Disclaimer: Don't own any of the x-men character in any of the different Marvel universes (Cartoon, Comic or Movie). All owned and copyrighted by Marvel Comics.

---

“Dearly beloved….”

Anything that begins with those words usually meant a happy event and from the looks on the faces of all the gathered guests, the priest and especially the two people standing before him, this was most definitely a happy event, the happiest for both the beautiful bride and dressed in a tuxedo groom.

Dressed in a simple yet exquisitely designed lavender and white, wedding gown, the dazzling bride, Ororo Munroe, Storm of the X-Men, turned her gaze towards her lover, father of her daughter and soon to be husband, Logan, the supposedly quintessential commitment phobic and ever reluctant X-Men Wolverine.

‘Commitment Phobic,’ Ororo would have chuckled had the butterflies flying around in her stomach and her heart calmed down a bit. She was the one who deserved this title and not Logan. He, he had done his part by proposing to her two years and three months ago, soon after they came to know that she was expecting. The pregnancy, although not planned was welcomed by both parents, even more so by Wolverine. Having found not a single shred of any possible family from his past forgotten life, he was ecstatic over the news, his ready acceptance and subsequent celebration effectively ending all of Ororo’s fears.

When he proposed a week later, some of those fears and doubts rose again. Was he just marrying her because of the baby? Was it an obligation to him? The fact that even a week later, the usually sulking Wolverine could not seem to wipe the half grin (a lot for him) from his face. The students had been avoiding him completely, even more so than before. None of them wanted to be in his immediate vicinity if and when the spell broke….that is what they thought he was under. Either that or Professor Xavier finally running out of patience over his smoking inside the mansion habit had finally made some improvements in him.

Once again, her fears proved baseless as after hours of arguing Logan finally got fed up and trashed his private section of their twin room suite, to find and thrust at her the receipt for the engagement ring he had bought three months before.

It took Ororo almost two and a half years, over a dozen arguments, and one mini-separation to finally get here. The worst had been on the two-year anniversary of their engagement. Instead of the way he had greeted her the year before, Ororo woke up to find Logan packing his and their infant daughter Kendall’s bags. He was moving back into his old room and taking Kendall with him. That in itself had led to an argument which resulted in over a foot rain falling over the entire Westchester county and some serious business for both Scott, Henry and the various hospitals in the New York City area. Such had been his rage that the Danger Room remained out of commission for three whole days.

----

That was all in the past. This was now, the present and here they were, listening to those oft repeated and almost always welcomed words, albeit with different names.

“Do you Logan take thee Ororo to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, as long as you both shell live.”

‘You bet your ass,’ would have been Logan’s usual reply. Instead, given the sappiness of the moment, he settled on a simple, I do.

“And do you Ororo,” the raven haired, blue skinned, tail and three finger on each hand sporting priest, Father Kurt Wagner, patent priest and de-facto spiritual counselor of all the residents of the X-Mansion turned towards the blushing bride. “Do you take Logan to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, forsaking all others? As long as you both shall live.”

“I do.” Ororo answered evenly, heaving a sigh of relief at the words. She had been afraid of getting cold feet and refusing to say the two important words.

“By power vested in me I now pronounce you, man and wife,” Kurt smiled at the newly married couple. “You may kiss the…..bride,” the two people in question were all over each other in the blink of an eye, oblivious to the cheers, whistles and clapping going around them.

Only when they heard a squeaked mama did they break apart, Logan reaching down to lift his official flower-girl daughter.

----

Later that night, well, early next morning in fact, lying in a pool of sweat, whipped cream, sexual body fluids and tattered sheets, mattress and pillows, Logan turned to his thoroughly ravaged, tired and more than slightly sore bride. Kendall was spending the night with her youngest and probably favorite sister-aunts, Jubilee, Kitty and Rogue.

“’Ro,” Logan’s chest rumbled sending a vibratory wave down Ororo’s still tingling body. “Hey ‘Ro,” he whispered again, gently cupping and lifting Ororo’s face towards him, her head resting on the shoulder as the rest of her lay half draped over him.
“Hmmm,” Ororo looked up through shaded eyes, her lips smiling a smug satisfied languid smile.

“Now that we’ve done the deed an’ got hitched an’ everything,” even as he spoke a calmness seemed to wash over Logan, his fingers caressing Ororo’s ringed finger. “I was wonderin’ maybe we could….”
‘Uh oh,’ Ororo wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. Kendall hadn’t even started potty training yet.
“Maybe we could arrange for another sister for….”
“Logan its too soon,” Ororo didn’t even let him finish. She knew that Logan wanted a good-sized family, at least two kids he had told her, after that its yer wish. Although it had been said in a seemingly light way, Ororo had sensed the hidden depth in it, both for the man who wanted family of his own and for the animal, the Wolverine who wanted to spread it seed.

“Hey, that’s not what I meant,” Logan blurted out. “I know its too soon to have another kid. You ain’t a baby making machine.”
“Oh, thanks for noticing,” Ororo replied with levity, lightly punching Logan’s chest.

“Ororo,” his saying her proper name and his serious tone made Ororo intently look up at him.
“What is it Logan?” She asked, caressing Logan’s mutton-chopped sideburns with her slender hand, running her fingers through the soft yet bristly hair.

“Ororo, I want to make Jubes legal too…..I want us to adopt her.”

----

Any question regarding Ororo’s response were lost as Ororo practically leapt up and captured his lips with her own. She knew Logan’s feelings towards the teenaged girl he had rescued a couple of years ago. Unlike Rogue, who had hitched a ride in his trailer, Jubilee had tried to filch with a bag of her mall shopping. Logan had tracked her and found her hours later fighting a group of anti-mutant supporters, who after getting information about a mutie girl hiding in the mall had taken it upon themselves to put her down for the betterment of humanity and for god, uh, king and country.

Ever since then, she had become a sort of surrogate daughter to them, instantly hitting it off with the other members of the X-family, especially with Kitty and Rogue with whom she now shared a room.

Logan would have adopted Rogue too, except ever since her old man kicked the bucket, she and her mother had made a sort of tentative peace and were progressing with each passing day. That and the fact that Rogue was less of a daughter and more like a younger sister to him. If there was one person who probably knew him better than Ororo, maybe even better than he knew himself, that was Rogue. He had tentatively broached the subject with the southern girl too and she had whole-heartedly given her support to him. She also joked that if he and Ororo adopted her that would create a whole lot of twisted relations, given that she had a crush on him when they first came to the mansion and her boyfriend Remy had crushed on the then free although older Ororo. The sister-brother kind of thing worked just fine for her.

‘It would also give meh pull over Jubilee,’ she added with a wink.

----

“So, I take its fine with you,” Logan chuckled once Ororo finally let go of him.
“Fine?” Ororo grinned back. “It’s more than fine. It’s amazing.”

A contented sigh escaped Logan’s lips as that answer. It was as if a load had been lifted from his chest.

“Thanks ‘Ro,” his said planting a chaste kiss against her forehead. “Thanks for everythin’….love you.”
“Thank you Logan,” Ororo whispered back. “I love you too….I’ll always love you.”

“Forever.”

-----

Present day,

The rhythmic thumping of the Harley-Davidson engine had not even faded when another sound echoed through the halls of the Xavier Mansion.

“I hate you,” the nine-year-old girl yelled at the woman standing before her….at her mother.
“Kendall Munroe,” Ororo spoke in her teacher voice, her words stopping the retreating form of her daughter, but not for the reason she hoped for.

“My name is Kendall Logan,” the feral glow in her child’s eyes was strongly reminiscent of her father.
“Your name is Kendall Munroe,” Ororo reiterated, emphasizing on the Munroe. “And you will write it as such. I don’t want to hear the same complain from your teachers…again.”

“Or what?” Kendall demanded. “You’ll fry me too…..just like you fried daddy.”

That being said, the young girl stormed away, not paying any attention to any of the observing eyes she could sense on her.

----

“She’s her father daughter,” a male voice drew Ororo’s attention from the window she had been staring out of for the last fifteen minutes, just as long as the man in question had been observing her.
“No,” Ororo shook her head vehemently. “She’s not. She’s my daughter. She has nothing to do with him…..not anymore.”

“Ororo….” The man stepped to her side, his arm supportively resting on her shoulder.
“No,” Ororo turned away and then towards him. “She’s my daughter

….and soon she’ll be ours.”

---

Note: Hmm, well, not too much originality going into this, and not too big a cast. Just your run of the mill RoLo story….with something to make things interesting of course.

An’ go on about going me grief about using Kendall repeatedly. I happen to like the kid and it saves on thinking of names every time.

Hope you liked it and will say so with your reviews!!

A week later,

He was back again, this time on his court alloted time.

He hated it. He hated coming here. He hated standing or sitting at the foot of the stairs like a dog. He hated seeing his kids, no, he hated seeing his kids LIKE THIS.

Most of all he hated Ororo for what she had done to him….done to their family.

Forty-eight hours, just forty-fuckin’-eight hours. That is all that he got, and not even every week, just twice a month. Twice a month he could take his now nine-year-old daughter, Kendall and her four-year-old brother, James to spend a weekend with him. That was all Ororo and her cocksuckin’ bitch of a lawyer allowed him from the mother-favoring court laws. Hell, with the case they made, he was lucky to just get to see them and be within a hundred feet of them.

‘Don’t do this Ororo. Don’t do this to us. Don’t do this out children….to our family,’ he had pleaded with her. Even in the court, in front of the judge, the almighty Wolverine had literally fallen to his knees and begged of the woman who was supposed to be his partner for life.

Life….fuck, the heartless bitch did not even allow him to see James last week, and it had been the kid’s birthday. If she wanted, she could have made an exception that one time. She could have come with the kid, just to the door and waited there for just ten minutes so that he could hug his son and give him the some kind of dancing Elmo doll that the girl at the store told him was the in thing with kids, whatever the fuck that meant. Like hell that happened. He could count, by using his whole fingers….of just one hand, the number of times he had seen his now ex-wife in the last eight months and twelve days. That much time had passed since the day their divorce was finalized.

----

“Kendall, Jack-Jack,” Ororo’s heart dropped to her stomach at Jubilee’s voice.

Eight months and twelve days, that much time had passed since the now college going Jubilee had said even a single word to her.

‘You just lost the best thing in your life,’ were those words, the verbal slap being accompanied by an almost physical one as a box full of clothes, perfumes, nail paints and other cosmetics, jewellery and other gifts was thrown at her feet, its contents spilling out all over the floor of her room. They were things that she had given to her adopted daughter over the years, a relation that Jubilee had ended by actually saying those words to her.

Now, the only time the two women saw each other, except for the occasional confrontation/crossing in the mansion, was when Logan came to pick up and leave Kendall and James. Just as Logan had left the team, instead working as a part-time field operative for Xavier, so had both his protégés Jubilee and Rogue, and although Rogue still maintained a modicum of professionally courtesy towards her and even stepped in a few times for difficult missions, Jubilee had completely washed her hands off of anything X-Men. The only reason that she was staying here in the mansion and not on campus or with Logan at his apartment, was to keep an eye out for Kendall and James, something Logan had asked her to do and which Xavier knew about. The others had inferred as much, but Xavier had been the only one whom Logan approached, even going as far as to offer to pay for the girl’s boarding, lodging and use of other facilities. Xavier had directly denied it, refusing to accept any money from Logan, either directly or through the money paid to him for his ‘operative’ services.

Although not a member of the team anymore, Jubilee was still involved with Xavier’s work, taking up an active part in the political aspect of things, even going as far as accompanying Xavier to Washington DC a couple of times.

Rogue had taken up a full-time teaching position at the school, teaching English literature and even pitching in sometimes with Remy and Scott for the classes that left open with Logan’s departure.

----

“Daddy!” Kendall exclaimed at hearing Jubilee’s voice.

Even though none of the children, neither the quietly playing James not the studying Kendall heard or even paid attention to the Jeep drive up the driveway, both of them heard Jubilee calling out to them. While for his normal everyday use, Logan still preferred his trusted scoot, his Harley, for his kids, he had bought the Jeep, fitting it with two child seats, one for each.

In the blink of an eye, both Kendall and James were up, practically stuffing their books into their already prepared weekend bags.

“Hurry Jimmy,” finishing her packing, Kendall started towards her brother, stopping mid-step as her mother stepped out of the bathroom and towards young James, who given the size of his drawing book was having a difficult time fitting it into his bag. Although too young to understand the exact workings of this odd set up, James, as his father named him, knew that it was important that he not waste any time. Seeing his sister’s excited state was enough to get the otherwise calm James up and running too.

Both children were total opposites of each other. Kendall, even though she looked exactly like her mother, except for her piercing hazel eyes, which she inherited from her father was a complete daddy’s girl down to the raised eyebrow expression that both father and daughter did with such killer precision. Appearance wise James also took after her mother, but only in the dark color of his skin, snow-white hair and deep blue eyes. The rest, his facial make up, even the unruly nature of his hair was his father’s gift to him. However, unlike his sister who had a fair share of her father’s feral qualities except for the claws…..so far, James leaned more towards their calm and collected mother. That difference was clear right from their birth. While Kendall used to bawl her lungs out, James seldom cried, instead settling on a quite whimper. Luckily for him, he had a father who had one of the, if not the most sensitive hearing among any of the primates, whether the human or mutant kind. Even his sister had above average senses, and although not strong as Logan’s, they were enough to catch the needy calls of her brother. Both brother and sister possessed the x-gene, something that Beast confirmed right after their birth. However, unlike Kendall’s whose mutation was active since birth, James’ was still dormant and would switch on once he hit puberty, unless something deeply shocking happened first.

----

“Come on,” Kendall literally dragged the younger James to the door, knowing from experience that their mother would do the bag carrying.

Once there, she stood silently at Jubilee’s side as Ororo handed over the bags to dark glasses wearing teenager. Ever since she had left the team, Jubilee had also checked away her pink goggles, swapping them for the more stylish purple ones.

“Come,” once again she reached for her brother, her young face twisting into a frown as Ororo kneeled down to her son’s level. Why was she wasting the time….their time? She always she this….always the same thing.

“Don’t forget to do your coloring, okay,” Ororo spoke to the silent James, fixing the collar of his shirt just for something to do with her hands. “And listen to what you sister tells….”

“Yeah, whatever,” Kendall cut in, using an expression that she had picked up from Jubilee and Kitty. Starting towards the steps, she didn’t even hug her mother good bye, nor did she pay any attention to pain flashing across her face.

“B’bye mama,” James did the needful by both hugging his mother and allowing her to kiss him on the forehead. Taking Jubilee’s offered hand, he too skipped down the same path that his sister had taken, looking back once to smile and wave at his mama.

----

“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!”

Logan caught their scents and heard their voices before his children came bolting through the front doors of the mansion. Having parked the Jeep right at the foot of the stairs, he climbed up to the front door, nearly getting bowled over when Kendall and James leapt into his open arms.

“We missed you so much,” Kendall started right away, her arms tightly wound around her father’s neck. She did not ask why he hadn’t come for her brother’s birthday, because she knew he had, only her mother hadn’t allowed him to see James. However, James did not know that.

“Dada, I am four years old now,” he spoke in his cute childish tongue, holding up his hand to show four fingers.

“I know kiddo,” Logan sighed and kissed the top of his son’s hand, his mouth going bitter at tasting Ororo. His head turning sideways, he looked up the topmost floor at the tinted windows of their….of Ororo’s loft apartment.

-----

Standing at the window, Ororo’s breath hitched as Logan tilted his head and looked at the window, almost as if looking right into her eyes. He couldn’t see her, she was sure of that. The tinted windows had been his ideas. ‘Won’t have to draw the curtains every time,’ his explanation.

She watched as how her son’s eyes lit up as Logan reached to the side and drew out a box he had hidden there. It was the gift he had got last week for his birthday. In truth, it wasn’t the same gift. That one, Logan had run through with his claws and smashed to pieces, taking his anger out on the inanimate doll that he wanted to take out on the people that were keeping him away from his son…..namely, the judge, the lawyers and at that time, even his ex-wife Ororo. Two days later, he went back to the same shop, bought the same doll and had it wrapped the same way to bring it here today.

She also watched as Logan reached into his jacket pocket and brought out something for Kendall. The way the girl jumped, first onto him and them to Jubilee, told Ororo that whatever it was Jubilee had most probably helped Logan to choose it.

Standing there, feeling like an outsider, an intruder, she could almost imagine a fifth person coming through the doors to join the happy group….completing their happy family. She could see the mother and father resting under the shade of a tree or on the beach as the two younger children, under the watchful eyes of their parents and older sibling, played with in the shallow waters of the lake or in the sand of the beach.

It would be so perfect…..just as perfect as when it had actually happened.

----

Minutes later, her small hand protectively enclosed within her father’s large one, a smiling Kendall walked down the stairs of the Xavier mansion, knowingly oblivious to the eyes following her, not only from the top floor window but also from three other ones.

They did not concern her. She did not care about them.

She was going for her happy time ….her daddy time.

Then,

“Hmmm, umm, la, l, la, hmmm….” Stopping her humming, she grew silent as two strong arms came around from the sides, hugged her and drew her to him, grinding his, hmm, ‘appreciation’ at her curvaceous backside.

“Grrr…” the rumbled growl sent a shiver down her spine, causing her to wiggle even more, rubbing herself against him.

They were in the mansion’s or for all purposes, her greenhouse. Almost no one came there. It was hers, her sanctuary, her peace, her retreat. It was as if it was the Goddess’s temple and her worshippers did not dare intrude on her….except one who did, repeatedly.

---

“I was wondering when you would show yourself,” she murmured, tilting her head to plant a soft, open-mouthed kiss against the only ‘clear’ patch on his jaw, his chin.

“Ya were, huh?” A cocked eyebrow regarded her, regarded her beauty, a beauty that was now his and his alone. Oh, the others could see it, but only he could reach forward and touch it, feel it, taste it….and that was exactly what he going to do now.

“Yesssss….” she hissed as he reached one hand up and lightly grazed it against one sensitive breast, instantly exciting its chocolate nub into erection, his lips doing some very interesting and distracting things to her earlobe.. Even through two layers of clothes, she could feel him, feel the warmth of his hands, feel its hardness, that single action setting off resurgent spikes of arousal within her.

She knew he would come because she knew he always came. Even without enhanced senses, she could tell when she felt his hot, piercing, feral gaze on her. One look from him was enough to start a fire inside her, a fire that no amount of rain, except for that of his love could put out….until the next time around.

----

His hand gently yet firmly kneading the underlying breast, his hardness pressing against her, he spelled out what both of them knew. “I need ya ‘Ro, I want ya…..I want ya NOW.”

“Logan, we can’t,” she answered back, turning her body towards him as if by instinct. “What if someone sees us?” She knew that it would not matter to him, just as it did not to the ‘storm’ inside her. This wasn’t the first time he asked, just as this wasn’t the first she refused…..and it wouldn’t be the last. She knew that he know before her if anyone were to chance upon them. She also knew that as he did openly, deep down inside, she did not care if any of them did.
“Let them,” he growled as cupping her jaw, he showed an uncanny mixture of gentle fierceness as he captured her lips with his, swallowing the moan that escaped her.

----

“God, yer so tight,” he grunted as he eased into her, filling her completely to the hilt, feeling the slick, warm walls of her sex close around him.

“Logan….uh,” she grasped at his shoulder as he hovered there, his body entering and joining with hers.

Theirs’ was a still secret but not taboo love. After all, they were both consenting adults. Maybe with the exception of the Professor, no one knew what was going on between them…..no one knew how they were lost in another, mingled with one another, completed one another.

“Sssss,” her eyes squeezed shut as his mouth lowered and clamped onto a breast, his one hand lifting to the other, his suckling action growing rougher and harder….becoming almost painful, almost. “Ooohh….”
At the first sign of pain in her voice, he stopped and drew back, a mischievous grin playing on his lips. “Am I hurtin’ ya ‘Ro?”
“Yes,” she answered truthfully, knowing that he could sense it. “But it’s a good hurt. I like it.” She punctuated her words with by tightening her leg-grip around his waist, pulling him even closer, even deeper.

“Want me to stop?” Ooh, the nerve of that man, playing with her at this moment.
“Only if you don’t want to get out alive,” she shot back. “Now Move,” the goddess commanded, getting a chuckle from her warrior.

“Yes Ma’am.”

---

Starting gently, he established his rhythm and let her adjust and catch up to him.

Their thrusts were slow and almost melodic in their fluidity. Their eyes never breaking contact, they watched as they made love to each other. It was that, making love, not fucking, not ever between them. Even during times when they had to hurry, like when he cornered her one late night in her class room or when she pounced on him in the garage, it was always making love.

Her hips rising in response to his thrusts, slammed into his, drawing him even deeper into her. His actions gaining in intensity, growing faster, caught her firm breasts to start to jiggle, rhythmically mirroring the motion of the rest of their bodies. So enchantingly beautiful was her appearance, it was almost hypnotic for him, just as his feral persona was for her.

She knew the Wolverine. She loved the Wolverine. She had battled, mated and even trounced the Wolverine….just as the Wolverine had her.

----

Kissing and licking away the tears that had appeared at the side of her eyes, he firmed his grip on the ground beside her and set on the final leg of their wild union.

He did not need his senses to tell him about the familiar tightening in his body, or the fact that hers mirrored it. Usually it was she who came first, his healing factor allowing him to go longer, both in times and in duration. However, perhaps it was the natural, outdoor setting this time or perhaps it was just that the animal within him could sense her catching.

Whatever the reason he was beyond caring as, moving faster and faster, he pistoned into her, his grunted panting breaths mingling with her moaned ones.

Minutes later, she cried out to him, for him, her hands grasping as his as her body reached completion, stilling for a second before going into convulsions of her sexual release, her inner muscles straining and working against his pulsing member, pulling, pushing him to catch up and join her in the release.

“Ororo,” he yelled out her name, clamping down on her shoulder to muffle that and anymore cries, as he stilled inside her, shooting and filling her inside with his hot, liquid release.

----

Finally falling to his side, her rolled over and pulled her onto him, both their breaths still panting and hard.

“Love you ‘Ro,” he was the first to speak, his healing factor bringing his lungs back to normal again before her.

“Hmm,” she smiled against his chest, her free hand curling and uncurling against his shoulder. “I know,” she whispered back, just loud enough for him.

“I love you too.”

------

Now,

“Why are we here?” She asks with a slight humor and equal amounts of confusion in her voice.
“You’ll see,” he answers back.

They enter the huge complex, their destination known to both of them, yet today, only to him.

--

Five minutes later, they are there.

Her eyes look up to him, a million questions sounding in them. She does not know what to say….she is not sure she HAS anything to say.

“Good afternoon madam, sir,” the relatively beautiful, bust-to-draw attention sales representative steps up to make her pitch. “How can help you today?”

“Uh, I, me and my….” He hesitates to say the word. “We’re looking for a wedding ring,” is what he finally settles on, both their hearts thumping at the words, wedding and ring.

“Oh, how delightful,” the same practiced laugh given to dozens if not hundreds more, speaks to them. “Congratulations ma’am, sir.” Another platitude as they head towards the wedding ring section.

--

Three minutes and they are done. Three minutes and they have the ring…she chose the ring that she is going to wear.

He tries to convince her to see more, but she shakes her head with a small smile of denial.

“Very good choice madam,” the tried n’ tired remarks just seem to keep on coming. “Would you like to have it engraved?”

Even as both of them shake their heads, their mouths opening to say the word no, a third sound cuts over them, sending a chill down their spines.

“Sure. Why not,” they whirl around just in time to see the tall, rough, wild looking man, standing not five feet from them, a young girl standing next to him, an even younger boy in his arms. The fire in the man’s eyes is matched by that in the girl’s. The young boy just leans forward and calls out for his mama, but even he is subdued, almost as if he can sense the fluctuations in the emotions and the air around him.

“Logan….” She starts to say, but gets verbally pushed aside again.

“His name. Write his name….write Scott Summers.”

---

Note: How’d you like them nuts? Please Review!!

“Ororo.”

“Yes Scott,” the white haired Nubian beauty answered without turning to the man sitting next to her in the driver’s seat.
“You want to talk about it,” although he said it more as a statement rather than a question, the response he got was a simple headshake.
“No,” dull blue vacant eyes stared out the window. The only thing visible to them was the look those hazel eyes gave her. The look of anger, rage, sorrow and above all betrayal.

She could not forget the look that not the man, not Logan, but the girl, her own daughter Kendall gave her.

----

Time seemed to stand still as a wedding ring grasped in his hand, Scott Summers stared at the man who if he hadn’t been with his children would surely have attacked….attacked to kill him.

For her part, Ororo did not say anything either. She knew this day would come, she knew she would have to break the news to Logan…confront him, but not like this, not in the middle of a mall, in a jewellery shop, buying a wedding ring with the man she was going to marry.

Raising her hand to try intervene before the infamous Wolverine rage took over, she was shocked when Logan leaned down, picked Kendall with his free arm, the girl’s arms automatically going around her father’s neck and shoulders, turned around and walked away.

This she did not expect. She expected him to be angry, to lose control and show his outrage by trashing the shop or even worse attacking Scott…..maybe even her. She did not expect him to just shrug it off, shrug off five years of marriage and almost eight years spent together and just walk away as if it did not affect or concern him.

‘Which it doesn’t,’ a part of her piped up to remind her. ‘Remember. It all ended the day you signed the divorce papers.’

“Logan,” Scott made the move to step forward, to talk, try to explain the situation, but was stopped by a hand on his forearm…..a hand that fell away under the accusing stare of a nine-year-old girl.

Kendall Munroe-Logan glared at her mother and the man she had chosen to be her new husband. The man the girl liked earlier but did not anymore. Uncle Scott. That is what she would called him…but not anymore. If he wasn’t Uncle Scott, he wouldn’t be anything else….and he never would be her father.

She already had a father, a father whom she loved and who loved her. There was no way another man was going to take his place….EVER.

----

“We’ll talk to him,” Scott’s words although meant to be helpful got a, what, look from Ororo. Both of them knew, talking and Wolverine did not go too well together.
“No,” was Ororo’s single word answer.

“Ororo…”
“No, Scott,” was the firmly repeated answer.

“We’ll tell him….”
“No”

“That’s its for the best of the….”
“No.”

“Children….for Kendall and James….”
“No, Scott. No.”

“And Rachel.”
“No, Scott,” Ororo replied in a ‘that’s final’ tone. “He won’t understand…..he won’t understand”

The second repeat was so soft that even Scott missed it. ‘He just does what he wants, without a care for others.’ Even as that thought arose, her mind and her heart both cringed at its falsehood.

-----

Almost sixteen months ago,

“Logan STOP.”

Ororo’s voice boomed in the foyer of the X-Mansion, the man she addressed, her husband hearing but not paying any attention to her pleading command.

“Don’t do this Logan,” Ororo tried again. “This isn’t the way.”

“It is,” the snarl was pure Wolverine, as was the -snikt- sound of the metal encased claws shooting out from within his knuckles. “Its my way.”
“But not the X-Men’s w….”
“Fuck the X-Men,” Logan stopped, turned around and bellowed at her. “They didn’t attack the X-Men. They attacked my family.”
“Logan…”

“They didn’t take the X-Men. They took my kid…..MINE.”
“I know dammit,” a thunderous boom outside mirrored the tumultuous emotional condition of the Weather Goddess. “But we got her back.”

“Yeah, after one month,” Logan held up a clawed hand. “One month, she had to spend with those assholes. Do you know what that feels like?”
“I know….”
“No, you DON’T,” Logan cut her off. “You don’t, because you have been through it. You don’t know how it feels like to be treated like an animal, to be picked and prodded, to have your flesh peeled off just so they can run tests on it. To see how well you heal. How you respond to pain. To have those things shoved so deep down your throat that you can’t forget them….even if you want to...even in yer sleep. You don’t know anything.”

“Why, because I haven’t been through them?” Storm demanded.
“Yes,” his answer was flat and instant.
“And what about my feelings as a mother?” The woman who had lost her child to the same people who wanted to kill them…kill all the mutants, probably the ones who had her husband in the first place, was livid at being told that she couldn’t empathize with her first born child’s ordeal just because she hadn’t had those things done to her. “Don’t they count? Don’t they mean anything?”
“Not here. Not this time,” came the answer.

----

“Logan stop,” she called again, once Logan turned around towards the door. Everyone at Xavier’s knew what he was going to do. He was going to find each and everyone of the people who were at that particular base and he was going to kill them….the ones that got away when the X-Men located and stormed the base to rescue an incredibly weakened and fearful Kendall.

Kidnapped almost a month ago from her school, the X-Men, including Xavier had turned heaven and earth to find the young girl, finally tracking her down to a secret government base in New Mexico.

It would be a week before Henry would allow the girl to leave the infirmary, a time in which, her father almost never left her side, only taking the usual bathroom breaks. Her mother, who had been injured in the attack on the base, also remained close at her side, while Jubilee, Rogue and others took care of young James. However, those three too were within sniffing and usually visual distance of the ‘at alert’ Wolverine. it was almost as if Logan was afraid that if turned his eyes away even for second, he would lose one or all of them.

What no one knew, not even Xavier, was, during his time in the infirmary, the Wolverine was carefully sorting through the memories and smells of the rescue mission to select and separate the ones that got away. He was going to find them and he was going to make sure they could not do this to anyone else….but more importantly, he was going to make that they did not get a second chance to come after his family.

----

“You step out of that door, you give up on your family,” Ororo’s harsh words did have the desired effect. Logan’s hand stilled at the stylish doorknob.
“What do ya mean?” He stared right at her, his claws still ready at his side.

“I know what you are going to do,” Ororo accused him. “You are going to find those men and kill them in cold blood.”
“No, they’ll be warm when I find them and so will their blood,” was Logan’s simple answer. However, that was not what he was interested in. “What do ya mean, give on my family?”

“I mean, you leave now and you will lose not only me but also our children.”
“Ororo,” Logan’s voice feel to a threatening growl. “You can’t….”
“I can and I will,” this time it was Ororo who was on the offensive. “I had stood by you in the past, toler….understanding your need to leave in search for your past, but not this. I won’t stand by while you commit murder.”

“They took Kendall,” Logan said in the same growling tone. “They took our Kendall.”
“And we got her back,” was Ororo’s answer.
“What if it happens again?” Logan questioned. After her rescue, Kendall had been withdrawn from the ‘normal’ school her parents had admitted her to. They did it because Xavier’s did not have the proper infrastructure to teach such a young child. The youngest student at Xavier’s was a ten-year-old boy with a very visible mutation in the form of chocolate brown fur covered skin and porcupine style quills for hair.
“It won’t,” replied Ororo, marveling at her own ability to speak the words that even she did not believe.
“It will,” Logan snapped in anger. “You see this,” he lifted his hand to her, his claws shining in the reflected light of the chandelier. “They did this to me. They did this to me and they still haven’t let me go, stopped following me…even after twenty-four fuckin’ years. What makes you think that they will leave my daughter…..my children?”

“We can guard them,” Ororo offered. “Keep them safe.”
“Yeah we can,” Logan nodded. “An’ that’s I am going to make sure of…..that they are safe.”
“By becoming a killer.”
“I AM a killer dammit,” Logan yelled, his claws swiping through empty space as if trying to find the men who had hurt his daughter. “I was a killer when I came here, I was a killer when you married me, I was a killer the day the kids were born and I am a killer now.”
“No, you are…” Ororo tried to deny it, but failed in the heated look Logan gave her. His body language and entire demeanor was telling her that he was struggling to maintain control over the beast within him.

---

“Daddeee!”

Anything either of them would have said was lost in the flurry of pink, mocha and white as a tearful Kendall ran past her mother and towards her father. The fresh tears staining her smooth cheeks meant only one thing….she had had yet another nightmare.

That, just like her father was her ‘gift’ from the bad-men that had taken her away from her momma and daddy. Even after more than a month back at the mansion, she was still waking up at nights, many times screaming against the men who were hurting her.

It was these nightmares of hers that proved to be the undoing for her father. Had she recovered completely, Logan might have relented a little, even let go of his lethal plan. However, seeing and hearing her cry, her small face wet with tears had pushed the pack-protection instinct of the Wolverine to the limit and beyond. He was going to make sure that those fuckers and anyone even daring to lift an eye towards his family would die a horrible, painful and prolonged death.

---

“What happened pumkin’?” His claws instinctively sliding in, Logan fell onto his knees in front of his daughter, only to have her throw her arms around him and literally climb onto his chest and into the safety of her father’s strong arms.

“Th-they….they…” Kendall tried to speak between uncontrollable sniffles and hiccups. “….hurt me.”

Ororo’s eyes snapped shut as she too grabbed the wall for support, her knees almost buckling under her. At such a moment, she did feel like a helpless outsider, able to hear and even try to help with the situation she had only heard about, not actually experienced.

The three of them stayed there for quite sometime, until letting go of his duffle bag, Logan carried his by now asleep daughter to her room, Ororo accompanying them.

The next morning Ororo woke up to find him gone.

----

That was the end of their time together.

“Today is Saturday.”

“What?”

“Today is Saturday,” Ororo repeated her words, more for herself than for the man sitting beside her at the wheel.

“Yes. So?” Scott whipped his head towards her, as to get an idea of what she meant. Was it something she remembered that needed to be picked up? Somewhere to go? Something else?

“That’s was he was there….at the mall, with the children. Its Saturday. Saturday is movie day.”

---

//Flashback//

“Hurry Daddee, hurry,” the persistent chirping of the child coupled with her pulling on his three hundred pound plus body with all the force that a five and a four year old could muster, seem to have the desired affect on Logan. With one swift motion, he bent down, heaved her onto his head and loped down the stairs of their two-room loft suite. Two rooms, because that was all they had constructed, using only a part of the expansive loft.

“Yippeeeee,” Kendall Logan laughed aloud, her small arms firmly wound around her father's head. How she loved being in that position, feeling so high, with her daddee alongside her….Just as good as when mama took her flying. While with mama, she had the freedom to move around, with daddee she never felt afraid that she would fall…..she felt safe. Oh, she knew that mama would also save her, but feeling her daddee so close gave her the same safe feeling that she got when he shooed away the monsters hiding in her closet and under her bead.

No monsters could stand up to her daddee and his shiny claws. Not even one.

“Where’s yer mama princess?” Logan asked, even though he knew the answer already, reading Ororo’s scent coming from the kitchen.

“She went to eat the baby,” Kendall giggled at her answer. Mama was always eating the baby so that he would come soon. Daddee had said that the new baby would be her responsibility. As they took care of her and loved her, so would she have to care and love him. She’d be like Jubiee and Rogee, without the whole liking boys. Yuck. Boys are dirty….well, except for her new brother. He would not be dirty. She would was him ten times a day and keep him nice and clean.

“Not eat the baby dearest, eat for him.” Ororo’s smooth voice greeted the father-daughter duo as they reached the foot of the stairs. In her hand was some concoction that she had prepared for herself. After what he saw her eating before Kendall was born, Logan tried to keep his eyes away and nose closed from the crap that she ate in the baby’s name. No wonder the baby’s shit smelled worse than horse manure. Nine months of junk had to come out somewhere.

“One same,” Kendall giggled and tapped her palms against her father’s head, confident in the knowledge that the hand which automatically rose to rest at her back would not let her fall. “Hurrrreeeeee….”

--

“Hey, Ken-doll,” Bobby teased her as he walked by, also confident in the knowledge that as long as she was there, Wolverine would not gut him. If anyone could control the quintessential badass more than her mama was little Kendall herself.
“Hey Uncle Boobsy,” Kendall greeted, almost falling back at the snort she heard from her mother, followed by a bout of cough as Ororo chocked on the piece of cold barbeque chicken ala whipped cream that she was chewing on.

“BOOBSY!” Bobby, the Iceman, froze in his tracks, (haha, did silly pun) his mouth gaping open at the nickname. “Who taught you that? Jubilee? Rogue? Who?”
“N-uh,” the mocha-skinned child shook her head, grabbing her daddy and snickering as if it were some private joke. “Daddee did. He said your name is Uncle Boobsy Ice-pup.”
“Its Ice-pop, I mean Iceman,” Bobby fumbled over his own name. “Logan, man, come on,” he pleaded to the grinning Wolverine.

“What?” Logan put on the best threatening face that was possible with a four and half year old ball of giggles hanging from your head.
“Logan,” Ororo’s voice carried an admonishment that he usually used for her students and Kendall, and which for some reason, she had started using with him too.
“Oh-Oh, in t’ouble now.” Kendall warned her daddee, knowing from experience what that voice meant. It meant say sorry. “Say sorry,” she whispered into daddee’s ear.

“Yeah, whatever,” Logan was about to shrug it off, but Ororo’s gesture towards Kendall made him stop and reconsider. Anything he did, would set an example for her. “Don’t mind it kid….uh, sorry.”

‘Sorry,’ the word echoed through Bobby’s ears and through his suddenly blank mind. Logan, the kick-your-ass-and-guy-you Wolverine, had actually said sorry….TO HIM. Had he died and gone to hell? Because that was the only way that he would ever get to see this day. Hell because, in heaven they wouldn’t hate him like this. For the one sorry Logan had said, Bobby was certain that there would be ten Danger Room ass-whoopings coming his way….at least.

“Uh, ok,” he mumbled and shook his head. “Just don’t let….” The growl he got was enough to tell him that he shouldn’t try his luck. “Its Bobby. Bauuu-bee. Okay.”

“Okay Uncle Bobsy,” the young girl repeated.

“Its-never mind. Its close enough.”

---

“Hurree mommy, hurry daddee,” the boobsy matter was forgotten in an instant. “We ain’t wanna be late,” she put on her best mimic of her father, complete with the childish growl, which came out more like a mewling squeak.

“We ain’t gonna be late for movie day.”

//End Flashback//

----

An uncomfortable silence between them, both Scott and Ororo walked through the garage side door of the Xavier mansion, and were about to go their separate ways when the sound of children shrieking reached their ears. What was even more surprising was who all were and what they seemed to be doing.

“That’s…James,” Scott looked at Ororo, confusion clear on his face….the same confusion that Ororo had on hers.

“And that’s Kendall,” Ororo started in the direction of the shrieking and giggling. What surprised Ororo was that not only were the kids back almost twenty-four hours earlier, they seemed to happy about it. This never happened….never. Both Logan and the children tried to spend as much time as possible, trying to cram in seven days in those two.

“Rachel?” Scott’s eyes widened behind his glasses, as he heard his daughter laugh and clap loudly, crying out at the top of her voice. “Again. Do it again. Do it again.”

Both parents worried out their mind, got the shock of their life as they busted though the rec. room door.

-----

“What is he doing here?”

“What is he doing here?”

Ororo’s voice boomed in the rec. room, shocking everyone into silence and eliciting different reactions all those present.

“Do it Ag…” Rachel stopped mid clap, her young six-year-old face instantly gone pale.

“Uumph….” James lost his balance flopped down onto the ground, too stunned to even notice if he had been hurt.

“Herrree…..rr….” Kendall trailed off as she threw a handful of kernels of popcorn into the air, the fluffy popcorn flying all over the room.

The two adults in the room, Jubilee and Rogue immediately stopped talking, with Rogue even standing up just as she used to do when Ororo was her teacher. Jubilee, who was never too much of ‘good-behavior’ girl in the first place, kept on sitting, coolly regarding the two new arrivals. Inside however, she was seething, needing just one charge to set her off…..and that would come soon enough.

The only other ‘person’ in the room, also stilled at the sudden intrusion, but his shocked state only lasted for a couple of seconds before he reached for the popcorn, his bushy tail wagging against James’s shoulder and cheek making the toddler soon break out into laughter.

-----

Ororo and Scott, both stood there, at the door, watching young James so freely express his emotions. This was such a rare sight for the child that whenever it happened, it was a sight true to behold.

James Logan or James Munroe as he was known after his parents’ separation was an interesting mixture of his parents. Skin and hair color like his mothers, but physical characteristics and hair texture like his dad. Even his emotional and behavior side was very different from his sister. A quiet child from the beginning, he seemed to have both his mother’s control and his father’s introspection. He could sit for hours at end, just playing alone with his toys, observing nature, or just anything around him. Unlike his bold, outgoing natured sister, who, by the time she hit one was already jabbering half way to china, James did not speak until he was almost two years old. That led to some speculation about his mental faculties, which, much to everyone’s relief proved to be false. Things had improved so much since then that Beast, Dr. Henry McCoy couldn’t wait for the kid to turn five to give him an honest to god, Beast sanctioned IQ test.

Seeing the same James like this, laughing his head off and frankly acting like any other goofy, not a care in the world, klutzy four year old made Ororo stop in her step and observe her son. The hair on the dog’s tail tickled his nose, making him first laugh and then let out a loud sneeze. Falling over himself, he lay there on the ground, giggling and laughing away as his canine friend first sniffed him and then lay down quietly by his side, with James quickly throwing his arm over the mutt’s side, his uncontrollable chuckles causing the dog to shake too.

Ororo had seen what he had been doing when she entered the room….sitting astride the dog, riding it like a pony.

----

//Flashback//

“Oooohh…..Pupppee,” six year old Kendall Logan bunched her hands as she leaned against the window of the pet-store, watching the cute newborn Dalmatian puppies inside. Already mesmerized by the black and white dogs, her excitement went up a couple of notches when a particularly adventurous one pup from the litter of four, hobbled over its brethren and trotted over to the window. Jet black eyes stared into deep hazel ones.

“Mommy, Daddee,” Kendall’s cry had the desired effect, sort of, in the way that, in the blink of an eye, her father was by her side, not caring the least bit about the three outdoor restaurant chairs he had just knocked over. He had just stepped into the cigar shop to buy his monthly quota, when his baby girl called out to him…and as far as he was concerned, everyone and everything in the way could go to hell.

Imagine the look on his face on seeing two show haired beauties regarding him with a, *you need to cool it,* look, both of their hands crossed at their chests.

“Logan!”

“Daddee!”

“Hmph. What is it squirt?”

Her father’s theatrics instantly forgotten, Kendall gestured towards the glass partition and the animals behind it. “Pupppee.”

“Yeah. So? Uh, nice doggie.” Logan couldn’t understand what the whole big deal about the stupid dog was. Okay, the kid liked it, fine. As far as he was concerned, you seen one stinkball mutt, who don’t wanna *smell* another.

Looking up at Ororo, he got the, uh oh, look this time as she cradled their son, ‘Cueball jr.’, James Logan. Why couldn’t she just come out and say it? It would make things much easier for him. Hell, unless it was in the bed, he did not want to play twenty questions or hide the money or whatever game women played with their men.

“Want puppeee.” Oh, so that’s what that look meant this time. She was trying to tell him, *your darlin’ daughter is going to ask you to buy that dog. So you better get your ass in gear buster. I have just birthed a second progeny of your demon seed not a year ago, and although I would give my life for these kids, I will just as easily take yours if you dare to bring another mouth to feed and another butt to clean after in our house. Believe me when I day, healing factor not, you will die…painfully.*

That much in that small millimeter high raised eyebrow look. Shit, she could just have easily said that out aloud….and he still wouldn’t have understood it.

“Uh, pumkin’,” Logan looked to Ororo for support, but she was suddenly busy with the four strands of hair that ‘their’ pup had managed to sprout. If it weren’t for the fact that his was the only man’s smell on Ororo and that James’ face was an exact miniaturized copy of his, and the simple fact he had implicit and unshakable trust on Ororo, he would have sworn that kid isn’t his…..and probably would have got his ass busted back to Canada and then some. Looking at Kendall’s long luxurious tresses, at Ororo’s, ooh, tightness in groin, snowy locks and then his own wild forest, he pitied the poor baldheaded freak of his. ‘Kid, just grow some hair. I swear I won’t ask anything else from ya.’

“Daddee, please,” Kendall pouted and batted her lashes in the tried, tested and perfected way to get her father to do whatever she wanted. That particular look of hers had a success rating of 98.8 percent. Too bad this time fell under the remaining 1.2.

“Sorry darlin’ but no can do,” Logan practically had his claws crossed for Ororo to step in and save the day. “We already have one puppy. Ol’ cue-boy here.”

“Logan!” Aha, now she’d talk. ‘Sheer genius Bub. Sheer genius.’ “Kendall dear, what your father is trying to say is that having a dog with young child is not a good thing.”

“Why?” The precocious child was quick to question, looking at her father and not mother for the explanation. ‘cause wasn’t it daddee who said that.

“Uh, why ‘Ro?” Logan didn’t see anything wrong with it. He was, we get the mutt, if he tries anything funny with the kids, I gut him. There, simple as that. Now, where is the problem in keeping a dog with a small child?

Thankfully for him, Ororo had more than enough experience with him, with their daughter and with children in general. For the next five minutes, Logan stood to the side, silently observing, the 'lightening' rising between the mother and the daughter. Until, suddenly…..it frizzled out.

“Okay,” Kendall nodded solemnly. “We won’t get a puppy now.”

Whew.

“But what about when baby James gets older? We can get puppy then. Can’t we?”

The lost puppy look (no punny stuff) caused Logan to finally lose it and blurt out.

“Okay pumkin’. When James starts going to the potty himself, then you can get a puppy.”

“But what if he never starts to go potty himself?”

Shit. “Uh ‘Ro.”

Ororo just sighed and shook her head. “What about three years or potty himself? Whichever comes first.”

“Umm, ok. God promise.”

“Yeah kid. God promise.”

//End Flashback//

-----

“What is…ugh (clears throat) What is he doing here?” Ororo asked, finally finding her voice again.

Before anyone else could say anything, James lifted his head from the black with a patch of white fur on his right eye dog and exclaimed loudly.

“Momma, S’cuter stay with us now?”

“NO.” Ororo flinched at her shot-fire answer, cursing herself as the light in her son’s eyes just blinked out. Every in the mansion knew that although not possessing the feral qualities of his father and sister….yet, James seemed to be more in tune with nature than either of them or his mother. Anything. Flora or fauna, land, water or air, he instantly took the various creatures thee. It wasn’t his mutation presenting itself. It was just….him.

“Yes he is.” Kendall. That was the only other thing that remained to go wrong. Standing up from her sofa seat, Kendall stepped between James, the dog and her mother, her demeanor defiant. Her this type of behavior was increasing with each passing day and Ororo was running out of options on how to handle it….handle her. “Daddy said he is, so he is.” The child ended vehemently.

“Kend….”

“Mama, S’cuter will go away if we not keep him,” James’ spoke up, his voice subdued and forelorn.

“What does that mean?” Ororo turned towards the other two adults in the room. Jubilee was just ignoring her, trying to read whatever magazine she had got her hand on, while Rogue had been silently watched the interaction.

“Logan felt tha children and the dog here a coupla hours ago,” the southerner commented emotionlessly. “Said something came up and he couldn’t keep the children or the mutt.”

Knowing for almost certain what ‘came up,’ Ororo grew silent for a minute. In the last eight and a half months, Logan had never missed a weekend with the kids. Whatever the work, no matter how urgent, it always took a backseat when it came to Kendall and Logan. Except for this weekend…..today. “So, how long is he going to be here?” She gestured towards the dog.

----

Scooter, as Logan had named him, had been a chance discovery. While on his hunt….while on his trip, Logan came across a month old, sickly looking pup. It seems some of the neighborhood children, while playing paintball, had decided to make the ‘white-patch’ dog into one color. In that regard, they shot dozens of blue paintball at him, one of which took the poor critter’s eye out….the same eye as the one with the patch of white fur. Managing to get away, the pup hid in Logan’s jeep and thanks to some judicious territorial pissing by the pup’s other brother and sisters, Logan did not catch his scent for the next half hour, by which time, he was in the middle of nowhere. Remembering his promise to his little girl and with James’s third birthday drawing closer, Logan took care of the mutt. For him the breed of the dog didn’t matter in the least, at least not in front of the smile that would light up his little girl and boy’s eyes. Thinking of a name, he decided to not go with what he had taken to call the dog, ‘shitbag’ and went in for a better, cleaner and more familiar name, Scooter. Scooter for white patch on his right eye, Scooter for one working eye and finally, Scooter for Scott Summers.

Little did Logan know that soon, he wouldn’t be able to see his kid on a daily basis, let alone give the dog to them. In the end, it was only he and his one-eyed mutt left to give each other company, with the kids only being able to see their dad and dog for only two days a month.

“He’s gonna stay here,” Rogue answered, her usual husky drawl absent. “Logan doesn’t want the kids to lose their dog. An’ he knows about yer….” She deliberately let the words hang in the air, accentuating the unspoken ones by darting a glance towards Scott. “He know that ya don’ want the kids to have him. So he’s given Scooter to me and Jubilee. We’ll take care of feedin’ him and he rest of his stuff, the kids can just play with him.”

Scott stood by, silently watching the by now, giant of a dog lolling about as James and even his daughter Rachel played with him. It was clear from the way he reacted towards Rachel that the dog was used be near kids…..but still, he had to contain himself from rushing forward and drawing Rachel away before anything wrong happened. After all, it was a dog, an animal. On the other hand, he was thankful. He hoped that, Rachel would let go of her own puppy and or kitty pleas, now that there was already a dog in the house.

-----

‘What game are you playing Logan?’ Ororo mused as she watched Kendall finally back down and go back to playing with Rachel, James and Scooter.

Looking at the dog and at the children playing with him, only made her think about how Logan had been absent on James’s third birthday…..running after the demons that had haunted him for most of his remembered life, blaming himself for bringing them into the life of his innocent daughter too.

“Ororo,” Scott drew her attention back to the present.
“Yes Scott.”

“Can you look after Rachel for sometime? I need to…..”
“Of course Scott,” she didn’t need for him to say the words that he did not want to say, at least not to her.

“Thanks.”

Looking at Scott walk away down the hall, Ororo smiled ruefully at the complex circle and triangles that their life was….hers, Logan and Scott’s.

That left only one person to complete their circle….the same person Scott was going to talk with…whom he always went to talk with. Even now.

Scott’s first wife. The mother of his daughter….Dr. Jean Grey-Summers.

The late Dr. (Mrs.) Jean Grey-Summers.

---

Note: How is this for a twist?

Please Review and let me know!!

Ten months ago,

“I ain’t signin’ this shit, ‘Ro.” Ororo frowned, rubbing the space between her eyes in an effort to relive some of the frustration built up within her. When that did not work, she sighed and looked up at the hulking form of her husband. His shoulders off, his hands clenched at his sides, he looked more like about to attack Sabertooth than conversing with the mother of his two children, his wife, Ororo. The same wife, who instead of greeting him, welcomed him with a bunch of papers, divorce papers. Barging upon her, he threw the papers at her, the fluttering sheets landing on the bed of what, until a few months ago, used to be their room. In his absence, not only had his stuff been moved to a spare room, on the other side of the mansion, proceedings to end his marriage and family had also been made.

“Logan…” Ororo knew this day would come and had prepared for it. It was not that she did not love Logan, which she did; it was not that he did not care about her, which she knew he did…as much as he possibly could. The question was not of him or her but of her children now. Never objecting on his frequent and sometimes long, trips in search of his past, she had drawn the line after the last time he left. The line was on the question of life.

All the X-Men and quite a few of the students knew what Logan had been through and how he had reacted when he got away. They all knew that he was one of the few X-Men who were willing to take a life if they felt the need was dire enough. They also knew that he was perhaps the only one who made no qualms about it. For him it was a question of survival. It was a ‘me or them’ question and the ‘me’ always won for him. No one knew, if it was the nature of the beast, the Wolverine inside him or whether it was his Weapon X programming. Bobby and Rogue still remembered the night when Stryker and his mercenaries had attacked the mansion. Had Logan not been there, they and quite a few of the other students would have been unable to escape from the clutches of the fanatic Stryker.

Even thought she might not have done the same, Ororo had understood and even accepted his actions. However, taking a life because there is not other option left was totally different from what Logan had done. He had coldly, in a calculated manner, tracked and murdered those men. The number did not matter. For Ororo, even one life taken was one life too many. During her teen years in Africa, she had accidentally killed a man with her mutant powers, and even though he was trying to harm and maybe even kill her, in her eyes it still did not take anything away from the cold, hard fact that she had killed him. She then took a vow of never taking another human life, and it was that vow of hers, her concern for her children’s future, and the humanity within her that had led to make this decision.

“I ain’t signin’ it ‘Ro,” Logan snarled, cutting her off. “I ain’t signin’ it. I ain’t leavin’ you and I sure as hell ain’t leavin’ my kids.

“Just sign it Logan. Its over.” Ororo tone grew cold as she turned to lift the papers that he had thrown at her. She knew she could not reason with him….as she could not all those months ago…neither was she in any mood to. Festering for the better part of a year, her hurt and pain at Logan’s actions had even turned her thinking mind off. The night Logan left, he walked away from her and from them. This paper was the just formality left to make it legal.

“Fuck you.” Stomping up to her, Logan grabbed her arm spun her around. “I said, I. Ain’t. Signin’.”

“Logan,” Ororo winced in his Admantium grip. “Let me go….you’re hurting me.”

“I ain’t signin’ it,” but it seemed that he was too far gone to listen to anything else except the blood pounding in his ears. The man within him seemingly beaten, the Wolverine had risen to the surface, taking control of his actions while losing that over thought. The only thing that he now sensed was his mate turning away from him. Her scent was no longer welcoming towards him, but rather drawing away from his mere touch.

Lose mate. Lose pack. Lose mate. Lose pack….

Those were the only words that were getting through to him. “Not signin’ it,” the only ones coming out.

“You are hurting me Logan,” Ororo could feel the tears of pain welling up in her eyes. “Leave….me….NOW.”

KRAAKKAA-BOOM!!

“DADDEEEEEE….”

-----

Present day,

Ororo watched the three children sitting just a few feet from her. After Scott left, Jubilee and Rogue also retired for the night. Jubilee was still unresponsive as ever, maybe even more so after the events of the day. Rogue, being in a sort of catch twenty-two situation, with Remy on one side and Logan on the other, did the only thing she could. She bade Ororo and the girls a customary ‘good night’, ruffled little James’s already wild, snowy mane and walked away to her and Remy’s room. A bit bummed out about Scooter leaving with Jubilee, the children got over it soon enough and plopped themselves in front of the TV.

Looking at her daughter, sitting there, looking just like any other nine-year-old child, Ororo silently wondered how and where things had gone wrong.

---

Born with her father’s healing and animalistic qualities, Kendall had always had sort of a wild streak that was eerily reminiscent of her feral father. Maybe that was why the two bonded the way they did. Daddy’s girl didn’t even begin to describe her. It was more like a case of ‘Daddy’s Shadow’ with her. While thankful for the healing, Ororo had on more than one occasion wished against the second part of her Wolverine gifted mutation…both due to the problems it entailed by itself and due to its affect on Kendall’s other powers, her weather manipulation and more importantly, control powers. Having experienced first hand, the strict emotional control needed to wield and contain those powers; it greatly worried Ororo when she thought about what Kendall would have to go through.

Maybe it was her feral nature and the resulting ability to hold a grudge, but everything between Kendall and her mother changed the day she saw her father struck by her mother’s lightening, his electrically charged body writhing a few feet from the horrified child, his cries of pain tearing through the girl’s heart. What hurt her even more was that instead of helping him, her mother just walked away. It had been to contact Hank with her communicator, but that particular fact did not come to the girl, for all her young eyes saw was the unconscious form of her father, his body still twitching from the residual charge, the stench of his burnt skin and pickled innards assaulting the her enhanced senses.

She had gone into shock. Arriving at the very instant, that Ororo lashed out, she did not see or hear the reason for why that had happened. All she saw was her mommy hurting her daddy….trying to kill him. By the time she recovered from it, daddy had left and from then on, she only got to see her daddy for two days in a month....and for that she blamed her mother. Mommy had hurt daddy and made him go away. She wanted daddy to come back or for mommy to send her away to him too. What she did not want was a new daddy…not now, not ever.

---

Half an hour later,

With Kendall taking James to bed, Ororo quickly carried the by now asleep Rachel to her room. Waiting for her father to return, the little redheaded girl had fallen asleep on the sofa, nearly knocking the increasingly drowsy James over as she flopped against him.

Returning to her loft suite, she first checked on the children before heading for her room. Both of them were in their own room, with James still wearing the clothes he had on in the daytime. Kendall had taken off his shoes and socks before tucking him away for the night. Seeing him asleep like that, a soft natural smile gracing his lips, Ororo gave up on moving him just to change his clothes and silently made her way out and towards her room.

----

Having barely taken a step into the room, the smell of cigar smoke halted her.

Someone had been in her room, someone who smoked cigars.

“So, you finally did it huh….got what, who you always wanted.”

Few years into the past,

“WHAT!!”

“Umm-Hmm.”

Even as she nodded in response, and even with the smile forming on her lips, the Nubian beauty could not push down the sense of unease rising within her. Working in her greenhouse, somehow her conversation with the man standing a few feet away from her had gone from the subtle and not-so-subtle variations in the smells of flowers, to something entirely different….something she cursed herself for walking into…all by herself.

“Ororo.” The gruff yet almost molasses smooth growl of her name, her complete name was enough to let her know of her folly.
“Logan it was just a….”
“Scooter! Of all the people, fuckin’ one-eyed Summers? You couldn’t have found anyone else?”

‘Okkaaayyy!’ Her inner voice came to rescue. ‘One, he doesn’t sound all that angry, but just...umm, not angry at all. Two, the claws aren’t out…yet, so that’s good and three, and the most important three of all, he isn’t objecting to the actual thing, but to choice. So, by and by, the situation is pretty favorable. Don’t screw it up.’

“’Ro? Ororo?” Logan’s hand in front of her face roused her out of her musings.
“Oh….sorry. Just zoned out for a few seconds.” She apologized for her wandering off. “Logan…” The unease was still there. After all, it wasn’t easy to talking about what she was talking about and that too with the man she was talking about.
“I-I can’t…don’t…” Logan’s shaking his head and stepping away, even if was just to lean against the worktable was enough to fan her nervousness even further.
“Logan….” Her voice cracking as her result of the sudden emotional rollercoaster she found herself on was in an odd sort of way mirroring the distant rumble of thunder.

Hearing the same boom, brought Logan back to his senses, his senses instantly zeroing in on Ororo and the feelings and emotions that were just rolling off her.
“Fuck…..” his curse, although meant for him made Ororo think that it was for her and her revelation. She didn’t think he would react this way…she did not want him to react this way, because she knew from experience what would be coming next, he would close off into his own inner world….and walk away from her....and that she could not even bear to think about.
“Logan…..I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

“Huh,” and there went Logan, thrown for a loop at her apology. Hurt him? How did she hurt him? Fuck, he was more in disbelief than in anything else.

---

“’Ro,” he reached forward and rested his one hand on her shoulder, lifting her chin with her so that he could see in those deep blue eyes of hers….eyes that he had grown to love in the past few months. “Hurt me?”
“I know you and Scott don’t…mmph,” opening her mouth to speak, Ororo found her words and a large part of her uneasy emotions, washed away in the wave of love that Logan’s kiss seemed to wash over her. There was nothing different…not withdrawn about the way he kissed her. It was just as passionate, just as heated as every other time…maybe even more so.

They stayed that way, until Logan, feeling the tension leave her body, not to mention her lungs call out for fresh air, drew away, but just enough so that their lips were still caressing each others.

“Really ‘Ro? Scooter? You were really so bad off then, that you had to go for that.” Logan’s chuckle was enough to let her know about his mood. Although, ‘dating’ for a couple of months now, ‘the Man from the North’ was still an enigma to her, not because he hid himself from her, but because he opened himself to her. He, the ultimate loner, the most closed off man she had ever come across…he, opened himself to her…unlike in a way that he ever opened himself to anyone or at anytime. The realization that doing so, he was putting at risk, his heart and only thing he ever truly called his own, the rag-tag bunch of memories he had collected over the years, had hit Ororo like a brick wall. That meant, just like her, he too had chosen to put all of him in this relation they were trying to build. It was….to say the least, overwhelming.

“Yes,” her lips curved up this time, but without the unease from before as she leaned into his touch.

“Man,” Logan was still having a tough time getting his head around it. “How? You are outta his league. Darlin’, fuck you are so outta my league that I can’t even see you. That’s how high you are. An’ now you are telling me you were in love with Scooter!!”
“No, not love,” Ororo was quick in responding. “It was just a crush.”
“There’s a difference?” Logan wasn’t ever adept in the subtleties, nor did he care much about them. For him, it had always been a case of want. If he wanted something, that was reason enough for him to go after it, whether it be a cigar, a steak, some asshole pissing him off, or even a woman.

However, but that was all before BOOM…Before OrorO Monroe.

Oh, he still had that want thing going; as he always would. After all, it was one of the support pillars of both the man and the animal within him, but now, he had dropped that ‘woman’ clause from it in favor of ‘just one’ woman, just her. Not only that, he had only added another layering, one of love….one drawn out of his love for her and her love him.

For him, she was a goddess who had deigned to love a mortal….she was the one who brought the man out of the animal.

“Yes, there is a difference.” At the narrow eyed look Logan sent her way, Ororo elaborated on her answer.

“See, with Scott it was….hmm…well, you could say it was more of a novelty factor than anything else. I was new student and with Scott and Jean being the only two people of my age, well, we three naturally grew closer.”
“Now, don’t tell me you had a whatchamacallit…crush on Jean? Did you?”
“You’d like that, won’t you?” Ororo struck him lightly on the shoulder, a giggle bursting from lips at the suggestive look Logan gave her.
“You know, they say that it’s a man’s top fantasy to be with two women at one time…together.” Logan drew her closer and ran his hands down her back to squeeze her behind and pull it flush against the front of his jeans.
“So, is it yours too?” Ororo grasped his shoulders, gaining leverage so as not to completely fall against him.
“Nah. Already did it. Fuckin’ too much confusion to gain anything outta it.”
“I so didn’t need knowing that,” Ororo shook her head as if trying to shake the extra bit of information off. Even though she was still learning about Logan’s life before he came to the X-Men, she knew from his own words, that it was mostly fighting, fucking and sleeping, usually in that order. She knew that going in and even though it should have troubled her, it did not…well, not as much and not for as long as she thought it would. Even before they crossed the line between friends to lovers, she already knew about the strict code of honor that Logan lived his life by. Loyal to a fault, if he was with her, he was just with her.

---

“So, you were saying?” Logan urged her to carry on her explanation. He wasn’t as much interested in the actual specifics, as he was in the way it felt….the memory part of it, for having lost is own past, he did not remember if ever he had felt the same way towards a girl….when he was a teenager himself. At least he thought he would have been. It wasn’t like he fell from the sky or something.

“Hmm,” Ororo recalled where she had left off. “Yes. Like I said, we three became quite close and I developed a sort of crush on Scott. After all, it wasn’t as if I could have it on the Professor. He is practically….” At the mischievous glint in Logan’s eyes, she lifted her hand to still his comment. “It was a rhetorical question.”

“It lasted for a few weeks. I grew out of it and my crush-radar moved from Scott to Henry….” Even as the words spilled forth, Ororo tried to bite down on them, a second too late.

“McCoy.” A ghost of hardness flashed through Logan’s eyes. Henry McCoy, the resident genius and onetime ‘interest’ of Ororo’s, was still not quite past the Wolverine’s defenses. It wasn’t as if there was anything wrong or threatening about the guy. If there was a case of a living teddy bear, one with blue fur to boot, Beast filled that to a ‘T’. It was just that, his mutation, which had quite a few feral characteristics, and his past with Ororo…well, suffice to say, for the first three months of his stay at the mansion, Beast had to content with the Wolverine 24/7.

Deliberately ignoring his growl, Ororo carried on, her hands gently kneading at Logan’s chest and shoulders.

“Its not that he was like my first love or anything,” she steered back towards the lighter….safer topic. “It was just that…he was different from any of the boys I had seen and or grown up with. Maybe if things had been different, the time and place had been different….but like I said, we were just kids then.”

“And you know what?” She finally gave in and snaked her arms around Logan’s neck to draw him closer.
“What?” Logan growled as he breathed in the intoxicating scent of arousal rising from her.

“Even if Scott was first choice…the choice of a girl,” Ororo leaned in further, nibbling at Logan’s ear. “He wasn’t my best choice….he wasn’t the choice of a woman.”

-----

The Present,

“So, you finally did it huh….got what, who you always wanted.”

His words, piercing as they were, did not hurt as much as did the memories they brought back, memories of the past…of the joy, the trust, the love that shared all those years ago. It that hurt even more because, for him to say those words that he just had….he too must have thought or be thinking of that same time….a time that was supposed to last forever, only it didn’t.

Yet, it was just that, the past….as in gone, over…never to come back.

Steeling herself, Ororo stepped past the door and closed it behind her, her nose flaring and scrunching at the heavy smell of alcohol that accompanied the overlying cigar smoke.

“What do you want? Why are you here?”

---

Note: Sorry for the delay…I had the ideas in my mind, just had to get them typed out, and somehow the mood just didn’t sit right. Won’t happen with the next update. That should be up by tomorrow.

BTW, the Logan-Ororo-Henry thing is from the supposed spoilers from the upcoming X3.

Please Review!!

“So, you finally did it huh….got what, who you always wanted.”

“What do you want? Why are you here?”

“I asked you something,” Ororo grated out, keeping her distance, both emotionally as well as physically. The cigar smoke hung like a wintertime fog in the room, its stench indicating that he had been here for quite sometime….and yet, even with the renewed swirls of smoke rising into the air….his lips were bereft of the stogie.

Pushing away a voice that pointed out her use of a tone and words that she usually brought into use as a teacher, and also another one that instinctively fell back on remembering the events from the last time he was in this room….and yet another which went even further back. Her arms crossed at her chest, her body tensed in a mixture of defensive and offensive posture, Ororo waited for the guttural voice to sound out in response to her.

Again, all she got was silence, with only the sloshing of liquid telling her what was going on. She knew she could just extend her arm and flip on the lights….she could, and probably should, yet she did not. For some reason, fear rose within her….fear of having someone chance on upon them, fear of actually seeing him…of seeing the pain, the accusation, the hurt in his eyes….the same that his words were trying so hard to disguise.

One long deep gulp and, “Answer my question.”

‘Question?’ Ororo almost asked, stopping her at the very last moment. Even though it had been over five minutes since he had said those words to her…it seemed like any time had passed at all.

“Please do not smoke in here,” she tried side stepping it. “There are children here. They don’t like it.”
“I am sure they ain’t the only ones yer thinkin’ about,” with his ‘vocal’ slam, he brought her back to his first comment. Just the rising slur in his voice was enough to tell Ororo how hard and how long he must have been drinking for him to reach such a state….enough to tell her...enough to worry her.

“B’sides, I ain’t smokin’,” he carried on, the sound of the bottle hitting the wooden floor accompanying his hand reaching out in the dark to bring forth the ashtray. “Its just…..them.” Ororo saw and got confused by the four red balls appear in the dark….smoldering ends of four cigars, all at once.

‘What is he doing?’ Even as the thought reared its head, Logan, more than half drunk and suddenly feeling quite wordy, provided the explanation for his rather twisted actions.

“Wanted to…drown you….drown yrr…yer…” even though she could not see it, Ororo almost sensed him shake his head to clear away the alcohol induced haze. “Wanted to numb my senses off ya.”

Even as hurt and confusion warred within her, Ororo’s ears caught the slowly mumbled follow up…

“Can’t trust ‘em around ya anymore.”

…and that pushed the mental argument into ‘hurt’s’ end. His trying to drink himself into an incoherent stupor, his using the cigar almost as incense sticks, Logan was trying to saturate his senses or muddle them enough so that he would not be able to focus in on her.

“I…” she still would not say his name….saying his name made it personal, made it hers….made him hers, and that he was no longer, just as she wasn’t his. At least that’s the way it was supposed to be.

“Can’t trust ‘em,” Logan garbled again, taking yet another gulp from the numbing amber liquid. “Can’t…lie….they lie…can’t trust ‘em.”

Standing there, just a few feet from him, Ororo remembered the only time she had ever seen him like this before. It was after he found about a major chunk of his past, well, major compared to the trinkets he was wont to finding. He found about his real name, a possible wife, maybe even a family…all gone, all dead and gone, without even a stray of an opening to follow to find out about them.

Returning to the mansion, night after night, he had drunk himself silly…only that time he wasn’t indoors but always at the lake. Ororo knew that because only the third day since his return, she found him lolled off under the shade of a tree, his leather jacket acting as a pillow-bed sheet mix, dozens of beer bottles and around half a dozen of the hard-stuff ones scattered around him. The next morning, taking to the skies, she saw him again, this time further along the shore, positioned pretty much the same way as he had been the previous morning. With the same happening the third, the fourth, the fifth day, she finally decided to step in, not to try to stop him, because she knew she couldn’t, but just to extend a helping hand…just letting him know that she would be there if and when he needed to talk.

A simpler time, it happened before they got together, before they fell in love….before it all ended.

---

“They lie,” the rather loud declaration brought her back into the present. With words, clear and mumbled, just rolling of his tongue, it seemed that a dam had been broken or at least breached in the usually reserved Logan.

“Trus’ instincss…nev’rr wrong,” Ororo had to really strain to catch the growls and garbles. “But you…lie…they lie. Tell me you lie….that you still….”

‘Still? Still what?’ Once again the question all but tore forth from her, its answer somewhat….pretty much, known to Ororo. The only reason she stopped was that she wasn’t sure that she needed the answer, the remainder of his sentence…that she wanted to hear it. Hearing it, speaking it…that would give it existence, would force her to face its implications….face the almost certain truth. That even after all this time….no, she would not even think it, because it wasn’t true. Whatever the two of them had was long gone and over with, they…she was with Sc…someone else, and he….he just couldn’t let go. ‘Yes, that is it.’

---

“Answer me.” He growled as his healing factor rescued enough of his sanity to bring him back to the actual conversation. Taking a gulp to re-muddle his senses, he cursed at finding the bottle all run out….and that was his last one.
“Its none of your concern,” Ororo replied with equal fervor, although on her part, the defiant attitude was more of a cover up than anything. She knew she would have had to face him sooner or later….she had known it even before the events of the evening…much before, right when she and Sc…got together.

“None of yer concern,” Logan repeated the answer to himself. “Yeah….none of it.”

Once again, silence filled the distance between them, broken once again by Logan’s words….his question.

“You love him?”

Denying attention at the cracking of his voice, the undercurrent of fear, longing and love in it, Ororo was quick with her answer….her standard answer it seemed.

“It doesn’t concern you…not anymore,” and that was the truth. It truly did not concern him, after all, he wasn’t even a mansion resident anymore…nor was he on the team. For all concerns and purposes, they were strangers now, with him just another of the field-operatives that the Professor used for his reconnaissance and sometimes even retrieval. She did not answer to him. She did not need to answer to him….nor did she want to.

“You love him?” He asked again, his anger returning as the affects of the alcohol receded from his brain, not completely, but enough for the sense of betrayal to return. Even after the public way their legal relation ended, Logan hoped that given the time, they could…would salvage their love and recapture what had been lost to them. ‘Just needs time,’ that had been his mantra for almost one year. ‘She just needs time.’ Seeing her earlier that evening, with….with….seeing her that evening. He should have known, should have sensed it…especially after what happened on James’ birthday. His senses let him down. On his trips to pick up and leave the kids, even though he could not see her, he always felt her eyes on him, always caught her smell….his senses telling him that she was there, just around the corner, getting ready to finally let him in…to let him return. ‘Should’ve known.’

Even as the man languished in despair and the animal snarled in anger, Logan, pushing down his first instinct to just let loose and do away with the challenger to his pack…his female, fell back on to option number two, drinking himself numb. If the rapidly clearing of his brain was any indication, he even failed in doing that.

“It…” once again about to repeat her answer, Ororo instead took a breather. “Yes.”

“….” His silence demanded an explanation.

“He is good to the children. They like him. It is a sa…stable arrangement.” She almost used ‘safe’ in place of ‘stable’, knowing that it really wasn’t either way. In truth, she did not know why and which way it was…it just was. She had kids and was single, he had kids and was single, it just felt…well, it just was.

“Stable, hn.” The way he said it, just cheapened the word and its meaning for Ororo. It made it seem as if their, her and Logan’s time together had not been stable and that he was a drunkard lout and that Ororo and the children were lucky to have had escaped from his clutches unharmed.

----

“Good….” Hanging there for a second, the solitary word gained companions and meaning as Logan trudged on. “Good that you finally did it….”

Knowing that there was more, Ororo stayed silent, almost wishing herself deaf as she almost sensed that whatever was coming next would be anything but good.

“…finally killed me.”

“Logan…” that did it for her, her stubborn resolve to not say his name knocked down with just three words. She did not even want to think of him as dead, not even now, not even with all that had gone wrong with him. Just the thought of him dying was enough to make her blood run cold.

“Finally said it huh,” even Logan had noticed how she had avoided addressing him as ‘him’, instead treating him like a stranger. “Well, its not like it ain’t the truth.”

‘Its not…’ too choked to answer, Ororo did all she could from breaking down and going to him. Had it not been for his voice, she wouldn’t have even known that he was in the room anymore.

“Summers….” He spoke the name without any feeling, no anger, no hate, no despair, no sense of defeat….nothing. “He…Jean is dead an’ that makes it right for him.” The consolation was anything but that. “Guess Rae needs a mother. Fuck knows I don’t remember mine an’ with me being dead, guess our…my kids…..”

‘Why are you doing this?’ Ororo pleaded silently. ‘Why? Please don’t….’

“…my kids need a father….a full time father,” he stressed on the full time. “One who’s there. One that won’t leave them and run off like a fool tryin’ to make the world safe for them….only to come back to see that the only thing that matters to him, the only people, they don’ want him anymore…..can’t stand him anymore.”

Whatever little input Ororo had provided in their conversation was all washed away in the silent tears flowing down her cheeks.

---

“Stable.” He came back to it. “What’s stable? Someone who loves you an’ would do anything for you, for your kids….anything, until the day he dies…an’ if possible even after that. Is that stable? Or someone who works to feed you, clothe you. What’s stable?”

“I did everything you said, everything thing you wanted….even that fuckin’ shit piece of paper that you wanted...even that. All because I thought it’d make you happy. Thought that it was just time and that you’d come around. Don’ think that I did it ‘cause of any lawyer or judge. I coulda just taken the kids if I wanted to….I could still take ‘em….” His words rang true. “No one could stop me if I wanted it…That ain’t what I want…that ain’t what I wanted….ever.”

Sensing his voice draw nearer, Ororo instinctively took a step back…into the closed door.

“I wanted…I wanted us.” The voice stilled and instantly drew back, heading towards the balcony.

“I’d do anythin’ fer you ‘Ro….even die,” he whispered in the end.

In the almost pitch-black night, all Ororo saw was a dark silhouette step into the balcony.

“An’ now you’ve killed me.”

What happened next not only charged Ororo into action but also released her throat muscles.

With one last look at her, the figure just tipped over the railings…falling away into empty space.

“LOGAN.”

THUDD!!

“LOGAN”

Even though inside her head, Ororo’s cry tore through the night, in reality all that came out was all but a whimper, as tipping over from the balcony, Logan still managed to avoid landing on his Admantium encased head.

Her heart jerked up into her throat, the weather witch nearly threw herself off the same parapet, taking off to check up on her love’s….her former love’s wellbeing. Stopping herself at the last moment, she settled on looking down at the mansion grounds below, the absence of the moon leaving her to strain her eyes and ears to discern any movement from the feral Canadian.

It wasn’t the first time that he had done this, and even though his actions, to say the least, were idiotic, they brought back another set of memories…..ones that the passing years had buried…but not wiped out.

---

//Flashback//

“Goodnight everyone.” Bidding farewell to everyone present in the recreation room, Ororo headed for the door, her ears catching the grunts and mummeries from the various teachers and the few of the older students that were trying to get in as much TV time before their curfew time of ten PM.

However, the one voice that she had hoped to hear and given the setting least expected to hear was still wasn’t there….and she knew why. Even though he had started dining with the general populous, Logan was still the quintessential loner. The only people he spent his time with…willing…were Rogue and Jubilee, and thanks to them, Kitty, the Professor and Jean….and lately, her. ‘Even if mostly it has been behind closed doors.’ An anticipatory shiver ran down the spine of the usually in control weather witch, as she headed up the stairs to her loft apartment.

Barely had she stepped through the door, with her left hand still on the knob, when a pair of strong, muscular flannel clad arms snaked around her midsection and pulled her flush against a brick-wall hard chest.

Now, this was something she expected…as did she did the next words.

“You know, you shouldn’t leave yer balcony door open,” the familiar growl rumbled through to her.
“Umm-hmm.” With barely a sound the door shut, a muted click announced it being locked. “Is that so?”

“Yeah,” soft lips began to nibble at her exposed neck. “Don’t know who can get in from there.”

Turning around in the ‘Admantium’ strong embrace her lips automatically searched and found his….sealing themselves in a soul-scorching kiss, first of many…from just that night.

//End Flashback//

---

During the initial days of their relationship, when even they weren’t sure if it would lead anywhere beyond the physical, the balcony had been their means of entry and exit, their preferred choice being her room….given the privacy that it allowed.

Most of the time it used to like this, with Logan already in and waiting her arrival as she arrived to ‘retire’ for the night. Afterwards, leaving before anyone got up, Logan used to take the same way out, sometimes even doing a free fall, especially in the initial ‘winter’ months. Later, even after they came out to the others, they still did these covert actions….just for the sake of nostalgia….and whenever they wanted to get away for a midnight soiree by the lake or at their spot by the cliff-side.

Yet, now she stood, not making any move to go to his side. Doing that would just encourage him…give him hope, and that was the last thing Ororo wanted to do…especially with the latest development. Even as she felt his dark hazel eyes boring into her, his nose twitching to catch a whiff of her, all Ororo did was step away from the edge, out of his direct line of sight. She even called on a mild wind to carry her scent upwards into the sky…and away from him.

‘I’m sorry Logan,’ she snapped her eyes shut in an effort to dam the outpouring of fresh tears. If it weren’t for her winds, Logan surely would detect their salty release.

She could have just gone inside and locked the door behind her, yet she stood there, waiting for him to stand up, his actions announcing recovery from any injury he might have received during the fall…and settling her heart, even if just.

---

As for Logan, with his inebriation all but gone, the painful memories returning in full force…compounded by Ororo’s actions, her turning away from him, all he did, all he could do without causing a public display was trudge off into the night. His anger and betrayal warring with his heart to do all it could to avoid looking back over his shoulder and at the woman standing there a few storeys up.

Had he looked back, his enhanced vision would have allowed him to see the tears flowing down her cheeks, her almost calling out after him…as would he have seen her grow unsure on her feet, as if finally overwhelmed by the emotional rollercoaster that the events of the day had been.

He would have seen how she tried her best to make her way to her bed, her body giving up midway to collapse in an unconscious heap on the plush carpet adorning the polished wooden floor…her tears continuing even in her forced sleep.

He would have seen all that…had he just turned around and looked back at her.

Yet he did not, because even as much as it pained him, he realized that they….he had reached a crossroads in their relation, one that Ororo already seemed to have reached and crossed a long time ago.

He had a decision to make….he had already made a decision; he just needed to act on it.

---

Lost in their thoughts, and each other, what neither of them noticed was even if they had privacy of hearing, theirs weren’t the only eyes that observing them.

Shrouded among the shadows, was another pair of eyes…a pair of ruby quartz glasses covering their unshed tears.

---

Note: Sorry for the short chapter. Had a few ideas but they didn’t pan out in type….not in the current situation. Will have more soon!!

Please Review!!

11. Growing Queries

Summary: “They grow up so soon.”


The cool breeze blowing in through the open balcony doors wasn’t the first thing that the slowly rousing Ororo noticed. It wasn’t even the second, or the third…or the fourth.

The first thing she noticed or rather felt was the warmth on her side, the warmth of a human body, the small, nestled in the crook of her arm and shoulder, body of a small child….her child. James. Sometime during the course of the night, young James had woken up and half asleep trudged from his room to that of his mother, laid down next to her, drawn her arm around him and fallen asleep again…this time in the safety of his mother’s embrace. Ororo, even though she did not know when this happened, had instinctively adjusted her position to accommodate him. This was nothing new for her, for even before James, and at a much happier….simpler time, her first born, Kendall used to do the same, and at that time….as much with her mother as with her father. In fact, it was a subconscious imitation of his older sibling that caused James to adopt the same habit and posture.

Just as she was got past this, and with her eyes still closed, Ororo, or rather her body reminded…revealed another thing that she did not know or even realize…or remember. The hard surface underneath her, and the slight ache she felt in her neck told her that she was not on her bed but on the ground next to it. The only thing that even remotely came close to being on the bed was her left foot, which was awkwardly pressed ‘under’ the bed than on it.

‘Goddess!’ She almost exclaimed out aloud, her sudden movement eliciting a counter move and muted whimper from the asleep James.

Any hope that Ororo held for not disturbing the child was smashed as she opened her eyes and tried to move her arm….slowly. One small movement and a shard of pain shot through her side, upper back and neck.

“Uhnn…mamm…” Rolling away from his mother, the sudden hardness under his head waking him, James moaned lightly and with one, two…three reluctant tries finally opened his eyes. “Gu’d Mornin’,” still rising from the sleep ‘swimming pool’ he muttered his greeting, and even as he worded it, he drew in closer to the warmth.
“Good morning baby,” pushing her pain and the numbness in her ‘cushioning’ arm down, Ororo let James curl up next to her, kissing him lightly on his forehead, just below his snowy locks.

With one arm still curved around the child, Ororo moved slowly and laid out straight on her back, and it was then that she noticed the next thing. Draped over them, well, more on her than on James was a small cool-blue blanket….James’ ‘blanky’. It was Logan’s gift for him…from his last birthday, the one which he missed attending. The kid never let it go, and it was just another thing to remind Ororo of what she had lost….and that brought back the even more painful memories of the previous night. It was then that she remembered as to why she was on the ground and not on the bed. She lost consciousness and it was due to that that she did not sense anything that happened after that….until the time she woke up a few minutes ago.

---

Even though she had broken any relations and links with Logan, or at least tried to, Ororo knew one thing, one simple fact that sounded true from the depth of her heart, true as the day as when she first realized it. She and Logan would forever be joined in one way or the other, and not just because of Kendall and James…and it was that truth that pained her even more, because of what she had done….was still doing.

‘Its for the best.’ Silently muttering the mantra she had been taken up to give herself some sort of relief for the recent events. ‘Its…for…the…best.’


Still lost in her thoughts, and feeling the incoming breeze going even cooler, Ororo momentarily tilted her head towards the balcony….and what she saw shocked her into seated position, James being pulled up along with her.

“Uhn…Oh…” one look at what his mother was staring at and James too shot up straight as an arrow. “Snow! No…rain…no… Mommy?” Confused by the erratic weather conditions he turned towards Ororo, just in time for a blinding flash of lightening streak across the grey skies, a resounding boom of thunder accompanying it.

“Mommy?”

If there had been any confusion in Oruro's mind about the freak snowstorm in late summer weather, the accompanying and ever shifting rain and hail shower washed it all away.

“Kendall!”

Even as the word left her lips, Ororo felt a familiar tickle at the back of her mind, followed by a smooth, cultured by at the moment worried voice of Charles Xavier.

**Ororo. Is something the….**

**I’ll look into it Professor.** Ororo cut him off midway, and forgetting her aches and pains, she took off towards her daughter’s room.


Reaching her destination, the one where Kendall currently was, the bathroom, Ororo’s breath hitched at the sight before her.

“Kendall!”

---

Sometime later,

“There, that should take care of it.” Henry’s McCoy’s calm, friendly voice had no effect on the numb and still unnerved Kendall, who, over the span of a few hours had undergone a startling change….one which just changed her life forever.

“Thank you Dr. McCoy,” the subdued voice and the fact that she called him Dr. McCoy instead of Uncle Hank or Big Blue, was signal enough for both Henry and for her mother, Ororo, standing behind her.
“Why don’t you go and see if young James has left anything unturned,” Henry directed his patient towards the door. Once she was out the door, he turned to the older weather manipulator.

“I know what you are going to ask Henry,” Ororo cut him off even before he could get a word out. “And my answer is going to be the same as any other time. You are the doctor, and I know that you remember my….all our reports by heart.”
“Ororo, I just….”
“I know Henry,” Ororo lifted a resting hand to his shoulder, and nodded slowly at his unspoken words. “But right now, my daughter needs me, and I want to be there for her as much as I can….as long as I can.”

---

Unable to say anything to contest that reasoning, Henry acceded and watched Ororo make her way through the door. As he watched, she was stopped by Scott, a rueful smile forming on his lips. He guessed….knew what Scott was talking to her about, and from the nod of Scott’s head, he ascertained that just like him, Scott too stepped away down from his argument.

“You…” Scott started as he pushed through the double hinged doors, one fisted thumb gesturing towards where Ororo had stood seconds ago.
“Yes I did, and fared the same as you.”

“What happened?” Scott’s worry was clear in his voice. At first he had thought that the freak weather had something to do with Ororo, most probably whatever went down between Logan and her, but now….now he wasn’t so sure, especially with the reaction she got from Kendall, lowering of her head and scuttling away as fast as she could.
“Scott,” Henry hesitated for a second. “It was nothing major.”
“Nothing major,” echoing his words, Scott pointed upwards. “Did you see the weather outside. At first I thought that something happened to Ororo. That she….”

Even though he sensed that something other than the ‘freaky’ weather was on Scott’s mind, Henry did not push further.

Coming back to the matter at hand…

“Well, as far as the weather is concerned, lets just say that had Kendall’s mutation been dormant….it would have just gone active this morning.”

---

Elsewhere in the mansion,

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh,” confused and thinking that she probably misheard, Ororo turned away from the kitchen counter and towards the central island where Kendall and James were seated for breakfast. “Did you say something?”

“I said… (clearing throat) ..I’m sorry.” Kendall repeated herself, her eyes still not quite meeting her mother’s.
“Sorry? For what?”
“For…” Once again the young girl’s gaze turned towards her plate, tears forming in her eyes. “For what…what I did. I didn’t mean….”

Hurrying to her side, Ororo engulfed Kendall in her arms, catching her just in time for her to start sobbing again. Even James, his cereal forgotten, got down from his chair and slowly joined his mother and sister, his own eyes growing damp.


“When do I go?” This question really threw Ororo for a loop. Of all the possible queries and/or comments this was the one that she least expected.
“Go? Go where?”
“You’ll send me away now,” deep hazel eyes looked up at her. “I did a bad thing…made you angry…”
“Kendall, listen to me,” Ororo cradled the young girl’s jaw. “You did nothing wrong. No one is angry with you….least of all me. No one is sending you anywhere.”

Instead of lighting up at her mother’s words, Kendall seemed to grow even sadder.
“Oh. Then you are not going to send me away like you did to Daddy?”

Numbed into silence, Ororo did not know how or what to say in response. Even though the words hurt her, this was the first time Kendall had asked about her and Logan’s separation. It was an opening…possibly the only one she would get…and she did not want to lose it.

“You…” she gathered herself. “You want to leave?”
“I want to stay with Daddy,” came the simple innocent answer.
“Oh…and me.”
“Huhn?”
“You don’t want to stay with me….with mommy?”

The look that flashed across Kendall's face told Ororo that this question was something that the girl had never quite thought about….the question or possibility that living with her father would mean that she would have to leave her mother….and maybe even her brother.

“We could all stay together,” she finally offered as a seemingly plausible solution. “Like before.”
“Kendall…” not knowing how to respond to that, at least not without possibly sounding ‘unfeeling’, “Lo…” she stopped again, this time to word the relation that she had denied only a few days ago, “…your father…he does not…I don’t think he will live here.”

“But we could live with him….” Kendall was quick in response, getting a supportive nod from James.

“….he wouldn’t make you leave.”

---

Note: This is my first update in almost a month. I moved a few weeks ago, and with moving and then setting up in the new place, and then real life (not to mention reworking my site) ….writing just took a back seat. Hope to rectify that now.

Please Review!!

A clear mid morning sky, a well maintained expanse of green and an imposing mansion in the background, with any other situation this would be an ideal setting for an episode of the ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’. However, for the three people currently in view, it was an entirely different and important matter….well, for two of them anyway. As for the third, she wasn’t quite sure what she was doing here at this time. It was time for her English class with Ms. Rogue, something she had been exempted from on a ‘request’ from the headmaster himself, Professor ‘Uncle’ Xavier. And now here she was, with her mother standing sideways from her and Xavier in front of her.

--

The day before (Sunday),
Late-Afternoon,

“Thank you Ororo,” closing the file in front of him, Charles cleared his desk, turning his complete attention to the snow haired woman entering into his office.
Her lips curving up in an uneasy smile, Ororo gently closed the door behind her, made her way to the Professor’s mahogany desk and occupied one of the four empty chairs placed in front of around it.

“Charles, is there….” She was straightaway to the point. With both James and a still confused Kendall napping after lunch, she had availed the time to meet the Professor and discuss his findings about Kendall’s power surge. She would have done it earlier, except that ever since her kidnapping and torture, Kendall, had an equal if not more aversion towards anything medical….especially underground labs. Normally, given her inherited healing factor, she did not fall ill or had any allergies and even if she hurt herself, her wound would heal soon enough. In fact, today had been only the third time in the last seven months that she had entered the infirmary and the first time because of her. Both previous two times had been because of James, once when he hurt himself by slipping off the bed and knocking his already loose tooth out and the second time when he had a severe bout of the flu, which given the number of cases at that time was something that many of the mansion residents had. Only a few children, including Kendall herself escaped unscathed.

“There is nothing to worry about Ororo,” Charles too was quick in offering respite to the worried mother. And he was telling the truth…well, almost. “I just asked you here to discuss about Kendall well being and how she is taking the sudden change.”
“Oh,” even though her voice seemed to lose some of its worry, the tensed, squared shoulders did not let at all. “Well, I finally managed to get her to eat something and calmed down James too. Both of them are sleeping my room my right now.”
“Hmm,” even though James was still technically a human, the latest events caused a thought about his status to flash through Charles’ mind. However, this was not the time for that. That was a bridge they would cross when they came to it….except. “Ororo….” He deliberated for a second, not sure whether to ask such a question from a mother. “Have you noticed any change in James in the past few weeks….or months?”
Confused at his question, Ororo could only ask, “Change? ….Oh, you mean has his mutation become active?”
“Yes.”
“No Charles,” Ororo was firm in her response. She would have known had anything like this happened and she would have told Charles that. Why did he even need to ask about it?

Sensing her unspoken question and her given her current state of mind, Charles was quick but deliberate in his next revelation.
“I just asked….because….Kendall….well, the weather display today, it wasn’t because of any power surge in her.”
“It wasn’t?” Now this was news to Ororo, because from what she saw and from Henry’s inference it was a power surge, one accompanying the onset of puberty. “Then what was it?” She asked, the answer to her question raising its head somewhere in her subconscious.

“No. It was her powers finally breaking free….” this brought the answer to the forefront. “…it was because of her mental block giving way….the mental block we set years ago.”

----

//Flashback//

“Fatherhood suits you,” Xavier wheeled up next to Logan. At a passing glance the sight was one that everyone in the mansion was used to seeing, one of Wolverine lounging in front of the fifty-inch television of the Recreation Room, a couple of empty beer bottles standing on the ground next to him, an ‘on its way’ bottle in his hand and the rest of the six pack lying within arm’s reach.....and a game of Ice Hockey playing on the boob-tube. Pretty much normal…except for a small change, a small change that had changed his life forever….and one which he couldn’t be more happy and content about. Supported in his free arm, using his chest and mid section as a make shift bed, her soft breathes tickling his chest hair through the cotton t-shirt, was Kendall Logan, his and Ororo’s newborn daughter.

Even though there was no verbal response from his end, the gentle curve of the lips and a barest of caress with the supporting arm, was evidence enough for Xavier. He knew that even though the TV was on, all of Logan’s senses were working at full till, even keeping track of the thumping of the child’s heart, vibrations of which he could feel through to his own chest. In fact, the TV’s volume was set at near silent and had it not been for the slightest of jumbled buzz, Xavier would have sworn that it was set at mute.

“’Ro needed the sleep,” Logan’s words although pretty clear made Charles’s ears perk up. He knew Logan as one not to make any comments without some meaning or reason to them, especially not ones about his and now Ororo and Kendall’s private life.

“I understand,” the older man offered an opening for a possible conversation. “Being a mother, a new mother at that….”
“No Chuck,” Logan cut him off, his voice suddenly dropping in pitch and rising in urgency. “She needed the sleep. She was gonna drop if she didn’t get it.”

“Logan…” Charles drew his chair nearer to the couch, letting his telepath net out just in case anyone were to chance on upon their conversation. “Is something wrong with Ororo. Because her medical tests…”
“It ain’t anythin’ wrong with her,” setting the beer on the side table, Logan brought it up to support Kendall’s neck and gently set her down on the bedding he had set it out next to him, all the while taking care not to wake the child’s slumber. “Its her,” he finally spoke, gesturing towards his daughter.
‘Kendall?’ Xavier soundlessly expressed his question, his raised eyebrows expressing his surprise.
“’Ro gets tired controlling it,” Logan ran his hand over his face and through his hair and for the first time since he entered did Xavier notice the tension in his friend/teammate’s body. Even though his healing factor took care of his injuries and pretty much everything else, including fatigue, with prolonged use it was possible to see traces of it….and this was one such time.

“Controlling it?” Xavier echoed Logan’s words, knowing that now that he had made the move, Logan would himself come out and tell him about it, and given that it was something relating to Ororo and Kendall, it would be sooner than (the usual) later.
“Its my fault…” a frown creased the feral Canadian’s temple as his eyes took in the tiny form of his first born (in his memory) child. “…its all my fault.”
“Logan…” over time Logan’s self hate over his past, his actions and even his mutation had tempered, but on certain occasions, like when he and Ororo first came to know that she was pregnant, it did raise its ugly head again….and this time seemed like one of those.

“The beas….the things she got from me…” correcting himself, two fingers draped around the child’s arm, Logan lifted his eyes to the Professor. “…it doesn’t allow her peace…or to Ororo.”

Once again Xavier stayed silent waiting for further revelations. He could guess what Logan was hinting at, but wanted confirmation before saying something in return.

“What she…that of me inside her…and what she got from Ororo…” it was pretty clear now. “…they don’t fit together. Seen the weather outside?”

The question although seemingly out of place seemed natural to Xavier’s ears. What Logan was saying in this own way was that Kendall’s inherited feral qualities coupled with her non-existent control over it or over the other half of her mutation, her mother’s weather control powers was causing erratic weather patterns to develop almost continuously. They got stronger when she felt uneasy, hungry or especially when she cried to express herself, which given her feral nature was quite frequent. The only reason that no one knew about this was because of Ororo keeping a tight rein over it. However, this continuous use of her powers to control the effects of Kendall’s involuntary loss of control was having an averse affect on Ororo with the combined strain of taking care of a newborn, the regular and frequent feeding, and near 24/7 use of her own powers was finally starting to show in her. Even with Logan pitching in to keep Kendall calm and fed, things were pretty strenuous and tiring for the new parents.

“Charles,” Logan started again, deliberately using the Professor’s proper name. “I know it ain’t like that but….it won’t be like she’d be affected by the things that were done to me. The experiments, the metal…the nightmares…”
“No Logan,” this question was one which Xavier as well as Ororo, Jean and Henry had heard quite a few times over the better part of a year. “You also saw the results of the tests Jean and Henry did on you during Ororo’s pregnancy. The things….everything you had to undergo, it wasn’t on a genetic level, and as for other changes, your healing factor compensated…..repaired them.”

“Yeah,” Logan answered and grew silent for a few moments. “So, there’s nothing we can do….”
“There is…” Charles started slowly, and seeing the hopeful look on Logan’s face pedaled back even further. “But….I am not sure you will like to do it.”
“For ‘Ro and the kid.....anythin’,” Logan’s response carried no doubt, suspicion or hesitation.

“It is something I have done only once in the past and that too as a last resort, and let me assure you that although it is unconventional, it worked perfectly that time too.”
“Anything.” Logan stressed again.

“Very well, but I have to stress that before you make a choice….please hear me out…completely.”

//End Flashback//

---

“When?” was all Ororo could say as she recalled the sessions she, Logan and Kendall had had with the Professor, both individually and finally as a unit. There had been total five, with the first and fourth being Kendall alone, second being her, third Logan, and the final being all three of them. It hadn’t been an easy choice to make, but days of deliberation and a supportive vote from the Professor’s previous subject, Jean had made them decide for it. Moreover, with the experience he had gained over the years, Charles was able to fine tune the block so that only the child’s weather control powers were tethered. Also, it was set in such a way that was very similar to the natural progression of mutation, that is, it would break away/dissolve on its own when Kendall reached puberty….or as it had now happened, when she experienced a sudden, harrowing event.

“I don’t know,” Charles answered in response to Ororo’s one word question. “I cannot comment for certain, but from I can infer from her control at least a few months.”

“Control?” This was even more of a surprise for Ororo…then again it was not. After all, she had failed to detect the onset of the full range of her daughter’s powers. ‘But, who has been….Logan.’ The name just popped up by itself. “It is Logan isn’t it?” The query required no answer. “He has been training her.”
“Not in her weather control powers,” Charles made it a point to specify that. “But yes, in her other half, it seems that he indeed has helped her and by doing that helped her subconsciously gain control over her other powers.”

“And he didn’t tell us…tell me.” Ororo hurt and sense of being betrayed sounded clear in her voice.
“Ororo…..he….” Even though this change in Kendall had come as a surprise to Charles too, he knew that ever since that final day in court, Ororo had consciously avoided meeting Logan….and even more so since…. “He did not hide it. He did not want to tell me and you….”
“But what about Kendall?” It was becoming near impossible for Ororo contain herself from getting up and marching up to her room to get the truth from her daughter.
“I don’t think she even realized it,” Charles answered in a calm tone. “As far as she is concerned, it was just a part of her growing up and even the exercises and meditation that Logan used to teach her control, it was just her spending time with her father.”

At the silence that answered him, he tried again. “Ororo…”

With the realization that she had missed such an important thing in her child’s life weighing heavily in her thoughts, it took a few seconds for Xavier’s hail to get through to her.

“What….what can she do?” She asked finally. “How much is her control?”
“I don’t know,” Xavier answered truthfully. “We will have to see it to get a better estimate of it. And as both of your powers are similar, you will be able to judge it better than anyone else. We can set up a test time and….”
“Tomorrow,” Ororo ended that sentence even before it reached completion. “We do it tomorrow morning.”

With that she got up and near about marched out of the room, the sudden change in the weather outside mirroring her emotional state.

----

Present time,

With both adults looking on, her long silvery tresses plaited behind her, her hands clenched at her sides, her eyes closed, the young weather manipulating feral stood ramrod straight as she started to concentrate on doing what daddy had taught her. She had been reluctant to do so, but had finally agreed to it.

“Nothing is happening,” Ororo whispered to Charles after a couple of minutes. While Charles kept telepathic distance so as not to disturb or hamper the child’s concentration, Ororo was keeping track of the atmospheric conditions so as to detect even the subtlest displays of power.

“It takes time,” Kendall piped up from a few feet away, her sensitive ears catching her mother’s words. “I can do it.”

A few more second and then suddenly…..

KRRAKKA-BOOM

“Goddess!!” Although somewhat expected, Ororo gasped at the sight before her.

As for Charles, he reached down, lifted, opened and calmly brought his umbrella over his head.

----

Her usual hazel eyes white and crackling with elemental-electricity, her balled fists engulfed in the same energy, rain spattering around her, Kendall turned to her mother and the Professor…

“I told you I can do it.”

…her voice reached them from six feet up in the air.


TBC....

“One again please, if you don’t mind. That was so good that I’d like to see it again…that is if you are up to it.”

The cultured voice of the school headmaster and X-Men’s mentor sounded into the communicators of the two occupants of the institute’s underground training room or as it was better known as, the Danger Room.

“Yes Professor,” the younger voice of the two responded to the Professor’s request.

“Thank you Kendall,” Charles’s returned, his ears catching the strain rising in the child’s voice. After more than hour of testing, it was something that he expected and understood completely. He had seen it on more than occasion…although not with one so young. “This is the last time. Just this once and then the test is finished.”

“Yes sir.” The communication lines closed Kendall once again closed her eyes to concentrate to collect herself and start on the next run. It had been two days since she showed her mother and the Professor what she could do…what he Daddy had taught her. Since then, she had gone through a full physical with Dr. Blue. Once those results came through, it was over to a ‘sit-down’ session with the Professor which was nice but tickled the back of her neck. Uncle Charles told her that he had done this once a long time ago when she was a little baby and at that time along with him, both her parents had ‘come in’ to meet her. He even showed her a little of it…from his memories of it. Good thing that she had grown since then and as had the hair on her head.


“Ready Kendall?” The smooth, controlled voice of her mother reached her from above.

“Umm-hmm,” nodding her head, the young feral-windrider slowly started to rise in the air, opening her eyes at the same time, until she came alongside her mother. “Same?”

“Yes. First go through the loops, stop just after the last one and then do what you did on Monday, rain and snow.” Ororo repeated the instructions that she had given twice before. “After that come back through the other loops, going downwards until you reach the ground. Ready?”

“Yes.”

“Go.”

---

“Her control is….” The second observer commented over Xavier’s shoulder, his arms crossed at his chest.
“Impressive,” Xavier supplied as he kept track of the readings from the various sensors.
“Especially for someone who hasn’t been trained….well, not in using these powers,” Scott agreed as his eyes followed the slowly but surely moving child. After the first run in which she got her right foot caught in the first loop itself, Kendall had been cautious in moving through them, keeping her feet crossed together.
“Yes.” As the girl finished the first part of her run and was joined by her mother as she started on the second, the Professor with a few clicks brought up the file from a previous test…one he had done of her mother almost a decade and a half ago. Even though this last run would provide an average of ‘from fresh to strained’, he was already moving onto the next step….especially to check to confirm one particular guess of his.

---

“Scott,” he spoke as his fingers moved over the keyboard.
“Yes Professor.”
“How is Ororo doing?”
“She…” Scott hesitated in his answer. Even though the question was simple enough, he sensed the underlying meaning. “She is…as expected.” Almost as an afterthought he added, “You know about Logan?”
“Yes,” Xavier answered without turning away from the screen. “I had sensed him in the mansion that night.”

“He saw us.”
“Saw you?” This time the older man did turn. He knew that something had happened that had caused Logan to return Kendall and James on Saturday rather than the usual Sunday evening. But the reason behind it….? “Saw you where?”
“At the Jewellers,” Scott sighed, his temple creasing at the fresh memory. “I had taken Ororo to get a ring….he was there….Kendall and James were with him.”

“Scott. What were you...?”
“I know Professor,” Scott sighed, once again turning to the scene below. “But we discussed it….you know that. You were there.”

Unable to say anything in response, Xavier turned back to the files he was working on. Everything fell into place now…or depending on which side one saw it from, fell apart. He recalled the swell of anger, pain and other dark emotions he had caught from Logan’s projections. This explained all of them….and also the events since.

----

“Take a look at this,” he drew Scott’s attention to the computer screen. “At these test results. Tell me what you see.”

Siding up next to the Professor, Scott pored over the results, his visor covered eyes narrowing as he compared the two records. “Professor…” He did not quite get what Xavier wanted him to do. After all, Ororo had been in her late teens at the time of the test, almost twice Kendall’s age.
“Notice anything special?” The older man looked up just as Kendall started on the last part of her test with Ororo keeping a close eye on her. Given the similar nature of their powers she had been the obvious choice to oversee the test…in case the young girl lost control or worse yet, overexerted herself. However, except for the loop mishap and one time where her concentration wavered causing her to almost fall, Kendall had worked independently and most of all kept her powers’ release in control.

Once Scott finished reading and shook his head, not able to find anything apart from the expected difference in power levels and control, Xavier brought up a particular section…one where the brain’s synaptic activity had been recorded.

“This…” he pointed to one record first. “Is from what I got from Ororo’s test, and this…” his finger moved to the one beside it. “...this is Kendall’s. How about….”
“Their powers aren’t the same,” Scott’s eyes shot up in surprise.
“More like don’t work in the same way,” Xavier corrected him. “…to be more specific, they are not channeled through the same pathways. Ororo’s, as we know are tied into her emotions. She needs to retain control of her emotions to keep her powers from running rampant and…”

“Test completed Charles,” Ororo’s voice interrupted whatever Xavier was going to say to Scott. “Anything else?”
“No, that will be all,” Xavier spoke into the mike. “Thank you Kendall. That was really impressive.”
“Thank you Professor,” Kendall replied the smile forming on her lips faltering at Xavier’s next words.
“Even Scott says so.”

“Uh, thank you,” answering quickly, the soaking wet child ran away to the door, exiting it and heading to the changing rooms.

“Ororo,” Xavier called on the retreating Storm. “Please join us in the control room. I have something very interesting to tell you.”

“Yes Professor,” and then she was gone too, leaving both men to act as if they had not noticed the change of mood in both the young girl and her mother.

---

Fifteen minutes later,

With Kendall on her way back to the upper levels, Ororo, her clothes changed and her hair freshly dried, stepped through the door of the control room, her eyes filled with questions…and more than a hint of concern.

Showing her the same results as he had shown to Scott, Xavier picked up from where he had left off.

“As I was telling Scott, your powers are tied into your emotions, necessitating the strict control that you exercise.”
“Yes…” that wasn’t anything new for Ororo. For more than two decades, ever since her mutation had first manifested in Africa, keeping her emotions under control had gone from being a forced effort to becoming second nature for her. And now with Kendall… “What does this have to do with Kendall?”
A knowing somewhat secretive played on the telepath’s lips. “Aren’t you wondering how you and all of us, everyone in this mansion failed to notice this change in Kendall’s power levels?”
“I…” neither Ororo nor Scott had any answer for this. As far as Ororo was concerned, she had already gone beyond the ‘wondering’ stage and directly to ‘self-blame’. It was her fault that she did not notice it. She should have been more observant, more caring, more….she should have been there (more) for her children.

“It is because…” Xavier hoped that his next words would bring some respite and maybe even joy to the mother. It pained him to see her like this and even more to not be able to do anything…anything worthwhile. “It is because, unlike you, Kendall’s control is not tied into her emotions.”
“Not tied into her emotions!!” Scott echoed his words.
“Then what are they tied into?” Ororo was equally quick with her question. Even without knowing the complete details, she at least had one consolation that unlike her, her daughter would be able to enjoy the full ‘unfettered’ spectrum of emotions without being afraid of losing her control and causing destruction.

“I don’t have the scientific term for it…” once again turning to computer, Xavier brought up a third set of test results, one which caused both Ororo and Scott to pause. “…but as far as I can say, while you feel your powers and their control, to Kendall it’s a matter of instinct.”

‘Logan.’ Even without mention and without being there physically, the name and the man it belonged to made his presence felt in the room.

“As we know, Kendall shares her father’s feral nature. According to my hypotheses, her emotions are tied into her feral nature and its is that nature which powers her weather manipulation powers and her instinct is what keeps them reined in…and lets them out.” The silence he got caused him to simplify his theory to the basic level. “In a way, the wind elements themselves are Kendall’s claws. As for the expanse or their intensity, its her feral nature that powers them.”

“So, she needs to learn to control that to control her other powers,” Scott’s words got a shake of the head from the Professor.
“No Scott. She doesn’t learn to control them, just how to channel them. Being born with an active mutation and years of growing with just one half, the feral half, have ingrained it into her. So much so that when and however her others powers were released from the mind block, she already had years of practice at controlling them….over nine years worth of practice.”

“Then what was Logan teaching her?” That was another point of contention with Ororo…even if she realized that given the way she had been treating Logan, especially over the past couple of months, ever since….No. Still, he could have at least told the Professor and through him her.

“That I do not know…yet.” Xavier acceded. He would have to talk to Logan about that. “Whatever it is, it seems to have worked. Kendall needs help and guidance but only how to exercise her powers….not so much how to keep them under control.”

“This is good then,” Scott looked from Xavier to Ororo, growing confused and concerned at the look on her face. “Ororo? This is good. Right?”

“Yes Scott, this is good.” Even as she agreed to it, her mind was involved elsewhere. If Kendall’s weather manipulation powers would be controlled and fueled by her feral nature. What if she too has a point of no return?

‘What if she too has a berserker rage?’

---

Next day,

The phone ran thrice before it was answered,

“Yes.”
“We gotta meet.”

“Very well. You can come….”
“NO. Not there.”

“…” (silence) “Place?”
“Tomorrow. Central Park. East side.”

“Central Park? It is a public place. Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Be there at eight.”

“I…”
“Eight. Evening.”

*Click*

---

Monday, the week after,

With quite a few days since Logan's visit, things had pretty much settled down for the mansion’s residents and even for Ororo herself. She was just about to collect the test papers for the surprise test she had given to her class when Xavier telepathically hailed her.

Minutes later, walking into his office she noticed that he had company….someone vaguely familiar.

Sensing her entry, the tall, handsome, smartly dressed, dark glasses wearing man turned to face her. “Good morning Ms. Monroe,” he nodded in greeting.

“Good morning Mr…” an uneasy sensation rising in the pit of her stomach, Ororo lifted her hand to shake the stranger’s. One look at Xavier and the feeling did not let up but intensified multiple fold.

“Murdock…Matt Murdock. I’m Mr. Logan’s new legal representative.”

Not seventy-two hours ago,

Even as he guided his motorized wheelchair over the paved pathways, the shadows of the night settling around him, Xavier was already zoning on his destination….and the person who awaited him there.

Coming to stop at the meeting place, Charles was still surprised at the sudden appearance of the person he was here to meet. Surprised, because although he had detected the other, he was unable to zone in on his actual location, and then….offering no greeting, either verbal or physical, the man in question was just there, risen up from behind a clump of bushes.

Although his garb was similar to the one he usually had on (except on missions and when he was alone with his family), even with six days worth of hair growth and the naturally wild hair shadowing his eyes, the deep frown on his face was clear to the older man. As was the haggard, tired…seemingly dead look in his eyes. Even before he said a single word, Charles realized that his this meeting with Logan was going to be his last one for quite sometime.

“’m leavin’.” Simple, short and about as subtle as a brick to the face. If only Logan had able to word them in a tone that did not seem as one from a man who had given up, lost everything….have everything that ever mattered to him, yanked away from….this time forever.
“Leaving…?” Charles started over the shock that shouldn’t have been there.

“Goin’ away.” Logan worded his decision in a different way, but without giving any intimation about his intended destination or for how long was he going to be away. “Away frem here….” ‘…from her.’ Were the first that were loud without being actually spoken.
“Oh.” Xavier sighed in realization, almost unable to stop himself before he blurted out something unwanted. “Logan…did you…” he knew he was going to ask a question which given Logan’s visit to the mansion just a few days ago, was redundant. “Have you talked to Ororo about this?”

Just the mention of her name was enough to cause Logan to flinch away as if he had been slapped right across his face, the pain he felt sharper than any physical injury. “There is no need. Doesn’t concern her.” He lied…almost. As far as he concerned, Ororo has made her decision, her choice clear to him. After all, it wasn’t as if she was going to stay single for ever….although he had hoped that one day, sooner rather than later, he would be him that she would choose again to be with. Just as she had done once all those years ago.

Although there was no guilt, no shame in his heart about what he had done to the people who had taken his baby girl and harmed her, the Wolverine proud at avenging the wrong that had been done to his pack, Logan did feel angry…and sad for the cost he had to pay to for his actions.

However, even now, even after all that had happened to him, Logan knew one thing for certain and that was….if ever life put him in the same circumstances…

…he would repeat his actions…Every. Single. Time.

--

“Logan…”
Even before the Professor could express his thoughts, Logan cut him off. “Takin’ time off. Will contact you when I….when…will contact you.” He did not know how long would be away, nor did he want to think about it.
“Where will you going to?” Charles held back from probing his friend’s mind, not quite sure that given the current mental condition of the feral’s mind, if he would be able to do so, even if he wanted.
“Don’t know. Haven’t decided. Canada, Japan, Mexico…nowhere.”


“Will you be searching for your past?” Xavier questioned. Even though over the years his trips, as Rogue and Jubilee had termed it, the fire to know his complete past still burned inside Logan. While there had once been a soothing wind to cool him, make him want to take a stand, stay in one place….put down his roots so as to say, there was nothing holding him here anymore.

“What else is there?” He sighed with a sad smirk. ‘Got nothing here.’

Feeling him rapidly slipping away, Charles made a last ditch effort, appealing not to man or the husband, but to the father. “What about the children?’
“…”
“Do they know about your decision.”
“…”

Just as it seemed that he wouldn’t respond, Logan answered slowly.
“Taking care of that….all of them.”

‘All of them.’ That could mean only one thing, one which Xavier voiced as a question.

“Jubilee too?”
“All. Of. Them.”

‘He’s talked it over with her,’ realized Xavier, a momentary doubt rising within him, whether Jubilee would also be accompanying her father on his journey to parts unknown. However, knowing that he was most probably leaving to get away from anything remotely linked to Ororo and their family, the proposition of Jubilee’s leaving didn’t seem all that bright.

--

“Here.” Logan pulled out a small six-by-six-by-four inch cardboard box and a two inch thick file folder from his bag, and handed it over to the Professor.
“What is…?”
“Open it.”

Flipping open the box, Xavier’s eyebrows rose in surprise at its contents, a cell phone, an X-insignia bearing, tracer-communicator and a X-issue watch, also with a built in tracer of its own. They were standard issue to all of the ‘independent-agents’ Xavier employed/hired for the field work that the X-Men couldn’t directly involve themselves with. As for the file folder, it had all the information regarding to seven different mutants, cases that Logan had been tracking, both for the team and the school or for just keeping an eye on them. Three of them were teenagers, two boys and one girl, including a sister-brother…twins, located in Montreal, Canada. As for the other four, the adults, one of them was currently working as a doctor in New York City itself, two had underground to join the Morlocks, while the fourth had recently left the country, also moving to Canada. As per his last location, he was working as a bouncer in a night club in Toronto.

“The lady doctor,” Logan started getting Xavier up to speed. “She’s not out with her being a mutant. Leave her where she is. She’s a good person. Helps people. Keep an eye just in case…” He left the rest unsaid, both men knowing what was the ‘just in case’ scenario, the outing of the lady doctor as a mutant, and the subsequent puritanical backlash.

“The man,” the burly African American male was next. “Lucas Bishop. Until recently, was a detective in the NYPD. Just left one day. No reason given, no questions asked. Looks like people knew about him….at least his partner did and also the partner’s wife n’ kids. Partner’s human, so’s his daughter. Both wife and son are mutants. Leave them alone too. They are happy.” He gritted out the last few words. “The other two. The Morlocks….”
“Logan…” Xavier tried again, “maybe you should…”
“…lost them once they went into the tunnels.” Logan just disregarded his effort. “They…”
“Logan.” The second time it was louder, more definitive.
“What.” As was the response.

“Talk to Ororo,” Xavier reiterated his earlier point. “There is….are some things that you should…”
“Charles.” The use of his real name and the tone behind it, caused the Professor to stop. “Leave it.”
“Logan please. This is…”
“I told you to fuckin’ leave it.” All but a blink of an eye, any semblance of any proper conversation was gone, disappearing into the snarl of the Wolverine. “I do yer work, an’ you pay me fer it. That doesn’t mean that you own me and get to poke yer nose into my business an’ definitely not in my life.”

“Logan…”
“Fuck off old man.”

And with that he walked away, not seeing the way the Xavier fisted his hand and smashed it against the armrest of the wheel chair, his conscience warring against himself.

---

Now,

Seated alone in his office, eyes closed to the world, his mind trying its best to do the same, the aging telepath was doing all he could to push down the feeling of helplessness that was clawing at him, threatening to overtake his entire being. It should have been a cinch for him…had it only been his feelings, his thoughts that were flailing him.

He should have made Logan stop, told him everything…he should have done all that. If only he could have brought himself to break the promise that he made to Ororo.

Then he would not have had to witness Logan leave the way he did, walking away from his entire life…his family.

Just as he could have stopped the events of this morning from happening.

---

Few hours ago,

“Murdock…Matt Murdock. I’m Mr. Logan’s new legal representative.”

“Legal representative?” Ororo’s eyes widened, her heart plummeting into the seemingly endless pit that had just opened up inside her, her mind going blank as the thought, ‘What’s Logan trying to do now?’ flashed through it.

“Yes.” His super-enhanced senses allowing her detection of the effect his introductory words had had on the Ororo, Matt took a step back and gestured towards the empty chair a couple of feet away. “Please, have a seat…so that we can begin.”
The way she looked, first at Matt, then at the chair, the Professor and back at the chair again, it would seem that Ororo was seeing not only them but anything for the first time, the gaping emptiness in them causing Xavier to nudge her into comprehension.

“Ororo.” His voice sounded both in her ears and in her mind.
“Huh.” Seemingly breaking out of a trance, the weather witch schooled her features, adopting a passive stance as she slid down onto the chair, her body clearly rigid with tension.

Returning to the chair he had been sitting on, Matt reached for one of the files he had previously placed in front of him on an empty space on Xavier’s expensive mahogany desk. Flipping it open, he easily separated the top five pages and held them out to Ororo, who in her confusion and the cold fear that had gripped her heart didn’t even seem to notice that the lawyer hadn’t removed his dark glasses.

Staring at the sheets and the print on them for a few seconds, Ororo cleared her constricted parched dry throat. “Wh-what is this?”

“This…” Matt lifted his second copy of the papers he had just given to Ororo. “...is the proposal for a change in the current custody settlement that you share with your ex-husband, my client Mr. Logan, the current legal name of Mr. James Howlett.”

‘Change’ ‘Current custody settlement’ ‘Ex-husband’ The words rang through Ororo’s ears.

--

Even though she had not met the man, the name Matt Murdock was one that Ororo had heard of and read about….from the television and the newspapers. He was often in the news, both because of his clients and because of his uncanny ability of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. His clientele varied from the poor and downtrodden to high profile personalities such as Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four to a senior citizen wishing to having her landlord to just fix the heating in her apartment to Liz Allen-Osborn, ex-wife and widow of Harry Osborn, son of Norman Osborn. The same Norman Osborn who unknown to the general public and the authorities had been the first Green Goblin. Later on, after discovering the true identity of Spider-Man and the secret lair that his father had built into their mansion home, Harry had followed in his father’s footsteps, going against his onetime best friend, Peter Parker, all because he blamed Peter or importantly his alter ego, Spider-Man for the death of his father. Even though he later married and managed to keep the secret from his wife and son, his secret came out when one day Liz, chancing upon him using a secret entrance to a room that she did not know about, found out that the man she loved, her husband, the father of her child, was the villain responsible for so many innocent deaths and injuries. All because of his vendetta against Spider-Man and the good he did.

Not able to live with Harry him and his activities, Liz filed for a divorce and wanted to sue him for sole custody of their single child, Norman Jr. However, given the clout that the Osborn name held, no one was ready to take her case, not one single lawyer in the…until Matt Murdock.

It was the memory of that case that was the cause of Ororo’s fear. Was he going to do the same with her and Logan now, as he had done with Harry and Liz. Was Logan going to take her children away from her?

‘Maybe you should have…’ a voice started to rise within her, one that she squashed even before the thought reached completion.

“What change?” She asked, her mind not able to understand the words, even though her eyes were reading them.

“Although its fairly simple….I suggest that you have your lawyer go through it.” Matt’s advice was both from him and from what Logan had asked him to do. “As per the current settlement, Mr. Logan gets the children for two days out of every fifteen that is out of every two weeks. In total, fifty two days a year.”
‘Yes.’ Not trusting herself to say anything else, Ororo merely nodded in confirmation.
“According to this new proposal,” Matt carried on, his voice deliberately slow and even. “instead of the two days a fortnight, Mr. Logan would like to have all the visiting days at the same time.”

A few seconds for information to sink into Ororo’s mind and then, “What?”

“He would like to have all the days at the same time.” Matt repeated himself, carrying on at the silence from Ororo’s. “As for the question of Mr. Logan’s frequent moving,” he brought up the main clause that Ororo’s lawyer had given during the custody hearing, “we can present the lease agreement and rent receipts for the apartment that Mr. Logan has in the city of New York itself. It is here that he has been staying for the last eight months…”
“I know,” Ororo responded softly, mentally repeating the address that over the past eight months had imprinted itself on her consciousness.
Nodding at her confirmation, Matt continued with his revelations, his next words striking another blow at Ororo, “...and although he won’t himself be a resident of that apartment anymore, he will still be keeping possession of it, with his older daughter, Miss. Jubilation Lee, whose name has been added to the lease, residing there in his stead.”

‘Not resident anymore?’ ‘Daughter, Jubilation Lee, residing in his stead.’ A handful of words and Ororo felt the ruined remains of her life completely crashing and being obliterated around her.

“As for Mr. Logan’s financial standing, I am sure Professor Xavier will be willing to provide the records of Mr. Logan’s employment for the past eleven years. Professor?

“Of course.” Xavier nodded in response, his cultured British accent tighter than its usual smoothness. “I can have my lawyers and accountant draw them up for you.”

“Thank you Professor.”

Lifting the second file from the table, Matt drew out the stapled pages from it, handing one copy each to both Xavier and Ororo.

“What is this?” It was Xavier who asked the question time. Ororo not even bothered to look at them…at the copy of a deed on the front, the deed for a house.
“Mr. Logan has established a trust for his children,” that caused the Nubian beauty’s head to jerk up rising tears welling up in her eyes. “with Professor Charles Xavier, Ms. Jubilation Lee and Mrs. Marie D’Ancanto-Lebeau as the officiating trustees. Under the trust is a house, a surrounding property of fifteen acres and a cash sum of four hundred thousand dollars. All this is to be equally split between the two children…once they turn eighteen.”

What was Logan doing? The realization finally hit home for Ororo.

He was severing all contacts. He was leaving…forever.

--

“Wh-where is he….” She fumbled over her words. “Where’s Logan?”

Instead of giving a response to her query, Matt glanced at the pensive looking Xavier, his actions telling Ororo all she wanted to know.

“Professor?”

Starting to answer, Xavier stopped at the sheet of paper Matt held out to Ororo, a second copy being placed before him.

It was a legal document, one giving Matt Murdock the Power of Attorney to act and appear in Logan’s absence for any legal purposes.

Not only was Logan leaving….he was already gone.

---

Now,

Tears flowing out of them, curled up on her bed in the privacy of her loft suite, Ororo’s eyes were staring at the papers placed on the side table, stuck at the date on the deed for the house….its significance clear to her.

Just three and half a months before Kendall was kidnapped, before all hell broke loose.

It was going to be Logan’s gift to her….for their fifth marriage anniversary.

---

Note: With the confusion that I have been causing with ‘X-ed’ I wanted to keep this one on the straight and narrow, though somehow the angst just got knocked up a couple of notches.

As for the Harry-Liz situation, it’s a mix of the Spider-comicverse canon and the path the movieverse looks to be on.

More soon. Please Review.

*Tring Tring…Tring Tring*

--

“How long has it been?” A pairs of deep blue eyes rested on the solitary figure seated on the stairs below, a couple of hundred feet from the window that the person was observing from.

“Almost three hours,” a cultured but currently tired voice answered from inside the room, its owner kneading the side of his head in an effort to relieve some of the tension clouding his mind. Sometimes being a telepath wasn’t all that bright a proposition, and for Charles Xavier this was one of those times.

“Three hours?” Henry McCoy’s blue form turned away from the window to face his former mentor. “Charles….”
“Even when she went inside last time, it was for only a few minutes,” Xavier continued his revelation. “…and to get James to back to his room. No one has been able to get her to come back inside.”

“Charles…Professor,” with one last glance outside, Hank left his position and walked up to the Professor table and settled down on one of the empty chairs. “You should have told him.”
“I know that,” sighed Charles.
“He wouldn’t have left if he knew the truth.”
Another sigh. “I know that too.”
“So why didn’t…” Henry stopped midway in his question. He knew what the answer to his question would have been, and the way Charles lifted his head to face him, the helplessness that shimmered in his aging eyes, told him that the Professor had asked himself the same question…over and over again, to come up with same answer….Every. Single. Time.

“I take that Jubilation has also taken an indefinite leave.” It was a lame effort on Henry’s part to try to change the direction of the conversation. But with the recent events in the mansion and the even more recent report that he had just given to the Professor, any conversation was hard in coming.
“Yes.” A few seconds of silence and then, “She will not be returning to the mansion anytime soon…if at all. Logan, before he left, made arrangements with Mr. Murdock for her living, studies and other expenses.”
“Matthew Murdock,” rolling the name over his tongue, Henry wondered aloud, “He is a competent…an excellent lawyer, and honorable to a fault. Almost gives lawyers a bad name. A good choice.”
“Yes.”
“It makes one wonder…” this question was one that had been troubling not Henry but the other mansion residents who had come to know about Logan’s choice for his legal affairs. “..why didn’t Logan avail of Mr. Murdock’s services during…” ‘…the divorce proceedings,’ was left unsaid.

“I…don’t know.” Charles answered. Lately, these two words had found their use more and more frequently, much to his chagrin as he found himself embroiled in a web of lies that he himself had helped to weave.

“…don’t know.”

---

*Click*

“You’ve reached,” the electronic voice started, “Logan,” a familiar deep voice interjected with the name, leaving the rest of the default message. “Please wait for the beep before leaving your name, message and phone number.”

“Thank you”

---

Earlier in the week,

For Ororo, things had steadily and lately rather rapid gone from bearably okay to bad to what they were now, the lowest she had ever felt in her life. Before this she had thought that nothing could surpass the pain and loss that came from Logan leaving her and the subsequent end of their marriage. But now, she understood that the last, Logan hadn’t left…not truly, not like this time. Now, not only was he gone from her life, he had also made arrangements so that their paths would never have to cross again.

He had severed all ties that held them…their hearts together.

And she was to blame for it.

The only thing that brought some light, in all the darkness of her loss, both of Logan and from what would happen once Kendall and James came to know about the decision that their father had made, the only thing that gave her some respite was the hope that it was all going to work out in the end.

‘It is for the best.’ Those five words had become her mantra now, one that she found herself chanting more and more frequently, lately on almost nonstop repetitions.

Even after three days, she still hadn’t been able to come up with a way of breaking the news to her children that their father won’t be coming to pick them up for either the upcoming weekends or for who knows how many future ones. James, she knew would accept it with a simple nod or at the most a few shed tears. It was Kendall who she was worried about, not only for her reaction but also for the possible fall out it might have, especially now. For even though the Professor had hypothesized that unlike her, Kendall’s powers were tied into her instincts rather than her emotions, Ororo could not help but worry about it. For more than decade, she had lived and seen the Wolverine inside Logan, and deny as much as she would, even Ororo would have to accept that the same Wolverine, the same beast, or at least a part of it, existed within Kendall.

Accepted the any emotional fluctuations from Kendal wouldn’t affect the weather in the same way it did for Ororo, but as with Wolverine, Kendall too would have a lower threshold for lashing out.

Ororo remembered how agitated Logan had been during her labor with Kendall, how he almost lost it, going into a berserker rage when complications from sudden ruptures caused her to bleed profusely. It was only Jean’s and the Professor’s continuous presence both within her and his minds that averted what would surely have been a disaster.

--

Lost in her thoughts, on her way back to her suite after her classes, she almost missed the figure slinking away, disappearing into the shadows….almost.

One look and Ororo knew it was. Jubilee.

Shutting off, or at least trying to, the mother in her who wanted to call out and go her elder daughter, the suddenly tired weather goddess trudged to her door. Finding it open, knowing that Jubilee had been in her room, she stepped inside and made her way to her bed…stopping midway as her caught sight of something out of place on her dresser.

It did not take her long to realize what was different, what had changed, what was there now that hadn’t been there just a few hours ago.

A small, silver framed photo of her, Logan, Kendall, baby James…and holding him, beaming for the camera, Jubilee.

The one last thing that Jubilee had kept as a memory of her family, one that she had lost much too soon.

What was even more glaring was the worn out nature of the photo. It had been, not once but repeatedly, taken out from its silver casing and caressed reverently.

That was Jubilee’s last day as a resident of the Xavier mansion.

----

*BEEP*

“Hello. Daddy?! Daddie, its me. Kendall.”

---

Now,

“How are you feeling?” Stepping through the west entrance, Scott Summers settled down on the couch in front of the television of the main recreation room of the mansion.

At getting no answer, he tried again, knowing that it was not the movie that had her complete attention…her thoughts. “Ororo.” He rested a gentle hand on her arm.

“Huh.” It was as if a spell had been broken, a moment of confusion flashing in her previously vacant eyes. Settling onto Scott, she gave a slight nod of recognition. “Yes Scott?”
“How’s the movie?”
“Movie?” Almost as if as an afterthought, Ororo comprehended where she was. “Oh. It-its…good.”
“I am sure it is,” reaching for the remote, Scott pressed the power button to switch the video off. “Ororo…” he hesitated, not wanting to ask the same ‘want to talk about it’ question. “We good?” He settled on a simple two word query.

The couple of seconds of silence seemed to stretch for infinity, and then. “Yes Scott. We good,” she smiled, her barely disguised sadness clear to even his visor covered eyes.
“Ororo.” The way he spoke her name, told Ororo that her lie didn’t hold water, not in front of him. He knew her too long and too well to get duped by her cool controlled exterior.
“Okay, not so good,” she relented, her lips curving up in a repeat of her previous smile. “getting there.”

“Want to t…” force of habit, the taboo question almost slipped out. “Want to go out for a walk?”
“Maybe later.” Ororo placed her hand over his, squeezing it gently. “Right now, I….” she stopped at the rapid thumping of young feet in the corridor outside, her entire being seemingly shrinking into itself…as if in pain.

Neither of the adults needed to speak about the cause of this, or what was happening outside. It wasn’t anything that hadn’t already happened today.

Three hours to the clock, Kendall Logan was making her trip inside, to do something that she had done thrice already…make a phone call…to the phone number that her father had given her.

----

“Daddy’s its five a clock. We are waitin’ for you. James fell asleep but he even said when you come to wake him up. When are you coming to pick us up daddy?”

“Come soon. Muaaah. 'm Kendall.”

----

What neither she nor her mother knew that her every single call although to the right number, wasn’t reaching its destination….

….with each left message being stored on the phone currently in a safe box in an office not even a hundred feet above them.

---

At the same time, there was another call being place from somewhere within the mansion, only this was being made to a different destination….New Orleans.

“Come on Remy. Pick up sugah. Pick up. Ah really need ya t’ come back. Come back now.”

---

Note: Next. There is a lot of jumping about, in places, with characters and even into time, finally landing in….well, you’ll have to read for that.

Don’t worry, its not a time travel fic….just the normal flow.

Please Review!!

16. Eyes of a Cajun

Summary: Well, we all know who this chapter is about. Its all about him. Different times, different eyes, but all Remy.

---

The first time,

“Merde.” His eyes wide as saucers, the lanky teenager stared at empty space, or rather at the vision rising up to fill that space. Floating midair, long lush snow colored hair spread out around and behind her, almost like an aura, she was the most commandingly angelic thing he had ever set his sight on.

“Catch. Thief.” The redhead had called out after him, hoping that someone would help her…but no avail, just as he had known. After all, he had planned this, following the trio for the last four blocks, even waiting outside as they went inside one of those fancy coffee shops that had opened here recently.

He had made his move, timing it perfectly, at a place where even a telekinetic-telepath like Jean wasn’t able to stop him…let alone someone like Scott. Then again, it wasn’t like the teen thief knew that these three were mutants. Otherwise, he would have landed to where he was now, with this heavenly beauty in obstructing his way, the thumps of her companions sounding up the stairwell.

“You should give up.” She spoke to him, her words, spoken with a voice that was smooth as silk and totally non threatening, sounded more as a self evident truth than a warning.

“I should?” A few years down the line his own words would come out in a not so subtle teasing manner, one that would have turned her words back on her. Both hers and anyone else’s too. But not now. Now it sounded as a question, one filled with surprise. “An’ if Remy don’?” He threw back, using his habit to speak of himself in the third person.

“We don’t want to hurt you.” She included both herself and her friends, and as if almost as an afterthought including, “or hand you over to the authorities.”

“Good. Dat make it two of us who tink dat way.”

--

Thump Thump Thump

“Ororo?”

“Its alright Scott,” she answered without breaking her gaze. “It is alright, isn’t it…” the trailing silence was for him to introduce himself.
“Gambit.” he moved so that he was facing both of them, avoiding telling his real name…to Scott, but to not to her. For her, “Remy…” practically jumped out of his skin. “Remy Lebeau.” He bit on the inside of his cheek lips before he babbled his age, favorite color and movie too. ‘Not cool homme. Not cool et all.”
“Gambit? What sort of a name is that?” Scott arched an eyebrow behind his bulky visor. “And where is the wallet you stole?”

“Wallet? What wallet?”
“The one you stole from our friend.”
“Stole? Gambit don’ steal anyting.” He lifted his arms to his side daring the older teen to come closer. But after the last lunge, the one where he had his watch charged, the electronic ‘inorganic’ gadget exploding, not with a force enough to cause him actual harm but enough to stun him…and cause him to be wary.

All this time, he spoke without looking at her. It was as if, he did not…could not lie to her face, facing the life that shone through her

“Scott.” Jean too came up the stairs, panting heavily. Still not fully trained, her telekinesis had given up sometime before, causing her to hoof it up the last three floors.
“Jean, stay back.” Scott warned her, instantly moving to come in between her and this Gambit.

“I’ll check it.” She came forth, her feet touching concrete a few feet from him. A few steps and as if led by magic, she reached forward, her slender hand slipping in through his worn overcoat, deftly reaching in and pulling the wallet from the secret pocket sewn into its side, just below his left armpit.

Surprised at how easily she had known it, he did…he said the only thing he could. “How?”

In return, she smiled an enigmatic smile, the one that totally floored him.

“You aren’t the only ones with quick eyes, nimble fingers and skills.”

That was how he first met them…met her.

And for the first time in his life, realized how it felt to have your heart thump so loud that you could actually hear its beat.

Years later he would meet another, one that would complete him, loving him as much as he would love her. But now, this date….this woman, would forever hold a special place in a thief’s heart.

Almost as if she had stolen it from under him.

---

Much later, years down the line,

“You gonna throw that card or are ya just going to sit there?”

The muffled growl sounded out into the night, serving only to fuel his rage even more.

“Remy still deciding…” he let it trail. “Where to hit you…to make it hurt da most.”
“Hn. Sorry Cajun.” It was as if his threat had just been disregarded. “Yer got beat.”

‘Beat?’ His eyes widened, thinking about who had beaten him to the punch. From what he knew, both Rogue and Jean were keeping their distance, not wanting to get involved in what they thought and what was essentially a matter of stubbornness…on both sides. Xavier wouldn’t step in for the same reasons, and so wouldn’t Scott, although surprisingly, this time around, he was on Logan’s side….a very rare occurrence. That left only one person and even Remy knew that she was on Logan’ side…totally. And that person was one of the newest residents of the mansion, the preteen girl that Logan had saved and brought home to Xavier’s. Jubilee. As for her whereabouts, her slim form was clearly lined out under the bedsheets, her arms firmly wrapped around one of the almost half dozen throw pillows she liked to surround herself with. Her being here wasn’t odd, after all it was essentially her room now. It was Logan who was in the wrong place or rather not in the right one.

“Got beat?” He inquired, not able to stop himself from asking. “By who?”

Instead of answering, the other man just lifted a tired hand towards the weeping sky, the limb listlessly falling to his side.

“Nothin’…” Even though Remy was there, for Logan it might as well as have been the solitary, all enveloping darkness. “No one can come even close to that.” Was all he said, his voice carrying no anger, no malice, nothing but utter and total pain.

“Like you didn’ hurt ‘er.” Remy shot back, his earlier anger, the one pushed back at seeing his condition, rising again. “You not only left ‘er, you also took away ‘er babe.”

“I didn’t take her anywhere.” The growl rose, but only for a second, trailing away for the benefit of the sleeping infant a few feet away. “If she wants to see her, she here…an’ so am I.” The last words were barely above a whisper.

Had it been any other time, Remy would have sworn that Logan was drunk…all because of the way he was talking. But that was at a time BBK, Before Baby Kendall. That was what Rogue, Kitty and the others had termed it as. Logan had changed and the changes did not come only after Kendall’s birth but right from the moment that Ororo had first told him about her pregnancy. Almost overnight the Wolverine underwent a transitions. Although it wasn’t complete cold turkey, he did slash his smoking inside the mansion, and even cut down his drinking binges to only for the weekends and that too only when Ororo was not with him (but only when she was at the mansion and not anywhere else). More than a little shocked at first, by the time Kendall came, both Ororo and the others became used to it.


Things were going along swingingly, until this morning. Out in the city on some personal errand, Remy had rushed home at the sudden downturn in the clear spring sky. There was only one person who could affect the weather like this and only a handful of things that could make her let go like this, none of them good. Hoping that no one was hurt or worse, Remy had not even in his wildest dreams thought about this.

He had left her, moved out of their suite…and taken Kendall along with him.

--

“She’s hurtin’.”
“….”
“You heard what I said.”
“Let her.”

“You don’ care?”
“…” Silence again. “Tryin’ not to.”

“What about the babe?”
“What about her?’
“Don’ she need her mamma. An’ her mamma her?”
“Both of ‘em are here. I ain’t stoppin’ no one.”

“Not stoppin’ no one.” Remy flared up, barely managing to contain his pitch. “You sure have a funny way of showin’ it.”
“…”

“What was so wrong that you had to do this?”
“…”

This wasn’t working. It was bad enough that Stormy wasn’t telling him anything, now he was getting the same silent treatment from Wolverine.

“What happen?” He decided to play dirty. “Got tired for playing home? What next? Tinkin’ of leavin’?”
“It ain’t none of yer business.” Not the answer he wanted, but at least it was a start.
“If it affect Stormy an’ her babe then Remy make it his business.”
“No one asked you to. It ain’t your right.” The second half of this answer was odd, odd because no where in his questions or comments did Remy bring in the question of a ‘right’.

“You gonna tell Remy what his right is when it comes to Stormy?”
“…” Once again there was silence, this silence was more longer. “No. It ain’t my right either….no right at all.”

And just like that Remy’s juggernaut of an attack skidded to a stop.

“What do you mean no right at all? Dat woman, da mother of your child, she not only loves you, she would do anyting for you and for the babe.”
“Anythin’,’ Logan’s repetition dripped with sarcasm. “Anythin’. Except the one thing that I asked…begged her too. Even got on my knee fer it.” He chuckled, its sound hollow and nails on slate harsh.

Remy did not need to ask ‘what’. He knew what that one thing was.

“Why does it matter homme? Da two of you already have love, a baby, a home. Everyting that make a family…”
“Except a marriage.”

“Why does it matter so much?”
“It matters to me.”
“Why?”
“Because…”
“Because?”
“Because…it makes it legal. Its on paper.”

“Legal!” Was this really what this whole thing was about. “So den what? You need a paper to tell you dat you and her…”
“It gives me something to show.” Logan snapped again.

“…” ‘Huh.’ “WHAT!! Whom do you want to show it to. Who’s askin’ fo’ it?”
“No one.”
“Then why.”

Silence stretched once again the only sound being the ticking of the wall clock on the far side of the room.
“I don’t have anything Cajun.” Finally he spoke. “No real birth certificate. No real license. No nothing. I need…nah, I want this.”

Still not quite getting it, Remy tried again. “You want Stormy to marry you so dat you will have a piece of paper and not because she loves you.”
“I KNOW that she loves me dammit.” Logan nearly pushed himself off the ground that he had been seated on. “It ain’t a question of that. It…its just something….”

“What?”
“…”
“What were you sayin’ homme?”
“Nothin’. Nothing at all. You better go kid.” The Wolverine’s internals walls shot up, and with his empathy all Remy got was a big fat nothing. All recent emotions replaced by a blank emptiness.

Remy knew Logan well enough to know that the emotions hadn’t gone away, just locked away inside the Wolverine.

Yet he stayed, starring at him, hoping for some sort of a movement, some sort of a give. Finally, giving up after almost half an hour, he started to slip away, stopping at the grunt of his name.

“Remy.”

“What?” He asked without turning his back.

“I…Ororo, she….nothin’. Just go.”

---

Still later,

“You ready?” The door swung open and the dashingly dressed Bobby Drake and Piotr Rasputin stepped into the room, joining the three men already present there.
“Uh-huh.” The man of hour, the groom nodded, standing still as large blue furred hands fixed his coat.

“Hey. No sweat man.” Bobby piped up. “You are just getting married. Its not like its you are going to die.”

WHACK!!

“Hey! Why’d you do that for?” The youngster exclaimed, rubbing the back of his neck where he had just been struck.
“For making him even more nervous.” Ever the ‘in control’ one, Scott Summers admonished him.
“Nervous? What? Him? Ha ha ha….” Bobby started to laugh, stopping as he looked at the groom and realized that maybe Scott had spoken the truth. “Its just pre-marital jitters man. Its not like you are going to run away.”

“That much you can be sure of.” Henry commented from a few feet away, his head tilted as he fixed his own bow for the umpteenth time. “Not with the Sword of Dionysus swinging over him.”
“Sword of who-sus? Echoed Bobby.
“What Hank meant was that if our groom here tries to run away,” Scott stepped in. “He won’t even make it to the end of the red carpet.”

“Wha-Oh,” bright blue eyes lit up at finally catching onto the joke. “That. Yeah, but it sure will make for a good show….for us that is.”

“Not funny Ice-pick,” the groom growled. “Not funny at all.”


A knock from the other side of the door negated any further comeback from either side. The bride was ready.

--

La la lala, la la lala….

The traditional ‘here comes the bride’ music started to play, all present turning to gaze at the breathtaking sight of the bride stepping into view, a mixture of collective giggles and chuckles rising the very next instant, not because of the blushing bride…but because of the man walking beside her and at the way he had a hand, the free one, draped over his chest, three shiny, half out, razor sharp claws catching and shining in the mid morning sun.

Standing at the end of the way, the smartly dressed groom gulped, his ears twitching at the comment passed between his groom’s men and indigo skinned priest.

“Didn’t think he’d actually do it.” Scott piped up.
“Vel, you know Logan. He did promise Rogue a proper southern wedding.” Kurt whispered, his accented voice full of humor

“Yeah, I know what you mean. But claws?” Bobby exclaimed from besides Peter. “Talk about a modern mutant twist on tradition. ”
“Well, this is as close as we can get to a ‘Shot-Gun Wedding’,” even Henry couldn’t contain himself. “That is without an actual shotgun. Wouldn't you agree...Remy?”

----

Now,

Sitting sideways at the edge of the king sized bed, his head hanging low, his hands barely able to support it, Remy Lebeau was trying his best to come to terms with what he had just been told, what had happened in the two and half since he had been away from the mansion.

“Remy.” A silk soft whisper tore through the blank curtain that had fallen over and around him.

Opening his mouth, he tried once, twice, giving up and closing it shut after the third failure. It was as if the very air had escaped his lungs, his throat too choked to even pull in fresh oxygen.

“Remy.” She called again, her own breath catching when he lifted and turned his head to her, his smoldering coal eyes showing her something that she had never seen in them ever before…tears.

This time when he parted his lips, he managed to get out two words, but not before a hitch. “H-How-w….How long?”

“I-I…” it was her turn to hesitate. She hadn’t hesitated once in the last half hour, not once as she told him what she had done…and why she had done it, only breaking that secret when he grabbed her hand and thumped it against his chest, making her take an oath to his heart. “Henry says that it is difficult to say right now and that we…”

“How long Ororo?” He near about snapped at her, his use of her real name causing her to stop short. “How long?”

A sigh of defeat and her she broke her final secret to him, the secret of how long before it all ended….for her.

“Eight months…maximum a year.”

---

Note: I almost don’t want to write this story anymore. When I started it, it wasn’t meant to go this way, or this far. Don’t know where to go from here…especially after taking this long to get this chapter done.

My second update for the day, (X-ed Ch. 18) is much happier one.

Please Review!!

17. Fated to lose

Summary: “I just wanted some time to talk, if only time was with me.”

---

Few months ago,

“Mommymommymommy.” Laying out her night clothes, ready to enter the bathroom, Ororo stopped short turning around just in time to soften the blow as a little bundle of energy tore in through the door, barreling into her.
“Yes dearest.” Falling onto his behind, James grinned up at his bemused mother, his happy giggles gurgling up his chest ringing free.

“Mmommywewentforsimmin’todaey.” He prattled on, his young tongue slipping on and rolling over the words
“Huh?” Even as she tried to keep track with, Ororo couldn’t quite understand what he had just said.
“Wewentsimmin’stodaey.” The child tried again. “Simmin’ today.” The third time around, it came out a frustrated plea.
“Oh. Swimming.” Realization dawned to Ororo.

“Yeah. Simmin’.” His innocent eyes once again lit with that happy twinkle. “Me, Kend’ll, papa. Simmin’. All of us.”
“Oh, really.” Ororo feigned ignorance. She knew about the schedule that Logan had set up for the children. Getting only two weekends a month, the Saturdays were reserved for movie watching and picnic, while every alternate Sunday was for swimming, a long drive and a picnic filling in the remaining one. “So what did you do at the swimming pool.”
“We sweem.” James answered making the swimming motions with his hands. “Papa teech me awso.”
“What?!” Ororo’s smile came to a screeching halt. He had done what? Didn’t he know that James was only… She stopped once again, her surprise and annoyance lasting all but a moment as she remembered a time years ago, when Logan had done the same for Kendall too, at about the same age, the memory only serving to remind her how much time had passed since then….and how much had changed since then.
“Yup.” Thankfully, James was too excited to notice the momentary change in his mother’s mood. “Ther was this tiye. White tiye. We put it here,” he pointed just above and below his shoulders where Logan had fixed the floatation tire.

“Good.” Ororo smiled, her smile faltering at hearing Kendall run down the corridor, rushing back downstairs after having placed both her and her brother’s bags in their respective rooms.

Returning to James, Ororo caught him letting out a wide yawn.

“Sleepy.” She noticed the sudden tired droopy look in his eyes, knowing that he was probably running on pure adrenaline, exhausted after the whole swimming exercise. He wanted to tell his mamma about it and as soon as he’d gotten the last word out, not to mention ensconced himself in her warmth of her embrace, the snow haired, mocha skinned toddler had promptly curled up, his soft breaths warming the rise of her chest.

“Umm-Hmm.” And just like that, he was out like the proverbial light.

Rising up to take him to his room, Ororo gave up a moment later, instead laying him out for the night on the empty half of her bed, the half that hadn’t been occupied for more than a year now.

The half that was his.

Even now, even after all had gone wrong with them, even after all relations, all ties, except two, Kendall and James, had been severed…..even now, she could still not get him out of her mind.

Just as she could not get him out of her heart.

---

It was lunch time the next day and still Ororo had just one thought on her mind, one topic, one name, the same that had kept her up the entire night, tossing and turning working without success to drive it away…to get some sleep.

And here she was, her mind heavy with swirling thoughts, thoughts so engulfing that she missed out someone call out to her, not once but twice, before a spoon reached from across the table tapping at her still pristine plate.

TingTingTing

“Ororo.” A voice called out to her. “Ororo?!”

“Huh. Wha-what?” her impromptu séance broken, Ororo’s eyes flashed as she grappled to comprehend where she was. She has been so deep in thought that she hadn’t even noticed that she still held in her hand the salad bowl that someone must have extended to her.

Flashing her a smile, and pointing at preciously ready to tip over bowl, the intruder, her friend, colleague and teammate, Scott Summers started in a deliberately lowered voice. “Haven’t seen you this flustered since your first teaching day. You were really out for a few seconds there. Busy day?”

“No. Uh-no, its nothing. Just normal school work. Nothing” Ororo fumbled, trying to come up with a plausible excuse. Finally giving up when she found none, she relented with a self-deprecating smile. “I guess, I have been a little preoccupied.”

“Want to talk about it?” Scott looked sideways over his shoulder, serving another helping of rice into the plastic ‘Kim Possible’ plate lying next to his, as well giving a ‘go ahead’ nod to the redhead seated on an elevated-chair.

Ororo paused, glanced sideways herself, looking for a second as if she was going to take him up on his offer. Given that both of them usually sat at the end of the table, their location allowing them free space to seat either or both of their children, they had the prerequisite distance to allow them privacy away from any snooping ears.

“No.” She finally answered, her tone closing any further discussion on the topic.

Not pushing too much, after all it was her private business, Scott easily turned the conversation towards easier, less heavier topics, namely Rachel’s losing yet another tooth…a point which the child supported, both by flashing a wide grin to show the expanded space between the top front teeth and also by showing the precious tooth, the one she was going to place under her pillow for the tooth fairy, which in her case would be her own father.


Breaking finally about twenty minutes later, helping Rachel down, Scott was ready to take leave himself, when Ororo’s hesitant words caused him to pause.

“Scott.”
“Yes Ororo.”
“Do you have some spare time.” ‘Maybe she wants to talk after all,’ thought Scott.
“Right now?” He had a class half an hour later and had to get Rachel to take her afternoon nap before that.
“Y-Ye…No. Sometime later.”

“I have a two more classes left for the day and a danger room session to supervise after that. We can talk then or if you want later.”
“When is the Danger Room session?” Her tone clearly gave away her desperation.

“Six. Six to Seven-Twenty.”


“Ororo is something wrong?” Being a Monday Scott would bet that whatever it was that had Ororo so flustered, it would most probably be something related to either Kendall or Logan. Even though their divorce was more than five months old, Ororo was still having time moving on, Kendall’s worsening behavior towards her not helping things at all. The child had gone through so much in the last year and half, being kidnapped and experimented upon, having her emotional innocence torn away, having her father leave for a mission of vengeance, her mother closing in on herself after that, the legal separation of her parent and finally their divorce. It would be too much for an adult, let alone an impressionable child of Kendall’s age. Luckily for him, little James, was still too young to comprehend completely the goings on around him.

As lonely as he was without Jean, Scott couldn’t help but feel a little thankful for Rachel that she hadn’t been old enough to understand when…why her mother left her and her father…forever. For Scott himself, the only thing that had kept him going for so long was the little baby with soft red curls (just like her mother) that Jean had left in his arms. He knew he couldn’t give up now…he could not give up ever.

His own life had ended with Jean, what remained now was the father of Rachel Summers.


Silent, checking her own schedule, Ororo nodded in affirmation a few seconds later. “I’ll be there. I just have to visit Henry first.”

“Anything wrong?” Scott inquired, thinking that maybe something was wrong with her health.
“No, nothing.” Ororo shook her head, not want to worry him further by telling that she had been feeling a little tired lately. “Just feeling a bit under the weather.”
“Under the weather? Is that supposed to be a joke?” Scott arched an eyebrow behind his ruby-colored glasses.
“Wha-oh,” even she broke a smile at the inadvertent jape at her powers.

“Daddy.” Any further conversation ended at Rachel’s pulling at her father’s cotton trouser leg. “Sleeppiee.”

“I better go,” Scott chuckled as he hefted the little girl into his arms, her head immediately resting against his shoulder. “See you later.”

“Yes…” Ororo trailed away, once again returning to try to analyze the thoughts occupying her mind.

----

A few hours later,

“I am thinking of talking to Logan.”
“Good.”

“Scott.” Seated on the one of the spare chairs, Ororo hardly paid any attention to the veritable war-zone a hundred or so feet below. “I am thinking of talking to Logan,” she repeated again, deliberately stressing on the word ‘talking’.
“Good.” Scott’s answer was once again of the one word kind, his nimble fingers tweaking and fine tuning the program parameters of the scenario currently running. It was a personal favorite of his, so much so that he had even a special name for it. The Brood. An outcome of watching one too many Aliens and Star Trek marathons, Scott had spent hours imagining and reading it. He had taken the characteristics of both the aliens in the Aliens movies and the Borg in Star Trek, combining them by reworking the aliens’ body and giving the cunning hive behavior of the Borg. He had even got Henry to help, putting in the finishing touches and anatomical details until voila, the Brood came alive.

Though a favorite, it was also one of the most hardest of all practice programs and required a special clearance and presence of at least one of the senior X-Men to run it. Even then it was limited to only those students who sported a special X, that is only those who were either X-Men in training or members of the junior team.

“I think I should leave,” Ororo was already half way up. “You are busy and….”

“Hey,” Scott whirled around in his chair, “Sit sit.” He gestured with one hand. “I am almost done here. Just wanted to make it a few changes for this batch of students. Just a few more seconds and then we can talk, and by that I mean I’ll actually talk instead of just nodding and giving single syllable answers.”

At the hesitation on Ororo’s face, a clear indication of the battle going on inside her, he pushed further, a little more sternly but with equal humor.

“Sit. That’s an order.”

“Order!” Ororo’s gasp and the ensuing smirk told him that his ploy had worked, as did her slow return to her seat.

--

“So.” True to his words, not even a minute later Scott lifted his fingers off the control panel. Not wanting to be disturbed an yet not wanting the students to accidentally get hurt, he activated the highest safety protocols and dialed down the skills levels a couple of notches, all without declaring it over the intercom. After all, let them deal with it as if it was still on a maximum setting.

“You want to talk to Logan.” He stressed on just the right word. “Get together again.”
“No!” Ororo lashed out before she realized it. “I did not say that.”
“No you did not.” Scott’s statement carried a subtle question. “You did not need to.”

“I-It…its complicated.”
“Hmm. I guess so. And…”
“I am not even sure if I should do it….that I even want to…”
“You don’t?” Disbelief was clear in Scott’s voice and on his face.
“Okay, that much I am sure of…” Ororo relented, kind of. “But…”
“But what?” Scott knew he would have to do some probing himself. “You think that you don’t have the right anymore?”
“I don’t have the right,” once again Ororo denied it…in spite of her heart saying otherwise. “Do I?”

“Ororo. You actually need to ask that?” Scott returned with a dry chuckle. “I take you haven’t been seeing Logan whenever he comes to pick up or drop off the children.” He asked, knowing very well that the answer was otherwise.
“I have.” Ororo’s whisper was subdued, the last word spoken just to herself. ‘Every time.’

“And still you have to ask if you have a right to go to him? To talk to him?” Spoken like that it sounded even more non-consequential than it had seemed in her head.

“Scott, I…” Ororo kneaded her forehead, not knowing what to say.
“Ororo.” Reaching forward to hold her hands, Scott was more than a little surprised to find them clammy. Ororo’s hands were never clammy, nor did they ever shake as they were right now. Not even imagining anything else to be wrong, he took it as a sign of her worry, her hesitation about mending her relationship with Logan…..or at least trying to salvage it. “Ororo?”
“I-Its just that…” Ororo was fighting hard to contain her tears. She was so tired, so alone, so lonely….so lonely without him. She knew that both of them had wronged, crossed a line that they shouldn’t have even stepped up to. But still, even now, even after all this, still… “I…I miss him.”

There, it was finally out, the truth, lifting and taking away an invisible load with it.

“In spite of everything that happened between us, everything he…I…everything both of us did, I still miss him.”

“And you want him back,” Scott supplied the words that she still hadn’t been able to vocalize
“And I want him back,” all of her tension energy seemed to flow out with those five words.

“Good.” Scott patted her hands. “Now that you got that in order, go talk to him. And this time, actually talk.”
“What if he…” Ororo hesitated, remembering the last time she and Logan had attempted to talk, and the fallout from that.

“He’ll talk.” Scott hoped his words would help assuage her doubts, and that they would turn out to be true, especially because he realized that he was the first and probably the only person Ororo was going to talk to about this. It was either him, the Professor or Hank, because they were the only people who were ‘neutral’. All others had chosen one side or the other, even going through their own clashes over this sensitive topic, like Rogue and Remy did during and immediately after the divorce, with Rogue on Logan’s side and Remy staunchly Ororo’s.

“You think?” She asked again, as if to dispel that last bit of fear away and draw up hope.

Instead of verbally answering this time, Scott gave a single nod of affirmation.

“Th-Thank you Scott.” Ororo returned the hand squeeze, her eyes brimming with tears of hope. “Thank you very much.”

“Hey. No sweat.” He grinned an easy grin. “What else are best friends for.”

---

Not even a week later,

“You want me to what?!” Scott Summers couldn’t believe his ears. How had things gone from ‘I want Logan back in my life, with me once again’ to this? And that too just in a span of five days.

“I want you to help me to get Logan to give up on me and move on with his life.” Ororo’s calm voice was in no way supported by the darkening skyline outside or her hands, which oddly enough were shaking once again.

“I want you to make a show of marrying me.”

---

Note: Just about done with this fic. Still haven’t written or even visualize the ending.

Please Review!!

18. Mending Hearts

Summary: "Hindsight is Twenty-Twenty."

---

-CLICK-

The abrupt bright light in the room causing her to flinch, Ororo turned away, pulling the sheet up along with her, not up to her face but to hold out for the person who she thought had intruded upon her slumber. James.

Staying like that for a few seconds, she frowned a little as no one came forward, her hand flopped down, the cotton fluttered along with.

Ready to loll off, she stopped short. Even through her haze she sensed it…felt it, felt a pair of eyes boring into her.

Turning around, moving to sit up, her heart hitched a beat at the sight before her.

“You heartless bitch.”

The words, hurtful as they were and spoken with anger, affected her, just not as they usually would have. What took away from the pain they would have afflicted, what caused her throat to choke up, was the blood shot eyes, the tear stained cheeks of the person who had spoken them.

Not able to say anything immediately, she gulped, hesitating and not knowing that if she opened her arms whether her visitor would fall into them or just as well strike them…slap her.

“Jubilee….” Barely did the name leave her lips, did the sobbing form of the teenager fall onto her, holding on as if for dear life…for her life.

“Ororo….”

--

//Flashback//

Thud Thud ThudThuddThud

“Coming, coming,” the muffled hail from the other side of the door had almost no affect on the person on this side, the continuing knocks threatening to tear the wooden partition down.

“Are you fuckin’ outta your mi…Rogue?” Ready to read whoever it was the riot act, Jubilation Lee, current resident of what was until recently Logan’s apartment, trailed off, more than a little taken aback at the ‘middle of the night’ showing up of one of her best friends, a haggard look on her face. She grew even more worried at the tears flowing down the southerner’s cheeks. “Rogue? Is everything….”

“Jubes.” Rogue threw her arms around her friend, her body sagging as fresh sobs wracked it.


Moving back, her movement obstructed by the slightly larger frame of her friend, Jubilee kicked the door shut behind them. “Rogue? Roguey. Hey. Everything okay?” She asked softly, her own heart thumping hard against her chest. “Did something happen to Remy? Did he do something?”

“It ain’t Remy.”

‘Oh no. Logan.’ The second name piping up, Jubilee all but collapsed herself. Had something happened to him. He had been in a bad state when he left, and who knew where he had disappeared to. “Logan? Is it…”

“It-Its….Ororo…” Rogue managed between sniffles.
“Ororo?” Two opposing reactions battled at that revelation. While one, that which arose from anger and a sense of betrayal, said ‘who cares, she already has someone she found to care for her.’ The other, that of the daughter’s, hit the panic button at even a hint of anything wrong with her mother.

“What happened to Ororo?” Ever since she left the mansion, Jubilee hadn’t set step back there even once, and knew nothing at all of the X-Men’s missions. Had there been a mission. A dangerous one? Did something happened during…?

“Sh-She…she’s…oh god….Jubes,” Rogue crumbled to the ground, still able to believe the news let alone voice it herself. ‘Dyin’.’ She whispered, not loud enough for Jubilee…and not clearly.

“What did you say?” Jubilee kneeled down next to her, a frown marring her features at what she thought her ears had heard. It was wrong. It couldn’t be. “What happened to Ororo? Answer me. What?”

“She’s dyin’ Jubes.” There, it finally came out, the words spat out as if poison. “She’s dyin’.”

//End Flashback//

---

“Who told you?” Ororo was surprised how calm she sounded, detached…almost as if she was in class and not talking about the brevity of her life.

“Rogue,” whispered Jubilee, her head nuzzled at the shoulder of the older woman.

‘Remy.’ Ororo instinctively knew who had told Rogue. It was after all, just a matter of confirming it. She should have known that he would do it, if not other times, this time he would. After all it was Rogue who had made the call, the one that brought him back almost blowing through the front door, right into his and Rogue’s suite and not even ten minutes later, into hers.

“Tell me it isn’t true,” Jubilee croaked breaking her embrace to draw back. “Tell me that you aren’t…please.”

“Jubilee…” Just one look and Jubilee knew the futility of her hopes.

Almost as a flash she was up. “I should leave.” She bent down to reset and fluff the pillows, straightening up to help Ororo to lay back down. “Lie down. You should rest.” She spoke robotically, not willing to match eyes with her estranged mother. “Sorry about…”

“Child, sit.” Ororo reached forward to grab thee young woman’s hands, thankful that at least this time her own limbs weren’t shaking. It was the first clear (and easiest to observe) sign of her affliction, the increasingly not so subtle shaking of her hands and legs, and the growing sensitivity of the nerve ending there. It was only set to increase to uncontrollable levels, her body growing more and more sensitive, until a time when she would not even be able to bear any touch, not even that of simply air…of her winds. Nothing.

And then, if she was lucky enough, the day might come when she would not feel anything, ever again. It was either that or the other thing, a fate that she never wanted…for those near her, a fate worse than death.

---

Settling down on the bed, sitting half sideway and half facing Ororo, Jubilee could not bring herself to meet her eyes, both because of it would be staring at a truth that she did not want to confront right now, if ever and because her own guilt forced her gaze to lower, shame at how in her anger the treatment she had meted out to this woman.

“I’m sorry ‘Ro.” The words were barely audible but Ororo knew what they signified. Crooking a finger under the younger woman’s chin, she lifted it, and true enough those dark eyes conveyed far more than her words or her subdued body language did.


Using her free hand to wipe away the saline rivulets, Ororo raised it further to run through the lush growth of hair that had grown to replace the ‘gelled’ spikes of her mid-teen years.

“I am sorry too.” She apologized.

For all they had done to each other, both she and Logan had caused pain to their children too, all three of them…even sweet innocent James. He was such an honest innocent soul that now, having analyzed her actions, Ororo could not help but think if by their vengeful actions, they (Logan and her) had doomed him to the same fate as his sister…if they had ripped his innocence away.

Even though she still did not agree with Logan’s actions, even though she would never be one to condone taking another’s life, Ororo also realized that maybe her own actions had been more than a little harsh. After all, hindsight was almost always twenty-twenty.

‘If only he…we had talked it over. Maybe none of this would have happened.’

And it was that thought that caused her to pause and then stop completely…even now as with every previous time. Logan was not here, not anymore, and even though she would have wanted him to be the last person she saw, she did not want to be the one who cause yet more pain to his tortured soul. She had already more done her part towards that.

He would move on, find someone else…to love, someone who loved him back, maybe even as much as her. He wound find happiness, happiness that he had once found with her.

That was all she had wanted when she had started this whole charade with Scott. Yet once again, just like before, she had failed…failed him (Logan) and their children. For never in her wildest, darkest dreams…nightmares, had she envisioned him leaving.

Leaving, not her but their children.

Those thoughts assailed her over and over again, both her waking moments and asleep.

And it was thoughts of him that were still on her mind, as she laid back on her back, her elder daughter, still unable to stop her tears, slipping in beside her.

----

Once again,

-CLICK-

It happened again and as with the first time, it was pretty much a similar situation, if not the setting. However unlike before, this time around, even before her conscious mind roused enough to realize it, she knew who it was, her nostrils flaring, her other senses also reacting…as did the rest of her body, instinctively knowing who it was.

She did not even need to open her eyes to see who it was, her entire being literally sang out the name.

Yet she did, nearly getting bowled over at the ragged, unshaven, gaunt form that met her gaze, all of it fading away at the fire in those deep probing eyes…

…and the tears shining in them.

“Logan…”

---

Note: Am just about done with this....and am trying to update it fast before I lose steam once again.

Please Review!!

19. Running Away (Part 1)

Summary: “He ran, ran as fast, as far He could. All for nothing. Wherever he went, she’d still be there.”

---

For Logan leaving that meeting with Xavier in Central Park had encompassed the last moments of his stay in New York or for that matter America.

He had made all the arrangements, taken care of all the contingencies…or at least tried to. Jubilee’s name had been added to the lease, her outburst at hearing about his plans or lack there off, born, her tears wiped away. He had even taken her to meet Murdock, telling her if at anytime she needed anything, any help, monetary or otherwise, Matt’s door would always be open for her, 24/7. A little skeptical at first, Jubilee had gasped, her eyes wide as saucers as Matt revealed her alter ego to her…and reiterated everything Logan had said, and then some. And for that, and everything else he had done, Logan would always be thankful to him. Even though he was blind, Logan knew…from experience that Matt, the DareDevil, The Man Without Fear, not only heard but even saw a lot more than a lot of other people, and he saw not what was one outside, but also what mattered, what was inside…in the heart.

He had literally blown out of town, and hours later out of the country, trying his level best to run away not only from his thoughts but also…from his memories.

All through this, there was one thing that had stuck in what remained of his heart…stuck like a sore nail. Kendall and James. He was leaving them, and no matter how hard he rode, he could not turn away from their saddened faces.

It is for their own good.

That was his mantra, and held onto it as he was drowning and if it were a lifeline.

He knew that there would be no other man who loved his children as much as he did. No man. And say as much she wanted, even Ororo couldn’t deny their parentage, either to them, to him or even to herself.

Yet, when it came to a question of making a choice of which parent was a better guardian for them, Logan would be the first one to admit that Ororo got him beat…by miles. There wasn’t even a comparison. Not only was Ororo cultured, not only did she had a stable base for herself, the one that would allow the children a firm foundation to build themselves upon, she also would be able to give them something that he never could….a history, a heritage.

Him. His entire existence had been one of grasping at scraps, both in his present life and for his past. A continuous, never ending run for something elusive, something that had long ago lost any meaning, existing only for one purpose….to give a sham of a semblance of some worth.

Meeting the X-Men had brought about a change, both in his life and slowly but surely, in him. What started with a reluctant braking for a pale, shivering, sliver of a girl, had (at first) shoved him through a door he hadn’t even known the existence off, let alone try to search for and open by himself.

The first time he left, he did not think that he would be seeing this place again, let alone making a return and then staying here…making an actual life. But return he did, not only for the promise he had made to that same girl, but also for another...one whom he wanted. And wasn’t that just the main thing about it, he wanted her, just wanted. Either he hadn’t thought or maybe he hadn’t got the faculties for it, but somehow he never understood what exactly would happen if he she gave him what she wanted…leave him, her lover and fiancé for him. Then again, thinking hadn’t been one of his strong points.

Thankfully she had more than enough comprehension for both of them, after all, she was a telepath. And as much as her turning him down had stung his pride, he now understood that him and Jean weren’t really destined to be together. Not like her and Scott. Not like him and….no one.

At the first thought of her, he clamped down, almost as if trying to squish from germinating, the one visual of her that had imprinted itself (above all others) on not only his conscience but on every single cell of his indestructible body. And try as he might, just as his body would heal itself from any injury, any attempts he made to cut her and her memories off from within him, only resulted in them being rebuilt…even stronger than before.

And just as his healing factor would cause his body…this shell of his, to live on, so would live on the visual of her positioned over him, her long lithe legs straddling his hips, her long lush tresses washing over like a fresh snow fed waterfall….with only one sound coming forth from her rose petal lips, only one name. Logan. His.


He ran, ran as fast as he could, to Canada, wanting to run to his mother, the wilderness’s embrace….but not even able to do that. For going there would only remind him even more of her, of the time they had spent here, first as a couple and then as a family.

He drove, almost non-stop, for the better part of a week, stopping only for gas and not for anything else. Not that he could. Just closing his eyes had become a nightmare, one in which he saw his children and her. He only saw their backs, but in his heart he knew it was them, if nothing else, by their hair. The children had grown up and they from their laughs he knew that they were happy…as was she.

Just not with him.

For standing right with, were two more, one an older man with ruby colored glasses and second a young woman with flame red hair, her green eyes as deep as…as her mother’s. Scott and Rachel.

They were all happy…together…as a family. One that had no need or space for him.

It was enough to drive a man crazy.

----

“Lookie what the cat dragged in.” Her slightly accented but entirely sultry voice was just as lively as he remembered it…and just as piercing. As was the recognition twinkling in her naturally mischievous eyes.

“Hey kid.” He grunted, air whooshing out of his lungs at the way she lunged forward and threw her arms around him, the embrace lasting for all of a couple of seconds before she leaned back and planted a swift, hard one on him. A swift, hard slap that is, one followed by a flurry of Japanese expletives at the stinging sensation received from striking against metal.

“Nice to see yer still as feisty as ever,” his chuckle held no mirth.

“Fuck you, you son of a bitch,” she cradled and gently kneaded her slim fingers, slowly bringing them back to normal. “I thought that you up and died or something.”

“Or something.” He sighed, not saying anything else.

Even before she could ask any more question or he try not to give any clear answers, especially not any about his life…or the way it had come crashing around him, a soft voice from the inside caused him to pause.

“Yukio-chan. Who is it?”


“You busy?” He inquired, not wanting to intrude upon her. Their’s had been a ‘open book’ relationship, more friends than anything else, and although it had been quite sometime since they had seen each other, one thing he was sure of and wanted to keep as before…no mixing work and home.

“Nah.” Flicking a hand over her shoulder, the free spirited Yukio stepped back into her apartment home, grabbing and dragging her surprise visitor along with her. “Its just…” she started, only to stop. “Well, its family.”

‘Family?’ Now Logan was really intrigued. As far as he knew Yukio did not have any family, not even a distant one. And a family with such a polished voice. Agreed that Yukio wasn’t a lout either, but she did tend to be a little ‘free’ with her tongue, not caring much about social norms and customs.

Already intrigued by the voice, Logan was even more surprised as hanging his jacket and slipping out of his boots, he stepped forward into the house, only to be greeted by something that he never envisioned seeing in Yukio’s place of living….a feminine touch.

And questions about whose doing was this, all of them were answered as they entered the living room, a slim, average sized but incredibly beautiful woman rising up to greet them. Any remaining doubts were obliterated by the bombshell that got dropped next.

“Logan-Sama,” Yukio stepped forth, coming in between him and the other woman. “This is Mariko. Mariko Yashida…my wife.”

---

Note: I had thought of sending Logan to Japan, but seeing that this is Movie Logan and he is more of a Canadian-trucker than an International-Brawler, I elected on keeping things closer to home.

Also, Yukio and Mariko, only Yukio was supposed to appear here. Mariko was supposed to be ‘his’ (dead) wife. But things didn’t quite turn that way. Did it!!

This is the first part (of two) of Logan’s time away from the mansion, what he did, what he thought…and how he finally got his butt back to ‘Ro. (Last chapter)

Spoilers (Minor): X-Men and X2 (The Movies)

Please Review.

20. Staying Put (Part 2)

Summary: Part 2

---

“Cute kid.”
“Yup.”

“How old is she?”
“Just turned eight two months back. Sharp as a stick too. Already’s in grade four.”

“Hmm. Sure doesn’t take after you.”
“You think? Me. I couldn’t learn school to save my life. Its all her…all Mariko’s doing. Otherwise…”

“You done good kid.” Sitting in the balcony, his back against the wall, Logan leaned lifted a hand to rest against the dark maroon silk covered shoulder of his companion. “Real good.”
“Nah, not good. Just got lucky.” Raising her own hand to cover his, Yukio shook her head, the soft smile on her lips showing something that Logan had never seen on her before. Contentment.

In front of them, just on the other side of the glass partition, her head tilted, a look of deep concentration on her innocent face, sat the young daughter of Yukio and Mariko, Amiko Yashida. Her second mother, seated to her right, was busy knitting a muffler for the young child while helping her with her homework.

Though still a little surprised at finally seeing the man that Yukio had told her so much about, especially in his current state, she had settled down soon enough, allowing Yukio the time and space she needed with her old friend.

---

//Flashback//

“…my wife.”

Logan’s eyes weary as they were, widened at the bomb shell that Yukio had just dropped on him that she, the poster child for the wild and free had not only found someone to settle down with, but settle down so much that she ended up marrying the person. That the person in question just happened to be a woman was the only thing that didn’t strike him as odd. After all, knowing as he knew her, he knew that Yukio didn’t stick to one particular type…or sex and was an equal opportunity lover.

Dumbstruck, he stared, not even realizing that he automatically returned the welcome bow, only breaking out of his reverie when Yukio stepped up and snapped her fingers in front of his face.

“Logan-sama. Hey! Wolverine.”

“Uh…hn.” In a flash the stupefied look vanished, the impassiveness from before slipped back into place.

“Surprised, huh?” Yukio grinned that teasing smile of hers, the one she got when she had just managed to confuse and trounce her opponent. “Maybe if you’d come more often, you’d…”

“I’ll leave.” Logan’s curt snap ended whatever quip she was going make, also causing her to reach forward and grab hid flannel covered arm he started to turn back.

“Where do you think you are going?” It was clear that she was both surprised and angry at the sudden change in him. There was also a small flickering of apprehension of how would Logan feel about this development in her life, of her marrying…marrying a woman.
They had been lovers once, but that was long ago, a time somewhere after Logan’s meeting the X-Men and before he fell in love himself. But it wasn’t like he did not know about her proclivity…or lack there of towards a certain sex. She did not take him to be the type of person who had a bug up his ass when it came to homosexuality. Was she wrong? Had she not known him at all.

“Yukio, I…” Logan paused, stopping completely at seeing the look, not only in his friend’s eyes but also in the eyes of the woman that she had chosen to spend her life with. Even wallowing in the pile of shit that his life had become, he had enough sense…or rather had enough ‘senses’ to detect the abrupt change in both the women. While one second they had been pleasantly surprised, maybe even happy in Yukio’s case, now there were only surprise, sadness and maybe even anger…once again only from Yukio.

“What?” It was Yukio’s turn to snap.

“I-I…don’t want to cause any trouble,” Logan blurted out, correcting himself the next instant. “I mean, disturb ya.”
“Since when did you start caring about not causing trouble? And who the fuck said anything about disturbing?” Now that was the real Yukio, or the first image of hers that had imprinted itself in Logan’s memory.

“I-I…” once he hesitated, the fatigue from not having slept and continuous driving not helping things one bit. “Yer married.” The way he said it, it might as well be him who had just told Yukio about her marital status.
“Yeah.” Nodded Yukio. “Even got the certificate to prove it. What’s that got to do with anything? And why should it change anything?”

As if that had been explanation enough, Logan once again leaned to move. “I shouldn’t have come. I just…”

“Needed a place to crash.” Yukio completed his words, knowing by experience the way he operated. Even when they were…with each other, she had never got duped into thinking that whatever they had, it extended to anything more than some friendly relief, both for him and her.

At his silence she knew that she had hit the nail on the head, her mind and heart clearing up as she also realized the reason for the sudden change in him. It wasn’t that he was prejudiced. She might as well have married a wookie. What mattered to him that she was married and not single anymore…meaning, not free (or able) to give him a place to take off his boots and put up his feet for the night.

“Really Logan-sama,” Yukio chuckled, looking once over her shoulder to check on Mariko. “What happened to the wild man I knew who’d go anywhere and at anytime, and make the place like it was his own. You got tame or what? Remind me to congratulate Ororo the next time…I….meet…”

The word ‘her’ was left unsaid, as just with the mention of Ororo’s name Logan flinched, his fists balling, almost as if feeling the effects of the slap from earlier.

Once again turning to Mariko, Yukio silently gestured to her to prepare the extra room for their unexpected guest. It all made sense to her. The way he looked, how gaunt and tired his voice sounded, how broken….something she had never heard from him. All of it.

“Come.” Reaching forward to grab his hand, she was only able to grasp empty air as Logan moved it away, shaking his head at her.

“Logan…” She frowned, this time stepping forward and yanking the elusive hand away to her. Had it not been for his healing factor he would surely have fallen down, unconscious, by now. And who knew how long had it been since he had eaten anything.

“Come.” Her hard decisive tone ended his wavering. Giving one nod, he jerked his bag up and followed her across the room to the door on the far side, his free automatically slipping up to the photograph in his front pocket.

A memory of happier times.

//End Flashback//

---

“When’d you meet her?” Logan gave a slow nod towards Mariko.
“A little more than two years ago,” Yukio answered with a smirk. “She had just got a job at a shop in the mall where I work,” she started recounting, her smirk turning into a soft smile. “It was her first day and she was late. She’d missed her bus and had to take another one and then make a change. Had to run the last kilometer or so. All for a measly eight dollars an hour job at a some luggage store.”

“Hn.” Logan grunted. A noncommittal expression from anyone else, it was a near full blown communicate for him.

“I was on my morning cleaning route,” Yukio carried on, not needing to explain about her (female) janitorial position. Logan already knew about that. “When all of a sudden, BAMM and down we both went. I was lucky that I fell sideways and moreover was in my overalls. But Mariko, not only she did go down face first, her entire front side also got wet.” Once again she stopped, grinning at the now comedic but then quite serious situation. “By the time we got up, she was nearly in tears. The first day on a job and not only was she going to be late now, she didn’t even have the money to get new clothes, not that there was shop open even if she wanted to. Luckily, I knew the hag over her work place. Good woman, if a slightly cracked in the head.”

‘Meaning, she likes her.’ Logan knew how difficult it was for Yukio to give someone an acceptable rating, let alone a good.

“Well, I ended up giving her my clothes. It wasn’t like I was going to use them anyway. And with my car it would be easy enough to come home without having to change.”

“Hn.” Logan scrunched his face, trying to get his around as to how the barely five foot six Mariko had got on and looked in the five ten Yukio’s clothing.

“Well, we started crossing each other in the mall,” the story resumed. “She’s also from back home and soon we became friends…sort of. Well, at least as good as a friend as I can be for some one,” Yukio amended in her usual deprecating manner, a side of hers that she showed only to her friends.

“Then about a year and half ago…” She trailed off, skipping the filler details and getting to the present. “Got hitched about eight months back and here we are. We live together. Got a smart kid between us. I still work at the mall, and she works at the Best Buy just down from the road from the mall. Drive to work together, have lunch with each other and when I finish, whichever of us gets free first, she calls the other and comes to her. Simple. Happy. Life.”

“And the kid.” Logan turned back towards the little girl, trying his best not to visualize his little Kendall seated the same way…Ororo sitting beside her, while baby James kept himself busy by closely examining each and everything in the room.

He tried and he failed, not only because it was difficult to not get the picture, but because it was impossible to wipe it away the memory of when it used to happen…for real.

“’miko.” Yukio leaned forward to get a better look at both Amiko and Mariko. “She’s hers. From her first marriage.”

“First marriage?” Logan’s head shot back towards his friend. He did not think that Yukio would be one to break up a married couple. Her heart didn’t work that way. That, unknowingly, she had just hit close to home (for him), only made matters worse.

“Yeah. Her husband…he died.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t feel sorry for him.” A frown marred Yukio’s clean features. “Her family got her married off forcibly to him. Her mother’d caught her sitting too close with another girl. Fuck, they weren’t even kissing. They was just holding hands,” the frown deepened. “Anyways, he brought her over to Canada. Wanted to make dollars, lot of ‘em. Got lost in gambling, started to drink…beating her.”

Silence grew between the two as Logan waited for Yukio to reign in the anger that had bubbled up within her.

“He died one night,” starting this time Yukio carried none of the softness that one would usually have when talking about the dead. “Had a little too much of a little too cheap booze. Fell right over the overpass…” She grew silent again, continuing a few seconds later. “Left nothing for her and ‘miko. Not even money for food…not even for one time.”

---

“So you tell me,” Yukio spoke again, almost five minutes later, her voice and facial expressions clear once again. “What have you been doing all this time? How are the kids and Ororo?” She grew worried as seeing how Logan nearly clamped up.

“The kids are good…very good,” his voice was barely audible.

Almost not wanting to ask, she forced herself to vocalize it. “And Ororo.”

“She’s good too.” Yukio did not think that he could look more beat up than he already was, but he had just proven her wrong. The only way she could term it, it was as if death had set on his weather worn features.

‘Did something happened to…’ She had just started to think the worst, or what she thought to be what would be worst, when he spoke, his words coming like a (hockey) puck to the face.

“Got engaged. Gonna get married.”

---

Note: Part 2 of Logan’s journey away from home. Will be posting the next and last part soon.

As for the Yashida in Mariko. Its to signify that she re-adopted her maiden last name after her husband died. Also, Amiko is her biological daughter here and not just adopted.

Please Review!!

21. Coming Back (Part 3)

Summary: Logan’s trip continues…until. Well we all know what happens.

---

“How many?”

Sitting sideways to Logan, Yukio was almost did not want an answer to her question. And judging from Logan’s silence she wasn’t going to get one….not unless she pressed her point. And press she did.

“How many?” She asked again, a tone a little tighter this time, a voice a little commanding.
“…” Once again there was no answer, with the only reaction being the almost subconscious way in which Logan flexed his fingers, tightening them into a fist, as if fighting the urge to let out the metal blades sheathed along his forearm.

“How many Logan-sama?” The third time she reached forward and grabbed his hand, taking care to keep her own fingers away from those knuckles of his. She was free, she was adventurous, she was many things, one that Yukio was not was stupid. She knew well enough what would happen to her human hide at the slightest knick from even one of those claws.

Also, maybe it was just her imagination, but she could have sworn that the way she was holding tight onto his arm, she could almost feel each individual claw underneath.

She would have held on until he answered, had it not been from the other hand, the free one coming up to grip her own. The slightest of pressures (for him) at her wrist and she let go with a silent gasp…one which turned audible as he finally gave the answer to her insistent query.

“Stopped countin’ at fifty.”

“Fifty!” Her hand turned to dead weight in his, Logan gently set it on her thigh, retreating back…almost as if giving her the space that he knew that she would want.

“Yeah.” He sighed, his already battered conscious feeling…reliving the weight of each of those fifty men and women, and others after that. The fifty that he had shredded to pieces, to death with these very hands of his.

Many thought that because he was ready to kill if needed, that he did so for the sheer sick fun of it and that he did not care about who or what he killed. And the truth was, even though he did not remember it, somewhere in the back of his mind, in the dark ruins of his previous life, the one before and during his time with Weapon X, before he became the Wolverine, he used to be just like that. Even in this life, he had lost count of the people he had killed, the lives he had taken…destroyed. But unlike before, every single kill of this life, every time his claws found purchase in human or mutant skin, blood and muscles, there was a valid reason for each and everyone for them…even for the latest one, especially for them.

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

For this time it wasn’t his life that was on the line, it was of someone precious…it was that of his baby girl. And as much as the guilt of what he had done in all those months, when he drive, ran, walked, dove around the country…all three countries, Canada, America and Mexico, destroying anything and everything he thought could be one day used against her and against his little angel, James, all that guilt, all that suffering, none of it weighed enough, was dark enough to wipe the image of how Kendall had cowered in the corner when he had found and sliced open the door locking her in. A heavy power inhibitor collar around her neck, a chain running from her one leg to the wall, she had been unable to even smell to recognize him, her scared, bloodshot eyes had been too wild to even focus on him.

She had thought that he was one of them, one of the ‘bad men’. It was only after he slipped a claw tip through the locking mechanism, freeing her powers…her senses, whispered soft nothings to her ear, cradled her in his embrace that she grew coherent enough to recognize him, recognize her daddy…her dada.

Daddy is going to get the scary monsters…and the bad men.

That had been his single line note for his daughter the night he first left the mansion, the same note that she had shown to him when he returned back, her bright eyes telling him of her confidence in him and that he would return one day…that he would come back home to her, mommy and James. There had been no anger, no suspicion, no hate, nothing but love in her golden-brown orbs. The love that told him that not only would she forgive him for everything that he had done, she would do so with open arms. She had confidence in him.

If only Ororo had shown the same trust…the same confidence.

--

“Ororo knows about this?” Yukio’s words brought him back into the present.

“Nah.” Logan did not even trying moving his head this time, not trusting it to stay in place if he even tried it. It was feeling that heavy…almost as if instead of just being coated with Adamantium, his entire skull filled with it. “Never got a chance…”

He could still feel the lightning she had called down upon him…or maybe it was just the pain from how in all but a few moments, his entire life had fallen around him. He had returned….to her, more beast than man, both man and animal content in the trust that she would be there for him, that they could find the shade of peace in her soothing embrace.

How wrong they had been…both of them, both Logan and the Wolverine.


“You didn’t try?” Yukio voiced her surprise.

“I…” Logan started only to stop, as he felt his healing factor starting to grind to a halt. ‘No, not now,’ his mind cried out. ‘Not now. I can’t sleep. Not here. Not in front of them…not with the kid.’
“Logan?” Yukio’s voice, clear only a few seconds ago, seemed to echo through an ever thickening haze. He needed to get out from here….away from here.

He needed to get out from here NOW.

“Yuki…Yukio. I…,” shaking his head to clear it, he pushed himself up, his abrupt movement startling both Yukio sitting beside him and Mariko working inside. It was after nine and Amiko had already been send to bed. “I gotta go.”

“Where are you going to go like this?” Yukio practically pulled him down, such was his exhaustion. “And like this? Are you crazy or what?”

“I can’t stay, not with a kid in the house,” Logan snapped at her, by now moving only by sheer will, his body just about ready to give up. “I can’t…”

At the mention of Amiko, even though Mariko might have been afraid about the wellbeing of her daughter, Yukio knew well enough what that meant. Logan was getting nightmares nowadays…and from the looks of it, that was just about all that his mind and body was getting. In his current state, he was in no position to be kept within such a confined space…yet she just couldn’t let him leave. The idiot might hit something and hurt himself and more importantly someone else.

Calling out to Mariko that she would be late and that she should not stay up for her, she quickly hustled the semiconscious Logan out the door and down the stairs, not trusting him with the enclosed space of the elevators.

--

It would be almost four days before Mariko saw the strange man again, the one about whom Yukio told not only her but also to Amiko. The only difference was that Amiko’s narrations were all told in the form of semi-fairy tales, ones set in ancient and medieval Japan. But instead of traditional Japanese tales, they were the ‘Adventures of the Masked Samurai.’ Yukio told them with such flair, such clarity that Amiko, with her fertile imagination, had even visualized scenes from those tales on paper, complete with a yellow and blue armor for the Samurai.

As with the first time, even this around Logan-san was dressed in a flannel shirt and tight faded blue. He still had a tired look on his face, the reason for which Yukio had told her a little about. But unlike before at least his eyes were clear.

The next few minutes, until Yukio came up from the garage were spent in an awkward silence, only broken when Logan apologized for his actions from the other day. He went on to try to assure her that he meant no harm to either her or Yukio and most of all not to young Amiko. Mariko tried her best to assuage him, telling him that Yukio had told her about his children and that as a parent she also understood what it felt like to be away from one’s child.

By the time Yukio came through the door, not only was Logan sitting at the dining table, shoveling down the rice and beef stew that Yukio had prepared specially for him. When Mariko asked why beef and not the fish they were to have themselves, Yukio had grinned and answered.

“It’s the one thing that I make for him….and I make it a point to prepare it every time he comes. It’s a ritual, sort of how you and I have for the day we first met.”

--

Sitting down on the empty chair directly across Logan, she waited patiently, only making her move once he was done eating.

“You can call them if you want.” She did not say…she did not need to say who.

Yet he asked. “Who?”
“Who know who,” she shot back. Sliding her hand along the flat glass topped surface, she lifted it back once it reached his plate…revealing the photograph that Logan had had in his shirt pocket. It was one of all five of them…it was a copy of the same photo that a few thousand miles away, Jubilee had left in Ororo’s room.

Instead of answering Logan just picked up the photo and returned it to its place, right next to this heart.

“They must be missing you, you know.” Yukio did not let up. “Especially Kendall. Even I’ve seen how she used to stick by your side.”

Still no answer.

“I wonder…” she moved in for the kill, knowing that she was just about to step her bounds. “I wonder if she cried when you did not come pick her and her little brother up….I wonder if he….”

“Stop.” The growl was so low that even Mariko who was just a few feet away in the kitchen, even she did not hear it. But Yukio did.

“Logan…” although pedaling back, both in her tone and in her barbs, Yukio wasn’t quite ready to give up. “At least tell someone. If not Ororo, if not the children…call up the firecracker.”

That Logan did not even crack a smirk at the use of her nickname for Jubilee, was a clear indication of how closed he had become. Yet, within her, a small of Yukio congratulated her for coming up with this idea.

--

And the idea reached action as not even six hours later, standing in front of a public phone, a calling card in one hand, the hand piece in the other, Logan entered the number of the phone installed at the apartment where Jubilee was living now…or so he thought.

“Hey. You’ve reached Jubilee,” the answering machine piped up, and Logan let out a sigh of relief. Even though he was calling the kid, he did not exactly want to talk with her. He just wanted to let her know that he was alive and to tell her to tell the same to Kendall and James.

Waiting for the pre-recorded message to finish, his ears perked up when the message started to speak to him.

“…and if this is Logan, I am going back to X’s.” Already suspicious as to why Jubilee was returning to the mansion, his heart nearly tore free from its Adamantium cage at the next words. “Please come back soon. Ororo is very sick. She might not….” The recording space ran out, not that Logan was even there to listen to it anymore…


….or the phone for that matter.

---

Note: Well, next we pick up from where chapter 17 left off. Both Ororo and Logan have had the time to think, re-think and re-re-think their actions and words. So what now?

Please Review.

22. Alone…Again


He was sitting by her side…

He was sitting by her side…awake…

He was awake because he hadn’t slept…

He hadn’t slept because he did not…could not, take his eyes off her….

He could not take his eyes off her because he was afraid that she would vanish….

He was afraid because of what she had said to him…what she had revealed…

She had revealed that her time on this world had grown short…

…that the fates had chosen to cut her lifeline short.

----

//Flashback//

Asleep in the infirmary, Ororo was spending her second night in her new ‘room’, one that was being specially modified for her, for how she was going to become in the upcoming days, weeks…at the most, months.

She had tossed and turned for hours, just like her first time three nights ago. As yet ‘in trial’ she was only sleeping to allow Henry to monitor and record her body’s reactions to the colorless, odorless, tasteless…cell. At fourteen feet by eighteen feet by twelve feet, it was large enough to accommodate her claustrophobia, but that wasn’t what had struck her. It was white all over. Bland ‘hospital’ white. Even the bedding, bedsheets and pillows, were all white. Except for the door on the far side, the only opening into the room was for the air. Even that was specially modified with a new ‘stilling’ design that the resident Blue-genius had come up with. The special vents were designed, not only to triple filter the already filtered air, but also to slow down the inflow speed to near zero. Even the temperature was kept at a constant 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

It was all being done for when she would no longer be able to exist in the open outdoors, or even the closed confines of her real room.

--

In an uneasy slumber and closed off in her soundproof cage, she missed the uproar just a few feet away. She did not even wake up when someone stepped into the ‘sanitizing’ half, both to get a swift cleaning and to change their clothes, donning the special, one use only gowns that had been hung there. It was only when that person stepped up to the door, a third someone entering the code to unlock it, did her ears twitch at the almost silent hiss of the metal partition sliding away into the wall.

As her visitor approached her, almost furtive in his steps, her own body started to react to him, not because of any illness or any powers of hers or his, but because of something more intimate, something more pure. And even before she opened her eyes to face him, she already knew who it was that had come at such a late hour…and that too her being informed of it first.

‘He’s come back.’ Her heart cried, and one look at him, and so did her eyes.

“Logan…”

He looked so tired, ragged with his unshaven, week old stubble, his gaunt form telling her about his recent eating and resting rituals...or lack there of. But it wasn’t that was struck her most, that honor went to the his deep hazel eyes, eyes with an ocean of emotions welling up in them, eyes with tears glimmering in them.

“Wh-What are..y-you…doing here?” She broke the silence first. How had he come to know about it? The Professor couldn’t locate him with Cerebro and neither his Lawyer, Matt nor Jubilee had any idea about his whereabouts. So, how…

“What happened to you?” He answered her question with one of his own.

Tearing out of Vancouver, bidding Yukio and Mariko a hasty farewell, his mind and heart already half a continent away, Logan had driven day and night. As with the previous time, this time around too he stopped for nothing but gas. However, unlike the first time, his whole return trip passed without him sleeping even for one minute. Thanks to Yukio’s forcing him to sleep and the way she had literally shoved the food into his mouth, his healing factor had not only recovered but also developed a sizeable reserve, one that lasted him the entire trip…keeping him on the road and not off it, either in some ditch or in front of someone else’s vehicle.

Arriving at the mansion, he did not stop and thankfully (for them) the gates responding to the transmitter installed in his truck, opened up as he nearly drove into them.

Not bothering to ring the door bell and waste time waiting for someone to open it and greet him, snikt-ing the claws out, Logan scaled up the side of the mansion, right up to the balcony adjoining Ororo’s room. That it was locked had set off his alarms even more, and not finding her or even a fresh scent of hers inside was enough to set him off the ticker…sending him right for the infirmary where he had near about gutted Hank at his efforts to assuage him and try to get him to let Ororo get some sleep.

He wanted to see her and he wanted to see her NOW!


“Logan, I…” Her hands clasped behind her back, Ororo suddenly found herself tongue-tied. Didn’t she have so much that she wanted to say to him, tell him all about what she had done and why she had done it. It had all been for him. She knew that he wasn’t happy and that had pained her. She knew that her dying would hurt him even more, cause him even more pain…until the time he loved her. And that was the last thing she wanted for him. She had so much… And what now.

“What happened Ororo?” Starting to take a step towards the dumbstruck Ororo, Logan stopped short as she skittered away from him, his earlier doubts raising their head again. In his mad rush to get to her, he had forgotten that he no longer had a say in her life….nor was he supposed to have any interest. She had made her thoughts and choices pretty clear the last time he was here, and neither of them were about him.

“’Ro…” Logan’s frustrated sigh was what jarred Ororo out of her stupor, her own thoughts going wild at the way he just seemed to give up, his hand falling to his side, his shoulders slumping in defeat.

‘Goddess. No!’ She near about cried out. She had seen this stance of his before, not once but a few times, recently because of quite a few reasons involving her…their separation, the subsequent divorce, his failed efforts at trying to get her to talk to him…just see him and then finally, her making her think that she no longer loved him and that she not only loved another but had also already chosen to marry that person.

She knew that if he did not say anything now, not only would he leave, he would do so forever. He would never return here…to the mansion, to her…to their children, all three of them and even to what remained of her life.

--

Warring at herself whether to just let him go, to set him free once and for all or whether to stop him, hold onto him…even if she had to beg to make him do so, Ororo almost got lost within herself, only coming to her senses when Logan started to turn away from her, his slouched form heading towards the exit.

“Logan!” She did cry out this time, her throat choked in a weird mixture of love, hope and fear. “Wait. Please…”

“What?” His growl sounding hoarse, even though his steps halted, Logan did not turn to face her.

“Please…” Temporarily surmounting her fear, Ororo took a hesitant steps towards him. “Don’t go. Don’t leave…me,” the last word, spoken mostly to herself would have gone unheard, had it been anyone other than the Wolverine’s hearing.


She waited, and getting no reaction for a few seconds it looked as if he might truly leave. Both of them knew that this might be the one last chance they would have to be together…though not for the same reason. While Ororo thought so because of her affliction, Logan knew that she had made her move and even though she had turned away from him just a few weeks ago, now she was in need of help…of his help, of him.

In the end, there was no question, no problem, no nothing. All the past year’s pain and doubts could not remove or even hide what both of them knew and held in her hearts….their love for each other.

--

Turning around, he stood straight to face her, still not taking a step further. That move would have to be hers…all hers.

“Tell me what happened to you.”

Watching with deep staring eyes, his senses trying to detect a change, a problem in her…but not able to find any, Logan waited calmly. At the first touch of her slim fingers at his bearded jaw he nearly lost it, his legs ready to give up under him, his arms aching to ride up and go around, embrace her.

Rising up on her toes, Ororo leaned in. “I’m sorry...” she whispered, her lips gently caressing his. “I’m so sorry.”

“’Ro?!” His rough hands gripping at her upper arms, his voice betraying his losing the battle against the fear welling up within him, Logan stared at Ororo, not quite ready to ‘read’ the signals that she was sending out. He did not dare do it.

“I’m sorry Logan…” letting her head fall onto the hard chest of the man she loved, Ororo bit back her sobs…just long enough to get those bitter words out. “I’m sorry I’m going to leave…that I am dying.”

//End Flashback//

---

Sitting on the floor by her bedside, his hands protectively grasping hers, Logan was still trying to come to terms with what was happening to her…to this Goddess….to his wife.

She was dying, not by any disease or any injuries obtained in battle or even by any poison or anything. She was slowly but surely withering away, her body breaking from the inside, from the one thing that defined her…her mutation.

The same powers that gave her the control over the elements, that allowed her to rise up and reach for the clouds…to dance there, they were the ones that were destroying her, eating away at her central nervous system.

And there was no way to stop it.

In spite of all his efforts, all his tests, all the people that he contacted, Henry still could not come with a way to stop it from spreading…or cure it.

Within six months she would no longer be able to control her body, let alone her powers and if things continued the same way, within a year she would either be dead or deteriorated to a fate even worse (from her P.O.V.), a comatose shell, one kept alive only by the use of machines.

A year…just a year.

And then Logan would be all alone…again.

---

Note: I had initially thought on using either an inoperable brain tumor or maybe pancreatic cancer (also incurable), but then decided against it. As for this problem, Ororo was shown to have this in the first Book/Volume of ‘X-Men: The End’. That time they managed to keep her alive…but here…

Please Review!!

23. Departure

Summary: Well, not quite…but its close enough.

---

“I want to leave.”

“Leave?” Lying on his side, Logan tilted his head over the arm that was bent to support it, a thick eyebrow arching in question at Ororo, his other hand continuing its gentle caress of her silk covered midsection.
“Yes.” Ororo repeated softly, her murmur carrying equal amounts of decisiveness and pleading. “I want us to leave…go away.” She stressed on the us, even more so now.
“‘Ro…” Having caught her hint, Logan started, only to silenced as Ororo laid her slender fingers against his lips, her thumb automatically rubbing against his stubbled chin.

“I want to be like how we used to be. Just the two of us and the children…all of them.” Once again she made a point to accentuate her point, this time to include Jubilee along with Kendall and James.
“But yer…” Logan trailed off, alluding to her….problem.

Offering a sad smile at the Wolverine’s attempt at subtlety, Ororo leaned into his embrace, her hand falling down to his now bare chest, right above his heart. “I am fine. I just…”
“What?”
“I want to have some time with you, with our family, before it gets too…”
“‘Ro…” Pulling her to him, Logan silenced her. He wasn’t quite ready to face the inevitable, let alone deal with it. In his life, both the one he remembered and about the one he knew about only from what he had learned during his travels, Logan had not only seen but also caused a lot of death…but none of them like this.

Swallowing the sadness within him and more importantly the rage at not being able to do anything to remedy this situation, to help her, he did the only thing he could.

“Where do you wanna go?”

“Home.”

---

//Flashback//

He had stayed by her side, sitting on the flat metal floor, all so that he could be on thr same level as her, all for not causing her any disturbance and to give her the space to get a peaceful sleep, all while staying close to her. Had they been anywhere else, he would have gotten into bed with her, but not her, and specially not with his grimy state. In hindsight, he was thankful that Hank had allowed him inside…not that he (Beast) would have dared to stop the near berserk Wolverine. Their hands remained entangled with each others, until she woke up to find him staring at her, not having slept a single wink the entire time.

With the night’s experiments already cancelled, there was no need for her to remain in there…and she did not want to waste even one second than was necessary there.

Yet, her return to her…their room had anything but normal for intimated of Logan’s late night return (by Henry), Scott had come down to meet them. His arrival, in spite of all Ororo had told him so far, did not go well with Logan, the Wolverine’s distrust and readiness to face and put down any challenger for his mate, his pack, trouncing the fact that her scent was still pure…his claws snikting out on their own.

“Logan…” Ororo whispered, just low enough so that only he would be able to catch it. “No.”

Thankfully enough, getting the precarious situation, Scott had beaten a quick retreat, offering only a ‘I’ll inform the Professor,’ signaling that they could have as much time to themselves, as they wanted.

Even after Scott exited, not only the room but also the infirmary, Logan had remained rigid, on guard his senses following the other man. Finally, hearing the elevator doors slide shut, he had let the claws retract, turned and in one smooth move swooped down and picked up Ororo, cradling her in his strong arms, his eyes consciously avoiding hers.

As for Ororo, she did not need to see his eyes to know his state of mind, the sudden tension in his shoulders was more than enough to let her know about the doubts that had raised their heads within him. That Logan and Scott had once before, years ago, gone against each other for the affections of a woman, Jean, a competition that Scott had already won…maybe even before it began, did not help her case. And as much as he would deny, for all his confidence and animalistic superiority the Wolverine had had that one loss against Cyclops, and it was a sore point for him…a hole in his armor.

That she (Ororo), would do the same had not only struck him through that hole, it had nearly been fatal wound.


One arm around his neck the other flat against the upper curve of his chest, Ororo had rested her head against his shoulder, allowing him to carry her, first to the elevator and to their loft apartment….just like she had done so many times before…

…Just like it had been when he carried her across the threshold on the day of their marriage.

Logan carrying her, his strong heart thumping under her hand, had allowed the weather witch to forgot or at least pretend to do so, all the pain and hurt they had caused each other…and what she was going to cause him even more. For at that moment, they were once again who they had always been, the Feral Warrior and his Elemental Goddess.

Yet she knew that they needed both time and space to heal the wounds that they had caused each other.

Time and space…away from the mansion.

//End Flashback//

---

“Home?” Logan echoed, somewhat perplexed by Ororo’s choice of destination. Weren’t they…
“Umm-hmm.” Ororo nodded, the tears welling up in her eyes glimmering and giving them an uncanny appearance of the surface of a serene lake, and just as much depth.
“But we’re…” Logan offered, momentarily lifting his free hand to gesture towards their surroundings.
“No.” The headshake told him that this wasn’t the home that Ororo referred to. “Our home…homes. Kenya, Canada…” she hesitated for a second. “…the one what we wanted to make together.”
“Oh.” Realization dawned on Logan’s face. She had not only mentioned their ‘native’ countries but also the house that he had got built as a surprise for her. “You seen it?” He ventured…tentatively, a small of him hoping that she hadn’t. Not without him.

As if drawn out by telepathy, Ororo’s answer mirrored his thoughts. “Not without you.”
“…”


“Logan?” Ororo’s voice cracked, the stretching silence eating at her. Her own fears started popping up, only to be squashed by Logan’s words.
“When do ya wanna leave?”
“Now.” The answer was out even before the question was completed.

“Now!!” Surprised at her enthusiasm, Logan cracked a smile. “Its not even daylight yet. An’ the kids…”

“Okay.”

The very next instant, as if getting an energy charge, Ororo started to move away, stopping as he held her back. “What?” She looked over her shoulder.
“Where do ya think yer goin’?”
“To make the arrangements for…”
“You sit down.” Logan shook his head. “I’ll do it.”
“Logan, I am not sick.” Ororo knew that he did not want her to stress herself. “Besides, its not as if I am going to d…” She stopped at the growl from his throat, the fire flashing there. What would have been a simple joke before was a cause of pain.

Drawing back towards him, Ororo cupped one whiskered side wanting but unable to give any ‘long term’ respite to him.

“Logan…” she sighed. “I need to do this. I cannot limit myself to lying around like an invalid…at least until I can do otherwise.”

“‘Ro…” Logan reached down and pulled her close, burying his face into her long flowing hair, trying to both lose himself in her warmth and to capture it…capture it and close it within himself.

---


“What do you…” Logan started only to stop as his head snapped towards the slowly opening door, his eyes looking forward to the person he had already smelled and heard, and who he was knew must have surely sensed him.

Following the sound, her fingers tunneled through his wild mane, Ororo also finally saw what Logan’s senses had already detected.

Stepping out from behind the slightly parted door and clad in her white with multi-colored flowers night suit, Kendall Munroe-Logan, stared up at the sight before her, the sleep all but gone from her wide golden-brown eyes. The last time she had seen both of her parents together…it had been nothing like this. “Dad?!”

“Hey princess,” her father’s soft growl broke through her stupor her eyes flitting between his smiling face and her mother’s then back at him and finally to the hands that was extended to towards her…beckoning her.

“Daddy? Daddiee!” Nearly getting bowled over the way that the young girl barreled into both of them, Logan let himself fall back onto the bed as Kendall literally climbed over him, her arms around his neck capturing Ororo and pulling her down with them.

“Daddy, where’d you go? You didn’t come. Ievenphonedyousomanytimes,” the child rattled on, her iron tight grip not letting up. “We missed you so much. All of…” She stopped mid-sentence and lifted her head from his shoulder. “You won’t leave again. Will you? Please daddy, please. I’ll be a gooder girl. Won’t even fight with…”

“Ssh darlin’,” Logan silenced her, his heart churning in a mixture of joy and pain at the tears in his little girl’s eyes, tears that he put there. Pulling her back into his embrace, he planted a gentle kiss on her soft snow colored hair. “I ain’t goin’ anywhere kid. Not without any of ya.”

“Huh?” Confusion clear on her young face, making her look even more like Ororo, especially when she too was trying to get her head around something, Kendall tried to make heads or tails of what her father had just told her. Was he leaving again?

“All of us.” Logan reiterated, Ororo’s smiling nod corroborating his sentiments. “You, me, your mamma, Jubes, James…all o’ us.”

“All of us?” The way she spoke, Kendall might as well have heard the words for the first time. “All of us!” The second time around the three words carried a little more confidence and a whole lot of more happiness, the happiness part swelling up even more at the confirmatory nod from the two adults.

All of a sudden, the child pulled away, bright eyes and energetic body turning and heading for the door, a loud cry sounding from her lips as she bolted past it.

"Hey Jimmie. Daddy’s back!!”

---

Note: Was going to make it a bit longer but somehow didn’t feel it in the end….wanted to end it on a happy note. Hope it worked out fine.

Have been busy with my site (www.xcave.net), hence the delay in getting even this out. Hopefully the next update won’t be as long in the coming.

Please Review!!

24. Days go by…

Summary: No summary…Just read it.

---

Day One,

“Are you sure about this?” Standing just inside the foyer, Scott Summer, team leader of the X-Men and one of the closest friends of the person…the woman in question, asked his question his hooded eyes looking over her shoulders to take in the scene just a short distance away.

“Yes Scott,” answered Ororo, her own eyes turning to take in the heart lifting visual of the her ‘immediate’ family playing around each other with nary a worry of the world. Seeing them, especially the two younger children, one would never have guessed that not even forty eight hours ago they were pining and praying for the safe and quick return of their father.

Even Scooter, the family’s dog seemed to know that there was something to rejoice about and was completely engrossed with his masters, both the older Logan and his ‘de facto’ successor, ‘The Son of the Wolverine’, James.

“Logan…” she stopped to correct herself. “We need this. All of us. These last few months…”

“I understand,” Scott interrupted, a lop sided grin forming on his face, all for her benefit. “And I guess its for the best, for me that is.”

“What do you mean?”

“Logan,” her friend gestured towards the door, “I take the Wolverine is not particular favoring to me being anywhere near him…or for that matter you or the children.”

Opening her mouth to refute the comment, Ororo hesitated and then slammed it shut. She knew that what Scott had said was correct. She herself had seen it, not only through Logan’s reaction towards even the name let alone the visual of seeing Scott, but also in his eyes.

The wound although healing was still quite raw and her impending…her future wasn’t making the recovery any easier.

“Now go,” once again his voice drew her out. “Before he comes in and we have a repeat of old times,” he joked, a clear reference to the days of past when the Wolverine and Cyclops used to go up against one another, for a somewhat similar and equally one sided contest. Just as it was only Scott who would…could be Jean’s choice, so was Logan Ororo’s.

“Yes.” She sighed, noting how the Professor and Henry shook hands with her ex-…with her husband. Both of them had been talking to him covering any previously missed precautions they would need to take for her. Though not particularly supportive of their decision, neither her mentor nor her doctor said anything against it. Not that it would have had any effect.

“Thank you Scott,” the weather witch closed in for a hug. “For everything.”

“Hey,” Scott patted her back. “For you beautifu? Anytime.”

---

Date Two,

“It-Its...so big!” She gaped wide eyed at the huge construct that was the room, the master bedroom of the house that Logan had got made for her. Their house. One that had stood waiting for months to be finally turned into a home.

“Yeah, well,” coming to stand behind her, Logan drew her close, her back flat against his chest, their hands automatically joining at her mid section. “Thought you’d like it.”

Of course he had thought that she’d like it, heck, he’d got the made just for her. Logan smirked recalling the incredulous look on the architect and contractor’s face when he told them he wanted the whole top floor of the three level (including the basement) house to be just one big expanse, almost in a warehouse style fashion. On top of that he had got not one but three skylights built into the roof, to go along with the dozen windows, six on either side. And if that wasn’t enough, he had asked for the same treatment with the basement, although (understandably) without the whole skylight and windows setup.

As for the middle floor, along with the kitchen, the large living cum recreation room, a small office space, two guest rooms, there were the children’s rooms, which the two youngster were busy setting up. With Jubilee helping them get settled it granted the recently reunited couple some alone time.

With the remaining space on the top floor, that was left free as a forty feet long and almost twenty feet wide balcony.

“Logan…” Pushing open the double layered doors, the couple walked into the cool evening air…still not ready to let go of each other.

“Yeah.” He sighed into her hair, leaning down to nuzzle against the slender column of her neck.

“I-I…” it would be so easy to say sorry, and yet it wouldn’t be enough to express her emotions. “I love you.”

“Ditto darlin’,” he turned her towards him. “Love you too.”

---

Day Twelve,

“Ororo,” his tone was tight. “Look at me.”

A slight shake of the head was all he got as a response.

She didn’t want him to see her like this, at least not yet. And definitely not at a time like this.

“Turn to me.” Logan had to stop himself to pull her to face him. He was afraid. Yes, the mighty Wolverine was afraid, not for himself but for her. What had happened to her? One moment they were on bed with her hand firm in his hair and his on her hips, their bodies starting to hum in a similar and sorely missed rhythm and the next…

“’Ro,” he tried again, softer this time, his hand hesitating with the fear that his mere touch would hurt her. After all, hadn’t Hank told him that she’d come to a time when even the air caressing her body would cause her pain. Then he with his rough, calloused paws… “Darlin’, look at me.”

Slowly, as if time itself had come to a stop, she turned around onto her back, her tearful eyes pleading and at the same time shying away from him and to her hands, her left grasping and trying its best to stop the shaking in the right one.

“I-I didn’t want…” Goddess. Why did it have to happen now. She had been able to hide her previous two attacks from him, both of them thankfully occurring in his absence, once while he had gone to the city apartment to pick up the furniture and Jubilee’s stuff, and he second time when she was in the bath. So why now?

He was itching to pull her to him, to try and take her pain away. He wanted to hold her and never let her go. If he had to fight death itself, he was ready to do it…and if possible, go in her place.

“I…want me to hold you?”

“Please.”

---

Day Forty-three,

“Hey Windrider!” Coming out on the hail of a rather surprised Mariko, Yukio leapt forward to pull in her guests into their house.

“Yukio,” returning the embrace and looking over her shoulder, Ororo smiled at the still quiet Mariko sending a small wave to the peeking around the corner Amiko.

The way they hugged it was clear that not only had a long time passed since their last meeting but also that the two women cared about each other, a lot. And why not, even on their first meeting years ago they already knew a lot about each other, having heard many a tale from their then ‘common’ factor, who right now was standing lamely hefting two very heavy suitcases, along with the jumbo sized trekking-bag-pack over his shoulders.

“Hey! Wanna move it,” Logan snapped half heartedly. The truth was he was more than happy to stand there, if only because of the smell of the joy emanating from Ororo. He had vowed to make her happy again, to take away all her worries, all her pain, at least as much as he could…for as long as he could.

“Yer still alive, huh?” Breaking away, but still holding to each other, Yukio playfully scrunched her face at the scowling Logan. “Well, with her here…”

“Yeah yeah, enough of yer yappin’,” he stepped upto her. “Now move.”

---

Day Hundred and Eight,

“Hank. Anything?” Logan shot up at seeing the blue furred doctor exit through his lab. He had waiting for Henry to finish running the tests while watching Xavier at work. The telepath, his hands hovering around either side of the prone Ororo’s head, was in deep concentration using his psychic skills to not only bolster old barriers and stops within her mind but also install new ones.

An wanted precaution, they were a necessity, just like the painkillers and muscle relaxants that Henry was subscribing to her now.

“I am sorry Logan.” No matter how many times they went through this, no matter how many people they broke such a news too, for a doctor it never grew easier to tell a person that the hope that they had given them had worked out to naught. “The…”
“Why? What happened?” He never got a chance to explain himself, his words cut off by the accusatory snarl of the Wolverine. “You told us you had somethin’, somethin’ that would help her. That’s why we came back here. An’ now yer tellin’ me was all for nothing.”
“Logan, please try to…”

-SNIKT-

“Don’t yu fuckin’ tell me to understand McCoy. Don’t you dare.” A clawed hand rose threateningly. “Yer not the one who has to see the pain in her eyes. She won’t show it when you tell her that you had her runnin’ around on a wild goose chase. Fuck, she does her best to hide it even frem me.”

“Logan the culture was promising,” Henry tried to interject. “But it only works in isolation. Once inside the subject body…”
“Subject. Body.” Even though he knew that it wasn’t his mistake, Logan was doing all he could to stop himself to launch himself and do bodily harm to the doctor…possibly even kill him.

“Logan,” Charles Xavier’s polished but currently drained voice sounded from behind the door. “Stop it.”

At seeing now movement, the Professor tried again, “Ororo is tired and needs to…”

-SNIKT-

He didn’t even get to complete his sentence before his claws sheathed, Logan stomped past him. Reaching the bed, he picked up the already asleep Ororo, leaning her head against his shoulder and without even so much as a look towards the other two men walked out of the infirmary.

----

Day Hundred and Forty-One,

“Daddy?!” Her head leaning in from the slightly open door, young Kendall Munroe-Logan whispered to he father, her wide eyes fearfully regarding her mother….or rather the way her entire lower body seemed to convulse uncontrollably.

“Ssshh princess,” Logan whispered back, his Adamantium laced leg over Ororo’s. Her body turned towards his, almost trying to disappear within him, Ororo was biting down on her lips almost as hard as she was gripping at her rock, both for keeping the intensity of her worsening condition from Kendall and to avoid crying out from the pain shooting up her lower back.

Tears appeared in the girl’s eyes, both from fear from seeing her mother like this and from a combination of smell of her pain and tears and from sensing the weather outside worsen in a reaction to her. “Mamma hurt?”

“N-No baby,” pulling whatever strength she had at that moment, Ororo gulped down hard and lifted her head to look at her daughter. “Jus-t tired.”

“Tired?”

“Yes,” the older snowed haired beauty nodded. “Remember how we went out to see Tokyo yesterday?”

“Yeah.”

Ororo prayed that her lie would work, thankful when Logan stepped in to take it up for her. “Well, mamma got tired. You wanna help her getting better?” He segue-wayed.

“Uh-Huh.”

“Then go and get Jubes to make us something ta eat.”

“Okay,” with one last look at her widely (a little too widely) smiling mother, the young girl hopped off, calling out to her still in lala-land older sister.

The second she was out of hearing range, Ororo fell back, almost as if it was suddenly too much to even keep her head back. “Thanks. I love you.”

“Love you too ‘Ro,” Logan growled huskily, his throat choked from seeing her like this.

“Love you too.”

---

Day Two Hundred and Seventy Seven,

“JAMES!!”

KRRAKKA-BOOOOMM!!

“James Monroe-Logan, you get your butt in here NOW!!” The slighter mature and more than a little annoyed angry, voice sounded across the corridor, followed by the scowling form of the feral weather manipulator Kendall Logan a.k.a. (the newly named) Torrent, as she stomped across the near empty hallway heading towards her younger brother’s room.

“James.” She yelled as she pushed open his room, only to find it empty, the bed and entire room littered with strewn clothes. “Jamie?!” The second time around it was much softer. About to leave, she stopped short, her enhanced senses catching the telltale sounds and smells of crying, both of which seemed to originate from the attached bathroom.

“Jami…ie?!” She trailed away as pushing open the door, her eyes widening at the sight of her younger brother before her. Sitting in the tub, his knees drawn close, his hand wrapped tightly around them, the young boy was shaking gently with the sobs wracking his body, the body that had gone a drastic change in the last few days.

Hearing the soft hail of his sister, the boy looked up and in a barely audible voice pleaded. “None of ‘em (*sniffle*) fit anymore.”

“Oh.” That was it? Such was her relief that even before she realized it, Kendall had broken into giggles the soft laughter soon giving way to full fledged guffaws.

“Yuck it up.” James pouted, more than a little peeved at his sister’s reaction. “Hmph.”

“I…I…am not,” despite her best efforts the chuckles did not seem to stop. “I am not laughing at you.”
“Uh-huh.” He did not believe her one bit, made clear by the way he pulled the towels around him doing his best to cover as much of himself as possible. Only recently having hit a slightly early puberty, James was still in the ‘shocked stupid’ phase, his nervousness causing him to shy away from everyone, sometimes even his own sister and father. If only...

“No,” walking up to the washtub, Kendall settled on the edge. “I am not.” Taking off her own exercise towel to drape around the shoulders of her sibling. Returning from her morning run with her dad, she had been on her way to the bath when she’d realized that all of the towels from her bathroom were missing. Even the extra stored ones. It did not take her three guesses to realize who it was. Hence her being here.


Getting an idea, a rather good one, she shot up. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Still pouting but somewhat relaxed, James groused. “Like I have somewhere else to go. I am not even going to leave the tub. Not ever.”

“Yes you are dumbo,” a light whack to the back of the head answered him. “I am just going to get some clothes for you to wear.”
“I ain’t wearin’ your fufu girly stuff.” Wide scandalized eyes pleaded to her.
“Oh man. You really are a dumbo. I am not getting you my clothes numnuts, but some of dad’s. You can wear them until we get you new ones.”
“What’s the use,” the self-blaming pout got plastered again. “They’ll only become small again.”

‘They’ll become small!!’ If he already didn’t look ready to burst out crying, Kendall would surely have had another laugh bout at that comment.

“Wait here okay.” She patted his cotton covered shoulder. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”

Almost at the door, Kendall stopped at her brother’s question. “Where’s dad?”

“Where he is always at this time of the day,” the soon to be young woman, looking even more and more like her mother, answered with a sad smile. “With mom.”

---

Elsewhere,

“…an’ he’s growing like a weed,” it was daily routine of his, one that he followed without fail. Starting his morning with waking up the two younger kids, he’d take them on a morning jog, letting them return from the one kilometer mark while he went on for another seven, going in a circuitous route one that brought him to the garden Ororo had started in and near the greenhouse they’d got built after they’d moved in here.

Though not as big as the one over at the Xavier mansion, it still sang alive with the love and care that the Goddess had lavished on her. And even though she wasn’t there anymore to continue to her work, Logan made it a point to do his best to do it for her, helped to a large extent by their daughter, who seemed to have inherited her mother’s green thumb.

Once there, he’d pick up a flower, usually a rose, one of the white ones. Whatever a white rose might signify to the others for Logan it always brought back the memory of the peace that he used to get on losing himself in her flowing tresses.

“Hank says his mutation’s got something to do with his pit-pitu…some gland of his. That and something in his bones, something he got from me. He says that within a couple of months he’ll be taller than Kendal and in a couple of years as much as y…” he trailed off momentarily, his hand falling to caress the flat surface.

He really missed her, even more so at this time of the day. He missed how she used to be the first thing his eyes would see when they opened in the morning. Her smooth as caramel, soft as silk hands gently caressing his face, as if trying to smooth away the darkness of the night and to wake him to the light that was her.

He still missed how her eyes used to light up when she laughed…and how every time she did that it would heal a little bit of his ravaged to near death soul.

He missed a lot, he missed a lot. But most all…

…he missed her just being there.

---

Note: I did not proofread (making any corrections) in this chapter. Couldn’t bring myself to do it. So for any spelling and/or grammatical mistakes….apologies.

Please Review…and let me know what sort of an epilogue should I give to Logan.

25. The End

Summary: Couldn’t decide which one to use, so decided to write both, but somewhere along the way things just went out of control. Read n’ let me know what you think and whether I should do the alternate one too. (Have it in mind but don’t think it will be as....well, whatever this one is.)

---

Of the three people walking up the broken path, two seemed to be trotting along, while the third? Well,…

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”
“No?”

“Yes. No. The same no that I gave you five minutes ago and two minutes before that and seven before…”
“Alright alright. I get it. No need to rub it in. Anyways its not my fault that we am getting bored. Its all…”

“Hey, don’t include me in your whining.” The third voice rose up. “I am fine the way we are. After all, how often do we get to come out here. Here in nature, free, clean…don’t you agree?”
“Yes.” (Deep breath). “Even the air, its like we are in a different world altogether.”

“Aw stop it already. You two are making me sick. Sheesh.”
“You do understand that you a feral, don’t you?”
“Yeah, so? What’s that got to do with anything?”
“What’s that got to do with? Ferals are supposed to love nature, the outdoors…all this.”
“Yeah, maybe outdoorsy ferals like you love all this….this outdoors, but me, I am a…”
“A mall-feral!!” Once again the third person cut in, the comment eliciting a chuckle from the older adult, much to the chagrin of the person on whom it was made.

“Ha Ha. Very funny…freak!!”
“You are the freak.”
“Nuh-uh. You are.”
“You are.”
“You.”
“You.”
“You. You. Youyouyouyou.”

“Hey! Stop it both of you.” The no-nonsense tone silenced the two.
“She started it.”
“Nuh-uh. He did.”
“She did.”
“He did.”
“She.”
“He.”
“Sh…”

“Hey! What did I just say.” This time it was ‘final warning’. “Ugh Goddess. I swear, this is the last time I am taking you to meet grandpa. The next time you want, there isn’t going to be a next time. Next time I will go alone myself and the two of you…you get extra school.”

Horrified at the prospect of school and that too during summer vacations, both youngsters screeched to a halt, their dumbstruck expressions made all the more comical…by how similar they were, so similar that only identical twins could have it. Good, because that is what they were. Identical brother and sister. Rose and Charles. Rose, a mutant, like her mother and maternal grandparents, while Charles the flatline…the human, like his father James McDonald Jr. Usually, the apples of their parents eyes, the look that their mother was giving them wasn’t at all apple-y.

“Mom!! No.” The dark auburn haired Rose whimpered, putting on her ‘trademark’ puppy-dog face for added effect. This look of hers was a sure hit, except with this person for unfortunately for seven year old Rose (and her brother), the puppy-dog was an expression that was well known to their mother. In fact, it was so well known that she could write the book on it…complete with the author’s name in bold lettering. Kendall Logan-McDonald.

“Hmph.” Even though she had said otherwise, Kendall would never make good on her threat. She wouldn’t do anything to take this time of the year from the children…and even from herself. This time was the time when along with her own demon spawn…ahem, jewels, she too got to return to a time when she was all but a little girl herself. A time before she everything changed, both for her and her brother, and for the man who she and the kids were on way to visiting…her father.

A time before their mother left them…all of them.

---

//Flashback//

‘Logan…Its time.’ The third voice, as calm as it was, was answered by nothing else but a snarl from the man in question.
‘Fuck you Chuck.’ The Wolverine wasn’t ready to listen, at least not to anyone external.

‘Logan.’ The soft, barely audible whisper of a thought sounded clear in his mind. ‘You’ve got to let go.’
‘NO.’ This time around, instead of anger it was utter and total hopelessness that called out loud, coming across clear as day between the mind-link that Xavier had formed between the two of them, between Logan and a fast slipping-away Ororo…for that was the only way that they could even converse, the only way they could feel each other. As for their physical selves, although he held her within his arms, Ororo had long crossed the line where her body would finally give up on sensation of any kind. Even though it had come as a respite from the severe tremors that were almost continuously rocked her with pain, it also took away from her feelings…she couldn’t even sense Logan (or anyone else) touching her.

‘’Ro…’ He pleaded, to her, to any god that might be hearing…to anyone. ‘Don’t go…please. Don’t leave me. Not now…not…’
‘I-I am with yo-ouu…’ even though her body had all but given out, even her eyes, still he could feel her tears, mixed with her love, for their children, for those around him, but most of all, for him…even now, that flame burned bright inside of her.

‘Logan.’ Xavier interjected again. Even though he wanted otherwise, the aging telepath knew that there was nothing he or anyone else could do now. But along with his grief, there was also worry…worry for Logan. He had to get Logan out and sever the link before Ororo thought her last thought. Otherwise there was more than a small chance the Logan too would get pulled away along with her.

‘Go.’ Logan sighed, a psychic sigh of dejection and peace at feeling Ororo’s hand caressing him. ‘Go…my love…my Wolverine.’

‘’Ro….’

//End Flashback//

---

“Hey! There’s grandpa.’ Charles piped up at seeing the his grandfather’s cabin and the two figures seated in front of it on the porch steps.
“And uncle James too,” Rose exclaimed at seeing the behemoth that was James Logan-Hewlett. “UNCLE JIMMY!” She cried out aloud.

In response both men stood up and started towards the trio, the elder Logan even at his six-feet two inches easily dwarfed by his giant of a son. From about three and half foot when his mutation first manifested itself, James had grown by leaps and bounds, finally leveling of a mind-boggling eight feet, three and a quarter inches. As his physical dimensions had grown, so had his muscle size and strength. Now, in his prime, he was truly a sight to behold, and as a leader of his own X-Team, an imposing presence against any enemy. Yet, as he was before the change, he was still the silent sort, and as always his link with the animals was still as strong as ever. Though not a part of his mutancy, Henry (Beast) had inferred that this link of his was a mixture of his father and mother’s links with nature.

None of that mattered now, as tearing up the last hundred or so feet, both Rose and Charles leapt up into their grandfather’s arms, all three of them falling down onto the soft grass in a ungainly heap of laughter and hugs.

“Grandpa-grandpa,” Charles exclaimed breathlessly, “Look what I made for you.” He drew out a small hand-painted ball from inside his jacket pocket. “Its of paper-mash. I made it myself. Now we can play catch with it, and even if I drop it, it won’t bounce away and get lost.”

“Sure kid.” The slightly graying Logan smiled at the young boy. “Its nice…”

Not to be left out, Rose stuck out her tongue at her twin and pushed herself in front of him. “Suck up. I made something better. It’s a…”

“Alright you two,” Kendall cut in, James looming up behind her. “Get up and help grandpa up too. And then pick up your bags and take them to your room. You know the one. And no fighting on who gets to sleep on which bunk.” At seeing no movement, she put on her mom voice. “NOW!”

“Yes ma’am.” And they were off.

---

“Hey old man.” Helping him up, the mother of two didn’t even allow her father to straighten up before falling into his arms, almost the same way as the youngsters had.

“Hey princess.” The familiar rumble, the one that had worked as a lullaby for her in her infancy, sounded to her.

In spite of herself, the tears just welled up, all the more when James stepped up to complete the family huddle.

“No fair.” Both Charles and Rose yelled from the second floor window. “And no crying!!”

“Mmoooomm,” and like clockwork the next ‘request’ came up. “Hungrrrry.”

“Coming coming,” Kendall shook her head, using the back of her hand to wipe her tears away. “Come on dad, Jimmy. Lets feed the monsters…and lets get something for ourselves too.”

“You two go,” Logan nodded towards the side of the cabin. “I’ll come in five.”


Though he did not say what he was staying back for, both Kendall and James knew what it was. It was something they had seen him do every day since their mom…went away. First it used to be at their home, where they had moved after leaving the mansion, and then when he left that too, after James turned eighteen and went off to college, it was here in his mountain cabin.

“Okay dad.” One last hug and Kendall accompanied her brother indoors.

---

“Hey darlin’.” Sitting down on the soft flat grass, next to the three foot by three foot granite surface, Logan gestured towards the house. “The kids ‘re here.”

There was nothing else to said…at least not aloud. For Logan, even though he had been alone for more than half his life, he was never quite alone, not anymore. Even if all that physically remained of wife, his Goddess was a handful of ashes (her body cremated in accordance with her beliefs), he could still feel her on the inside…he could still her voice.

Some might have called him crazy but those who had the power to read minds would notice something very different…something that Xavier himself had noticed, right after Ororo’s last thoughts had sounded from her own mind. It was a side-effect of Logan having lingered for too long in the link.

‘What d’ya say we go an’ join them.’ He smiled knowing what the answer would be, after all, he could sense the joy as if it was his own.

‘Yes…’ and sure enough the reply came, complete with the sultry accent that belonged to one particular person.

‘Yes my love…my Wolverine.’

---

Note: Now, I could do a ‘sappy-happy’ ending too, but I think that wouldn’t have the same effect as this one.

As for Logan’s situation and mind, took a bit from ‘Wolverine: The End’ mini. There its supposed to be that Logan has another presence in his mind, Xavier I think. Well, its not so here, meaning, its not Charles.

Regarding Kendall’s husband, James McDonald Jr. is a sort of OC character (son of James and Heather McDonald, both of whom are members of Alpha Flight in the comicverse)

Please Review….and in case this is the closer, thank you for all your thoughts n’ comments.

26. The End (Alternative 2)

Summary: Am probably flogging a dead horse, but with my recent (more than a month and a half of a slump), I needed something light (both in the mood and mental effort) to get my gears rolling again. Hope this works out.

---

“What are we-”
“Ssshh.”

“…”

“What I-”
“Ssshh!!”

“Hmph.”

Thump!!

“Wha-? What are you doing?”
“What do you think I am doing? Sitting dow-…mmph.”
“Sshh. I told you keep your voice down. This isn’t a game, and stop making those eyes at me. Understood? Speak up. Understoo-”

Pinch! Whack!!

“Ow. Wazzat for?”
“For not taking your paws off my mouth so that I could speak. An’ even more for smearing all that dirt there in the first place.”
“You do remember that you are a feral, don’t you?”
“Whatchu mean? Of course I remember…Grrr.”
“Ooh, the piddly growl. I am sooo scared.”

“Yeah well, at least I am not a crazepot like you. I seriously don’t understand what are we even doing up so early. And why do you even need me here? It’s not like you need me to use my powers to get ‘im anyway. You can do that on your own.”
“Huh? Oh!”

“What? Wha-Why are you looking that way?”

“I am just checking if the sun is rising from the right side…”
“Why wouldn’t it rise from-”
“…‘cause you complemented me. Me!”

Whack!!

“Ha ha. Very funny. Not!”

At first glance, it would seem that the two teenagers, one girl and one boy, were just standing around, well, crouching around, spending their time bickering as siblings are so wont to do…that is except for the almost three foot long growing around them.

What they were doing was something entirely different. They were tracking. Not any wildlife, neither for amusement or for prey…they were tracking something, or rather someone else. They were tracking the Oh-so-elusive wolverine. Elusive just not because of where they were, slam bang in the middle of the African Serengeti, but also because it just happened that this specific Wolverine was not only one of the most un-trackable specimens but also their grandfather, their grandpa Logan.

“Hrrm. Come on mall-cat.” Swiveling away, the taller of the two, fourteen and a half year old, Charles McDonald, started to move in the direction they were heading before their minor squabble. “Let’s get tracking. I want to get him before-”
“Don’t you mean ‘try’ to get him,” he frowned at the correction that came from his sister identical twin, Rose. Well, identical except for her dark-auburn hair against his jet black and her lighter skin tone against his darker one. Already on the duskier side, the month of so long stay with their grandfather had given Charles a killer tan. Thankfully enough, their eyes were the same deep blue ones, a gift from (depending on which twin one asked) from either father or their maternal grandmother.

“Hmph. Whatever.” Charles didn’t feel the least bit happy about his sister’s quip. “At least with me you’d actually have a chance, otherwise by yourself, you’d sooner find a Macys than grandpa…and that too here in the wild.”

“Phbbbt.” Rose stuck her tongue at her twin. It wasn’t her fault if she was born with a shopping gene, one seemingly even more potent than the x-one that made her a mutant, something that her ‘human’ brother was not. If that wasn’t enough by itself, her aunt Jubilee had helped her hone her bargaining skills to a lethal weapon…so much so that she could take down track an ‘On Sale’ sign from a mile away.

“Nice comeback.” Charles shot back even without looking at her. “Now start sniffing. I can sense he’s near by.”

“How’d you know-” A cursory draw of breath and Rose stopped mid-sentence, her easy stance going rigid as she caught the familiar scent of cigar smoke. It was almost faded, but to her above average sensory skills it was as clear as day. “Got him,” she growled under her breath.

“Not quite.” She tilted her head to see her brother flop down on the ground next to her. Following his line of sight, she looked up only to frown at the sight before her. Not twenty feet from the two of them, about five feet off the ground, lounging in the shade of an older than dirt, Acacia tree was their intended ‘target’.

“Aww man.” Rose fell down alongside Charles. More than an hour’s worth of tracking, not to mention the twenty plus miles they had covered, and it all came to nothing. Nada. Zilch.

“This sucks.” Went Charles.

“This blows.” Supplied Rose.

Seeing the older man leap down from the tree and come towards them, the dup started to get up, suddenly feeling very lethargic and tired. That they still had to get back to home…by foot, only added to the tiredness of defeat.

“What gran’pa,” Charles was the first to pipe up. “You couldn’t have let us win just this once.”
“Yeah,” Rose jumped into the fray too. “Now I to crybaby here whine how you are the only person he can’t seem to win from.” She gestured towards her twin.

“Yea-HEY! Who’re you calling crybaby, you dumbass.”

“You, who else, you-”

“Hey, enough of that.” Logan cut in before things went any further. ‘Them two’ll never stop this by themselves.’ “Yer scaring the critters.”

“Sorry grandpa.” The two quibblers apologized but without making faces at each other.

“Now come on,” Logan nodded his head towards the general direction they were to go in. “We gotta get back. Breakfast’s ready.”

“Oh, wha-you can smell that?” Rose queried taking a deep breath to try and catch a whiff for herself and scowling when she couldn’t, her question and actions causing Charles to burst out laughing.

“Nope,” Logan knew better than to feed the fire. “Yer mom told me,” he pulled out an X-insignia bearing communicator. “Now come on, let’s go, our ride’s here…” he gestured up, looking up to the skies, his lips curving up into a smile as he did so.

“Yay!” Both teens hooted at not having to trek all the way back to the village, or rather its outskirts where they were living.

“Go Gran'ma ‘Roro!”

---

Twenty-nine years and a few months ago,

‘Logan…Its time.’ Barely had the thoughts reached out, did the returning snarl get projected back him. Yet, even now, especially now, even with his own composure wavering on the brink of crashing, Charles Xavier knew what had to be and that it was up to him to be the one to convey the message.
‘Fuck you Chuck.’ The Wolverine wasn’t ready to listen, at least not to anyone external.

‘Logan.’ The soft, barely audible whisper of a thought floated across to him. ‘We can stop, even now. We can. I…’
‘NO!’ This time around, instead of anger it was utter and total hopelessness that called out loud. Yet, even though his presence was on the periphery, even Charles could sense the Adamantium strong resolve underneath.

It had not been an easy journey, least of all for the two people across the glass partition from him. Even though physical sensation had all but left her, both Ororo and Logan had been sadly thankful for it, for even if she could barely feel his (or anyone else’s) touch now, no longer did Ororo have to bear the severe tremors that grown in both intensity and frequency over the last five and a half months.

//Flashback//

Accepting and to an extent, making peace with the inevitable, the two of them weren’t all that surprised (or hopefully elated) when during one of their weekly visits to the infirmary, Henry had he had yet another idea that might work out to help Ororo. However, it took only ten minutes before the -snikt- of claws rang out in the lab and had it not been for Xavier’s mental blocks on Ororo, so would have lightning.

“You want to freeze her?” Had been Logan’s snarl, disbelief clear in his tone.

“Logan-” Henry had sighed. He had anticipated such a reaction. “That would be oversimplifying it. Cryo…”
“No.” Ororo had weakly shaken her head. An effort for her, it was a clear indication of her thoughts on the subject.

“How long?” A simple question, just two words and both Henry and Ororo were surprised and shocked respectively by the sudden change in Logan’s demeanor. “How long will she have to stay that way?”
“Logan, no…” Ororo flailed her hand towards him, grabbing and tugging at his shirtsleeve to get him to look at her. “Ple…”

Staring into her eyes and the tears rising in them, Logan steeled himself and asked again. “How long Hank?”

“I-I…it is difficult to say. Until a time we get a cure.”

“Weeks? Months? Years?”

“At least a few years.”

“A few years.” There was a momentary crack in the feral Canadian’s voice, but only just. A second later it was gone, replaced by a resolve, one that he knew that he would need, not only to get himself through it, but also convince Ororo. “We’ll do it.”

“No, we won’t.” Ororo’s denial was just as quick.

“’Ro-”

“No.” This time around it was Ororo’s turn to look away from him and had it been possible for her, she would have not only stood up, but actually flown away from the room.

“Ororo-” Hank started only to stop at the set of Ororo’s jaw. Looking up at Logan, he gave a slight nod before standing up from his chair. “I will leave you two alone to discuss this. Please…” he so much wanted to help one of his oldest and closest friends, and if only he had the time, he was sure that he could come up with a working cure for her affliction.

He needed time.

//Flashback//

Lost within each other, neither Logan nor Ororo noticed the third entrant into the room; not until walking up to the specially designed ‘cryogenic chamber’ that she lay in, Henry placed a blue fur covered hank on Logan’s shoulders.

“Its time my friend.” Maintaining the mind link, Xavier repeated the doctor’s words to the couple.

‘Logan…’ Ororo sighed, not wanting to let go of the warmth of peace and love that was surrounding her and Logan.

‘’Ro-’ Logan’s thoughts were just as torn. If only he could have had a few more days with her…if only. However, seeing her worsening condition, Beast had advised that the sooner they put her in Cryogenic Stasis the better the chance it would be of her body being able to salvage itself later on.

‘I love you.’

‘Ditto darlin’. Love you too.’

---

Twenty-seven years, almost twenty-eight...almost three decades, that is how long he had lived without her. No, not lived. Merely existed. True there were moments of happiness, like the day James finally grew taller than him, Kendall’s graduation, her marriage, then James’s…Kendall getting married to Mac’s kid, having a couple of kids of her own...James marrying an almost five year older Amiko, the birth of their daughter. There had been quite a few, but even in the joy of the time, there was always something, someone missing…for him at least.

He never left their house, he could not…after all, how else could he follow his daily routine of visiting her every morning and night, just sitting beside her, watching her ‘sleep’ while he told her about the events of the day, or just talked to her.

Sleeping Beauty…his sleeping beauty, how long had he waited for a chance to kiss her and wake her up. How long.

An’ now that he had her back, all thanks to Henry and Amiko’s research and some ingenious though still illegal gene splicing. In the end, her own blood came to her rescue…or rather her blood that coursed through Kendall’s veins. Even now, even after more than a year, Logan still amazed at how something so good came from something as bad as MGH, Mutant Growth Hormone. Sold and used as a drug, it had been the MGH or rather the exact methodology of how it worked that had set Hank and Amiko on the path that had ultimately led to them finding the cure…no, the combatants to battle and win against the disease destroying Ororo’s body.

Roused almost a lifetime after she had ‘gone to sleep’, Ororo had patiently gone through the lengthy and many a time painful gene therapy, all while trying to catch up with all that she had missed. While there had been many sad and tearful moments like when she came to know about Xavier’s passing away or realizing that she had been out for so long that not only had her children grown up, they had also married and started their own families. Kendall, her headstrong daughter was not only a mother herself now; she was almost as old as Ororo herself.

Still, in the end, the good outweighed and outlasted the bad…and all with an added benefit. Though not as potent, Kendall’s healing factor not only bolstered Ororo’s resistance but also cut her recovery time by almost half.

---

Present,

Ferried by their grandmother’s winds, the twins did not even wait long enough to touch ground before taking off running towards the relatively small yet spacious house that serves as the Logans summer home.

Propelled by their growling stomachs, neither of them waited for the two adults following them…for both of them knew what was to come next, and just as yucky as it is for a teen to see or even think about their parents making out (or worse, doing IT), going one up with their grandparents was down right freaky.


“Hmm.” Drawing his wife into his arms and taking a deep breath of her heady pheromones, Logan growled lustily. “Smells nice…good enough to eat.”
“Uh-huh,” even though she knew exactly what Logan implication was for, Ororo nevertheless put forth an innocent front. “James made the breakfast. We should hurry before it gets cold.”

“Cold?” Leaning in to nibble at her ear lobe, Logan rumbled at the way Ororo just melted into him. “Don’t seem like its getting’ any cold to me. Only hot.”

Quickly losing themselves in each other, the two stopped short at a shrill hail from within the house. “MOM! DAD!! Come’n get it.” Kendall called out aloud. “Before the twin tornadoes blow through everything.”


“…”

“What do you say we join them?” Ororo caressed his unshaven cheek, gently curling her fingers through the slightly graying hair.

“Uhn.” Logan frowned half-heartedly. “Yeah, sure. Man’s gotta eat…and so does his woman.”
“Ooh…his woman,” Ororo mock-swooned before smacking one muscled shoulder. “You know Mr. Caveman, it’s a good thing that I love you so much. Otherwise-”

“Love you too ‘Ro.” Even more so than ever before, Logan never a let chance go to tell it to her. They had gotten a second chance and just as she, he too intended to make the most of it.

“Ditto my love, ditto my Wolverine.’

---

Note: Well, this is the El Whacko-Loco, El Sappy ending that I had in mind (as the alternate) to this fic. As with the happiness in the other ‘sad’ one, this one has its share of angst and sadness (i.e. the missed years). However, while in the other one Rose and Charles (Kendall’s children) are seven years old, here they in their teen. The age and time difference is to explain the years spent in getting a working ‘cure’.

Now, let’s just hope that this helps me kick start my stalled to death fic-writing.

Please Review!!