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“We should tell the Professor,” Jean’s comment had not affect on the woman standing not feet away from her, her gaze and attention stuck at the lone figure sitting at the base of the stairs of the impressive mansion they were currently staying in.

“Ororo,” Jean called again as she pushed herself off her bed and walked to her friend. It was only when she came to stop next to her and laid a hand on her shoulder did Ororo snap out of her almost hypnotic state, her eyes still not ready to leave their vigil.

“He has been out there for almost an hour now,” she whispered softly, her fingers grasped around the box Logan had handed to her.

Finishing the story of how they first met, Logan was interrupting by the chime of the cuckoo clock in the kitchen, its twelve chirps telling him that it was midnight and maybe time to retire for the night. Reluctantly both him and Ororo ended their talk, with Jean relegated to an almost absent presence. Their reluctance rose from different reasons. While Ororo wanted to know everything about the two lost years of her life and about her daughter, Logan just wanted to throw his arms around his wife and hold her close, breathing in her sweet vanilla and sandalwood scent and make love to her. However, her hesitation towards him and the fact she had not asked a single question about their time together, told him not to do so. Besides it was too early….even he understood that.

“And you have been standing here for just about the same time…” Jean arched an eyebrow at her friend. “….holding that box. Why don’t you open it and see what is inside it. He’s already given you the documents and photographs, and even though all of them maybe forgeries….”
“Jean,” Ororo turned to look at her friend, seemingly put off by her insinuation. She had had the same thoughts, regarding the documents and the photographs. She would have believed that…had it not been for a living breathing mocha skinned, snow haired child she had seen with her own eyes and felt with her own hands.

“Just listen to me Ororo,” Jean was feeling incredibly lost without her telepathy. Once they had entered the house, Logan had informed them that they could take off their telepathic inhibitors, not because he trusted them or felt safe on his turf, but because the entire house was rigged with one super-sized inhibitor, effectively cutting it off from any telepathic intrusions.
“Yes Jean,” Ororo sighed as she finally moved away from the window and settled at the edge of the bed Jean had been laying on. All the four x-men were given separate but conjoined rooms. This was Ororo’s room with Jean and Kitty’s on either side of this one and Sam’s across the corridor.
“I think we should contact the Professor and ask him for help. Maybe he can find something to prove or disprove Logan’s claims.”
“Claims?” It was Ororo’s turn to arch her snow colored eyebrow. “Which claims? The one about me being with him for over two years? About Kendall and my obvious kinship? Or about what I said to your father?”

“About yours and Logan’s marriage,” Jean hit on the one point that Ororo had managed to avoid, the slightest flinch on the older woman’s face telling her it had been deliberate.
“I-I don’t…” Ororo fumbled for words. “I don’t want to think about it right now.”
“But will have to,” Jean shot back. “Sooner or later, you will have to. What will you do when Logan wants to pick up from where you guys seemingly left off. I say when and not if, because believe me, he will. Even you can see that much. See how his behavior changed when he came to know that you did not remember anything about your supposed time together. He instantly went from cold and aloof to sappy, which from my personal perspective was incredibly unnerving seeing happen to a man like him.”

Ororo had not answer for her redheaded teammate. She had seen it for herself. Where once the man they knew only as Wolverine was ready to slice her head off, the man calling himself Logan had professed his love for her, not by his words, but by his actions and the various proofs he had laid out in front of her.

“I don’t…” she started to deny again, her words turning to a gasp as she flipped open the box grasped within her hands. “Jean,” she looked up, her shaking hand reaching into the box to draw out something very small, seemingly very fragile.
“What is….Oh god,” Jean’s grew silent herself at seeing what lay in the center of Ororo’s outstretched palm. It was a ring….a gold and platinum, diamond engraved wedding ring.

Both women stared at the shiny band for what seemed like hours, their stupor only broken by Ororo’s palm closing over the ring.
“Try it,” Jean blurted out unceremoniously.
“What?” Ororo’s hand stopped midway to the box.
“Try it,” came the repeat answer. “Lets see if it fits.”
“Why? Then what?”
“Well,” Jean fumbled for the reason different from the most obvious one. “If it doesn’t, we’ll know its not yours and that maybe Logan is lying.”
“And it does fit….” Ororo trailed off.
“Then…then….just try it,” Jean finally gave up and stepped to grab the ring for herself. She was now going to get Ororo to try the ring on, and she was ready to use her telekinesis for it.

Giving into her friend’s insistent badgering and her own curiosity, Ororo brought the band to her ring finger and slowly started to slid it in, hiding it from Jean’s eyes.

“Well,” Jean looked at her expectantly. “What…?” She did not get a chance or need one as Ororo presented her ringed hand to her.

Right in front of her, glimmering as if it belonged there, was the ring….it was a perfect fit.

-----

Over in the next room,

“So like Ms. Monroe is married to Wolverine,” Kitty had just sat down to gossip with the on the prowl Jubilee. Both girls were too hopped up on excitement and in Jubilee’s case sugar to get to sleep so soon.

“Yup,” Jubilee nodded. “Your Ms. Monroe isn’t a miss. She’s a Mrs., has been for more than four years now.”
“Wow?” Kitty was still in somewhat shock, her imagination still unable to completely comprehend how someone as sophisticated and level headed as her had managed to not only become involved but also marry someone like the Wolverine, one of the most infamous yet unknown mutants in the world. Unknown because by the time a person knew enough to attach a face to the Wolverine myth, his or hers life was about to reach an untimely end. Mr. Summer had said that he had worked as an assassin, a trained killer, but a killer nonetheless….and Ms. Monroe abhorred killing.

“Yup,” Jubilee nodded over a mouthful of bublicious bubble gum. “I thought she’d be kind of a heartless bitch.”
“Why?” Kitty asked in surprise and with more than the slightest of annoyance. Not only was Ororo her teammate, she was also her favorite teacher and the closest thing that the young sheltered girl had to a mother. When she had arrived at the institute almost two and a half years ago, it was Ororo who helped her get settled in. In fact, it had been her who had accompanied Charles to her house to present her parents with a choice to send their newly powered-up daughter to a school where she and others like her learned to control their gifts.

“Well, its not like I know her,” Jubilee flopped onto the bed as if she belonged right there, lying on her stomach, her head resting between her crossed arms. “I mean, I knew what she looked like, but what kind of a mother would she be to just leave her eight month old daughter and disappear into thin air. Hell, if it hadn’t been for X, the squirt woulda squirted away to heaven. Not to mention what she did with Wolvie. The man loved her like crazy and she just chucked it all away for what, to go back to those goody two shoes Professor Cueball, One-Eye and Ms. Small boobs-wearing wonder bra.”
“What?” Kitty cried out in exasperation. She knew which three people Jubilee was talking about. “Its not….”
“I mean your Professor bald-head Xavier, Scooter Summers and Jeannie Grey-hair,” Jubilee came up with yet another series of nicknames. “Don’t tell me you can’t tell her tits aren’t that big. She wears a water bra for sure. What is she trying to do by that, she might as well stuff socks in there.”

“Why? Do you do that?” Kitty shot out, remembering the time she had done the same herself.
“Wha-I-It doesn’t matter what I do or don’t do,” Jubilee was quick to recover. “Anyways I am just entering my teens, its allowed for me. Not with an old maid like Marvel Girl. Sheesh, even her codename is a whimpy one.”
“She is called Phoenix now,” Kitty clarified, scolding herself for enjoying the animated turn the gossip had taken. She missed this in school. Most of the women around her were either older than her or into things that didn’t quite gel with her likings.
“Yeah, like that’s any better,” Jubilee scoffed. “It perfectly matches her boyfriend’s codename. Cyclops, perfect for one-eye. You do know what Cyclops and one-eye stand for don’t you?” She asked suspicious of the ‘street’ knowledge of the prim and proper Kitty.
“Uh, yes,” Kitty quickly nodded, her ears turning crimson as a deep blush ran through her.

“Yeah, like I was saying,” Jubilee flipped back to the point she was making before she was detoured into explaining body parts to the older Kitty. “I always thought this Ororo woman was a real heartless bitch. You know, someone like a female version of Magneto or one of those Friends of Humanity dickheads or even that dump-hole Stryker. I mean, I know Kendall, and believe me when I tell you, when she is in the swing of her things, you will thank the gods that you are not her mother, but still, the quarter pounder is a good kid, real cuddly most of the times, and especially good for shopping bonanzas. How could she leave her?”
“But you heard…” Kitty tried to step in with her thoughts, but was washed away in the deluge of Jubilee’s voluminous vocal flow.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, she lost her memory,” Jubilee flipped her hand. “I can understand that….I guess. Its just that….” The way the Chinese girl suddenly trailed away intrigued Kitty immensely. She could sense that below her boisterous exterior, Jubilee was hiding some deep pain.

“You have parents?” The question and the sudden change of line startled Kitty.
“Why-uh-Yes,” she nodded, not knowing where this was going to lead to.
“Alive?” That was enough to make things clear for her.
“Mine died,” Jubilee revealed quietly. “I was almost eleven then. The cops said it was a car accident and that my dad was driving drunk. But I know that that’s all a lie. My dad never drunk, not a single day in his whole life. Mom too.”
“I-I’m sorry,” was all Kitty could say.
“Yeah, well, that’s life,” Jubilee took put the stale bubblegum and chucked it into the trash can. “But you know what?” She dropped her ever present goggles over her eyes to hide the tears brimming there.
“What?”
“Even though I miss her and know that I am never going to get to see her again, I still have memories of hers; memories that help me get up whenever I slip into the dumps….like I am doing right now,” she added in a deliberate effort to lighten things up. “When I see Kendall, even with everyone loving her, her dad, her older sisters, X, me, Kirika, Roguey, Amiko and all the others….”
“You still feel the absence of her mother,” Kitty completed finally understanding what Jubilee had been leading too.
“Umm-hmm.”

Silence reigned for the next few moments as both girls remembered their parents and thanked for all they received from them, not the materialistic things, but the emotions, the care…..the love.

“Enough moping,” Jubilee threw her hands up into the air. “How old are you?”
“What? Why?” Kitty was half-afraid to answer.
“How. Old. Are. You.” The repeat was slow and deliberately stressed on.
“Sixteen,” Kitty answered hesitantly.

“Sixteen,” Jubilee eyed her as if not believing her answer.
“Umm-hmm,” Kitty nodded warily, her suspicions confirmed at Jubilee’s next words.

“Got laid yet?”

-----

“Penny for your thoughts?” The cultured voice of his blue furred friend drew Logan’s attention to him. Had it been some other time, he would have caught his scent from a mile away. Right now….right now he could bowl him over with a feather and Logan wouldn’t know it.

“One penny too many,” Logan’s answering grunt and his slight movement to the left told Beast that it was alright if he wanted to sit down.

Moving with the grace that his name warranted, Beast or Hank as he was otherwise known as, settled himself down next to the deep in thought Logan. Having lived the better part of two years in this place, Hank knew enough about the man sitting next to him, to know that if he wanted to speak about something, he would come out and say it by himself, he couldn’t be forced into anything.

He had also seen how he still loved his wife, the mother of his youngest child, the woman he had planned on spending the rest of his days with….and how she had left him, left them, leaving them in a lurch….deliberately. Or so they had thought, until a couple of days ago. It was on one such night that Logan told him an abridged version of his entire existence, of his failures, his losses, his gains, his plans….everything. He also told him how he had come home one day to find a near panicked Laura and a bawling Kendall, both girls agitated and calling out for their mother. In Laura’s case, it was not so much a matter of her crying as it was of her losing control over the ever present rage inside of her, a rage that her ‘genetic’ father and her ‘heart’ mother were helping her subdue and control over.

In her near berserker state, Laura explained to him that even though she fed, burped and even cleaned the infant Kendall, she still could not get her to shut up. She wanted her mother and if was almost seven hours after when Ororo was supposed to return.

His instincts split between rushing after his mate or caring for his cub, the Wolverine in Logan gave up things to the man. Getting Kendall to sleep had been easy enough. She was tired after hours of crying and feeling the familiar arms and scent of her father enveloping her, she nuzzled into his chest, her eyes closing and breathing growing even within seconds.

Once she was asleep, Logan strapped her into the child seat in his truck, told Laura to stay at home incase Ororo called or came back, and left for the last destination his wife was headed for….Calgary.

It was from there that his search started, one that finally ended on a rainy night in Westchester, New York. He left his girls with his friend Elektra and went alone to do reconnaissance and if possible retrieve his wife from the people who he assumed had kidnapped her. What he saw there was the last thing he expected….what his eyes saw and his ears heard breaking his heart into a million pieces.

//Flashback//

“Ororo dear,” Elaine Grey walked over to the stunningly beautiful and newly returned x-woman, her husband John accompanying her.
“Mrs. Grey, Mr. Grey,” Ororo greeted graciously, the clear uneasiness in her smile instantly clear to the eavesdropping Logan.

“Please child, call me John,” Professor Grey smiled a fatherly smile. “Mr. Grey reminds me of the gray hair on my head.”

Both women laughed at that. Everyone knew about the elder Grey’s humorous nature, the self-deprecating kind being his specialty.

“How are you feeling?” Elaine laid a hand against Ororo’s, her eyes showing genuine concern.
“Better,” once again Ororo smiled that uneasy smile, this time in an effort to mask her reluctance at discussing about the topic.

“Have you….” John’s incomplete question was enough to let Ororo know what he was talking about, but not Logan.

“No,” Ororo shook her head, her next words and the firmness with which they were spoken breaking Logan’s heart into a million pieces. “I’d rather not. I just want to forget the last two years. Its all like a dream,” Ororo said, referring to the ones she had been having lately, the ones in which she saw herself in different places, with different people, sometimes even with a family of her own. “Its like a bad dream…one that I can’t wait for forget, leave it all behind and move on with my life.”

//End Flashback//

“Logan,” Hank’s voice brought him back to the present, his eyes widening in surprise at seeing his claws unsheathed and sticking out from between his knuckles.
“Sorry Hank,” he mumbled an apology, drawing the claws back in. “Just thinkin’.”
“Something you want to talk about?” Hank offered easily, hoping that Logan would take him up on his offer.
“No, yeah, don’ know,” Logan flipped around the answer.

“I understand,” Henry sighed. Patting Logan’s shoulder, he got up. “Good night my friend.”

He had barely taken a couple of steps, when, “Hank,” Logan’s voice stopped him.
“Yes,” he turned to find Logan looking at the window of the room that had been assigned to Ororo. “I did the right thing, right? I mean bringing her….telling her….showing Kendall…”
“Yes,” the doctor’s reply was instant.
“I guess so,” that reply told Hank that there was something more on the way. “Then….then why do I feel I shouldn’ta done it.”

“Logan…” Henry started to say something, stopping stupefied as Logan continued.

“Why do I want her to get the hell away from here?”

Note: The previous chapter was a look into the past, Logan and Ororo’s first meeting…sort of, while this one was set in the present. Will be using both these techniques and the ever present an’ trusty ‘flashbacks’ to keep the story chugging along.

Hope you liked it….as for the your thoughts about it, you know what to do with them!!





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