After refilling everyone else's drinks, Cyclops came back over to Logan, filling back up his untouched glass of champagne.

"Now, Wolvie," he began, using Jubilee's nickname for Logan and causing the tipsy women behind him to snicker, "you're not having any fun. Come on, have a drink." Scott leaned over, pushing the glass up to Logan's face.

The smell of champagne, the man with glasses before him, and the laughter of the women in the corner was adding up, pushing in on Logan. He tried to force it back, tried to keep himself grounded in reality, but it was becoming too much.

A low, threatening growl started to rise from Logan's chest. Cyke, in his inebriated state, took no notice, but Jubilee did. She reached out and plucked the glass from Scott's fingers.

"Hey, you're too young," Scott whined, reaching to retrieve the champagne.

"How old were you when you had your first drink, Mr. Summers?" Jubilee asked, walking away from Logan and drawing Scott along with her.

"Twenty-one."

Jean and Ororo started laughing over their cake. "No you weren't," Jean said.

"Ok, I was twenty-four, it was beer, and I hated it. Happy, Jeanie-beanie?"

"Yes," Jean replied, smiling at him.

"I do like this champagne, though."

"Tickles my nose," Ororo agreed.

Now that they were distracted again, Jubilee returned to Logan. She set his champagne glass back on the coffee table and returned to his side.

"Ya still with me?" she asked, looking at him as he gazed fixedly at the drink.

"Barely."

"Hang in there. It shouldn't be much longer."

Logan was furious with himself. It was just a glass of champagne. He could take on men twice his weight in the cage and beat them easily, he could stab himself through the chest without a second thought, but he couldn't take a sip of a certain alcoholic beverage. It was stupid.

He wasn't going to let them beat him. He wasn't there anymore. He survived them, he'd escaped. He could pick up that glass.

Reaching out, he leaned forward and focused on stopping his hand from shaking. Tensing it until it was steady, he grasped the glass. Pulling it towards his mouth, the champagne smell filled his nostrils as the laughter filled his ears.

'No. I'm safe. I'm in the dining room.'

A brown-haired, mousy woman leaned over and looked down at him with pity and guilt on her face.

He could hear a man's voice talking over the beeping of medical monitors.

"Pain is a principal of life, Dr. Cornelius, not that I subscribe entirely to the dictum."

Another man, younger, higher pitched voice, "Yeah, sure... Four Pheno-B staff, and keep him from shaking, willya? Reading, Hines?"

The woman in front of him turned her head away to answer the question. "Sensory cortex is overloaded, sir. There are no readings."

The woman turned back to him, reaching to touch his face. Logan jerked away, crushing the champagne glass in his grip. Jubilee was leaning in front of him.

"Wolvie, you ok? You zoned out there for a bit."

Ororo, Jean, and Scott's attention was drawn back to Logan by the sound of breaking glass. Logan's right hand was clutched in a fist, blood running down through his fingers.

"Hey, my fiancee's a doctor, she could look at that for you, 'cause she's a doctor, my fiancee that is. Jean?" Scott said.

"Yep, he's bleeding all right," Jean said from across the room. "That's my ed... ucated medical opinion."

Just then, the new graduates of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters entered the dining room to find their teachers completely drunk.

"Cool," Bobby said, reaching for the last champagne bottle.

"No, too young, you all are." Scott said, trying to sound authoritative and failing badly.

"Logan?" Marie said, crouching down beside Jubilee. "You ok, sugar?"

Logan turned his attention from Jubilee to Marie, and then to his hand.

"Yeah, fine, little accident," Logan mumbled as he got up and went to his room.

"Where did you get your medical degree, out of a Cracker Jack box? I coulda killed everyone there and not even known it!" Logan yelled, pacing back and forth in the doctor's office.

"I agree that perhaps we should have started more slowly," Dr. Richards conceeded, "but you did have an astonishing breakthrough. Usually your dreams are vague, general sensations right?"

"Yeah."

"But in this experience you heard a distinct conversation and was able to remember two names?"

"Dr. Cornelius and Hines. Not gonna help me much in tracking them down."

"Still, it's progress. It means that your memories aren't as supressed as you originally thought," she said, restraining herself from reaching for her notebook. Since his adverse reaction to her writing on the first day, she had decided to record their sessions.

"It's not worth my memories. I coulda killed Jubes. I thought she was this Hines gal. Plus, my nightmares are worse, more detailed."

"That's a common reaction. It almost always gets worse before it gets better, but it will get better."

Logan looked at her with doubt in his eyes.

"We will scale back the exercises. Every day until Friday, I want you to open a champagne bottle, drink champagne, or smell something with the scent of champagne on it."

"That won't be too hard. Jubes spilled some on the carpet in the dining room. I smell it every time I go in there."

"And how has it been affecting you?"

"At first, it made me nervous, on-edge, but it's going away."

"Excellent. Continue with that. If you feel comfortable, you might work up to taking a sip of champagne."

When Logan returned for his next appointment that Friday, Dr. Richards asked him how the champagne-treatment was going.

"Gettin' kinda used to it now, but still haven't drunk any."

"Wonderful, that's still progress. Does your ensuite bathroom come with a bathtub?"

Logan looked up, surprised by the sudden jump in the conversation. "Yeah, a shower/tub combo."

"Good, we're going to work on water next. I want you to fill your bathtub and leave it. Whenever you go in there, I want you to look at the water. If you feel comfortable enough, you could get in the water, but I don't want to push you."

Jubilee collected some bottles of champagne from the Professor's secret stash for Logan, just in case he wanted to test his ability at dealing with it again. She didn't store them in his room; no need to stop the guy from sleeping, really. Instead, she hid them under her bed and guarded them as long as she could, making sure to leave the room last so her roomates woulnd't find them. She couldn't be sure he would want to use them, but she wanted to give him that option.

He hadn't come out of his room after returning from the shrink's office. From the few things he had told her on their way back home, the next step was facing the water problem, so Jubes kept a vigilant eye on the swimming pool. As she thought about it a bit harder, though, she realized that Logan would probably not try the swimming pool and risk drowning again. What would he do, then?

She decided that asking him could be more efficient than torturing her brain, so she walked to his room, made sure that there was no one around, and knocked on his door.

He came to the door and open it just a bit. "What d'you want?" he asked, annoyed.

"To see how you're doin'? You know, if you want to try the champagne thing again... I got a secret stash for you," she announced.

He shook his head. "Naw..." But then, he got an idea. "Wait. How many bottles d'you have?"

"Five. Why?"

"Bring them here," he ordered.

"Gee, you're gonna try an intensive session? I'm not sure it's such a good idea, y'know?"

"Kid," he growled menacingly.

"Ok! Ok! But you have to promise to stay in your room and let me an eye on you," she bargained.

"Get them."

Five minutes later, Jubes had brought the five bottles to Logan's room and found herself pushed out of the room only to hear the door lock behind her. 'Great, Jubes. Now what?' she thought.

She decided that staying in her own room, pretending to be sick if need be, and trying to monitor Logan through the wall was the best plan for now.

She heard the characteristic sound of a champagne bottle cork popping out, then silence. Ten minutes later, she heard running water in the tub. After the water was turned off, silence again. Then, another bottle being opened.

An hour passed in silence. then, another bottle opened.

Jubilee was awakened well after dark by the sound coming from Logan's room. It sounded like a body hitting the floor. She jumped out of bed.

"Men!" she sighed, then rushed to Logan's door.

Knocking on it, she received no answer. It was getting weird, and she had to get in there. She had to paff the doorknob a few times before it gave up.

Upon entering Logan's room, closing the door behind her, she scanned the bedroom. There was no sign of Wolverine, but for two empty bottles of champagne on the floor.

"Great. He really did it. Got used to champagne, all right!" she said outloud to herself.

She cautiously walked by the bathroom's door and pushed it slowly.

"No. No. No...."

"Hey. Huh... you ok in there?" asked Jubilee.

No answer.

Jubilee came in, prepared for the worst.

Sitting on the floor, his back to the wall, was Logan. A bottle of champagne was perched between his legs and there were two untouched ones by his side. Holding his hands in his hair, he was chanting no-no-no while bashing his head against the wall behind him.

Jubilee walked in and stopped by the door, staring at him. "Wolverine?" she tried.

SNIKT

"Not... not... a beast... not... Logan.... am.. LO-GAN!!!!!!" he shouted at her, staring at her with bloody eyes.

"Ok, Logan. Just relax, kay? You're drunk, that's all."

"No... drugged... drugged me... they... why... WHY?!?!?"

Jubilee's brain raced. It would probably be better to get some of the X-Men to come now and deal with him. She wasn't sure she wouldn't make a bad situation worse by overestimating her own wisdom.

"Why did you drink all that champagne, Logan?" she tried.

"... water... "

"Well, if you drank water, the city'd better fire the guys in charge," she tried to joke.

"... can't... "

"Can't what?"

"..."

"Look, I can't help if you don't talk to me. Besides, you should sleep now," suggested Jubilee.

Logan sent the bottle of champagne flying across the bathroom into the bedroom where it hopefully hit the bed and didn't shatter.

"I CAN'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he shouted, trying to get up on his legs.

"Whooooaaaa. Cool it, kay? What can't you do? Sleep?"

"Can't.... the water..."

It was just then that Jubilee noticed the tub filled with water. 'Never though I could be so dense,' thought Jubes. He couldn't get himself in the tub and had tried to get tipsy to make it easier. Without her help, he would fail.

"Ok big guy. You want to get in the tub?"

Logan only growled.

"Ok, ok, we should get you out of here then. You made progress and all, ya know? You don't have an aversion to champagne anymore." She walked next to the tub to block his vision and put her hands under his arms to urge him up.

"Although you might in the morning." she muttered.

He slowly stood up eyeing her suspiciously. He knew that it was only the kid, but he was still having trouble distinguishing dreams from reality.

Why was she helping him anyway? The first time she met him he had almost killed her, and he wasn't much safer to be around now, but she kept coming back. He didn't have much time to think it over as his vision blurred and he felt himself start to fall.

Jubilee braced herself as she felt his knees give out and gave a strangled yelp as they both fell backwards into the tub. Her head slammed into the bottom, and she saw stars.

She realized she was completely submerged in the water with a 299 lb. unconscious man on top of her.

'What the hell kind of tub is this anyway?' She thought. 'Mine is like a wading pool and he gets a swimming pool? If I live through this me and the Professor are going to have to have a talk.'

She beat on his back, and snaked a hand around to his front so she could slap him. It felt as if her lungs were going to burst. Things definitely did not look promising.