So, okay, I have sensitive hearing. And a phenomenal sense of smell. It's not like it's my fault or anything. I didn't ask to be able to hear a pin drop at 500 yards, for fuck's sake, or to be able to track a kid through a sandstorm just by a scent. Everyone's been giving me this look like I'm some kinda bastard, but really, it's not my fault. I just can't stick around all the time, when it's like this. I gotta get out, get away from the cooped-up, noise-enhancing indoors, and out into the open air for a while. I always come back, usually after only a few hours, give a guy some credit. I just need a break sometimes. Anyone would. Anyone.

Even Marie. Sometimes even she wants a break. She doesn't get given the oh-how-could-you-be-going-out-at-a-time-like-this looks. She gets sympathy. It ain't fair, just 'cause I'm a guy, and I'm me, and therefore I'm some kinda cruel, insensitive... Okay, okay, I know, I shouldn't take it so hard, but it just annoys me sometimes.

And just 'cause I went to a freakin' bar the other day, they've been givin' me the extra hard I-know-I-couldn't-kick-your-ass-but-I'd-sure- as-hell-like-to-try looks. I wasn't plannin' to go, but Marie ordered me - what the hell else was I supposed to do? She said she couldn't stand me mopin' around for one more second, and if I didn't go out and get a goddamned drink or several, she wouldn't be responsible for her actions. Her words. So I went out - wouldn't you? The next night, they dragged her out - Jubes, Kitty, Jeannie, and 'Ro - and gave me these looks, like I was some kinda thing they'd found under a rock. Geez.

I don't think she even wanted to go. Well, okay, she was pretty happy when she got back, so I guess it did her some good, but she hadn't been complaining in the first place. Before you even think it, no, she hadn't been hidin' it, either. I'm not dumb. Yes, I'm a guy, and yes, I'm not a pansy, ass-whipped, New Man kinda idiot like Scooter, but I. Ain't. Dumb. I can see when my woman is tryin' ta hide somethin' from me that's buggin' her. Marie - she's learned never to try that sorta shit with me, not after I got through to her just how offended I was gonna be if she did. I guess the others ain't got that sorta relationship in their lives, though, 'cause they all seem to think she's bein' noble or somethin'. I try to tell 'em: look, she's happy, and I'm makin' sure of that - it's my fuckin' occupation at the moment. But it hasn't penetrated certain thick skulls as yet.

But anyways, like I said, somedays I can't stand the noise, and especially the smell. Those things reek, believe me. That's how it all started, if you have ta think of it like a story: the smell. There was this appallin' smell, creepin' into the mansion one morning. I caught it when I was goin' down to breakfast. No one else seemed to have noticed it, but they're not as sensitive as me - when it comes to smellin' stuff, I mean. Just a brief whiff, so I thought nothin' of it - lots of things smell bad, you know, when you've got good senses. Went past the front door again later on my way outta the dinin' hall, and it was still there. Marie ran into me there, and she said I looked puzzled, so then I decided to check it out. Told Marie to stay in the house, but that woman's never listened to reason. It was worse outside, comin' from the direction of the gates. Went down there, tryin' to persuade Marie to go back all the way, but no such luck, and when we got there I was glad for once that I hadn't succeeded. The smell was chronic, even Marie could detect it just about by then. It was comin' real nice and strong from a basket in the bushes by the gate. I ain't never been precognitive, but just then I got an awful feeling... Marie opened up the blankets, and I tried not to guess.

"Is it a stink bomb?" I asked, more hopefully than expectantly. Marie shook her head, shock on her face. Then she reached in and pulled it out. A wrigglin', smelly, whingein' little critter. A baby.

Hallelujah. My morning was complete.

"I think it needs changin'," said Marie, statin' the obvious.

"Put it back, maybe someone left it by mistake," I said. I think maybe I was panickin'. Marie chose to ignore my advice, which was probably a good thing in retrospect.

"I'm scared it might touch me - could you carry it?" She held the thing out, and it looked at me resentfully.

"You'll be okay," I said, tryin' not to sound like a sissy.

"Come on, Logan, it's just a baby. It's adorable. It won't hurt you."

Against my better judgement, and in the full knowledge that I'd have to burn this shirt, I took the kid. Marie smiled wistfully at us, and I could see she was thinkin' about the kids she'd never be able to have.

I looked down at the kid. The kid gazed up at me, all wide, teary eyes. And it chucked up. All down my shirt.

Yeah. Fuckin' adorable.

---

Jeannie gave the kid the once-over in the med lab, but there was nothin' the matter with it - or her, as it turned out. There was still some baby stuff around that Nathan had grown out of, some jumpsuit sorta things, so they dressed her in it, even managed to find some diapers, thank god. I thought she smelled bad outside, but inside it was enough to make my eyes water. I was kinda irritated when Jeannie said she'd carry her to Chuck's office. I found her. They needn't have looked so surprised when I said I'd carry her. I mean, I'd wiped the worst off me, but I knew the shirt was a goner, so I might as well. Aside from the first bit, she hadn't wriggled too much, and she was a whole better ball game now she'd been changed. She even smelled sorta nice - all baby powder and innocence. So Jeannie handed her over, and when we got to Chuck's office I sat her on my lap, just 'cause it made Scooter look even more constipated than usual. Jiggled her up and down like I'd seen people do, and that seemed to throw 'em all nicely. Kid gurgled a bit, seemed content enough. I began to think this baby lookin'-after thing wasn't too difficult.

Well, I didn't know, did I?

Marie read out the note that we'd found in the basket:

"This is Amiko. Please take care of her. I think she is a mutant. I can't keep her. Don't try and contact me." Brief and to the point, I guess - if a little short on hard facts. No obvious mutation about her, so I guessed one of the parents musta been a mutant or something.

Chuck smiled at Amiko, and she burped in his general direction. "Well?" he asked. That's the thing about Chuck. He knows to listen to everyone before he says what he's decided. He's pretty canny, even though I never say it out loud.

"I think we should try to find out who the mother is," said Scooter. "We need to find out if she's okay. We can try to do it without contacting her. The fact that she's left her child here implies that she may well be in some trouble herself."

Jeannie disagreed, saying that since the kid looked to be at least a coupla months old, and in good health, then surely the mother couldn't be in that bad a situation. Chuck said we should look anyway, but I think he was pretty sure we wouldn't find her. I mean, it's not as if we coulda contacted the authorities or anything - they hadn't passed that damn Mutant Registration Act yet, but it was gettin' more and more support. It wouldn't be safe to put the poor little thing into care.

Then they got onto talkin' about who was gonna look after her. "It might be best if Jeannie and I took care of her," Scooter said. He really seemed to be tryin' to piss me off, doin' his 'I'm team leader so I've gotta be responsible for everything' routine. I'd seen the looks Marie'd been throwin' in the kid's direction, and I'd had an idea that I sorta thought I might regret. But Marie was agreein' along with the others, with her big, sad eyes, and I knew I had ta do somethin'.

"Why?"

"What?" Scooter didn't catch on, so I explained further:

"Why would it be best if you and Jeannie looked after her?"

Scooter looked flummoxed. "Well, because we have experience-"

"So? What happens if you don't find the mom? You gonna keep her?"

"Well-" he looked at Jeannie for support, but I think Jeannie had got an idea of what I was drivin' at, and she wasn't sayin' anything out loud. "No. I suppose not. But who else is going to look after her?"

"We could. Marie an' me." I looked at Marie, and she was just starin' at me. I was suddenly worried that I'd read her wrong. "You want to, dontcha?"

"Oh, yes," she said, and I breathed a sigh of relief - inwardly, of course. "But I can't - Logan, my skin..."

"So you'd have ta be careful. Big deal. You were careful around Nathan. You're careful around me, and we get pretty close sometimes." She blushed at that, which was kinda cute. She wanted to, which was answer enough for me. We could work out the technical stuff later, but I knew she'd be extra-careful around a kid, and she never had any problems with Nathan. Scott and Jeannie - well, they had Nathan, and they weren't really expectin' to look after another kid any time soon, so they wouldn't be missin' out or anythin'. If they were honest, they'd probably admit that havin' two rugrats around wouldn't be easy on 'em. There wasn't anyone else who'd be an obvious better choice. If it came to givin' her back - well, we'd cross that bridge if we came to it. Chuck had the deciding vote, so I asked him. "Well?"

He stared at me for a good long while, but I don't think he was readin' me. I can sorta feel it when he does that. It was more of a thinkin'-about-it stare. Chuck don't rush inta things; unlike me, I guess. I jiggled the kid some more, just for effect. That seemed to do the trick. Chuck grinned. I'd almost swear he was laughin' at me. "Are you sure about this, Logan?"

Sure? Why the heck did he think I was askin'? "Yeah."

"Well, I don't see a problem. Jean? Scott?" 'Ro was away at a conference, and Hank was busy doin' something or other in the lab that was uninterruptible, so it was just us to make the decisions.

"I think it's a good idea," said Jean, firmly, and she didn't look at Scooter, but he got the message just the same, 'cause he gave his half-hearted okay.

"I don't know..." Marie was the one we were gonna have to talk around. I was really surprised when Scooter spoke up first.

"Don't worry about your skin, Marie. You'll be careful enough. We never worried about leaving Nathan with you; you'd make a great mother." He glanced at me. "It's just him I'm worried about." Y'know, I couldn't growl at him, 'cause Marie's face lit up at that. She's always respected his opinions, god alone knows why. I've tried my best to change that, but for once it was useful.

"Thank you, Scott," she said, and I think she was about to cry. Well, that wasn't gonna help, so I stood up and held out the kid.

"Wanna hold her?"

She took Amiko real gingerly, but settled the kid on her knee with arms facin' out, so she wasn't likely to try and catch her face or anythin', which was the only bit of her skin exposed. The kid made a noise like "Wug-gah-frrp," and just beamed at everyone. I hope I wasn't grinnin' as goofily as I felt, but from their faces I think I was. Well, whaddya know? Instant family.

Hooooooo boy.

---

I heard somewhere that a baby's cry is actually louder than a street drill, if you're talkin' decibels. It wouldn't surprise me in the least. After a while you get used to the smell, but the noise - it just never gets better.

You think that's the end of the story? That's just half of it, bub. The real shock was what happened next.

When I say 'next', I'm talkin' about a year and a bit later. Amiko was toddlin', which was fun. Kept you on your toes. We picked a birthday for her, two months before the day we found her, but we also kinda had a little celebration on the anniversary of that day, too. So we're spoilin' her. Sue me.

Now, I don't know if you know, but I've got a little bit of history with a big bastard, name of Sabretooth. Goes back a long time. We've been tryin' ta kill each other for years. The reasons it started are too far back to remember, but for the times he's tried to hurt me and mine, and for the times he's succeeded, I oughtta kill him ten times over.

But at that time he was still roamin' around, causin' havoc, occasionally with that other bastard, Magneto, but mostly just off his own bat. I wasn't really interested in goin' after him any more - sure, I was still with the X-Men, and so was Marie, but we were makin' an attempt to avoid the kinda idiots who do stunts for revenge. Magneto's okay - for a bad guy - 'cause it's all just business to him, but Sabretooth's a psycho. I didn't want any trouble comin' down on my little family, and the best way to protect 'em, I thought, was to stay under his radar. See, the thing is, though, that's not how my life goes. I plan things, sure - but always, somehow, a fuckin' monkey wrench gets chucked in the works.

This time, the monkey wrench was that big peanut-brain called Sabretooth.

It was a gorgeous day, that day, so we decided to take Amiko to the park. Nothin' much was happenin' on the bad-guy front of late - which shoulda been warning enough for me, but sometimes even the Wolverine gets caught off-guard. But you'd think, what could be easier, safer, than goin' to the kiddie's playground at the local park, right? Wrong.

Amiko likes the swings, these fuckin' awful half-cage sorta things that take like a year to get them in and outta, but she'd sit on 'em for hours if she could. Marie was pushin' her, and I went off to get 'em some ice cream. I knew it'd probably make the kid sick, after swingin' on that thing, but I'm no more immune than Marie is, when Amiko pulls that toothy grin and asks for "'Scweam, pwease, dada?" She an' Marie are the only ones who can twist me round their little fingers, but they take full advantage of that fact.

I nearly had a fuckin' heart attack when I heard the screams comin' from the playground. Dropped the ice cream and ran, hittin' speed dial on the mobile as I did. Someone at the mansion answered, dunno who, I just said where we were and to get the team the hell down here, right fuckin' now. Could hear screams and roars that I recognised. People were runnin' in all directions away from the place, but no Marie or Amiko.

I skidded to a halt when I got to the playground. The bastard had Marie under one arm, strugglin', but weakly, like she'd been hit on the head or somethin', and in the other hand he was holdin' up Amiko by one arm. She was screamin' fit to burst, and kickin' at his arm as hard as a little one-year-old could. Bastard was laughin'. I sprang the claws, which got his attention.

"Put 'em down." God, I wanted to cut his head off for this. Bastard just laughed louder.

"Why, what ya gonna do? Been a while, hasn't it, runt? Miss me? I thought I'd drop by while I was in the neighbourhood. Now I've got your woman and your little girl, and I'm gonna kill 'em." I was beginnin' to see red at this point. But I couldn't spring at him, or he'd sure as hell kill one of 'em before I brought him down. "Think I'll kill the little 'un first, then you, an' then I'll spend some time over your woman. She's a tasty piece, pity about the skin. I might not kill her for a good long while."

Amiko caught sight of me, and yelled out, "Dada!", reachin' out for me as best she could. Hurt like hell to see that, and not be able to do anythin'. I was pacing in front of him, waitin' for an opening, tryin' desperately ta keep a clear head - but it was gettin' harder. Suddenly, I noticed from the corner of my eye that Marie was lookin' right at me. She was still strugglin' weakly, but she gave me a wink, and I knew she was pretendin', and that she was gonna try somethin'. My blood ran cold, but it was the best chance we had - we'd gotta take him by surprise.

"Whaddya want, Sabretooth?" I had to keep his attention on me.

"Want? I wanna hurt you, of course!"

"I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna fuckin' kill you, you bastard."

"Sticks an' stones," he sneered at me. Then I knew we were out of time. Marie twisted, and at the same time I roared and leapt. She punched upwards with the ball of her hand, tryin' ta break his nose and touch his skin. Only he was too quick. He grabbed her arm and whirled her out, usin' her body to knock me outta the air and slam me into the swing support beam. I crashed to the ground, pretty stunned, but I managed to stagger up again, ready to leap back into the fight. Sabretooth was shakin' Marie by her arm, which looked broken, and roaring. "Just for that-" he yelled, and he pulled her bare hand up to Amiko. They both screamed, and I think I did, too, but Marie screamed the loudest. That was her worst nightmare come true. To be the one killin' that innocent little child.

"Noooooo!"

And then it happened. Or rather, it didn't. Amiko was screamin', and cryin'... and she was still screamin' and cryin'. And Marie was touchin' her. Nothin' was happenin'. Marie looked just stunned. Sabretooth looked puzzled, then furious, an' I knew he was gonna do somethin'. He flung Amiko - just hurled her, as far and as hard as he could, and in my mind I saw her little broken body... I leapt, even before I'd registered it, and I've never jumped so far in my life. I caught her. I rolled into a dive, and protected her with my body, and when I landed she was clingin' to me for dear life, sobbin' her heart out - but she was alive. Then I stood up, and turned, and I clung to her even tighter. Nearly crushed the poor kid. Marie... Marie was up in the air, held up by Sabretooth's claws through her gut, her blood pouring down his arm. The fuckin' bastard was laughin' again, with his claws stickin' out the other side of Marie's body, and she was twitchin' helplessly. I handed Amiko to Scooter, who was there too fuckin' late, and I roared, and I let the red rage take over.

His head was rollin' on the floor a split second later, yards from his body, and Marie was on the ground in my arms, in a pool of blood. I was fuckin' frantic. I was touchin' her face, her hands, and nothin' was happening. She coughed up some more blood, and I knew she was dyin'. She was ripped up from guts to ribcage, right through. She managed to open her eyes.

"I... I did it, didn't I? I found the switch. Ammy's okay, isn't she?"

"Yeah, darlin'." I was almost chokin' with fear, shakin', my hands on her bare face. "She's fine. But now you gotta switch it back on, okay? Switch your skin back on for me."

"I don't know if I can..." She was fadin' fast. Please, god, no, I was prayin'. Not her. Please, no. My mind was just doin' little circles, like a headless chicken, and I couldn't think what the hell to do.

"Marie, you gotta do it. You can do it. Think of how you managed it before. You saved 'Miko, now you gotta let me save you. Turn your skin back on, darlin'. Please."

Her gaze went past me, to where Scooter had come up behind me. "Take care of him," she breathed, and then she gave kind of a long sigh, and her eyes slid closed.

My heart stopped. I couldn't breathe. I grabbed her to me and yelled her name. And then, suddenly, blessedly, I felt the pull, and it was like my life kicked in again. I fought to stay awake for as long as I could, I saw her skin begin to heal closed, and I saw her eyelids flutter - and then I couldn't fight any more, and I sank down into oblivion.

---

I woke up when we landed back at the mansion. Amiko was still whimperin' and cryin', I don't think she'll ever forget that episode, but she was alive, and she was in Marie's arms, and Marie was alive, and okay, and I couldn't speak, I just couldn't. I grabbed her hand, and just held it tightly, and she smiled at me and helped me outta the Jet. I was so far gone that it took me a good few yards to realise that I was holdin' her bare hand. I stopped, and everyone nearly tripped over me. I pulled her close, her and Amiko both. Kissed Amiko on the forehead, and the kid hugged me around the neck, patting me like I was the one who needed comforting. I just stared at Marie.

"You can touch now?" I know it was a dumb question, seein' that I was still holdin' her hand, but I wasn't feelin' too bright at that moment.

"I can touch," she agreed. I think she could see in my eyes what I was feelin'. I think I musta been projectin' it like crazy, 'cause Jean came and took Amiko.

"Don't worry about Ammy," she said. "I'll take care of her for a while. We're going to go check you out, okay, princess? You want a lollipop?"

"'Pop!"

They all went, I think. I kinda lost track. I was starin' at Marie, and she was starin' back. Her mouth quirked up in a little smile, and I just stared, tryin' ta process it all. "You can touch?" I ran a hand through her hair, and then down her face, and she shivered, all down her body.

"Yes..." she breathed, and her eyes dropped to my mouth.

And then I was kissin' her, and I couldn't've stopped if I'd wanted to, I had to make her mine, I had to hold her so tight and never let her go. She was kissin' back just as frantically, leanin' in to me so I was almost holdin' her up. God, she tasted so good. She smelled so good, too - she smelled like she wanted me as badly as I wanted her. And the smell of the blood that we were both still soaked in, it was makin' me a bit feral - it may be wrong, but it's just how I am. I was goin' crazy, just from kissin' her.

Yeah, maybe it's caveman or some shit, but I carried her outta there - I just couldn't put her down. I had to have her close, I had to have her, right then, and I had just enough presence of mind to know that we weren't gonna do it in the aircraft hangar. Technically, our room was nearer, but just then I wanted privacy. I had to be alone with Marie. There's an empty groundsman's cottage out on the mansion estate, and I carried her there.

Her skin is... just perfect. No better word for it. Warm and soft and... Touching it, the first time with no barriers between us, no danger - it was just unbelievable. I could never get enough of it. I was almost grateful to that son of a bitch for givin' us the opportunity. But no. I'd rather never touch her again than to nearly lose her like that. I ain't a coward, but Marie's life - she's too precious to me to ever wanna risk what we'd got. When I think about what mighta happened... well, hell, I just don't think about it, that's all.

I can't keep her safe all the time. I can't even seem to manage it most of the time. But for a while, that afternoon, well, we were together, and we were alive, we'd got through it once again, and we'd even kinda won. Sometimes you've just gotta hold onto what you've got, and be thankful you've got it. You go through a thing like that, and you wanna experience as much of the good stuff as you can, live in the moment, at least for a while. It makes you really fuckin' appreciate the time that you've clung onto, held back from the floods and the fires and the evil in men's hearts.

---

About a month after that, and it took us three mornings of Marie chucking up for us to finally cotton on to what was happenin'. Yeah, so we're a big cliche and all. Ha fuckin' ha. We weren't expecting... well, until we found out she was. Marie just about hit the roof with nerves. She went to Jean straight away, and wouldn't let me come with her. She was shiverin' with fear, wouldn't look me in the face. I know what she was thinkin' of. Well, obviously. Truth to tell, I was scared too. We hadn't thought she could ever get pregnant again, and after she found the thing in her mind that she had to switch to turn off her skin - well, we hadn't exactly been careful, and we had been doin' it a lot. I mean, really a lot. Really, really, really a lot. Havin' a touchable Marie anywhere nearby is... Anyway, as I was sayin', I think she gave Jeannie an earful, which I guess wasn't fair, but I know Jeannie understood. She ran a whole load more tests, and then Marie called me in, and I quit arguin' with Scooter and went to hear what they had to say.

Marie smelled all nervous still, but not so fearful, if you see what I mean. Jeannie explained what she thought had happened. It was that fucker Sabretooth again. When he'd clawed her, he must've shredded her insides through and through, including her womb. Then when I touched her, and she absorbed my healin' factor... well, it healed her. All through. Whatever was wrong in there, it musta just been ripped out and healed over.

Fuckin' unbelievable.

O' course, we still didn't know how, if at all, her mutation was gonna affect all this. Marie lived in fear for nine whole months. Each day it got a little closer to goal, a little more hopeful, but all the harder to give up on. I don't know where she got the strength to live through it. I know it weren't easy. But somehow she was still able to laugh at me, to tell me to bug off and stop hoverin' over her all the time.

The birth - hell, you don't really wanna know about that, do ya? Go look it up on the Internet or in a medical dictionary or somethin' if you do. Suffice to say, it wasn't a whole heap o' fun, and Marie had the worst of it, which I hated, but we got through it. I'm fairly sure she didn't really mean it when she yelled, "This is all YOUR FAULT!" We ended up with this scrawny little pink thing, a baby boy. My son. Our son. Complete miracle.

If Scooter tells you I cried, well, he's a lyin' bastard, that's all I gotta say. And he cried when Nathan was born.

And he choked on the cigar I gave him. He did.

We named him Thomas. Marie calls him Tommy an' I call him Tom or Thomas or son, and he smells and makes a lot of noise, much like Amiko did. I think he's actually noisier than her, in fact, which is a thing I didn't know was possible. Amiko is thrilled with her baby brother. She seems to think he's some kinda special toy, which is somethin' we'll have to train her out of, I guess. Generally I take her with me when I haveta get out for a little while. She'll be a daddy's girl for sure. I'm gonna teach 'em both to kick ass when they get old enough. I'm teachin' Amiko to appreciate the outdoor life already, although she don't realise that - she just thinks it's fun that she gets all my attention for a while.

Some days I stop and I stare at 'em - Marie, Amiko, and little Tom, and it's like I can't believe they're real or somethin'. Okay, the kids're a bit *too* real sometimes - when they're loud or smelly or a combination of both, or Amiko thinks it's real funny to tug on daddy's pointy hair - but Marie... I'll never know what I did right, what kinda good karma I've got that lets her be in my life. I get scared sometimes that the other shoe'll drop, and they'll get taken away again, that no one could stay as lucky as I've been. But, again, that's the good thing with Marie; she knows when I get like that, and she knows just what to say and do to get me out of it. She's sassy, and sexy, and lovin', and strong, and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, whether she's broken down and at her lowest, cryin' and blood-drenched, or on top of the world, dancin' with our kids out in the sunshine. She's given me everythin' good that's in my life, and I wanna spend the rest of my life keepin' her happy.

The End.