DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.

A/N: Thanks for the review!

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CHAPTER 48

The day following Laura's hysterical breakdown, started almost like any other had the past week, the toddler had been with them. The girl had woken up early, only to sneak from under Marie's arm and out of the bed and pay her father a wake-up visit, switching the TV on and crawling into bed next to a growly Wolverine, sucking happily at Becca's pumped-up milk.

The teenager had suggested putting a bottle of normal milk – cow-milk – into the fridge for the older child, but Laura had taken one sip and had placed the bottle back, trading it for Marie's milk. Since then, Marie always pumped one extra bottle up, having read on the internet that breast milk provided the child with its mother's antibodies – and Laura surely needed a better immune system – as soon as the girl was well again, she'd caught the next cold as she'd spent a few hours outside.

At breakfast everybody stared at the toddler and whispered. Logan overheard the conversations, but didn't see the need to show the kids his claws again – it wasn't so unusual for some of the students freed from labs to have nightmares or panic attacks, and as long as the rumors didn't get out of hand, the kids could talk their mouths bloody as far as Logan cared.

Everything seemed fine with Laura and her parents decided to don't change their plans for this Saturday. So they got ready for their visit of the mall after breakfast.

X

Marie carried her baby in her arms, cuddled to her chest as Becca sucked on her fist eyeing the world around her with curious eyes. On her free hand, the young mother held Laura, smiling down at the toddler as they walked into the mall. "First we'll get some clothes and shoes for ya, Laura. Gonna ask if we could use the fitting room to change ya into your new clothes once we paid."

"Toothbrush and a safety seat for the car." Logan threw in, but was already cut off by his mate.

"And then we'll buy ya toys, sweetie."

"What are toys?"

"Huh? Well, they're fun to play with." A lump formed in her gut when this innocent question showed once more that the small girl had had a horrible life until now. They passed by a drugstore and it got Marie's attention. "Ah need to go in there."

"Why?" Logan grunted clueless and followed his girls into the store.

Marie had noticed this morning that Laura had wetted the bed again last night, but she didn't support Logan's half-serious suggestion to put the girl into diapers for the night. "Ah read about those UnderJams for toddlers on the net and Ah really need to buy some sanitary napkins."

He frowned confused and scented the air. "Your time of the month is over, Kid?"

Others might have called 'gross', but Marie was already used to her mate's quirk to confirm everything with his nose. "But Ah'll surely need that stuff in a few weeks and Ah can't keep scrounging tampons from Jubes and Kitty. Even Storm had to give me one!"

They stopped in front of an aisle. "Why don't you have a stock back home?"

The teenager stared at him blankly. "Ah didn't need sanitary napkins for over a year now, idiot! Why the fuck should Ah buy them then?" Marie snatched a package from the shelf.

Laura had listened to the conversation, not really sure if they had argued or not, and was now tugging on her father's jeans, asking for his attention. When he looked down at her, the toddler asked innocently. "Why need Rogue napkins? We don't eat?"

Logan chuckled and searched his mind for an answer. "Umm, those are special napkins, kiddo."

"What do tey?"

"They're kinda diapers for women." He said with a sly grin and heard Marie gasp.

Becca looked over her mother's shoulder at her father's smirk and began to babble happily. Marie snorted and walked towards the aisle with baby and toddler stuff, rubbing her daughter's back gently. "Don't listen to him, honey. Daddy's talking bull today." The brunette whispered in the baby's ear, making Logan growl in warning.

The Canadian followed his mate, Laura walking before him, and then he let his gaze roam about the numerous different brands and sizes of diapers. A few months ago he'd stood helplessly in front of a similar shelf, picking clueless one package up after the other to read the description.

"Let's ask a salesperson, Judy!" A man in his mid-twenties groaned rocking a newborn while his girlfriend compared three formulas.

"No, just give me a minute."

Marie took the UnderJams and traded an amused glance with her mate. "Shall we gonna help them, or do ya prefer to watch a little longer, sugah?"

"Hard decision, darlin'." Logan went lazily over to the couple with his hands shoved into his jeans pockets. "That stuff you have is for older babies, not newborns." He motioned his chin towards the hands of the woman, she and her boyfriend eyeing him startled. Logan knew he looked awfully misplaced in a drugstore – maybe not so in front of a selection of condoms – but he fetched another formula while Marie appeared at his side immediately peeking into the little bundle the man held. "You should take at least two different; your kid might be picky." He saw the bewilderment at the other man's face and pointed his thumb at Becca. "She is."

Judy placed the baby-food she held back and took the one the lumberjack-biker-mix offered. "Umm, thanks."

Marie was already fussing about the newborn. "Ooh, your little one is so adorable!" In Logan's opinion his Becca was the most beautiful baby he had ever seen and all other babies still looked more or less the same to him – bald and shriveled. "Boy or girl?" The brunette asked, smiling down at the in white clad infant.

"Boy. Aaron," answered the other mother and faced Marie, waving at Becca. "You have a cute little girl yourself. How old is she?"

The teenager shifted her daughter slightly, so the strangers could have a better look at her cooing child. "She'll be four months by the end of next week." Marie said proudly, pressing a kiss to Becca's cheek.

Judy smiled at the other parents – a little unsure at first if the man was the child's father or grand-father – but she decided he must be her dad, by the way he scooped her up and cradled the giggling girl against his shoulder. When Becca placed her little head into the crook of her father's neck and both looked at the other people, even a blind could tell that the baby was the splitting image of her father – just without the sideburns. "She just looks like her dad."

Logan froze in the first moment, but the proud papa got the upper hand and he couldn't ban the ridicules bright smile from his features any longer. "You heard that, Lil' Skunk?" He placed a whiskered peck onto his daughter's tiny nose.

The newborn began to wail and everybody made a face, afraid Becca might join in. "Umm, he might want his bottle now." The younger man said and his girlfriend continued. "Thanks for the help. Maybe we'll see us at the playground again."

"Yep, bye." Marie smiled and leaned into her mate's side. A moment passed by and they were alone in the corridor. The teenager pushed the package for their older girl into Logan's hand and lifted Becca back into her embrace. "Ya gonna stay with Mommy today, honey. Daddy will need his hands to carry all the stuff we're gonna buy for Laura."

"Hey, I have other qualities than to play livin' wallet and shoppin' bag carrier, Kid!" He growled good-naturedly and looked down on the spot his clone had stood a moment ago. "Laura?"

Marie's eyes widened in horror and she began to look frantically around her, panic rising. "Laura!"She rushed around the aisle her eyes darting down the empty corridors. "Laura, please come here! That's not funny, baby!" She pressed a now whimpering Becca closer to her chest.

Logan feared that someone from the lab could have kept tabs on them and had now used their chance to retrieve his clone, but a sniff told him that the girl wasn't far away. He followed the scent that had already burned itself into his brain and saw the toddler help a salesperson to re-fill a shelf with cough drops. "Marie, she's over here!"

A stone lifted from her heart as the brunette sank down in front of a puzzled Laura and hugged her close, holding both her girls close to her heart. "Don't do that ever again, baby?"

A muffled "What?" made Marie pull back and both parents glanced seriously down at the toddler. "Ya can't wander off on your own, Laura! We were worried 'bout you, sweetie!" Marie tried to keep calm and the anger and panic from her voice.

The shop assistant scurried away to do some other task at Logan's dark glare and the feral man placed his large hand onto the toddler's small shoulder, making her look into his serious gaze. "Laura, listen. You'll never go with somebody else than Rogue and me. And you'll never take sweets from someone you don't know, kid. Gotchya?"

"Yes, sir." The girl nodded, but then confusion spread in her large green eyes. "What are sweets?"

"Okaaaaay…"

"Ah'll show ya later, Laura." Marie grasped the girl's hand firmly, afraid she would vanish again and stood up.

X

"Hey, kiddo, look all those dolls." Logan picked a Barbie in a Mermaid costume up and held it before his older daughter's face, who simply looked past the item and towards the shelf.

The little girl eyed the different dolls warily, till her gaze fell upon one with its stomach open and a baby lying inside while the plastic abdomen-cover of the 'mother' was placed next to the dolls. "Did you open your belly so Becca could out, Rogue?"

"Huh? No."

"How did Becca get out?"

"Umm… well…" Marie traded a helpless gaze with her mate, who looked everything else than thrilled to explain this to his sweet little daughter.

But before the young parents could come up with an explanation the three-year old had another question for them. "How did Becca get in your belly?"

"Look, Laura. Ain't that nice?" Logan held a randomly picked up Family Dollhouse set up, holding it up-side-down.

Laura's inquiring eyes shifted to her father's hand, but her interest was immediately caught by laughing kids gathered around a rather empty bargain bin. "What's that?" Her small index finger pointed towards the crowd.

Logan breathed a sigh of relief and placed the box back into the rack. "Dunno. Let's find out." Grasping the girl's chubby hand he led her over to the giggling children and the annoyed parents, Marie with Becca on his heels. Laura eyed the many people around her warily and tightened her grip on her father's hand the closer they came to the other children.

There in the bin scurried five different colored furballs through pipes and over the tabletop with a skateboard or a car. A little boy patted a black and white dotted toy and it made a weird noise causing Laura to giggle. After a moment of just observing the other kids play, the little girl eventually let go off her father's hand and stepped closer to the rummage table, peeking fascinated over the edge.

Logan narrowed his eyes when another sound was emitted from one of the tailless rats. "What the fuck are those rats for?" He muttered, but other than back at IKEA, he only received a few disapproving looks about his choice of words, but some nods of equally irritated parents.

"Those are hamsters that will gnaw a giant hole into your wallet." A young man replied holding a box of a hamster with disco pool and pipes in his hands. He then turned his attention back to the laughing children. "Lindsay, please come."

"I'm on my way, daddy!" A pigtailed blond shouted over her shoulder, but made not the impression to tear her interest away from the toys. Next to her stood Laura shyly but her curiosity got the better of her and the young brunette reached out to the pink hamster in Lindsay's hands, patting the toy on the head with wide eyes. "That's Jilly." The blond explained and set the toy down in front of a pipe entry. With a squeal the furball raced into the plastic pipe and Laura looked a little upset that the funny toy would flee from her, but a brown hamster left a pipe in her direction and she immediately picked it up.

"Ah think she now knows what toys are for." Marie grinned up into her mate's irritated features, before turning her attention to a nearby shelf, Becca propped up on her shoulder. "Ooh, look, Becca. That's a book to touch and stroke."

Grunting Logan's gaze traveled over the other shiny and colorful plastic toys, not daring to have a closer look onto the prices.

Half an hour later, Logan had stuffed a variety of different boxes into their shopping cart, every toy a suggestion by Marie, who explained to him that most of the stuff could also be used by Becca to play with once she was a little older. It wasn't like he needed any convincing to buy that stuff as long as he would finally could leave that store and have a beer and a smoke. "Do you wanna have that crap, Marie?"

A little caught Rogue looked up from the toy she was holding. "Nah, Ah'm a little too old for this." Suddenly an evil smirk formed on her lips. "Laura, those little ponies are soooo cute! Ya wanna have them?"

Laura still clutched two different Zhu Zhu Hamsters sets to her chest, both boxes slowly slipping from her grasp, while her green eyes switched to the emerald plastic pony in Rogue's hand. After a moment of scrutinizing the item, the small girl wrinkled her nose. "I want hamsters!"

Logan chuckled about the disappointed expression of his mate and the concentrated features of his oldest daughter while she observed the different sets of hamsters. "Listen, kid. We'll take both of those hamsters."

"Yay!"

"What do ya say to daddy, Laura?"

The girl remembered the phrase Rogue told her earlier about. "Umm, thank you, daddy!"

X

Marie wiped pizza-crumbs off of Laura's mouth while the girl looked at the various tasty-looking pictures of desserts on the menu. "I want tat!" Her tiny finger pointed at a strawberry-cake before switching to a donut. "No tat!"

Logan rolled his eyes, chewing on his unlit cigar. He should have learned that asking a three-year old to 'Choose what you want' wasn't a good idea the first two times, she couldn't decide between the various toppings on her pizza or what she wanted to drink. "Laura." He pressed out in a warning.

"How about Ah order the cake and you the donut and daddy the ice-cream, and you can have a bite of everything, sweetie?" The young mother smiled relieved when the girl nodded, glad that Becca couldn't speak yet. But a frustrated sigh escaped her lips as Laura pouted and pointed at a stack of pancakes.

"And tat?"

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Logan in a toy store.