'Til Death Do Us Part - Part Four

by Khaki


Jean was back on the first floor, heading towards the front desk, when she saw Scott at the entrance. Seeing him standing there asking the receptionist for help, she was struck by how quickly she could lose him, like Logan had lost Rogue.

Breaking into a run, she quickly reached him, throwing her arms around him even as her body was wracked with sobs.

"Jean? Jean, what's wrong? What happened?" Scott asked, but her choking, hitching breaths wouldn't allow her to speak.

She could feel his worry growing so she opened their mental connection. ~Scott, it's Rogue. She died. There was a car accident and she died!~

Scott reeled at the news like he'd been physically struck. He and Rogue had become close over the years. He'd come to think of her as sort of a little sister. But now, dead? No!

~What?... Accident?... Died?~ he asked, so stunned he couldn't form coherent sentences, even across their link.

Through gasps Jean answered, "Rogue... and Anna."

"They're both dead?!?" Scott asked, his voice rising in volume.

"No, Anna's... in surgery," Jean hiccuped. "I'm... Logan asked me... I've got to... observe the operation."

"Where's Logan?" Scott asked, his voice taking on the serious tone he used when he lead the X-Men into battle. He had to put on that mask to maintain what little control he still had over his emotions.

"In the... morgue. With Rogue."

Scott nodded tersely even though that statement cut into his heart. He had to be the strong one. Jean was already falling apart. "Ok. Get in to observe the surgery like Logan asked. I'll send him to the waiting room so you can keep him updated."

"Scott. What... what are you doing here? How did you know to come?" Jean asked, still clinging to him, but regaining some composure.

"I came with Hank when I heard there was something wrong. He's already left with the girl."

Jean sighed. She had almost forgotten about Shelley and was glad that Hank was taking care of her. Now she could focus all her energies on Anna... and Logan.

"Go, Jean. I'll deal with Logan."

**********

Scott was shocked by the image that greeted him as he entered the morgue. Logan was sitting on a gurney clutching Rogue to his chest, her head bobbing loosely on her shoulders as he stroked her hair and rocked her gently. Her face was a mass of cuts, her forehead and hair covered in brown, old blood.

Logan was whispering something as he rocked, but Scott couldn't make it out over the voice of the lab tech. She was on the phone, her abandoned sandwich lying before her.

"He's not supposed to be here... No, he's just holding one of the bodies... No... No... Look, are you gonna send someone or what?... Yeah, thanks for nothing!" She slammed down the phone and looked up at Scott. "Not another one! Look, you're not supposed to be down here. You have to leave, and take him, too, while you're at it."

Scott ignored her, walking up to Logan and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Logan?"

The man continued rocking, but now that Scott was closer and that mousy, lab tech had finally shut up, he could tell what he was saying. Logan was whispering over and over. "Love you, Marie... Please... So sorry, baby..."

"What are you sorry about, Logan?"

Logan stopped rocking, but didn't respond. Rogue's head lolled to the side, and her half-opened, glassy eyes met Scott's in an empty stare.

A chill ran through him, and he said, "Logan, you have to put her down. Let her go and put her down."

"Can't..." Logan whispered.

"Logan, you have to..."

"NO!" Logan yelled, gripping his wife's body more tightly to his chest. "If I just... If I hold on long enough, it'll work... She'll come back... It'll work."

Scott shook his head. Rogue's injuries, her grey skin, blue lips, and sightless eyes proved that there was no hope. "Logan, she's dead," he said, his voice cracking with the effort to choke down the pain those words caused him. "She's not coming back."

He saw Logan stiffen as his words hit their mark. He expected rage, anger, violent protests that Rogue would be ok. He half expected three claws through the gut for his bluntness.

Instead, he heard Logan whine, "I know."

Scott watched as the man before him shook, his shoulders rising and falling as silent sobs wracked his body. Logan gently laid his wife back down on the bed, tears flowing freely as he positioned her just so, stroking one white streak lovingly.

Scott did the only thing he could think of. He pulled Logan into a strong hug. Instead of pulling away, Logan hugged him back tightly, his gasping sobs more vocal now. Finally allowing his own grief to reach the surface, Scott's vision blurred as he joined Logan in his mourning.

Hours could have passed as both men cried, unashamedly. Logan was the first to speak.

"Why? If it had to be one of us, why her?"

Scott pulled back to look into the other man's worn and pain-filled features. "I don't know."

"I would've died for her. I was ready to die for her, but I can't! Why can't I die?!?" Logan jumped from the bed and started pacing back and forth among the other shrouded corpses.

Scott just sat dumbstruck on the edge of Rogue's gurney, watching Logan fall apart.

"I've tried! Don't you think I've tried! Almost every day for those 15 damn years before Marie! I tried everything, but I always healed! Why!?!?"

*SCHUKK* Logan released a single bone claw on his right hand and dug it into his left arm, cutting deeply into the flesh from wrist to elbow. Even before he had finished cutting, the wound had started to heal. In seconds, the only evidence of the wound was a trail of blood down his arm.

"You see?!"

Logan's self-mutilation shook Scott out of his grief-stricken stupor, and he acted. "Logan, you can't die. Not because of your healing factor, but because of your children. Mike needs you. Anna's upstairs right now in surgery. She needs you. They've already lost their mother. Don't take away their father, too."

"Mike... Anna... Anna's hurt!" Logan said, rubbing both hands through his hair.

"You have to go up there, Logan. Jean will come out and give you updates."

Turning back to point at his wife, Logan said, "But, Marie. I can't... can't leave her down here. She wouldn't like... She wants to go home."

"I'll take care of it, Logan. I'll make all the arrangement and take her home myself. Trust me."

"Now!" Logan demanded. "Don't leave her here alone."

"Yes. Now," Scott agreed. "I'll make the arrangements from here right now... Go. Anna needs you."

Logan nodded returning to Marie's side one last time, he leaned over and kissed her softly on the lips before turning and leaving her to Scott's care.

**********

Logan paced. He couldn't sit. Not while Marie was dead, not while Anna was in danger of joining her. Jean had come out a few times in the last couple of hours. They'd had to remove her spleen. It was damaged too badly to repair.

"It's ok," Jean had reassured him. "People can survive and live normal lives without a spleen."

He had just nodded and told her to go back in. She had said that they were lucky this was a teaching hospital. The operating rooms were more like theaters, with seats where students could watch. With her credentials, Jean had been allowed to observe.

Logan had been furious at the thought of some snot-nosed, pimple-faced students watching his daughter's suffering, but Jean had quickly assured him that she was the only one up there now.

After a few hours, a young, blond woman had joined Logan in the waiting room. She told him her name and that her son was having surgery, but Logan didn't pay any attention to what she was saying, too caught up in his own worries and guilt.

"Coffee?"

Logan looked up at her, not pausing in his pacing. "What?"

"I asked if you wanted some coffee. I was going to get some and thought..."

"Sure," Logan said. He could use a cup, and it would get rid of her for at least a few minutes.

He was back in his own thoughts when he heard, "Cream, sugah?"

Freezing, his whole attention focused on her, he growled, "What did you say?"

She stepped back, shocked at his reaction to her simple question. "I... I asked if you wanted... cream or sugar."

"Black," he answered and resumed his pacing, shaking off the feeling her words had left him with.


Feedback

Return to the Med Lab     Return to 'Til Death Do Us Part Main Page     Go to Part Five