Logan watched Rogue across the dining room table and wondered if when she killed him it would be slowly or quickly as he was hoping. The dinner was a formal sit down the kind the professor loved and he loathed. It had been just shy of two weeks since their days away at the inn, yet a lot had changed. They'd taken a larger room that they shared. It had caused a few raised eyebrows but no further comments, at least none that had reached him. Still as he watched her across the table from him looking far too edible in red he knew that the next revelation they would share would cause more than raised eyebrows.

Rogue watched Logan carefully his mind was a swirl of thoughts that wouldn't allow her to focus on any one of them. Still she sensed he was worried about something. Words concerning marriage filtered into her consciousness.

"All women want to be married." Scott made the statement indirectly at all the men at the table.

Rogue had to take a long sip of water to calm the choking that began with that statement. She watched the others swing their heads in her direction when she bit back a laugh. But it was Logan's raised eyebrow and Wolverine's growl in her mind that gave her pause.

Scott seemed almost oblivious to the sudden thick tension in the room. "What? It's a fact."

Rogue set her glass down carefully and gave him along look. "Not all women, Scott. I have no intention of evah getting married." With that she turned back to her dinner.

Logan felt Wolverine's anger, felt it spill forth into a growl that was far too loud for a civilized dinner. He didn't see the others watching him only felt the same anger Wolverine did. Catching Rogue's eye he barely contained his anger. "What did you just say?" his anger was far too close to the surface and he knew it was ridiculous, men didn't want marriage. Her statement should have had him shouting in celebration yet it infuriated him. He was damn close to making a fool of himself and she only watched him with a somewhat disdainful look.

"You heard me sugah, I have no intention of getting married. Evah." Her words were a mistake and she knew it the minute they came out of her mouth. Wolverine was in her mind thrusting the images of his claiming, his mark, his taking and right there with him was Logan telling her they were as good as married.

Logan tried his best to maintain his temper and not suddenly become the girl in the conversation. He cut roughly into his steak and met her eyes. "I see." He didn't see though. Marie was his in every way that mattered, she bore his mark and yet the idea of marriage made her skin crawl. What did that mean for their child? What would she say if she knew? Sometime in the middle of the night he had woken, a nightmare chasing him through his sleep. As he'd lain there regulating his breathing he'd scented something new in the woman lying next to him. As he'd suspected that first afternoon together their timing had been perfect. Perfect until you took into account she was going to pissed at his omission. Wolverine though was chest beating proud.

"Child.."

Rogue heard the word slip through her mind didn't understand where it came from in the conversation. It was only when she focused on the emotions behind it that she began to understand. Wolverine went suddenly quiet and Logan refused to meet her gaze.

Her fork fell from her hand and she knew it shook; still he wouldn't look at her. She lifted her hand and stroked one finger in the air pulling unfairly on the metal in his body ever so gently. She watched his chin lift until finally his gaze met hers.

"Unfair advantage you have there Marie." Logan winced when she raised an eyebrow.

"Considering what I just heard I'd say you're the one with the unfair advantage. Both of you." She watched when he flushed deeply, ignored when the others noticed it as well. "What exactly do you know that I do not?"

Logan felt the tug of her under his skin and couldn't fight the smile back. She was a force to be reckoned with in more ways than one. Just to give a little of what he was giving he sent her the image of taking her innocence that first afternoon. Only when she'd released her hold on him and was flushed herself did he follow it with the scent he'd picked up on in the night and its meaning. He watched her stand abruptly; her drink spilled onto the fine white linen of the tablecloth her silverware hitting the floor with the tinkle of metal on hardwood. Yet she remained silent.

Rogue felt her world shift beneath her feet, he had known. Had known that afternoon, She could see it filtering through his thoughts, could feel the pride in Wolverines stroking of her mind as he tried to calm her. She felt an initial flare of anger hot and red wash over her. She almost let that anger loose in unforgivable ways until she listened to Wolverine's soothing words.

"Wanted mine…always. "

He'd done it to ensure she wouldn't leave him. He was certain there would come a day when she would find him no longer enough. The absurdity of that thought almost made her smile. Instead what slammed into her was the knowledge she carried a child. Just over a month ago she'd still been mourning his absence and now she was his truly in every way. All the air rushed out of her and she felt her head spin.

Logan stood when Marie swayed uncaring they had drawn far more attention than he would have normally liked.

"Are you sure… it hasn't been that long?"

Logan couldn't stop the grin that took over. Tapping the center of his face he watched her flush. "The nose doesn't lie ….sugah."

He watched her barely reigning in her anger as he threw her favorite word back at her. Saw her hands twisting into the tablecloth and chuckled. He wasn't surprise when she called him a colorful name and whirled out of the room. In fact he'd so been expecting it he had to laugh.

The professor took in the silent conversation that had occurred in just a blink of the eye and had no idea what had happened to his once well-ordered home. "Logan, is there a problem?" he heard Logan laugh again.

Logan knew where she was headed, new everyone at the table had their questions and wondered how best to handle both. Reaching into his jacket pocket he pulled out a cigar and tossed it to the professor. "Hang onto that gonna be needing it soon." Walking from the room he hoped like hell she'd let him get close enough to properly apologize.

Logan found her in their room; she paced careful steps back and forth in front of the bed. Her eyes locked on his the moment he shut the door.

"You knew that afternoon, knew exactly what you were doing." Rogue felt the way Wolverine sensed her anger.

Logan leaned against the wall and sighed. "I did."

In her mind she could hear Wolverine whispering to her.

Smelled good

Wolverine had more to say but he sensed her anger and went quiet. "You should have told me, given me the choice Logan."

Logan met her gaze unashamed. "I should have but I didn't."

Rogue felt his unvoiced apology, heard it from Wolverine in her mind. "Did you really believe I would leave Logan? I waited three years for you; if it had been a passing crush a momentary thing do you believe I would have waited all that time? A year after you left I could control my skin, any point after that I could have left this place and filled any need I had." Wolverine was no longer quiet he and Logan both roared through her mind, protesting that she would have done such a thing.

That's my point sugah, I didna. It crossed my mind of course, but I never truly considered it.

Logan found himself breathing in her scent, his hands biting into her arms almost too roughly for either of their comfort. He calmed himself forcefully taking a step back. "I won't apologize Marie I'd be lying if I did but..." he didn't know how to make the words come out right nothing could make right his taking of her choice but still he couldn't find a way to be sorry.

Rogue sighed, wishing there was some part of her that could be angry. "I understand Logan or at least I'm trying to. Why did you think I would leave you? I waited for you..."

Logan hated the answer to that question, it made a sharp lance of pain go through him and because of their bond he knew she felt it. The alarm in her eyes, her hand on his arm had Wolverine begging him not to speak. "Marie, I'm not like other men. I dominate, I like to have my way and I'm not always nice." He saw her lift a brow as if to say this was all no surprise. "But more than that I don't die, at some point you are going to realize that being tied to a man that will not age while you do is going to change the way you feel."

Marie had to sit on the edge of their bed not from the shock of his words but from the pain Wolverine was trying to hide from her. "Logan I love you, do you really believe that would matter? I would have thought it would bother you more."

Logan couldn't move her words had frozen him as surely as her abilities could. To hear her say she loved him was almost his undoing. He couldn't speak, couldn't form the words that would make her understand.

Rogue felt Wolverine brushing through her mind.

Mine, forever. Love me?

Rogue would have smiled if the answer hadn't meant so much. Love you...always

Logan pulled her close hating his roughness in that moment. She deserved candles, roses a gentle man and yet he stood beside her body tense with need. His body begged him to claim her yet again. He breathed through the moment. "I love you Marie and because of that I did what I did so you could never leave me."

Rogue stepped into his arms, heard the resulting purr from Wolverine. "I don't intend to ever leave you and who you are all the traits you just listed are what make you the man I fell in love with. I wouldna want you to change for me." his thumb was stroking her cheek conveying a tenderness he believed he didn't have but that was always there. "I have to tell you somethin though."

Logan heard a catch in her words, heard her call to Wolverine for patience. "Tell me Marie."

"I'm more like you than you know. On a mission about a year ago I was injured, severely." She placed her hand on his chest even as he and Wolverine both made a loud sound of protest.

I am fine you have seen that for yourself.

"Storm was certain I was going to die."

Logan felt a sweat break out along his skin, Wolverine was doing the equivalent of pacing and yet somehow he managed to stay quiet. "How."

"A mutant with the ability to find metal from anywhere form it into bullets and fire them from his body the same as a gun." she tried to keep the image of those bullets flying at her piercing her skin, driving deep tearing muscle and bone. But as always with the memory came the pain that somehow she could not mute.

Had Logan been a lesser man he would have been on his knees. That moment in battle though far in the past was etched firmly in his memories now. Her pain as bullet after bullet hit her resounded through him. The moments just after the attack found a place in his mind as well. A fiercely large man with no hair and an angry smile looming over her as around her the battle raged. Her hand reaching out and with the last of her strength her twisting the remaining metal inside him to wrap around his organs crushing him from the inside out. He'd fallen in a heap dead beside her as she'd gasped for air. In that moment she had been thankful for what little of Magneto she had and still hated herself for it.

Marie watched him stumble until he was sitting on the bed. She had expected his anger his concern but not his trembling form on the bed. Gently she let her mind touch his and she felt pain...her pain. Trying with all she remembered from her sessions with Jean she pulled back on that pain as she would the metal inside him. She saw the relief coursing through him as the pain subsided.

"How many bullets Marie?" he had more question like why he was sharing her pain, why the pain was so real and how she had been able to turn it off but for now this would be his first question.

She wanted to lie or not tell him at all but somewhere in his mind the information was already there. "Seven."

The roaring sound of pain that came from both Logan and Wolverine would surely be heard downstairs.

Before they were interrupted she sent a quick message to Jean that she was fine, in no danger. But it was the man in front of her she was most worried about. "I am fine, I am here and I am yours." still not fully believing what he was telling her she took his hand and place it low on her stomach.

Always yours.

A swirling mix of emotions clouded his mind but Logan stepped back from them meeting her eyes. "I will never let you go Marie, never."

"I hoped you would say that."

He stared at her for a long time before he could speak again. "You'll marry me in two weeks. I won't ask you to change, to be someone you're not." it wasn't the flowers, or the fancy dinner she deserved it was a demand and one she would certainly refused.

Rogue did smile then, as surely as he had always done he changed her mind in a matter of moments. For some reason it mattered to him they be legally bound, she could feel it in the way he held her. They were more surely bound by his mark and the child than any law could make them but for some reason it mattered. And, she found as the idea settled in her heart it mattered to her as well. She looked up to him touching his jaw. "I will."

"Forever, Marie." he tightened his hold around inhaling the scent of her that would follow him everywhere he went.

Against his chest she placed a soft kiss and in two voices agreed. "Forever." Forever...