AN: The use of the word resemble in the first few paragraphs is not a mistake, just something an ex of mine used to say.

Epilogue

It took the professor almost two weeks to figure out and fix what Mystique had done to cerebro to hide Logan from him, and by the time he was finished, they wondered if they should bother Logan with it. The incident had passed, after all, and they were all safe and well.

He'd been gone for seven months by that time and although everyone missed him, they decided to give him the time that he needed.

Quite by coincidence, Logan came home of his own accord about a week after cerebro was fixed, and walked into the kitchen as though he'd never been gone.

"Hey, what'd I miss?" he asked as he helped himself to a soda.

Remy, Rogue, Storm and Kitty were the only ones in there and they shared a look at his casual greeting.

"Oh, not much," Kitty said with a shrug. "The professor came back to life, Bobby and I broke up, the sentinels are back, I was kidnapped and no one noticed, Rogue killed Mystique, we wiped the sentinels out then Remy nuked the base, and these two clowns got together, finally. How was your trip?"

Logan smiled as he sat down opposite them.

"Took you long enough," was all he said to Rogue and Remy.

"I missed you too." Rogue smiled.

"Obviously," Logan scoffed. "Even made you desperate enough to date Gumbo."

"Hey!" Remy objected, "I resemble that remark, mon ami!" but his wink let Logan know that no offence was taken.

"And what about the school?" he asked.

"The school is fine, especially now that Charles is back," Storm said.

Logan wasn't as shocked by that news as they might have liked, because Charles has contacted him through Cerebro shortly after he got back to the school.

"Good." He looked to Rogue. "Those my tags?" he asked, noticing the chain around her neck.

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On how long you're sticking around this time," she teased.

"Don't have any plans to leave any time soon, kid."

Rogue slipped the chain from around her neck and handed the tags back to him with a smile.

"It's good to have you home."

Logan slotted back into life at the mansion as though he'd never been gone, save for the danger room sessions becoming a little more arduous.

Tonight was the night of the schools annual dance and the whole mansion was busy preparing. The first part of the evening was a disco for the children aged up to 15, then from 7pm onwards, the older children had Xavier's equivalent of a prom.

The older children went all out, as you might expect, and even the adults dressed up so they didn't look out of place acting as chaperones. Partners from outside the school were allowed to attend as someone's date, but while some did have friends in the local town, there seemed to be some unspoken rule among the children that this was their night, and any regular humans meant a complete veto on all powers. Even if it meant that they went alone or with a friend, everyone stuck to the unofficial 'no humans' rule.

Rogue had hated these dance when she was a pupil here as they only served as a reminder of what she couldn't do. She would never get to wear a pretty dress because they didn't make evening dresses that covered you from top top toe. Instead she made do, combining outfits, sewing arms that were not an exact match onto them or as in her first year here, not going at all. She couldn't really enjoy the slow dances either because even when she was dating Bobby, they couldn't dance cheek to cheek. They couldn't steal a kiss at the end of the night.

Tonight was going to be different though. Tonight she was dressed as she had always wanted to be. The dress was red, strapless, with a long flowing skirt and fitted bodice. She thought that she looked pretty good. She swept her hair up into a French pleat, securing it with rhinestone pins and leaving a few white tendrils down to frame her face.

She took her time getting ready, so the ballroom was about half full when she got there. Most of the missing students were the girls, probably making sure that every last hair was perfect before coming down to greet their dates and friends.

Rogue looked around for Remy and when she couldn't find him, stopped Storm as she passed.

"Have you seen Remy?"

"Not for a while. Last time I saw him he said he was heading up to the roof."

Rogue sighed. The roof was where he went when he was being introspective. She had thought that he was over the incident with Mystique and the trial, but maybe not.

"Thanks, Ro."

She headed out to the rear patio and looked up but she couldn't see Remy. Eternally grateful that she wouldn't have to risk tearing her dress by climbing the masonry, she gently flew up to the roof, and was so shocked by what she found there that she fell a few feet before she righted herself.

Remy was waiting for her, dressed in a tux and holding a champagne flute out for her. All around the roof he had lit hundreds of tea light candles and now that she was here, he took a remote control from his pocket and pressed a button, causing the delightful Louis Armstrong to start declaring What a Wonderful World it was.

Rogue glided down to the rooftop, landing just in front of Remy and accepting the champagne glass he handed her.

"Remy, I... When did you do all this?"

"Earlier today," he said. "I figure we can join the others later, but you look so belle tonight, that I want you all to myself for a while."

Rogue smiled, tears pricking her eyes. She had felt a little pathetic earlier, getting so excited about tonight when really her only function was as chaperone, but Remy had just made tonight so much more than a simple dance. He had made it magical.

"So how about a dance, ma chère?" he asked, taking her glass from her and leaving them on a table with the ice bucket.

Rogue easily fell into his arms and swayed with the music.

"I'm not very good at dancing," she warned. "I haven't exactly had much practice."

"You don't need practice as long as you have the right partner," he assured her, pulling her close.

"I love you," she said, her voice almost cracking.

"Bien, 'cos I love you too, chère."

As the song changed to Eric Clapton and Wonderful Tonight, Rogue lay her lead down on Remy's shoulder, wishing that this moment would never end and that they could stay up here, in each others arms forever.

As the song ended, Rogue raised her head and looked up at the man she loved. She knew that he didn't feel worthy of her, but she intended to spent the rest of her life trying to prove him wrong.

His head dipped lower and he kissed her, passionately but at the same time, reverently. Rogue had never experienced a kiss like it and as he pulled away, she felt odd; excited but also nervous.

The music changed again to Anne Murray, singing You Needed Me, but rogue hardly noticed.

"Rogue," Remy smiled. "From the moment I met you, I knew that you were going to be trouble."

Rogue smiled.

"There you were, all spirit and fire and bravado, not to mention unbelievably beautiful and despite my best efforts to leave you alone and stay out of your life, you dragged me into it anyway. They call me a thief, but you stole my heart, chère, and without even trying."

He reached into his pocket and withdrew something which he kept clenched in his fist. He took a few deep breaths, then opened his hand.

"Rogue- Anna, will you marry me?"

Rogue was captivated by the ring that she saw resting in the palm of his hand. Three diamonds in a row, the centre one easily two carrots, with slightly smaller ones on either side, and mounted into a platinum setting. The candle light refracted off the stones as he grasped it between his index finger and thumb and held it out to her. It was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen.

"I know you're still young, and we can have a long engagement if you want, years if that makes you happy. And if you don't like the ring, just say so, I can get another one, a bigger one. Anything you want, chère."

"Remy?"

"What?"

"Shut up." She finally looked from the ring up to his expectant face.

His request had taken her by surprise, after all she wasn't even 20 yet and she just hadn't expected anything like this. It wasn't even that long since she'd got her power under control, and before that she had firmly quashed any and all dreams of marriage and family. But that didn't mean that she was about to say no.

"Of course I'll marry you."

His face split into the biggest grin that she had ever seen and he pulled her towards him and into a bone crushing hug. He was like a kid at Christmas time.

When he released her, he slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her.

"Do you want to go and tell the others?" he asked.

Rogue shook her head. "I want to stay up here with you for a while longer. Just us."

Remy smiled.

"Only, you forgot something," Rogue said, looking forlorn.

"Chère!" There was a hint of panic in his voice. He had planed everything to the nth degree and he couldn't believe that he might have ruined everything!

"Wait here," she said, dropping his hands and taking off.

Remy watched her fly down the side of the building and his heart sank. Had he just blown it? Was she coming back? And what had he forgotten that was so important?

A few moments later, Rogue reappeared with a mattress under her arm.

"Chère!"

Laughing, Rogue placed it down beside Remy, then fell into his arms.

Remy smiled at the absurdity of it all. God, she was perfect.

"You're right," he smiled. "I guess I did forget something."

"I'm always right, Cajun, so you'd better get used to it."

"Okay, chère, there's just one thing."

"What's that?"

"You are wearing far too many clothes."

Rogue bit her lip and turned around so that he could lower her zip.

When they finally made it down to the dance below, they didn't tell anyone what had transpired on the roof because they didn't need to. Kitty was the first to notice the ring and her squeal of delight attracted quite a few other over to them. If anyone noticed that Rogue's flushed cheeks and her slightly dishevelled hair, they were polite enough not to say anything.

Finally the frenzy of congratulations and questions died down, just as the night was drawing to a close. The slow songs were playing and Remy led rogue onto the dance floor.

Storm came to sit by Logan as he watched the happy couple dance, but his expression was inscrutable.

"You okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he cracked a smile and turned to her. "Just feeling odd, I guess. She's like family to me."

"Remy's like family to me too, so I understand."

"Yeah? Well just tell your boy that if he hurts her, I'll be coming after him."

Storm could tell that he was teasing and smiled.

Her gaze retuned to Rogue and Remy and she smiled. "They look so happy, don't they."

Logan looked over to see that they had stopped dancing, but were suspended about a foot off the floor, turning in gentle circles as they held each other.

"Yeah, they do," he said with a slight wistfulness.

Logan looked to the woman next to him. For so long he had avoided getting close to her, afraid of dishonouring Jean's memory, but that was what his walkabout had been for, to say goodbye.

Decision made, he held his hand out to Storm.

"Care to dance?" he asked.

Storm looked surprised for a moment, then smiled warmly and took his hand.

"I'd love to."

AN: Well, thanks for sticking with the story, i hope you enjoyed it. If you're suffering withdrawal, check out my new Romy fic, Desperado.