As Storm entered the room Logan already knew who was on the phone she held, there was only one person who could put that look in her eyes. “ Do not call me that ridiculous name brother or I will zap you through the phone line.” There was a pause as she listened to the response then Storm did something totally out of character, she giggled. “ Say your goodbyes to Logan brother because upon your return I will have my revenge.” Another pause and a sweet smile crossed her lips, “ I love you too.” she handed the phone to Logan, “ He seems to be in an especially good mood tonight.” Logan smiled and took the phone. He moved across the hall to the Den, it was usually empty this time of night and he felt the need for some privacy with his lover even though he was hundreds of miles away.
Remy had been away now for an eternally long week. “ You better watch it kiddo, someday yer really gonna piss her off.”  He smiled at the response and sat down in an overstuffed leather chair. He threw one leg up over the arm and settled in. “ Where are you?”  Remy shivered as the rain pelted down around the open phone booth he was in.
“ Somewhere in Pennsylvania. Rainin’ pretty hard. I was gonna try to get home but I t’ink I’m gonna call it a night. I miss you.” Logan smiled, “ I miss you too Rem. Next time Chuck sends you on a road trip I’m comin’ along. Don’t drive that bike too far in the rain, it ain’t good in that kinda weather with those fancy tires you got on it.” It was Remy’s turn to laugh, “you just jealous ‘cause mines faster dan yours now.” There was a short pause and then “ you ’lone Cher?” Logan got comfortable and asked “ yeah, why?” His eyes grew big as he listened to his sultry young lover make exquisite love to him over the phone. He moaned as that honey sweet drawl flooded his brain with thoughts and images. Within minutes he was biting back a guttural moan as an earth rattling orgasm rushed through him. He gentled his motions and panted hard, trying to slow his pounding heart. When he could think again he realized that Remy was chuckling on the other end of the line. “ Get you ass home boy ’cause when you do I’m gonna…” Remy shivered again but this time it had nothing to do with the cold rain. “ Be dere by dinner tomorrow. Je taime” Logan sighed “ Love you too Rem.” He hung up the phone and just thought a while. He was afraid that Remy would get tired of him, move on to someone young and beautiful like himself. That never happened; if anything what they had just kept growing stronger. They’d been together now for nearly a year and there didn’t seem to be any limit to how amazing this could be. He cleaned himself up and went searching for a beer.

In the kitchen he found Scott and Jean sharing a snack and going over the events of the day.  “ You got your call I take it?” Jean said with a smirk. “ Bite me Red” Logan growled but there was no venom behind the words.  “He says hi and that he’ll be back tomorrow.” He popped the lid and took a long drink. Jean stood and walked behind Scott. She draped her arms around his shoulders “ Do you look like that after a call from me?” Logan knew what she meant. He felt unimaginably lighter, younger…better after talking to Remy. The boy was definitely a good influence for the gruff older man. “ I don’t know? Logan, what do you think?” Scott finally answered Jean’s question.  He grabbed his beer and headed for the door “ No way Bub, I’m not getting in the middle of THAT conversation.”  Scott laughed and Jean smacked him playfully, they’d be having this conversation well into the night.

Logan made his way to the room he now shared with the young Cajun and turned on the lights. Remy’s influence could be seen here too. Fine art work and stacks of books, framed pictures and a guitar in the corner, satin sheets and a thick down comforter, all touches that Remy added to the previously sparse room. Logan sat at the antique desk Remy found and fell in love with and picked up a frame. Jean had gifted them with the photo on their six-month anniversary. Logan smiled, never before had he thought of things like anniversaries. The young Cajun was lying back against his chest in the photo. He was looking up at the older man with such adoration in his eyes, as if he was in the presence of someone he truly worshiped. Logan was leaning gently against the soft auburn hair that coiled down and framed his impossibly handsome face. He loved the picture, it would always be his most cherished possession, or at least until he claimed the young man in it legally. He had plans in motion to do just that. He found himself almost giddy at the thought of being able to claim the boy as his in the eyes of God and for all time. He carefully returned the photo to its rightful place and stripped down to his boxers. Climbing into the bed he sighed and swore to himself that this was the last night he would ever be without his lover beside him again.

Remy saw the hitchhiker and ancient memories assaulted him. How many times had he been the one standing in the rain hoping someone would take pity on him because he was too tired or sore or lost in memories to take another step. He had a home now, a lover who welcomed him into a warm bed and a strong embrace every night. He pulled off the road by a sign for a fleabag apartment three miles up. At least he could save the guy a little bit of walking, drop him off at the phone that no doubt waited there. “ Come on homme, it ain’ dry but it’s a ride if ya wan’ it.” The gun appeared out of nowhere
“ Thanks, now get off the bike!” he screamed. His eyes were glazed from the drugs that were undoubtedly guiding his actions. “ Stay calm homme, no need to get upset” Remy slowly got off his bike. He’d let the guy go through the motions then stop him with a strategically placed card as he drove off. THEN he’d beat the shit out of him for making him stand out here in the rain. THEN he’d leave his sorry ass in the ditch by the road for touching his bike! This was what he got for trying to be NICE. “ Drop the key and move away!” Remy complied, hands up to show he wasn’t going to fight him. “ Gimme your wallet and watch!” Remy slowly reached into his pocket, his fingers brushing a card but he removed the wallet. This sucker was going to pay BIG TIME. “ Gimme the stud in your ear too!” At that Remy bristled, Logan gave him the stud. No way was this slime ball getting his hands on it. “ Ain’ even real, de wallet got more’n a hundred dollars in it. Take it and go homme.” The shot was fired before Remy could react and it grazed his head above the left ear. Remy spun and fell to his knee. The second shot hit his right thigh, burying itself in the bone and leaving him completely immobile. The third shot passed through his shoulder into the ground below. Remy’s last conscious thought was Logan will be mad I stopped.

The hitchhiker went no more than ten miles before he hydroplaned and slammed off the road into a grove of trees surrounded by thick brush.

By the next evening at seven o’clock, Logan was driving everyone to distraction with his pacing and growling. A monstrous rainstorm was blowing in off the Atlantic Ocean and the entire east coast of the States was buried under flood warnings and severe thunderstorms. Hank watched Logan play with the food Jean forced him to sit and at least try to eat. “ Ain’t like him,” he finally growled, “He knows I’m waitin. He knows Cyke needs the information he picked up.” He stirred his peas into his mashed potatoes on his plate. “ Maybe he decided to wait out the storm where he was. You said he was in the rain when you talked to him,” Hank took a sip of his iced tea. “ You know how susceptible he is to cold’s and flu’s, maybe he was feeling under the weather and he’s sleeping it off rather than take a chance on his bike.”
“ Yeah Logan, you know that thing is his baby. He just doesn’t want anything to happen to it.” Bobby said as he iced over Logan’s plate trying to lighten his mood but he didn’t even notice.
“ He’d call.” was his only response. He stood abruptly and returned to their room. It would be long hours until the sun rose again. Long hours of wondering and worrying.
 

Remy knew nothing but blinding pains the first seventy-two hours. Shivers and fever consumed him like wildfire. He was aware of a voice and hands but nothing else. His head pounded mercilessly and he couldn’t move his arm. He was sure if he looked he’d be missing half his leg so he didn’t even try. Once in a while the voice became clear, “…make me a fortune with you…best-looking whore in the state…” then the voice, like everything else faded to black again.

After three days and two trips down to Pa., the entire team was on edge. Remy hadn’t said where in the large state he was so they were searching blind. Cerebro could never seem to find him and the rain and wind made even Wolverine’s sensitive senses useless no mater how much Storm helped by manipulating the weather. “ This is hopeless,” she whispered in the empty Blackbird after another failed attempt to find her lost brother. She took the opportunity to allow herself the tears she’d been holding back. “ Goddess, watch my brother.”

Remy opened his eyes and found he was staring at a face he’d never seen before. The gruff man set off something in his mind, something he should remember but the migraine he’d had since becoming aware that he wasn’t dead held the memory at bay. “ Finally. You’ve been out for nearly a week. You got a name handsome?” Remy blinked slowly, a name?
“ Don’ remember…” The man sitting by the bed in the small apartment stood,
“ Damn, you got a sexy accent too. Don’t remember huh? Guess that hit to the head stole your memory. Well, we gotta call you something. How ’bout Stephen, not Steve, that don’t have enough…style. I patched you up, dug the bullet outta your leg. Can’t take ya to a doctor, then I’d lose ya. No sir, you are gonna be the star of my stable.” He smiled down at the boy but it wasn’t a friendly smile, more like a fox in a hen house. “ You ARE gonna pay me back right Stephen? I mean I missed a lot of work savin’ you. You won’t mind helping me out, right?” The young Cajun suffered through another fever driven bout of shivers that left him feeling even weaker. “ I’ll…help…” The man cackled happily,
“ That’s my boy! I knew as soon as I picked up your soggy body I found a gold mine. I’m Oscar, and in a few days you can start payin’ me back!”
 

Scott knocked on the door and leaned his forehead against the frame. How the hell was he supposed to do this? He closed his eyes and tried to imagine that it was Jean who’d gone missing but he couldn’t wrap his mind around the thought. If there was no Jean then there wasn’t a Scott, simple as that. He hated to admit it but he liked the old Canadian, he never played games with Scott. What he said was the truth. He was a gruff old man but he had a heart of gold. He’d lay down his life in a second to save a teammate. He and the Cajun were a surprise at first but it was soon very evident that they were just as deeply in love as he and Jean. The Cajun didn’t look as if he expected to be thrown away at the drop of a hat anymore and Wolverine? Wolverine seemed twenty years younger. He smiled and joked more. He was more comfortable than Scott had ever seen him. They couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other. There was always a touch, a glance, some type of communication going on between them as if one couldn’t function without the other. Logan was slowly dying inside without the young Cajun to complete him. Scott straightened and knocked again; Logan’s mail lies in a pile outside his bedroom door. One letter in particular caught Scott’s eye. He looked up and down the hall before picking it up. He felt guilty reading the other man’s mail but he had a feeling he knew what this was. Reading through the letter he shook his head. There was nothing in their way now. Logan had been granted approval to make his commitment to Remy legal in the eyes of the law.
“ Damn.”
“More bad news?” Hank asked as he joined Scott outside the room. “ They gave approval for the Commitment Ceremony.” Hank closed his eyes and sighed heavily, “ Let’s get this over with.”  Scott tried the door and found to his surprise that it wasn’t locked. “ Logan? I have news.” Logan came out of the bathroom half dressed, hair still dripping from the shower he obviously just took. “ What? Where is he? Is he okay? Who had him?” Scott took a deep breath and looked at Hank. Logan looked from Scott over to Hank and back again. His heart already knowing what they’d say, his head refusing to acknowledge or believe it. “ A motorcycle was found in a ditch. The driver…” Logan stared “ No…” he said slipping into shock. “ The driver” Scott continued a little louder after swallowing hard “is in a small hospital in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He’s in a coma and not expected to wake up. The ID identified him as Remy Le Beau.” His voice was shaking badly but he continued, “ We need to go down and…” he had to stop. “ We have to sign papers…” Logan was still as a statue. He just stared at Cyclops willing him to take back the words. Stop the searing pain in his chest; Let him wake up from this nightmare. “…Allowing them to stop life support…” Hank forced Logan into a chair as his knees started to buckle.
“ Are they sure?” Logan could barely manage a whisper. “ He had the wallet, the bike, Remy would never let anyone else touch that bike…” Scott was trying to stay calm. Trying to be the stable leader everyone expected him to be but a tear slid down his face before he could blink it back. “ I told them we’d be there in a few hours.” His voice was strong now but the raw emotion couldn’t be hidden or ignored. “ Logan, if you want us to go alone…” Hank started, trying to save his friend from actually facing the truth with his own eyes. “ No! No, I… I have to know, have to see with my own eyes…let me…” his eyes darted from side to side as his brain began to absorb the truth behind the words.
“ Just give me a minute…I’ll…I’ll meet you at the Bird.” He was calm, too calm and both Hank and Scott knew that the storm would hit as soon as they walked out the door and Logan actually realized what Scott had just been forced to tell him. Remy was dead.

Ororo sobbed loudly when she heard the anguished scream coming from Logan’s room. Jean wiped a tear with a shaking hand down at the boathouse. Logan couldn’t hold back the scream, Remy Was Dead. Remy Was Dead. Remy Was Dead. With another long scream he started clawing pictures and books, anything that reminded him of his lost lover. When he got to the desk he froze. “ Oh God Remy” he whispered as he clutched his favorite picture to his chest. He fell to his knees when his legs refused to hold him up, sobbing like a lost child.
 
 

Hours later Scott and Hank stood flanking Logan as they walked up to the Nurses Station at Community Hospital. “ My name is Scott Summers, I’m here to speak to Dr. Henderson?” An older woman smiled up at him, “ Oh Mr. Summers, we’ve been expecting you. Dr. Henderson’s office is the third door on the left. I’ll tell him you’re on your way.” Scott offered a stiff smile “ Thank you.” Hank and Scott started to move but Logan was frozen in place. “ It’s almost over,” Hank whispered gently in his ear as he guided his friend away. Logan swallowed hard and nodded, that was true. Once he actually saw Remy the waiting would be over. He’d finally be able to say his goodbyes and start to grieve. They knocked on the door and a young doctor came out to meet them.
“ Gentlemen, if you’d please follow me?” The doctor led the way to the ICU. In the far corner of the room there was a bed surrounded by monitors and machines. IV trees stood on each side and the man in the bed looked like a mummy. “ He has severe head trauma,” the doctor said bluntly. “ His brainwaves are nearly non-existent, he will never wake up. I am very sorry.” Hank’s hold on Logan tightened when he felt a shiver wash through the tense body. “ I’m okay. Let me…” He pulled away from his friends and moved to the bed. A sob escaped him as relief and shock fought for equal time in his tormented mind.
“ It’s…It’s not him. It’s not him.” Scott and Hank hurried over. Scott let out a bark of nervous laughter and Hank turned to question the doctor. Logan was shaking visibly and a tear left his eye. “ It’s not him” He looked hopefully at Scott, “ Oh God, he’s still alive somewhere.” A smile broke out on Logan’s face and Scott did the only thing he could think to do, he pulled the older man into a hug. He’d die if anyone found out but right now… “ Let’s go home and find him,” he said past the lump in his throat. Before they left they collected Remy’s personal belongings and his beloved motorcycle. Logan sat in the back of the plane letting the tension bleed from his body. There was still hope.

TBC
* I have no idea if you need permission for a commitment ceremony but it worked for the story.