The Law of Unintended Consequences
by
Rachel the Gerbil



Disclaimer: If they were mine, I wouldn't be slaving away for $7.50 an hour answering phone calls from idiots.

Feedback: Pretty Please

Dedication: To my boyfriend, even though he hates R/L. Someday he'll see the light.

Author's Notes: Viruses can go into remission, even stay dormant in a resistant body for years, and still be passed on to another person. Even for super healers.




They had been together for two years when the headaches started. Things had been really busy around the Mansion with Scott and Jean's wedding, so she kept quiet, chalking it up to her seemingly ever-present cold. Logan was the only one who ever heard her complain, and he worried, but she passed it off as stress and he let her. There was plenty of time to rest after the wedding. The morning after the bridal shower, however, her temperature started rising. Carefully not to wake Logan, she crept down to the Med Lab to see Hank, Jean's new partner. In the elevator, slumped against the side to keep herself from falling, Marie began to wonder for the first time if something could be really wrong with her.

When she put it all together, it seemed like a lot. Hank's smile faded as she listed her symptoms - high fever, headaches, a cold from two months ago that had never really faded, abdominal cramping, the list went on and on. Hank drew her blood with a smile and told her lie back and rest. He would get her when he had the results. Marie lay back with a sigh and stared at the ceiling. She was always so tired these days, she hoped she wasn't developing anemia or something. Then again, living with Logan was pretty tiring... That made her smile, closing her eyes, she thought about how it had all started.

His room was dark and his body was warm and solid against hers as he ran his hands over her hips. When he spoke, his voice was gentle.

"You're sure about this?"

"Logan" she laughed, "you sound like you're the virgin." She grinned at his incredulous look. "I told you, this is what I want. You're the reason why I worked so hard to control my skin. I wanted this. I want you." Logan had closed her mouth with a kiss that left her breathless. Picking her up, he laid her gently on the bed, kissing her body. Wrapping her hands in his hair, she pulled him up, kissing him again. He straddled her, pressing into her, it was all she could do to hold on.

"God, Logan."

"Marie."

"Rogue."

She opened her eyes with a start. Hank was leaning over her with a worried look. She sat up, a little embarrassed that she had been caught daydreaming. Muttering a sheepish apology, she let Hank help her off the table and into a chair in his office. He closed the door. After pouring them both a cup of tea, Hank watched her take a careful sip, his face unreadable. He didn't seem to know how to say what he was worried about. Marie braced herself for bad news.

"Rogue," He began, "How long have you been sleeping with Logan?"

More than a little startled by his unexpected question, Marie shot him a confused look. "About two years, why?"

"Have either of you had any other partners during that time?" He continued, looking straight at her.

"Not that I know of." What did this have to do with headaches? and since when was Hank interested her sex life?

"Was he your first lover?"

"First and only, Hank, what's going on?" Frustrated, Marie glared at the Beast. He looked down at his cooling tea and cleared his throat.

"There's a lot we don't know about Logan and how his healing skill works" He began, haltingly. "We do know that he led a reckless life before settling here with you... We also know that he had multiple sexual partners and that he did not always use ...uh...protection." Marie squirmed, this conversation was taking a decided turn for the strange. Plus her head was starting to hurt again as the aspirin began to wore off. She took another sip of her tea. Beast sighed, obviously extremely troubled, and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, yeah, but that's all in the past. What, has one of his old girlfriends come back with a paternity claim?" The joke went over like a lead balloon. Beast tried to smile, failed miserably, and ran his hand through his fur. Finally, he seemed to make up his mind about something and turned back to her.

"I don't know how to put this, so I'll just say it. Rogue, you have AIDS."

And the floor dropped out from under her.

Two hours later, Rogue was ready to kill both Hank and Jean, who had been waiting when she left Hank's office. They had run every test in the lab on her at least twice, checking the results against her blood tests from before Logan had returned. It was quite certain that Logan had given her the disease. Apparently, he had had the virus for years, certainly since before he had come to the mansion. When Jean rechecked his old blood samples she found signs of the virus, though she had never thought to check before. After all, an imunodeficency virus is the last thing you worry about of with an immune system like Logan's. His mutation had kept the virus in remission, but it was, apparently, still viable for transmission. Marie's HIV had only recently blossomed into full blown AIDS, triggered by the cold she was powerless to fight off.

Jean fussed over her as she ran the blood for a third time. Almost as if she thought that if she tested it enough, the virus would go away. Hank was on the phone alternately with the pharmacy prescribing vitamins and with the national AIDS council discussing new treatment options. What was worse, they tiptoed around her like she might drop dead at any minute. Finally, Marie had had enough.

"Jean, how long have I got?" Jean stopped flustering over the samples and frowned.

"It's really hard to say, Rogue." She sat down, exhausted and defeated. "With vitamins and preventive care you could live for years or you could die next week. There's just no way to tell..." Jean put a hand over her eyes, trying not to cry. Rogue put a hand on her shoulder. It felt strange, to comfort someone crying for your own impending death.

"It's OK, Jean," Rogue smiled at the woman who had become a sister to her over the years. "I'm not just going to roll over and die. You know I'm tough to kill, you've patched me up enough times." She grinned at Jean's weak giggle. Dammit, she wasn't dead yet. "Now what do I do to stay alive?" Jean got up, a new determination in her motions, and led Rogue into her office and shut the door.

At last, an hour later, Marie left the lab with a handful of vitamin bottles and a solemn promise that neither of the two doctors would tell anyone of her condition until it was unavoidable, especially Logan. She didn't want any pity like she had been subjected to when she couldn't touch.

As she walked down the hall, she found that she had to rest every few feet to the elevator. She wouldn't be able to keep it a secret for very long she admitted grudgingly, but she wouldn't let Logan see her like this. When she got to the elevator, she promised herself that Logan would never know he had given her the disease. She knew if Logan found out why she was sick, he would only blame himself, and it would kill her.



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