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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.





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