Jean had been keeping an eye on the Med Lab's ICU even as she made herself coffee and a sandwich and began to eat. If anything went wrong, she wanted to be the first to know about it.

Jean's mind wandered over the events of the last few hours. Rogue--not Carol anymore--had called that morning, frantically telling Ororo the short version of the story. Carol had been with Magneto, then Rogue had gained control and integrated Carol into herself. She, Jubilee and Logan had fought Magneto and his scum, and now Jubilee was lying on a road somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, seizing and unconscious.

It had taken barely five minutes for the team to be ready to go. Not bothering with uniforms, they'd jumped into the Blackbird tracing Rogue's phone call and then using her memory as navigation once they found her.

Jean had worked hard to save Jubilee from the moment she'd entered the plane. The doctor in her wasn't sure that the young woman would make it, but the woman and friend in her hoped beyond hope that she would. Perhaps there was something in the human psyche that held onto hope at all costs, Jean pondered wistfully.

A disturbance in the ICU caught her attention. Someone was in there with Jubilee, and her mental senses were very confused as to who it was. She didn't detect danger to Jubilee, but the person with her was another story.

Jean rushed down to the lower levels, doors opening for her, the elevator going down at nearly break-neck speed. Then she was at the ICU. What she saw through the window should have surprised her, but it didn't.

Rogue was holding onto Jubilee, skin against skin, and for once it wasn't the other person who was being drained. Rogue's skin was white as Jubilee's had been when Jean had last seen her, but Jubilee's glowed with health. Whatever Rogue was doing, it seemed to be working.

Jean couldn't let it go on, of course. She ran into the room and grabbed hold of Rogue's arms, pulling her away. Thankfully, Rogue was too shocked and weak to fight her. She wouldn't have been able to handle the strength the younger woman now possessed if it had been unleashed on her.

"Dammit, Rogue! What did you do?" Jean asked, now supporting her. Jubilee's eyes fluttered, and tears streamed from Rogue's.

"I gave her what she needed. I wasn't sure if I could, but I did! But now...I feel so sick, Jean. Please, can I lie down?" Rogue asked pitifully.

Jean put aside her professional curiosity long enough to get Rogue into the other bed in the ICU. She checked on Jubilee, who was conscious now but in no state to do more than open her eyes and then shut them quickly. Vital signs were more than stable, and the trauma she'd gone through seemed to be almost completely vanished.

Deciding that she'd get no answers now from Rogue, who had cried herself to sleep within minutes, Jean sat down to wait. It never occurred to her to tell anyone else what had just happened.

Logan paced his bedroom, stopping at his door he didn't know how many times, but never opening it. He wanted to walk down the hall to Rogue's room. He wanted to talk, to comfort her like he had before, but he wasn't sure he should.

Those hours with her in his arms during Jubilee's surgery... it was just like his Marie was back again. She'd clung to him, crying in his arms until her tears ran dry. Even then, she'd stayed close, not moving until hours later when Jean came out into the hallway after finishing the surgery.

When she'd seen Jubilee through the glass window to the ICU, Rogue completely changed before his eyes. She'd moved away from him and straightened her posture, closing off all her emotions until her face was unreadable.

Without a word, she turned and left. Logan followed her upstairs, knowing she was upset but unsure what to do. When they reached her bedroom door, empty brown eyes met his and she told him she needed some time alone, needed to rest. The door shut in his face and he heard the click of the lock before he had a chance to say anything.

"Rogue?"

"Please, Logan," she said through the door. "I'm just... I need to sleep."

"Darlin', it's not your fault. None of this is your fault, and Jubes is gonna be just fine. You'll see. She loves to do the unexpected."

"Logan..." she started, and then sighed as if she'd changed her mind. "Thanks. Good night."

It was a dismissal and he knew it. He didn't want to leave her door, but he wanted to run into the other mansion residents and be attacked with questions about Carol, Rogue, and Jubilee even less so he retreated to his room.

In the time he and Rogue had sat in the hallway during Jubilee's surgery, he'd pretty much healed from his Magneto-inflicted injuries, so he really didn't feel tired. Instead of going to bed, he paced and thought and sulked.

He should've never let Jubilee come with him. It's not like he couldn't have lost her on Cyke's bike. The supercharger could've gotten him so far ahead of her that she'd never catch up. There's no way she could've tracked Carol on her own. It was all his fault that she ended up a prisoner of Magneto's, all his fault that she was downstairs dying right now.

There was no question to him that she wouldn't survive the night. Her heartbeat and the sickly smell he could pick up even through the closed ICU doors gave her condition away. He'd seen death before, too many times not to recognize the signals.

Suddenly, he really needed a drink. Chuck probably had some good stuff in the liquor cabinet downstairs. Logan figured he could sneak downstairs and back up to his room without running into too many people.

He left his room and walked down the hallway, stopping in front of the one he'd seen Rogue enter only a few hours before. How would she react when Jubilee succumbed to her injuries? She'd acquired some of his senses. Did she already know or suspect what would happen?

As he stood in front of her door, he realized something was wrong. He couldn't hear her in there. No heartbeat, no breathing, just a light whispering of wind. Before he realized it, he'd slashed through the lock and stepped into the room. It was empty. The bed had been disturbed, but he could tell from the smell of it that Rogue hadn't been in it for hours. The window was open and her scent lead out of it.

Dammit! Carol'd lied. She'd never given him Marie back. She'd tricked him into coming back here, probably trying to save Jubilee, and then she'd flown off with Marie's body again. Well, he wasn't gonna let her get away.