One Year Later..............................
"She was there, I know it," Logan told the Professor.
They were in his office discussing the X-Men’s last attempt to find Rogue.
"Logan, I’m afraid that the search for Rogue has reached a dead end... The trail is cold, we have no more leads to pursue." Charles stopped when Logan stood up abruptly.
"No! We are not giving up," Logan said, shaking his head. He turned his back on Charles and placed his hands on his hips.
"Logan, this is hard for me also," Charles said, "it’s been hard for everyone. Rogue was dear to..."
"Is, Chuck," Logan said turning to look him in the eye, "She *is* dear to all that know her."
"Logan, you can’t spend all your time out there searching. Kayla has been feeling neglected and-"
"Don’t start telling me how to fucking raise *my* daughter!" Logan shouted. He began stalking towards the door.
"I’m not trying to tell you how to raise Kayla!" Charles told him. "I’m saying you need to be here to raise her. You do realize that you missed her birthday last week."
Logan hung his head. "Shit," he whispered. He had forgotten Kayla’s birthday. He’d been gone for two weeks on a lead that had turned out to be bogus.
"I’ve arranged for a memorial service tomorrow morning for Rogue, it will be in her favorite spot in the gardens," Charles informed him.
"You what?" Logan spat out angrily.
"It’s time Logan," Charles told him, "It’s time to lay it to rest."
Logan raised his hand and pointed a Charles. "This is bullshit, Chuck. Fucking bullshit." Then he opened the door and left.
He was walking fiercely down the hall, causing the kids to stop and watch him in fear when he rounded the corner and collided into someone. Papers flew everywhere. "Watch where you’re goin’," he told the person.
"I’m so sorry, please excuse me," the woman said. She bent down to pick up her papers.
Logan picked up a few and handed them to her. When the woman looked up he sucked in a breath. The woman had eyes exactly like Marie and her hair was the same dark brown.
"Hi," the woman said holding out her hand to shake Logan’s, "I’m Valerie."
Without answering Logan walked off.
Valerie watched as Logan took the stairs two at a time She wondered what his problem was. But then when he was gone from her sight, she continued her journey to Charles’ office.
"Ahh Miss Cooper, do come in," Charles said.
She reached over to shake his hand. "Hello Charles. It’s nice to finally meet you in person."
"Yes indeed. Please have a seat." Charles gestured to a chair. "Have you met any of the staff yet?" he asked.
"Yes, Ororo and Jean greeted me at the door. They are very nice. I also bumped into someone in the hall… although he didn’t seem too friendly."
"Yes, well that was probably Logan. You will have to excuse him, he has a hard time of late. He lost his fiancé during a mission and hasn’t been able to get over it yet. I imagine it will be a while before he does. They were very much in love."
"How awful for him," Valerie said.
"It’s one of the reasons I wanted to see you as soon as you arrived. No one here but me knows that you were my government contact. I would like to keep it that way," Charles told her.
"Okay. Was it on my intel that Logan lost his fiancé?" Valerie asked.
"Yes, it was at Alkali Lake. But you and I have discussed this once and there is no need for you to blame yourself," Charles told her.
Valerie nodded her head in agreement.
"Now," Charles began, "Let’s discuss why I asked you here. Have you ever taught five year olds before?"
"Yes," Valerie said.
"Have you ever taught five year old mutants?"
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Logan slammed the door to his room and grabbed the duffel bag off the floor. He dumped the dirty clothes out of it to make room for clean ones.
As he was packing, Kayla walked out of her room and sat on the bed next his bag. "Where are you going daddy?" she asked.
"I have to go look for mom again," Logan said, turning from her.
"I don’t want you to go." There were tears filling her eyes.
Logan continued shoving clothes into his bag. "I have to Kayla."
"I never get to see you. I miss you daddy," Kayla said, crying.
Logan sat on the bed next to her. "I have to go find your mom. Don’t you understand?"
"But you’re gone for so long and then I have no one," Kayla said through the tears.
Logan thought about that for a moment. Then he got up and went into Kayla’s bedroom. He gathered up her clothes and stuffed them in her Barbie suitcase.
Kayla stopped crying when she saw what he had done. "Come on let’s go," he said, and she bounced off the bed and grabbed his hand. Logan handed Kayla her suitcase and grabbed his duffle bag off the bed.
Kayla talked non-stop as they walked down the hall, but Logan barely listened. When they reached Scott and Jean’s room, Kayla looked up at Logan with trepidation. "What are we doing?" Kayla asked.
Logan knocked on the door and after a moment Jean answered.
"Hello Logan what can I do for you?" Jean asked.
"I need you to keep Kayla for a while," he said.
Kayla let out a screeching cry and started clinging to Logan’s leg. "No, I want to go! I want to go with you!" she cried.
Logan picked her up and handed her to Jean while she was kicking and screaming. "Logan, can’t you see what you’re doing to her?" Jean asked angrily.
Without responding Logan walked away. "Daddy! I want you!" Kayla screamed after him. She was struggling with Jean and trying to run after Logan.
"Logan you can’t keep doing this!" Jean shouted after him. She watched as Logan disappeared into the elevator. "Logan!" she shouted one more time.
Logan stopped in the kitchen to grab some food for the road, then headed off to the garage. Once he entered he was greeted by Scott and Remy.
"Where do you think you are going?" Remy asked.
"I’m going to look for Marie," Logan said, tying his bag on the back of a motorcycle.
Scott folded his arms. "What about Kayla?"
"What about her?" Logan said, tightening the rope.
"You know what I’m talking about Logan,” Scott said forcefully, “this has to end now! Kayla needs you to be here, not following some cold lead."
"Well since the X-Men have decided to give up, someone has to look for her," Logan glared, getting on the bike.
"We didn’t give up Logan," Remy began, "there’s nothing left to go on."
Logan shook his head and started to crank up the bike, but was stopped by Scott’s hand covering his. "Kayla no longer has a mother....are you going to deprive her of having a father too?"
"You get the hell away from me," Logan snarled, shoving Scott’s hand off him. "You’re the reason I have to go out and look for Marie in the first place."
Scott pulled back with guilt, but Remy stepped forward. "What about tomorrow Logan? Who’s going to be there to hold Kayla’s hand and explain what’s happening?
Because no matter who does it, they can’t replace you, her daddy."
For a split second Logan had second thoughts about leaving. But then he swallowed it back down and looked directly at Remy. "*You* can hold her hand for all I care, I have to go find Marie." Then he started the bike and drove off.
"That bastard!" Remy shouted.
"He’s just hurting," Scott said, "give him time... he’ll come back. Despite his actions the last few months, he loves Kayla far too much to leave her for very long."
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Logan drove for miles before stopping at a bar. He kept replaying Kayla’s screams over and over in his head and he needed to try and find away to forget them, so he sat at the bar and ordered a beer. He was lighting his cigar when the bartender said, "I don’t think I’ve seen you here before."
"Just passing through," Logan mumbled.
"Headed home to your family?" the man asked.
Logan looked at the bartender with questioning eyes. He shook his head. "No."
"Ahh, I get it... you’re running away from your family."
The bartender held his hand out "I’m Mike by the way."
" Logan," he replied, shaking the hand.
"You must have a pretty crazy family if you’re running from them," Mike said.
"It’s something like that."
"Yeah I’m the oldest of ten brothers and two sisters,” Mike said with a rueful smile. “I know what a crazy family is like."
Logan didn’t comment but just took a swig of his beer.
"You got any brothers or sisters?" Mike asked.
"No," said Logan. Then after a moment he added, "I have a few people I consider my brothers, I guess you could say that."
"What about kids? You got any kids?" Mike asked.
Logan didn’t know if he wanted to go that route with a stranger. "I’ve got a little girl, she’s four. No wait, she just turned five."
"I have two kids,” Mike told him. “I wasn’t around much while they were growing up. They have kids of their own now and all I’ve seen of them is a few pictures."
Logan got up and put money on the bar to pay for the beer. "I have to be going," he said.
"All right you take care, man."
Logan nodded and walked out of the bar. When he was about to pull out and head north he stopped for a moment. He thought about Marie and what she would think of him leaving Kayla. He thought about Kayla growing up without a mother and a father who was never there.
Then he turned his bike around and headed back to Westchester.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I know this update is late, sorry, Real Life came calling and I had to deal with it.
Anyways, we do a time jump here. I hope you guys don't start to hate to much.
Anyways, we do a time jump here. I hope you guys don't start to hate to much.