Broken Promises [Book Two | REMASTERED]

Chapter 25: A Promise Kept

2023

        Logan awakes to the sound of music.

        At first he has no idea where he is. His first instinct is to turn away from the bright light shining in his face from the window, instead turning towards the noise. He rolls over and his eyes focus on a smaller blue light. It looks to be a hologram, a small globe spinning from its projector atop the alarm clock that continues to play Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in a soothing melody.

        Logan sits up in the bed and looks around frantically, his settings familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. Could it be. . . ?

        His answers lie behind the bedroom door with its intricate knob and fine carved wood. When his hand touches the brass of it, he hears a bell ring—a school bell. Logan opens the door and looks out, his eyes greeted by the sign of kids, teens, students walking up and down the hallway. 

        He's in the Xavier Mansion again, the School for Gifted Youngsters. 

        Down the hall,  Logan sees a familiar face and cannot help but stare. He watches Bobby step back from a doorway, his girlfriend Rogue following with him and taking his hands in her own gloved grip. Logan is almost unable to believe what he is seeing when the two look back at him and smile before walking off together.

        Logan does not know what to think. He hardly lets himself think as his legs carry him down corridor after corridor, step after step. He finds himself peering into classrooms and lounges, taking in the school and its alumni as if for the very first time again. He finds Kitty teaching her own class, and at one point he crosses paths with Hank McCoy himself, the man walking around in all his blue pride with a finely tailored suite, both scientist and teacher these days.

        "Morning, Logan," Hank greets him with a grin just before they pass each other. "Late start?" He lets out a chuckle that makes Logan feel like he can't breathe because it is all so surreal.

        His feet lead him finally to the first floor, where he finds Storm dismissing a class and helping students along to their next class. At the bottom of the stairs, Logan stops and looks left towards what he remembers to be the Professor's office. The door there is not open all the way, but in the doorway stands the one woman he thought he would never see. He could never forget the shape of body, nor the shine of her beautiful red hair.

        "Jean," Logan says her name like a prayer. Her head turns and there she is, her smile stunning him to silence as she answers with a simple, "Hey, Logan." 

        Her voice grips his heart and tugs inside him. He says her name again, quieter this time, approaching her still, and making her ask, "Are you okay?"

        "You're here." He stops before her and takes the sight of her in. She smiles and almost makes him forget the existential crisis he is experiencing right about now.

        "Well, where else would I be?"

        Before he can think, Logan is reaching up with his hand to touch her face, just to know for sure she is really there. Yet he never gets to touch, as a hand suddenly catches his wrist, holding him back.

        "Woah," Scott Summers says, pulling Logan's hand away from his girl. Of course, leave it to him to always be there to step in. "Easy, pal." 

        Logan sighs and drops his hand. "Well, some things never change," he murmurs but still claps his hand on Scott's shoulder, offering a genuine smile. "It's good to see you, Scott."

        Scott looks unsure of Logan's smile for a moment, even through the red lenses of his glasses. He has no idea what Logan's been through to see them again, but he takes it as a good thing. "Uh-huh. . . See you later, Jean."

        Logan steps aside and lets Scott through, and then his eyes follow into the room where two others wait behind a desk.

        "Professor?" Logan says when he sees him first, and Jean moves aside to let him in. The Professor sits centered behind the desk, while a white haired woman sits with her back to them atop the desk on his right. She held what looked to be a picture in her hands. A woman with cat ears atop her head and a tail swaying from a tuck in her blouse. "Kat?"

        "Actually, it's Christiana." She turns around and looks at him, her face aged yet incredibly young for so many years. "Logan, is everything okay?"

        Logan turns for a moment to look back at Jean and nods, his eyes softening as some of the tension leaves his shoulders. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah, I think it is." 

        Jean takes it that Logan needs some time alone with them, so she takes her exit and excuses herself from the doorway, leaving Logan to have his questions answered.

        "You did it."

        The Professor closes his book and Christiana stands from the desk, her eyes never leaving Logan while the Professor set his book down onto the desk. "Did what? Logan, don't you have a class to teach?"

        "A class?" Logan repeats incredulously. "To teach?"

        "Why, yes," Christiana answers with a gentle laugh. "You're teaching history while Brian is gone, are you not?" She holds up the picture in her hand to reveal that it is not a picture at all, but instead a postcard. "You said you could cover for his honeymoon."

         "History?" Logan shakes his head, then begins to nod. "Actually, I could use some help with that."

        "Help with what?" The Professor asks as he and Christiana both make their way from around the desk, his chair levitating him while Christiana walks with a cane in her left hand.

        Logan clears his throat. "Uh, pretty much everything after 1973. I think the history I know is a little different."

         In an instant, their faces turn from concern for him to pleasant surprise. "Welcome back," Charles says fondly, and Christiana places her left hand on his shoulder.

        Logan sees the wedding ring on her finger again and feels more and more at ease by the second, smiling as the reality of it really settles in. "It's good to see you two. Together. It's good to see everyone."

        "Well," Charles says as he reaches up to place his hand over Christiana's, "I had a promise to keep."

        Christiana gave a knowing smile at her husband's words. "I believe you two have a lot of catching up to do," she says, "and I have a history class to teach for my son." She kisses Charles head and dismisses herself, brushing past Logan with a friendly smile.

        The Professor looks up at Logan, excitement in his blue eyes. "So, what's the last thing you remember?"

        Logan thinks for a moment, considers the question. And then he starts to remember.

        "Drowning. . ."