However," Xavier added, "he is welcome here. I trust he is settled into his new room?"
"It's kinda small," Rogue admitted. "He's not a kid, Professor." She shot a look at Melody. "Maybe he can have one of their old rooms, after they get married."
There was a pause. Xavier scooted his chair back.
"We can settle that later," he said, closure in his voice. "Until then, there is still a day to be lived. And I'm sure you all have classes to teach."
The group broke up, Scott and Ororo, Bobby and Rogue bustling out of the room, gabbing idly about the things they had to do. Melody broke away from Logan and caught Jean by the arm.
"Jean," she said, as Jean turned back to her, expectantly.
"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you, too," Jean said, smiling. "I wanted to thank you for saving me before."
Melody shut her eyes, as if Jean's words hurt. "I wouldn't have had to save you if I hadn't tried to kill you in the first place," she said. She faced Jean head-on. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry. More sorry than I can ever say."
Jean shook her head. "It wasn't your fault," she insisted. "You weren't yourself."
Melody brushed away the protest. "Jean," she said, her voice grave, "I wasn't all myself, but I am always me. And if I hadn't been so awful to you, I never would have felt the need to hurt you like I did." She put her arms around Jean's neck, hugging her warmly. "You've been good to me...like the mother I walked away from a long time ago. I didn't deserve her, I don't deserve you. But if you'll give me another chance, I'd be honored to call you my friend."
Jean put her arms around Melody, squeezing her tightly. She didn't speak--she was almost afraid to. Instead, as they parted, she simply smiled at her.
Melody understood. She smiled back.
"You feeling better?" Melody asked a while later, placing her hand lightly along the back of Logan's spine, where the flake of his adamantium skeleton had been lifted up months ago by Magneto, and recently put back in place by Rogue, using her borrowed powers.
"Just like new," he said, wiggling. They both sat on the bed, side by side, their backs against the wall. "Ya know, I'd been gettin' used to it. I guess ya don't know how much something hurts ya until it's gone."
They were in her room, where Jean had strictly ordered her to rest as much as possible. She may have been healed of her major wounds, but the energy she had used had taken its toll, and Melody was often tired. Jean didn't even want her to think about school work, although Melody convinced Logan to sneak her a book or two.
"You know, I could take that the wrong way," Melody said, punching him lightly. He growled and nuzzled her neck.
"Just you try it." He smoothed her hair away from her face. It had gotten back some of its lightness, the bright streaks reappearing. It seemed to want to change with the season, and it was growing more reddish and the streaks were looking more blond and Spring moved into Summer.
Easter was close. The whole fiasco had barely taken a week of their time, and their wedding date was barely two weeks away. As much as progress had been stunted, they knew they needed to talk about it.
"So...yer still gonna marry me, right?" he asked, taking her hand between his two.
She smiled at him. "Whatever you want, my love," she said.
"Oooh...I liked that." He leaned in closer to her. "Say it again."
"Which part?"
"All of it."
"Whatever you want...my love," she said, leaning closer to him. Her breath was so sweet across his face.
"I could get useta that."
She giggled. "Well, the 'my love' part is okay, but I make no promises about the 'whatever you want.'"
He kissed her lightly. "Well...I want it ta be what you want too."
"I do," she said.
"Remember that," he said, "'cause you're gonna say it one more time. And after that, that's it. No turnin' back."
Easter morning came. Melody managed to shake off Jean's prescription for rest and orchestrated a huge dinner on Sunday morning, (after Mass, of course, because after what had happened to her there was no way she was going to miss it) and the smell filled the entire grounds. Not too many of the children left the school, but Melody just took it as an opportunity to show them all that she was here for them. She was going to devote her life to them all, use her gift as she was meant to, as she had been shown how to do. She had never been happier about any decision before in her life.
Except, of course, for marrying Logan.
It was a half-hour before dinner. She had everyone going in the kitchen, because so many of the others were willing to help out, and she was able to get away for a few minutes and take a break.
"I told you that you were going to wear yourself out," came Jean's voice from down the hall. Melody straightened from where she had slumped into one of the dining room chairs.
"What, me, tired?" Melody shot back, but she was smiling. She couldn't seem to stop smiling today.
Jean cocked an eyebrow, but she, too, was grinning. "So where's Logan? You got him slaving away over a hot stove yet?"
"Oh, like that's ever gonna happen," Melody giggled. She patted the table in front of her, and Jean sat down. "Do you know," Melody went on, leaning conspiratorially across the table, "that when I met him, he didn't even know what cooking was? I told him that it was like burning meat, with fire. You should have seen the look on his face."
Jean chuckled. "I wish I could have seen that," she said.
"Then he didn't know how to use forks or knives or even drink out of a glass." Melody sighed, resting her face in her hand. "Wow...that was such a long time ago. We've all changed so much."
"He was lucky to have you," Jean said softly.
Melody's eyes flashed. "He is lucky. Damn lucky. He's been hiding all morning, and I've got no clue what he's been up to." Just then, she noticed Jean look away, and caught a flash of something. "What?" she asked. "He's up to something, and you're in on it, aren't you?"
Months ago, that comment would not have made either woman smile. But Jean flashed her eyes back on Melody and smiled again, this time mysteriously. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Melody shot up. "Jean Grey, I demand that you--"
Upstairs, there was a loud thump. The main doors opening and closing. There were people there--Melody caught the draft of emotion like the thick smell of the turkey and ham baking in the oven.
Jean's eyes sparkled. "Why don't you go upstairs and find out for yourself?" she said softly.
Melody shot out of her seat and took off for the main hallway.
By the time she reached the foyer, she was running so hard that her heart was pounding and she couldn't hear anything. The world had gone into slow motion, and for a moment, the reality before her was so earth-shattering that she couldn't take it in.
She could only stare at the two elderly people in front of her, maybe in their early sixties, staring back at her with the same shocked look. She saw a younger woman, younger than herself, with them, and a young man behind her, holding on to two little girls who seemed very much amazed by the world around them. They couldn't have been older than seven or ten, respectively.
Logan was there--she could feel him. But he had stepped from her line of vision and she searched for him, but was inexorably drawn back to those faces.
"Mom? Dad?"
She was walking now, getting closer to them. Her head was aching and her temples felt like they were going to pop open. She had forgotten to breathe, and her chest was working up and down, trying to restore the balance. Finally, she let out a gasp, her eyes filling before her emotions could catch up with her.
This couldn't be happening. Things like this happened in only those sickeningly sweet Hallmark Hall of Fame movies that she would torment herself with during lonely holidays. This was the real world--there was no such thing as happily ever after. The next day always brought a new challenge, and the real stories never ended.
*But what the hell,* she thought.
Her mother caught her in her embrace first, and Melody was sobbing before she could even think to try and stop herself. Her father was behind them, enveloping them both in his arms, kissing her through her hair the way he did when she was little. It was too much, Melody couldn't stand it. It was almost suffocating, the overwhelming joy.
"H--how?" she managed, getting far enough away to look at them. "I looked for you..."
Her father's face--so much like her own, she realized--seemed to be too overwhelmed to think clearly. She knew her father well enough--losing her had caused him so much pain. He was one who felt things so deeply that he couldn't bear it, and reacting by shutting everyone out. He was such an emotional man, all of this was obviously too much for him to take in, especially in his old age.
At least now she remembered whom she had gotten it from.
Her mother's face was deeply lined. She was sobbing so hard she couldn't speak, she just kept hugging Melody over and over. It was too much for both of them--two minutes after seeing here again, lost for fifteen years, they were going to have heart attacks and die right in front of her at this rate.
So she reached out, and covered them both in a soft blanket of rational calm. It worked. Within a few minutes her mother was drying her eyes and her father was moving his hands around, a nervous gesture he used when he was trying to think.
Someone came up from behind. Melody turned around and threw her arms around her. "I'm sorry," she whispered into her sister's ear. "I'm so sorry."
"I know," Helena Brushman said, "it's going to be okay."
After the emotional chaos of the reunion, Professor Xavier approached the scene, completely aware of the plan that Jean and Scott had had set in motion since Melody and Logan had embarked on their motorcycle quest to retrace their past, and met Melody's father.
It was hard. Fifteen years of separation had been accepted and lived with, but now, seeing what had been lost, it was hard not to slip into anger. Her mother and sister were deliriously happy to see her, but her father couldn't understand why she had spent so much time away. Professor Xavier came to her defense, explaining that considering the military forces that she had gotten involved with, albeit inadvertently, and the subsequent tragedy that had been caused as a result (namely, the burning down of their home and the cause of their having to go into protective custody, which was where they had been hiding for the last 15 years), and Melody's inability to understand or control her mutant ability, it had probably been the wisest thing for her to do--to stay away.
Of course, no one said that the initial source for all of that trouble, even though it wasn't his fault, was standing right in the room with them--Logan. He watched everything unfold before him in silent observation.
It wasn't easy to accept. But it was better than never having found her again at all.
Dinner went along better than anyone could have asked for. The children took care of the final touches, having been informed by a telekinetic message from Professor Xavier himself of the upcoming reunion, and Melody couldn't remember ever being happier. Even Logan managed to hide his feelings of insecurity from her during dinner, but finally, after things had settled down a bit, and Jean had made her parents and sister's family comfortable in some guest suites, Melody caught up with Logan in the dark, quiet hallway outside the Professor's study.
"What is it?" she asked.
He shrugged. "A lot's been going on today. I guess I'm just a little thrown by it all."
She moved closer to him. "Come on, Logan," she cajoled. "Out with it."
It was obvious by now that he was trying not to squirm. She sensed his thoughts, and quietly said, "You know, it's not your fault. It never was."
He didn't look at her. "I know that."
She got her hand under his chin and made his eyes meet hers. "Do you?" she asked.
"I know it wasn't on purpose," he said, a note of anger in his voice. "But I can't help but feel..." he looked down the hallway, toward the stairs, that led to the suites where her family was resting after the long trip and taxing reunion. "If they knew who I was, they wouldn't like me very much. They wouldn't understand...us."
She considered this. "Well, for what it's worth, I don't understand us," she said, a bit lightly. That got a slight grin from him. "But you know, I don't care. I mean, I love them and I've missed them terribly, but things were meant to be this way. It's all part of providence."
"You really believe in that stuff, don't you?"
"You bet," she said, her eyes bright. "Geeze, Logan, after what I've been through, all you've been through, if it wasn't part of God's plan, I shudder to think of the odds of us turning out like this." She paused, reflecting. "There's so much to talk about," she mused. "So much to tell them."
"Are you going to tell them?" He wasn't looking at her again, but down at the floor between them.
"Eventually."
"And what if they don't approve?"
"I'm thirty-five. And I've been away for a long time. I have a life of my own. I'm going to live it. With you."
He looked at her this time. "Why me, Mel?" he said, his voice whisper soft. "I mean, who am I, that you should love me so much? Think about it...it does sound crazy." He hitched, searching for words. Finally, all that came out was, "I just don't feel like I deserve you."
She smiled. It was a deep and mysterious smile, one that made him stare at her in a mixture of wonder and confusion. Her eyes were so beautiful he couldn't stop looking at them. He felt like there was something profound behind them, something maybe she would tell him someday, some secret so magnificent and staggering that to whisper it would be a sacrilege.
"Then you're just going to have to accept that I love you," she finally said, "and deal with it." She reached out, taking his hand, lacing her fingers through his. "Is that clear?"
"Absolutely," he said. "So I take it we're still on for next Saturday?"
"You better believe it, bub."
Authors Note: Melody and Logan's wedding night will not be seen here because, hey, even fictional characters need their privacy. But I will say that it lasted for approximately eight standard hours (that's what a healing factor will get you) and neither one could walk the next day. 'Nuff said.
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