1A/N: This chapter is painfully short...pathetically short at only five pages. This is the end, and it probably seems very abrupt, but it will all come clear in the sequal, which I am currently working on, and will be posted along side this one when it is finished (which could be awhile as this one took me...oh, what? Four, five months?). I hope you all enjoyed this, and if you didn't, well...at least I gave you something to bitch about, right? Drop me a line, and tell me what you thought, and remember to review!

Chapter Sixteen

"So, what did you think of Josie?" Joanna asked as we washed dishes that night and Stephan and Christy saw all of their guests off with promises of Christmas parties and dinner dates.

"She was nice." I shrugged, drying a plate and stacking it on the counter next to the others.

"...That's all?" Joanna asked, "You didn't like her?"

"I'm not saying that... I just...she was nice. I don't tend to get attached to people I don't see on a regular basis, Jo." I shrugged, taking another plate out of the drying rack.

"But you liked her, right?"

"Well sure." I shrugged, "What's going on here? Why do you want me to like her so much?"

"Because... Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Kelvin are moving...north...to Bayville. My mom told them what a wonderful place it was, and so they went scouting up there and found a really beautiful house out in the country, and...so they're moving in January, right before second semester starts."

"So I have to see this girl all of the time?" I asked.

"Well, not unless you really want too... I thought you liked her? I was hoping you'd like her."

"I do...I just... She seemed like kind of a...a snob."

"She is a snob, Rogue. She's New York City royalty compared to us. Aunt Stephanie is an up-and-coming fashion designer, and Uncle Kelvin is an editor for the Journal. She's always gotten everything she's ever wanted, and more. She's spoiled, but I love her anyway."

I shrugged, and finished drying the dishes at Christy burst into the kitchen all a flutter, which was typical of Christy being a twit and a drama queen.

"Well, tonight was really spectacular, wasn't it girls?" She asked, "Oh, and we have one of Uncle Herman's pies left... That'll be a fantastic late-night snack later, I'm sure. And of course all of the other left overs... Goodness, where does the time go! It seemed just yesterday I was lying in front of a fan, wishing I had bought that pool, and all of a sudden we've got dumped with snow, and I'm up to my knees in turkey!"

Joanna sighed, and drained the sink before filling the pan we had roasted the turkey in with soapy water to soak over night.

"Oh, Darlings, you didn't have to do the dishes... I would have gotten to them eventually... Well, let me put them away at least. You two have been such a wonder today..." She picked up the pile of plates and walked them over to the beside the fridge, placing the good china carefully on the shelf, "So, Joey, how is Josie doing?"

"She's fine." Jo shrugged, wiping down the counter with her wet wash cloth as her mother came back for the glasses, pinching four of them together in each hand.

"Did she tell you her fantastic news?"

"She told me they were moving to Bayville, if that's what you mean." Joanna shrugged, flipping the cloth over the partition in the sink, and leaning against the now spotless counter top.

"Aren't you pleased?" Christy turned from stacking the second round of glasses in the cabinet.

"It's really not a state of being pleased Mom. I mean, Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Kelvin are going to move to Bayville wither I like it or not." Joanna shrugged.

I was drying the last of the dishes, trying not to listen to their discussion as Stephan walked in, picking up a second towel and joining me to finish drying the dishes while Joanna and Christy talked, growing louder.

"Maybe we should go out into the den..." Stephan suggested, nudging me towards the door. I followed him obediently, letting the kitchen door swing back and forth behind us.

"So, did you have a good time?" Stephan asked, going to the bar, "Would you like something to drink? I've got Ginger Ale and Coke if you're interested, or I have some bottled water." He filled a glass with ice, then opened a bottle of scotch, pouring it thinly over the ice.

"No thanks, I'm fine." I told him, sitting down in a chair in front of his desk after he motioned me into the chair, "I really like your...office. It's very...leather." I leaned back in the plushy chair.

Stephan laughed, "My last girlfriend was an interior designer. This room drove her mad, so before breaking up with me, she re-did my office. If you ask me, I got the better part of the whole deal." He leaned back in his swivel chair, "So...tell me about yourself. You've been in my house twice, and I only know your name, and that you go to school in Bayville."

"I'm from Mississippi... That's really all there is to me, besides what you know." I shrugged.

"Oh, c'mon...there has to be more to 'Rogue' then that. What do you like to do? What do you aspire to do?"

"I guess...I like what normal girls like..." I shrugged, "I'm not really a people person, but it's not that I got nuthin' against anyone... I suppose I'll spend the rest of my life doin' what I do now at the Institute... Be part the team, stay on as mentor after high school, maybe go to college, get a degree in something useful."

"Like what?" Stephan asked. I didn't like it when adults asked such hard questions.

"I don't know... Maybe law. No one from Xavier's has gotten a law degree yet... We've got doctors, and scientists, but no lawyers." I shrugged, "I think we got a cosmotologist too, but we don't talk about her much."

"Useful people to have around." He nodded, "You ever think about writing?"

"Like as a career?"

"Sure... I always try to lead people to writing, it's a habit." He moved from his chair, and went to pick up a book from the shelf, "I got my very first story published when I was about your age. I read it now, and I see it for the crap that it really is." He flipped through, and showed me the title page. The Dark Night, by Stephan Darius, right there in bold print.

"What do you write now?" I asked, taking the book from him, to read the summary, "This is obviously historical."

"Oh...over the years, I've written a little bit of everything... Comedy, Romance, Screenplay, poetry, historical, Fantasy, Mystery... Now I'm into science fiction. I'm getting a book I just finished published in the Science Fiction Journal by monthly installment. Not what I had originally planned, but I made sure in the contract that I added the clause that I could still choose to publish the novel in full, should I find a publisher." He shrugged, and took the book back when I handed it to him. He closed it, and stuck it back on the shelf, "Otherwise, I do a lot of freelance stories for magazines. There is actually a very wide public for creative writing, you just need to find the right place." He took his seat back behind the desk, "I was thinking about getting into a realism phase. Maybe Young Adult novels."

"That sounds really interest-." I turned suddenly when we heard the banging of pots and pans cluttering to the floor.

"We better go check that out." Stephan stood up, pushing back his chair. I pulled off my gloves just in case, rushing out of the door first, and stopping in the doorway of the kitchen. Joanna was picking up the pans from the floor, throwing them back into the sink noisily, Christy was gulping down a bottle of wine.

"What's going on?" Stephan asked, squeezing past me as I pulled my gloves back on.

"Nothing, Stephan, Darling." Christy thumped the bottle back onto the counter, "I'm just a terrible woman and mother...that's all."

"I never said that, okay?" Joanna turned on her.

"Whoa, okay... Joey, why don't you and Rogue go up stairs, and go to bed, and I'll take care of your mother, alright?" Stephan stood between them. I saw Joanna trying to surpress the little green wisps of fury that kept curling around her hands.

"C'mon, Jo." I tugged on her arm, taking the last pan from her hands, and placing it on the counter, "We'll go talk..."

Joanna pulled away, "I want to leave."

"Jo, it's almost midnight...we can't leave right now."

"Look, I don't want to stay here, okay?"

"Don't worry sweetheart, I'll leave." Christy pushed between us, out of the door to grab her coat, "Stephan, where are my car keys!"

"Oh shit..." Stephan sighed, turning to Joanna, "Alright...you girls, stay here, okay? I'm going to go drive your Mom home, and I will back...but don't wait up."

"Dad...I just..." Joey was silenced by a swift kiss on her forehead, and she sighed, leaning against the doorway of the kitchen, sliding down to the floor. After I heard the front door closed, I sank down beside her.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I realized how right you were. You forced me to think about what happened to me...as much as I tried to ignore it, so that I could have my normal, safe, happy family again... It just...it doesn't work out that way, does it Rogue?" Joanna shook her head, "My mother did something unforgivable to me...and I just...I let it go. How could I do that?"

"It's part of who you are, Jo. You forgive people. You're like a Saint or something."

"I am no saint, Rogue. You were so right. I forgave her way to easy. Divorcing Daniel is one thing... Divorcing Daniel, and shoving me out of a car at over sixty-five miles an hour before that is something completely different... And she hasn't changed at all. She's still this annoying, big haired, twit that she has always been." Joanna shook her head.

"It could be worse, Jo. I mean... I don't have anyone, but you have a Dad who loves you, a boyfriend who would die for you, and your Mom...she's tried to make things all right between the two of you. Sure, she did all of that, but... she could still be with Daniel."

Joanna sighed, closing her eyes, and leaning her head back against the frame, "I am just...so tired."

"C"mon, lets get you off to bed." I stood up, and then held out my hands to help her up, "And we'll head out early tomorrow morning if you still want to get out of here so bad.

No POV

The first week of December passed quickly, followed by the second. Rogue and Joanna found themselves shopping together for gifts again. The two planned to spend their holiday at the Institute rather then to accept Joanna's mother's invitation to a Christmas Party, and stay at her father's house. Joanna was still not speaking with her mother by the time Christmas vacation rolled around, and everyone's gifts were neatly wrapped, and under the tree, save for one gift.

Rogue and Joanna were a classier part of the Bayville mall, scrutinizing an array of cashmere sweaters.

"What do you think Logan will look best in? It isn't bad to give him the same thing I gave him last year, is it?" Joanna asked Rogue.

"Not when he looked so good in the first... and besides, he needs a new one. He wears the other one all of the time."

Joanna sighed, "I don't know... Logan is so hard to shop for in the first place. Should we go with basic black?"

"I was thinking the midnight blue..." Rogue crossed her arms. The sales girl heaved a sigh, but didn't make any other verbal complaint.

"Oh, I rather like that one... but I love him green... It really brings out his eyes."

Rogue shrugged, "Well, you're the one who has to see him in it, not me. Do as you will." In the end, Joanna ended up buying the midnight blue...just for future reference.

The day started out like any normal day. Joanna woke to squeals in the hall, and thumping on the staircase. Logan groaned in her ear, and hugged her closer. Christmas morning was very different from what it had been the year before, and she was reminded of what the last year had been full of... Tragedy, romance, romance put on hold, teen angst, broken hearts, romance taken off the back burner, dates, parties, people, shopping, family...

"Everyone else is up, I think, Logan." She patted his hand which rested lightly on her hip.

He growled, turning his face away into his pillow, "Good for all of them, darlin'."

"C'mon, Logan." She pressed a kiss to his scraggly cheek, and slipped out of the bed, pulling her robe from the floor, and wrapping it around herself over her pajamas. She watched him sit up in bed before she pulled the door shut quietly behind her.

"Ah, and where is Logan?" Professor Xavier looked out from his garland-decked wheel chair.

"He's just getting up Professor." She sat on the floor on the side of the couch next to Rogue, "Morning."

"Hey." She stretched, her feet covered in a pair of multicolored socks, her robe pulled tightly around her.

After Logan, and the rest of the remaining students joined them in the living room, they opened gifts.

"How original." Logan opened Joanna's gift, one of his few, holding up the sweater.

"You don't like it?"

"I love it." He squeezed her hand.

She smiled, and leaned against him to open the last of her gifts.

The rest of the day seemed to go virtually normal...Gambit was terrorizing Jubilee, Rogue was attempting peace-keeper, Lance Alvers was stalking Joanna, Warren moped in the kitchen, Kitty and Kurt played video games in the rec room, and of course...a snowball fight. It wasn't until late afternoon when everyone was beginning to unwind that the Professor's call sent them all into action.

Mystique was up to her old tricks... She had gone to the Muir Island Facility, and broken out not only Magneto but Jaggernaut as well, Professor Xavier's nearly unstoppable brother.

The trio, joined by Victor Creed (Sabertooth), Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Toad, and Blob were going to be a tough match against the X-Men, which besides the normal crew of Sundry, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Angel, Gambit, and Storm, included Jubilee and Avalanche as trainees.

They met on a moor on one side of the island facility. Everything moved quickly, Logan went after Sabertooth, more then willing to settle an old rivalry. The others dispersed together, and in pairs to fend off others. Joanna was left with Magneto.

"So we meet again." Magneto bowed.

"So we do." She nodded, "Shall we make this quick and get you back into your tank, or would you like to enjoy the smell of freedom a while longer?"

"Oh please." A wave of his hand sent her flying backwards, a magnetic field flinging her backwards.

"You really shouldn't tempt me, old man." She growled. The force field she then created would repel other magentic forces around herself. Magneto raised an eyebrow at her.

"You're learning to use that very well...I'm so glad."

"So, what is like being locked up in a tank and knowing that an eighteen year old girl put you there?" She asked, cocking her head to the side, "This is going to get very old, very fast..."

"It's very boring actually." He pondered, "If you had just cooperated in the first place, none of this would have had to happen, my dear."

"I would never help you with what you do." She shook her head.

"Well, since we are at a stalemate, perhaps we should find other...opprotunities... you may want to help that boyfriend of yours." He gave her a sly smirk, raising into the air.

Joanna's POV

I turned, Logan was trapped underneath Sabertooth, was trash talking, the only thing he was really good at. I strode over, ignoring the other fighting going on. It didn't take much of an effort to put Sabertooth out of comission, throwing him backwards.

"Thanks, darlin', but I could have managed." Logan got to his feet, and cricked his neck.

I smiled, and shook his head, "Magneto is gone."

"Well, why'd you let him go?" He asked.

"I couldn't do anything." I shook my head. It seemed strange. I could hear the rumbles, the screeches, the grunts, and growls...but all I could focus on was Logan. I loved him, and yet... I couldn't do it anymore. Suddenly, everything seemed to pointless. I turned. A wave of my hand pulled everyone apart, and everyone was frozen in their various stances.

"What the hell is going on?" Quicksilver yelled, "Put me down!"

"Sundry, what's the matter?" Storm asked, trying to reason with me.

"You're all so pointless." I whispered, "What are you all fighting for? Magneto is gone, and you're still here fighting your own separate battles for your own selfish reasons. I just..." I dropped them all to the ground safely and they looked at me, confused, "I just can't do it anymore."

And I left, with no clue as to where I was going, or what I would do.