The presence of the bird was an intensity that Logan struggled to bear. His mind had shut away the infinite deaths and rebirths of the endless moments before. In shielding him from Jean, the Phoenix had condemned him to a momentary eternity of pain. Some infinities were smaller than others, but even his psyche, made stronger from several mortal lifetimes of the same, could not entirely hide the pain of reaching for her. While Jean spoke with the cosmic force, it was all he could do to not collapse into the formless, identityless presence that he had become in the White Room. Perhaps he would have, had he not possessed the honing force of her presence. [i]Jean Grey[/i], a ghost that lived. He couldn't quite hide the exhale of release that shuddered out of him after the bird left, his eyes falling on her in full as the presence dimmed. Still, her form swam with white and gold intensity, but even now it was beginning to fade, like the tempered glare of a setting sun.

With his mental fortitude freed from the presence of the Phoenix Force, the impact of her words returned. To suggest Scott and Logan had a fraught past was to downplay matters somewhat, but to have such things laid out was another matter entirely. It was true, he could not believe that he could ever not love her. Something had called to him from Jean Grey that was more than just a love of her spirit and his bestial nature called to the curving beauty of her form. He was bound to her in a way that demanded more than any suffering could break.

"If I do this, am I going to look a right duster?" There was no pause between his words and movement, even as he asked the question and her hands crept around his, he pulled her towards him, his lips claiming her's in a kiss that was infinity in the making. As his question showed, he had little understanding of how this might look to anyone looking on, a man kissing a ghost that could not be seen, even if he suspected she would eventually become one with this time and place as he was. Heedless of any cosmic question, he lingered in the soft embrace of her full lips, the harsh gristle of his own features against the pampered smoothness of her own. Jean Grey had been one with the power of life itself, but that would be no excuse for the New England Prom Queen to lose track of her skincare routine. The thought made him laugh, which finally broke off the kiss. Sometimes he didn't vocalise these things to her, always sure his surface thoughts were as much hers as his own.

There was an ache in him to simply remain, or to ask her to flee back to the warmth he had seen in their future, or some other time he had not yet seen, where comfort and safety together but finally be real, but it was only a moment of doubt before he shared his answer with her.

"You need to put us back when and where I was, Jeanie. It's a powder keg, and I don't trust all the different suits to sort it out if we both wink away." He spoke softly, reluctantly, but with sure purpose as the fingers on his free hand stroked her cheek. "More importantly, whatever you...or the Phoenix, or both of you, did, Jubilee got stuck in it, and I don't think they're going to stop chucking people in until they find you." The true concern in Logan's nature was of course for his fellow mutant. No matter how Logan had railed against them at the start, Xavier and Jean truly had ensured he could never abandon any of the kids that had called their school home. "Take us back before I let you keep us here forever."