She woke up feeling little stiff and sore, but it was a pleasant ache. Small reminder of the night. Then Kate gurgled next to her and sunlight was streaming through the curtains of the small window. Kate. Sun. Kate wrapped to a blanket that was adorned with blood red handprints. And Logan wasn’t there. He was gone. And his words from few weeks back floated to the forefront of her mind.
“You can’t have it both ways.”
She checked Kate quickly. The baby was fine, but the clothes she had on and the blanket were soaked through with sticky blood. Kate was hungry, in serious need of a bath and cranky.
“Now we are going to take a quick shower, and after that some breakfast…” She whispered holding back her tears. She undressed, and discarded Kate’s soiled clothes and diaper to a trash bin, wrapping her carefully to a towel to protect the baby from her skin.
She showered and washed Kate clumsily, almost dropping her several times, but to Kate it seemed to be a new kind of play, and at the end of their splashing session Marie was already feeling slightly better, even smiling waveringly when Kate let out yet another giggle.
She found a few jars of baby food from the fridge, and an envelope from the kitchen table. She fed Kate, pretending to be an airplane and managing to get most of the food in to her stomach rather than on to the floor. After that was taken care of she picked up the envelope. It was thick and heavy. When she closed her eyes and concentrated she could almost see Logan placing it down on the table. Sneaking silently to the bedroom to drop off Kate. Had he lingered? Stood there watching his girls sleeping side by side? Had he wanted to stay? Or had he simply walked in, and then straight out, relieved that he didn’t have to carry the burden any longer? Was he alright?
Her gaze drifted towards the trash bin. The blanket Kate had been wrapped in… It hadn’t been just stained. It was caked with dried blood. Whose? Logan’s? Theirs? Was Logan alright, riding a bike in to sunset like a some sort of lone hero from the westerns, or had he only crawled somewhere to die? What about Xavier and the X-Men? Scott, Jean and everybody else? Was she really safe with Kate in here? Or would it be better to take everything she needed and hit the road?
She opened the envelope. A thick wad of cash fell out. But that wasn’t all. There was a small slip of paper as well. She pulled it out.
‘Everything’s taken care of. The money is for you and Kate. Papers for the divorce are in the cupboard above the fridge, I already signed them. You’ll find a deed for the camper and the lot it stands on with them. It belongs to you now. Take care. And keep Kate out of trouble.
Wolverine’
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