Though Lovers Be Lost...

By Jaguarita

The X-men and all related characters belong to Marvel Inc. Reb and Grant are mine although Wolverine may or may not have a son. Enjoy!

Rated PG


Rogue stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk. Iceman walked right into her.
"Hey!" He staggered back a step.
"Ohlawd." The X-men's resident southernbell murmured. She stared at the young woman standing in front of a popular coffee shop. The woman caught sight of Rogue and froze.
"Sis?" The woman took a slow step forward.
Iceman was staring now. The woman's resemblance to Rogue was obvious and uncanny. From her model's figure to her springtime green eyes. The only real difference was her heavy mane of copper curls.
"Good lord, gal, where ya been?" The copper-haired woman laid her bare hand on Rogue's cheek....
And nothing happened.
"Ah...Ah don't know, sugah." Rogue hugged her sister relieved that she couldn't hurt her. "Ah missed ya so much."
"Don't ya break me in half, gal!"
"Ah-hem." Iceman arched his eyebrows at Rogue. "Don't I get an introduction?"
The reunited sisters broke their clench.
"Ah'm called Reb. You're Iceman right? Ah've seen ya on the television." Reb held out her free hand, the other was clutched in Rogue's gloved hand.
"Right..Uh, we're attracting a crowd." Iceman cautiously touched his palm to hers. His arm tingled slightyly, but nothing else happened.
Reb gave him a wry smile. "Ah'm used to it, sugah. But gettin' outta here sounds fine."

Reb tossed a set of car keys into the air and snatched them back. Moments later Reb, Rogue and Iceman were screaming down the high way toward the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.
"What've ya been doing, Reb?" Rouge twisted in the passenger seat to study her baby sister's profile.
"Well, Ah ran off soon as Ah could after ya did. Lived offa what Ah could scrounge and ended up pullin' a four year hitch in the Marines. Ah don't think Daddy ever found out Ah'm a mutant, too. "Ah wish ya's waited a bit so we coulda stayed t'gether."
"So do Ah, sugah. So do Ah." Rogue squeesed Reb's offered hand gently.
Iceman smiled to himself. "What's your power anyway?"
"Ability." Reb corrected gently. "Ah have the ability to generate an electrostatic force field 'round me, so Ah never really touch anything."
"That's why you touched Rogue and why it tingled when you touched me?" Iceman leaned forward slightly.
"That's the electrostatic part. Ah can build up a pretty strong charge when Ah'm stressin'." Reb shrugged.
"Ah'd bet ya raise havok with electronics." Rogue chuckled.
"Ya'd win." Reb said dryly.
Iceman chuckled and leaned back has Reb took the turn onto the driveway hardly slowing down. She slammed on the brakes with a snarled curse.
Marrow was standing right in front of the flaming red convertible. Reb glared at her through the windsheild. Muttering she climbed out of the car, followed more slowly by Iceman and Rogue.
"Reb..." Rogue said slowly.
Reb and Marrow stood glaring coldly at one another from mere inches apart.
"Got a deathwish, gal?" Reb growled through her molassis accent.
"Maybe I do." Marrow's hand twitched toward on of the bone daggers protruding from her hips.
Reb's hand moved faster. A closed fist slammed into Marrow's gut releasing the electrostatic charge violently. The younger mutant was flung back several feet.
Iceman looked at Rogue and shrugged. "Little sister has an attitude problem."
"Always had one, Bobby." Rogue retorted.
Reb looked down at where Marrow was picking herself up off the blacktop.
"Don't, gal. Just don't." Reb said slowly, the pain and exhausetion evident in her voice.
For a moment, it was looking in a mirror for Marrow. The soul deep rage and resignation glinting in Reb's eyes echoed in Marrow's. The Morlock blinked first and bolted away. Reb pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, trying to force the migrane away.
Iceman caught her before she collapsed. He grunted has he lifted her."She's heavier than she looks."
"Ah'll take her." Rogue moved has if to lift Reb from him.
"Go get Ceilia and Hank." Iceman jerked his head toward the house.
"But.."
Reb groaned and cuddled into Iceman's chest like a child. Rogue surged into the air, nearly breaking the sound barrier. Iceman strode up the wide steps craddling Reb.

Much later, Reb's eyes fluttered open. She sat up, shoving aside the thin blanket covering her. The room she found herself in smelled like disinfectant.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, lil'Janie Reb," said a deep, gentle voice above her.
Reb looked up, "Doctor McCoy, Ah presume?"
"In the fur. Feeling better?" Beast asked has he tumbled down to examin her. "Do collapses like that happen often?"
"Define ofter." Reb flashed a dazzling smile.
"Answer the question, please." Beast flashed a pinlight into her eyes.
"Only if Ah have to make a point to someone who'd love to rip, maim and mutilate me." Reb forced a cheerful note into her voice.
"English translation; when you try to use your mutant ablility." Beast grunted.
"Basicly."
Beast stepped back and flexed his hand trying to shake out the tingle. "And Bobby said he liked that."
"He did?" Reb blushed.
"Shy are we?" Beast chuckled. "Did you know he carried you in here?"
"Say a word, fluffy," Reb tapped Beast's nose, "and Ah'll deny it to th'death."
"No problem. So what's Reb short for? Not to change the subject or anything."
"Rebel." The Southernbell winked at Beast and rolled over backwards. She snatched up her jackett, then was gone out the window.
"Remarkable." Beast watched her dashing across the yard.

Iceman sprawled on the beat up wreck of a couch Beast had gotten out of storage. A comic book was open face down across his stomach, but he was just staring into space with an odd expression on his face.
"Problems, Drake?" came the harsh voice of the only X-man who's mind could possibly be fmore scrambled than Rogue's.
"Not really, Logan." Iceman tossed his comic on to the plywood and cinder block coffee table. "This place has sure come down in the world hasn't it?"
"Only in the stuff that doesn't really matter, like the furniture and the computers." Wolverine handed the younger man a beer bottle.
"Problems, Logan?" Iceman raised an eyebrow holding up the bottle.
"Girl troubles," Wolverine grunted. "Caught the sent of one I used to know. It's coming offa ya now."
"YOU know Rogue's little sister?"
Wolverine choked on his beer. "Rogue's little sister!?!"
"Reb..."
"Oh gawd." The expression and accent were familiar. So was the voice. It had only been a few hours since Iceman had heard it, but it had been ten years since Wolverine had.
"Rebecka..." Wolverine stood up slowly.
Reb took an unsteady step backward. "What..What are ya doin' here, Logan?"
"I live here, darlin'." Wolverine shot a glance at Iceman. The look said scram.
"Let it never be said I can't take a hint." Iceman scrammed.
Reb backed away until her back hit the door Iceman had closed behind him.
"I didn't know Roguw was your sister." Wolverine said softly.
"Really? What would ya have told her? Hi there, gal! Congradulations! Ah'm your nephew's daddy?" Reb snarled.
"I'm sorry, Rebecka."
"It's too late to be 'sorry', luvah. It's been too long." Pain supplanted the anger.
Wolverine reached out and wiped away the tears on her cheeks. "I never ment to hurt you."
"Too damn bad, old man." Reb yanked open the door and slammed it behind her.
Wolverine sank down to the couch and contemplated getting flaming drunk. Not that it would have helped. He wondered if it was really too late to mend the damage between him and Reb, between him and his son. Grant would be Jubilee's age now...If only he hadn't left.

Reb slammed the front door, half blinded by tears. She yanked open her car door but someone's hand closed on her arm.
"What's wrong, Reb?" Rogue pulled her sister away from the sports car.
"Ah can't stay here, Ah can't!" Reb struggled futily.
"What's wrong, Reb?"
"Logan, oh gawd...Logan's here." Reb felt like her knees had turned to water.
A memory that wasn't her's flitted across Rogue's mind. His arm around her shoulders, his hand on her stomach feeling the baby kick. Walking away, not even taking a picture. So afraid that Sabertooth would go after them...Rogue blinked.
"Ah'm gonna kill him!" Rogue snarled.
"Don't! Please, Ah still..." Reb's teeth fassened on her lower lip.
Rogue's eyes narrowed at her baby sister, not that the two years was so much difference but Reb would only have been a teenager. "Ya still what?"
"What do ya think?" Reb said softly. There was a bitter edge to her voice that Rogue never thought she'd hear.
"Oh, baby girl..." Rogue held her sister close to her.

Wolverine turned away from the window. His guts churned has he wondered how he missed the resemblance between the tempermental redhead and the hotblooded X-man. He closed his eyes when it hit him how much Jean looked like Rebecka, and how much Rebecka looked like Heather.
"I've got to get away from redheads," he growled to himself. He scrubbed a hand across his face. Suddenly he felt very old. And Reb had been very young ten years ago. He wondered what Grant was like. He wondered if his son hated him has much has he hated himself.

Reb dumped her duffle bag on the hardwood floor of her new room. Her new home. It was the first time in twenty years that she'd be in the same house with her sister. The first time in ten years that she had lived in the same house has the man she still loved.
She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall. Slowly she let her legs fold under her.
Gawd, Ah have to talk t'Logan before ah send for Grant,she thought,how do Ah tell 'em our son has no idea who his daddy is? Ah've lived away from my boy to long.
Reb scrubbed her hand across her face and climbed slowly to her feet. With a growl of disgust at ther bout of selfpity she went insearch of Beast. She had to get a room for her son.

Wolverine was waiting for her when she walked out of Beast's office.
"Where is he?" He growled.
"Hank? In there," she jerked a thumb over her shoulder.
"Grant."
Reb fixed him with a hard stare. "He doesn't know who ya are. When he gets here he won't know ya."
"He's my son, too, Rebecka." Wolverine forced his voice to a reasonable level. "Doesn't he know anything about me?"
"Less than Ah do, which ain't much."
"Can you say bitter?" came a female voice from around the corner. "Not that I ment to easdrop or anything."
Doctor Ceilia Reyes stood leaning against the wall, slowly wrapping one of her braids around a finger.
"Ah am not bitter." Reb said slowly. "Contrary to what Logan may think Ah went in with my eyes wide open. Ah always do."
With that parting shot Reb strode past Reyes and Wolverine with her head held high and her back ramrod straight.
"Exwife?"
Wolverine turned and stalked down the other hall.

Rogue was waiting for him when Wolverine reached his room. She regarded him coldly for a long moment before she spoke.
"Why?"
"Why what?" Wolverine threw himself on to the bare matress that served has his bed.
"Ya know what, Logan." Rogue leaned against the windowsil. "Why did ya abandon Reb? And ya'lls boy?"
"I didn't abandon them, Rogue." Wolverine said very carefully. "I left them very, very well off."
"Ah ain't talkin' bout money, Ah'm talkin' bout heartbreak."
Wolverine was quiet for a long time. He sat up and rested his hands on his knees then looked up at Rogue.
"When I met Reb, she'd been discharged from the USMC. She had nothing and nobody. She was waiting tables in a sleezy dive in a boarder town in the Yukon. She was an angel in the middle of a frozen hell. We fell in love and she came to live with me in a little cabin up the mountain."
What happened was written plainly on Rogue's face.
"Sabertooth showed up when...Grant...was almost three. I left to protect them." Wolverine finished softly. "I don't think she ever forgave me."
"Don't hurt her again."
"I don't think she'll let me."
Rogue turned to look out the window. "D'ya know Ah didn't even remember Ah had a sister till Ah saw her yesterday? Now Ah'll do just anything to protect her."
"Even from me." It wasn't a question.
"Even from ya, Wolverine." Rogue left on that quiet note.
Alone in his room Wolverine spoke, "I shoulda gone crawlin' back t'Reb over broken glass."
He closed his eyes and let a memory play through his mind. Reb, brave and beautiful, had thrown herself between Sabertooth and her young son. She'd had no garentee that her force field would hold.
Wolverine sighed and lay back down, alone.

Reb was facing off against Iceman in a friendly sparing match. She moved, slowly, her foot falls silent in the kneedeep grass.
So what that he was one of the X-men?
So what that he'd been doing this since he was sixteen?
So what that he'd just frozen her feet to the ground?
Reb sighed, "You're good, Drake, Ah'll give ya that."
The ice creeped up her legs.
Reb sighed again then violently expanded her force field.
Iceman threw up a shield to deflect the fragments. "But you're better right?"
"No," Reb said slowly. "Just more devious."
Her fist slammed into his temple. In his iceform it would have been no big deal, if her fist hadn't been covered by an electro static force field. Bobby "Iceman" Drake was blasted across the yard by what amounted to a sucker punch.
Iceman sat up and stared at Reb. "Where did that come from?"
"Left field," Beast said has he cheerfully bounded over to help Iceman up.
"Oh yeah, that helps." Iceman muttered.
"Ya wern't payin' attention," Reb said slowly. "Ya didn't need the shield, ya were in iceform. Ya couldn't see over it or through it..."
"So she went around it." Beast chuckled.
Reb shrugged and held out her hand. Iceman took it and let her pull him up.
"Comin'?" she asked. "Ah want ya to carry my boy's bags."
Iceman flung an arm around Beast's broad blue furry shoulders. "A word of advice, Hank. Never make a bet with this lady."

Iceman wondered how they were going to find a thirteen year old boy in the press of humanity swarming off the bus platform.
Naturally, Reb had a thought on the matter. Iceman could only watch has she stood up on a bench, placed two fingers in her mouth...and let out a whistle that could have pierced a jet engine's roar.
Reb was rewarded by an adolecent bellow of "MA!!"
Grant plowed through the crowd like a miniture linebacker. "Ma!"
Reb leaped down and flung her arms around her boy. "Hey there, darlin'. Didja have a good trip?"
"Ah'd rathah uh walked." The dark haired boy drawled.
"Ya need a haircut." Reb said absently twisting a lock of Grant's hair around a finger. It was stark white against the rest of the raven black mass.
"Aaaah, Ma! Le'go." Grant swatted at her hand. "Ah like muh hair long."
"Military school not to your likin', Grant?" Reb asked.
Grant had already changed the subject. "Who the blazes is he?"
Iceman crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the kid. "Mister Drake to you, shorty."
Grant brissled. a growl rumbled low in his guts.
"Ah'd better be hungry." Reb arched an eyebrow at her son, reminding him of his manners.

Grant was roaming around the estate grounds when he found the Olympic sized swimming pool. Someone was in it. Or rather leavering himself out of it. This guy wasn't furry like Doctor McCoy or anything but he was still really hairy. And short. And with more muscles than Hulk Hogan.
"Hey, kid. Yer Grant, right?" The man moved like a wolf to where he'd left his towel.
"Right. Who are ya?"
"Name's Wolverine." He started scrubbing at his hair.
"That's a critter, it ain't a name." Grant scowled.
"That's what I'm called, kid." Wolverine grunted from under the towel.
"Why d'ya keep callin' me 'kid'? Ya know muh name's Grant."
"Good name, kid." Wolverine said. "Did ya earn it?"
"Huh?" If Grant payed much attention to his reflection in the morning he might have noticed the resemblence between them.
"I earned Wolverine, kid. Yer ma gave ya Grant." Wolverine flipped the towel down onto his shoulders. "Ya got a name ya earned, kid?"
Grant's scowl deepened. He clenched his fists and held them up infront of his face, crossing his arms at the wrists. Claws popped from between knuckles. "Savage."
Wolverine nodded slowly. "Ya can call me Logan, Grant."

Reb turned away from the window with a slow relieved sigh. Wolverine wouldn't say anything yet.
The cell phone in her purse started ringing. She answered it. "H'lo?"
"Captain Wolvers. Report to Base Beta." The phone went dead in her ear. Reb jammed it back in her purse with a stifled curse.

Later that night Wolverine walked past Reb's bedroom door. The light was on and the door was open, but she wasn't in there. His extreamly hightened sences told Wolverine that she hadn't been in there for several hours. A note to Grant was on her matress. He didn't hessitate to open it.

Dear Grant.
I'm sorry I had to leave you behind again. Mind Rogue and the others.
Remember how much I love you.
Ma

Wolverine muttered a curse.

Two weeks had past without so much as a whisper from Reb. Then a knowck came at the front door.
Grant was in back having a snowball fight withe the supposedly adult X-men. Wolverine was the only one in the house. He found a stiff in a dark suit ant a military chaplan.
"Yeah?" Wolverine growled, he struchk a match on the door frame and touched it to the end of his gnarled black cheroot. He puffed it for a moment then blew blueish white smoke at the stiff.
"We regret to inform you that Captain Wolvers was killed in action above Bosnia three days ago." The stiff said quietly.
"Oh god." Wolverine said. He closed the door before the chaplan or the stiff could say another word.
Grant was standing behind him with a closed expression on his too hard adolecent face. "She ain't comin' back, is she?"
"No, son. I don't think she is." Wolverine stubbed out his smoke in a pottef fern.
"Are ya muh Pa?" Grant said slowly.
Wolverine looked up and ment his son's eyes. "I am."
"Ma says...said ya left cause ya loved us t'much." Grant dropped his gaze to the floor. "That true? Or didja just run out?"
"I'd understand if you hated me, but I was trying to protect you."
Grant looked at him thoughtfully. "No. Ah don't hate ya. Ma wouldn't have wanted me to feel like that."
"C'mon son. Let's go tell the others."
"Ah'm gonna miss her."
"I always have," Wolverine muttered under his breath. But Grant understood.

Coming eventually...

The Return of Rebel?