A Freak Once Again

A Freak Once Again Chapter 13

                He checked her breathing again. She was still alive. He cupped her face with both hands. Still nothing. Logan leaned down and softly kissed her bloodied lips, but nothing happened.

                “Come on Marie, please,” he kissed her again.

                Again.

                Again.

                Nothing would happen. Tears brimmed his eyes and his stomach twisted into an aweful knot. That’s how Storm and Nathan found them, Logan crying over Rogue’s broken body.

                They quickly brought her back to the school, needing no explanation as to what happened. Logan wanted to be in the room, but Nathan insisted that he would only get in his way and if he really wanted to help, he would stay out of the way. Knowing that he was right, Logan stormed off, both angry and upset.

                He was angry because he knew he shouldn’t have allowed her to do something so dangerous. He was supposed to protect her and this wasn’t the first time he had failed to do so. Images of Magneto’s machine ran through his mind like a movie and he cringed. Lost in thought, he almost ran into Liam.

                “Hey! Logan what’s u…”He trailed off as images of the accident were projected from Logan’s mind to his. “Rogue got into an accident. I’m so sorry,” he shook his head solemnly.

                “I shouldn’t have let her even touch the bike. It was too dangerous, I should have…”

                “You can’t shelter her all the time, you know,” he pointed out.

                “Well I sure as hell am going to try,” he growled. Then he remembered something, something maybe only Liam would be able to explain to him.

                “Why could I touch her?” Logan asked. Liam’s brow furrowed in confusion, obviously not understanding the question.  “She is alive, but when I touched her nothing happened. I could touch her. Why?”

                “Logan, how could I possibly know? I would have to spend some time with her to figure that out,”

                “Could an injury take away a mutant’s powers?”

                “Take away? No, it’s a gene. However, the power themselves can be cut off from us. The abilities themselves are accessible in the way water is accessible through a faucet. Most of us can turn this ‘faucet’ on and off as we please. Some of us, like Rogue for instance, have the faucet permanently turned to the on setting. However, I suppose an accident may be able to turn the faucet towards off and keep it stuck that way” he shrugged.

                “So Rogue may be cut off from her powers?”

                “It’s a possibility,”

                Logan didn’t know whether to be upset or relieved by this idea. He would be able to touch her, which would make his and her life so much easier. However, her powers were a part of her. He hated the thought of losing what made her so special. That’s not to say that he would not love her, nor think she was special, but her powers made her that much more perfect to him.

                It was a good two hours before Nathan came out of the room, looking pale and exhausted.

                “Is she okay?” Logan demanded.

                “She’s fine,” he said with a little irritation.

                “Can I see her?”

                “She is asleep Logan,”

                Nathan was angry, to say the least. Logan should never have allowed Rogue to put herself in so much danger. It was so stupid!

                Alright, he knew it wasn’t really Logan’s fault. In all honesty, he just felt oddly protective of the girl. He didn’t understand these weird emotions. At one time, Rogue had simply been a girl in Logan’s stories. Now, she was a girl that he had indescribable feelings for.

                Seeing her injured had brought him pain. He wanted to do more but he had to be realistic. The body needed time and there was only so much the medical world could do to help. She would be fine. She had a rather bad concussion, road rash, a split lip, and some nasty looking bruises, but she would be fine.

                “What about her powers?”

                “What about them?” Nathan wondered.

                “Are they still there?” Logan asked.

                “I don’t know. I’m a doctor, I wear gloves,” he reminded him.

                “Right… Can we go in?”

                “We?”

                “Liam and I,”

                “I don’t really see why not, just don’t try to wake her,”

                Logan didn’t say anything else and simply ran into the room, Liam following closely at his heels.

                When he saw Marie he felt like crying all over again, and he wasn’t one to cry. Her pale complexion was littered with bruises and scrapes. She looked so, so pale.

                As Logan stared at her, Liam went to work. He knew what he was searching for and he had gotten used to searching for it. Storm often had him search new student’s minds to find the extent of their mutations. Normally, he had no trouble finding Rogue’s so-called ‘faucet’. However, Logan was right, her powers did seem to be mostly gone. But he still knew where to locate the source and when he found it, he found something surprising.

                Originally, Liam had suspected that her powers had been completely cut off. However, as he pushed through her mind, he found something rather different. True, they were shut off at the moment, but they were not cut off. In fact, he was rather certain that, with some concentration and practice, she would be able to control them at her will.

                Rogue would be able to touch again.