Rogue was taken aback by the room, Storm introduced to her as her new living quarters. It was smaller than Logan's old room, but much bigger than the one she had shared with Jubilee and Kitty. The evening sun shone through the large window and the French window onto the king-size bed in the middle of the room. On one of the walls was a wardrobe, a bookshelf and a dresser. A desk was perched before the window and next to it in a corner waited a leather armchair with ottoman.

Storm walked over to a door and switched the light on in the adjoining bathroom. Marie followed her, her eyes wide in awe. The bathroom was also smaller than the one in Logan's old room and had no bathtub, but she had her OWN bathroom now, no waiting in front of the girl's restrooms all students of the girl's wing shared.

"Nice room." Logan had fetched his backpack from his former room down the hall and was now catching up with the three females. With a grin he took in Marie's happy smile. A few hours ago, he hadn't hoped to see her as content as she now stood before him.

His eyes wandered over the furniture and the bed and lingered on a door next to the headboard of the bed. "What's that door for?" He muttered and opened it to reveal exactly the same room, just the interior was mirrored. "Huh?"

"That's your room, Logan." Ororo explained with a grin and approached the man, Marie with Becca in her arms on her heels.

The teenager peeked through the open doorway. "Wow. We almost share a room, Logan!"

"Almost. You'll stay in your room and your bed during the night, Kid." He saw her inspect his room more closely. "You hear me, Kid?!"

"Yeah…" Marie replied after a while. The only difference between the two rooms was that the leather armchair was missing in Logan's room.

The Canadian eyed the door that connected the two rooms and shot Ro an understanding look. "That's why the unheralded checks upon us…"

Storm only nodded and wondered, what exactly had occurred between Rogue and Wolverine, but now wasn't the time to satisfy her curiosity. "The professor said you can move the furniture as you like." A moment later she added. "I'll go get some of Rogue's clothes."

"Yeah. Thanks, Ro." Logan saw her leave and approached his girls.

Marie shifted the baby a little, her arm was getting heavy. "It was easier to carry her around, when she was still in mah womb."

Logan's eyes wandered to her stomach with a sad smile. "Would have liked to see your baby belly…"

"Huh?" His gloomy expression tore on her heart. "Ah wasn't showing sooo much, though."

He bent over and picked his sleeping daughter up from her arms. "But enough to wear shirts, you could fit in twice."

Rogue returned to her room and lifted the two Wal-Mart bags up and walked over to the drawers. After she had stowed everything away under Logan's vigilant eyes, she whirled around and scanned the room again. "Where's she gonna sleep?"

"Marie?"

"Where's Becca gonna sleep? We have no crib."

"Your bed?"

The brunette stared at him in utter shock and disbelief. "Are you nuts? Ah could crush 'er!"

Logan looked down on his fragile daughter. Marie had a point there. Then his gaze fell upon the chair in the corner. "Have an idea. Hold 'er, Kid." He returned the child to her mother and neared the armchair, pushing the furniture through half the room and against the side of Marie's bed. Now the seating was surrounded on all four sides and made a nice little bed for the newborn. "Whatchaya thinkin', girls?"

Rogue circled the makeshift crib. "Ya're a genius." She beamed at him and went to the bathroom retrieving the fluffy towels from the cabinet.

Logan took them from her and folded both bath-towels in the middle, placing one on the chair's seating. Then he folded the smaller towel multiple times, so it would make a pillow and lay it in the makeshift crib.

Marie observed Logan with a smile, before she placed her sleeping daughter down on her new bed and he immediately tugged the second large towel over the tiny body with gentle movements of his callused hands.

The girl sank down on one of the leather armrests and Logan on the other one as both watched their little daughter sleep in peace, framed by her parents. The angelic face mesmerized the feral man and he reached out to one of the miniature hands, the baby held up to her head. He encircled her tiny fingers with his thumb and index finger and rubbed her soft skin tenderly. "She's beautiful." He whispered absently.

The brunette hitched her brow in a good imitation of Wolverine. "Ya want kids?"

The Canadian looked up startled. "No… Dunno. Never thought 'bout offsprin'. Wanted only to be together with you." He saw her hopeful gaze. "In a few years, that is… But then again havin' kids with the girl you love would be only natural."

Marie's smile reached her eyes and her chocolate orbs sparkled with unshed tears of joy. "Ah love ya too, Logan."

He flashed her a smug grin. "I know, Kid." Then his gaze wandered back to their sleeping child. "We'll go shoppin' tomorrow. Our kid needs a real bed."

The teenager looked down at the child for a moment, before she carefully leaped up, so she wouldn't wake the girl, and went over to the desk, searching the drawers. She came up with a pencil and a notepad, already scribbling something on the paper. "What else do we need? A crib, beddings,… a highchair!"

"A baby seat." Logan suggested.

X X X X X

Storm leaned in the doorframe. She hardly dared to breath, so she wouldn't destroy this touching moment, she knew she had no right to witness. But they looked so right together and they just confessed their love for each other.

Then it struck Storm: 'Kid' was his endearment for her. Logan had courted Rogue every day he had spent at the mansion the past year. The gloves he presented her with and Rogue still wore even after she had gained control over her mutation, and the books he bought the bookworm, even spent hours in bookstores with the girl – at least that she was told. He had even taken the teenager out on walks down to the lake or in town for dinner. And every time he went on one of his trips, he left her his dog-tags, on which the girl held like onto a lifeline.

The two still hadn't noticed the weather witch and she thought it the right moment to make her presence known. "You'll need a changing table." She entered the room and placed the duffle bag on the foot of the bed. "I emptied your drawers, Rogue. You'll have enough to change till tomorrow."

"Thank ya, Ms. Munroe." Marie left the notepad on the tabletop and inspected the clothes her teacher had brought her, when a desperate cry ripped through the room. "Is she hungry again?" She hurried over to her daughter, lifting her up into her arms.

Logan scented the air and grimaced. "Fear her supper has already left her body again."

"Eww." Marie made a face when she sniffed the air as well.

Storm giggled over the expressions the young parents held. "Have fun." She walked out in the hallway and closed the door behind her, not missing the annoyed glare Logan threw her.

"What should we do now?!" The brunette asked and held the baby a little farther away from her body.

"Change her diaper, huh?"

She looked him straight in the eyes. "'K, ya're the diaper expert."

"What?! I already put 'er into that one. It's your turn now, Momma."

Her eyes widened and she desperately thought about a reason to get out of it. "But… but ya have practice. It would be faster if ya'll do it!" The sobs became louder and more urgent.

"You have to learn it eventually!" He stepped away a bit, but then he looked in the pleading face of Marie and then the tear-streamed and red features of Becca and he sighed. "We'll do it together, Kid."

"Fine." She thought it the best compromise. "We need something to lay under her."

Logan rushed into the bathroom and fetched the last towel, spreading it on the floor next to the paper basket. "Lay 'er down and get that diaper off of 'er."

"Why me?!"

"I'll clean 'er. We can always switch." He opened the drawer the diapers and the cleaning tissues were in and grasped both packages.

Marie contemplated a moment. "No." When she tried to get the romper suit off, she thought it a good thing it was so much larger than the baby. As she opened the adhesive stripes and swung the fabric open, her breath caught in her throat. "Gawd! She's so small, how can she take so much crap!" She carefully wiped the butt with the clean part of the diaper and folded it together, before throwing it into the bin. "Your turn."

Logan was already armed with a few damp tissues and powder and lifted the girl up by her legs. "You not only look like a skunk, but you also smell like one, kiddo."

"Logan…" Marie only shook her head and opened the window, welcoming the fresh air.

X X X X X

Marie was glad that the baby immediately resumed her nap in her new diaper and she had finally time for a warm and long shower. Wrapping the bath towel, she had snatched from Logan's room, around her torso, her gaze fell onto her flabby stomach in her reflection. The past months she could hardly look at her reflection, her large abdomen prominent to the eye. But now, it felt somehow strange.

'Ah won't hide my belly the next time…' Her eyes widened and her hand stopped in its unconscious exploration of her post-birth stretched skin. 'Jesus, Ah'm thinking 'bout more kids already!'

Drying her body she slipped into her light blue pj's pants and the short-sleeved shirt. It had been months since she could last wear her favorite pajamas, the clothing Logan had bought her after Liberty Island.

When she left the bathroom, the Canadian already waited for her with Becca in his arms. The baby was awake now and watched her father stroke her cheek gently. "Good you back, Kid. Think she might need your breast again."

Marie crawled onto her new bed and leaned against the headboard with a pillow in her back. "Then give her to me, Logan." She lifted her shirt and revealed her big and bare breast.

"No bra?!" He noted with a wolfish grin and placed the newborn in her mother's arm, brushing against her exposed breast by accident. Becca immediately began to drink and both parents watched her for a while. "I already stowed my stuff away. Gonna go down and fetch something to bite for the two of us. Dinner should be over by now."

The brunette met his gaze. "Would ya bring me chocolate ice cream?"

"Sure. You wanna fill the wrinkles again, Kid?!" He smirked at her and his fingertips ran over her saggy stomach. Marie shot him an evil glare, which he only thought adoring. Without a second thought he bent forward and placed a peck onto her lips. "After dinner we'll take care of your belly, Marie." He patted her stomach and stood up and left a softly smiling young mother behind.

X X X X X

Marie snuggled closer to Logan, his arm draped around her shoulders while they lay in her bed, eating ice cream. "Ah don't know what Ah would do without ya, Logan." She really meant it. If he hadn't acted the way he did, there had been no way in hell that she had accepted her baby and this situation that easily.

"There's no need for you to think 'bout somethin' like that. My place is with you and our kid." The feral leaned his head against the wooden headboard. "Christ! Today in the mornin' the last thin' on my mind was to become father. And now my little daughter drools on my shirt in her sleep." He stroked the baby's back gently.

Marie chuckled and licked the ice cream from her spoon. Then her face became somber. "Do ya regret ya returned?"

Logan shifted, but answered at once. "Nah, I regret I didn't arrive a little sooner… And that you haven't told me."

"Do ya regret that night?"

"Yeah." He felt her head yank around to face him, her features unreadable, but Logan knew she was hurt and he kissed her forehead gently. "Don't get me wrong, I regret what we didn't do that night, the outcome would have been the same, but I could have given you an unforgettable first time, Kid."

The brunette snickered and shook her head. "Ya're full of yourself, Logan!"

"Am I? Think I have all right to be." Yup, Marie was mastering his trademark eyebrow. "Hey, couldn't shoot my load yet I got you pregnant." The brunette shook her head at him her white streaks swinging from side to side as she chuckled.

His own smile was still on his lips as he remembered her history test tomorrow. "How do you think 'bout the test? Wanna take it?"

Marie thought a moment. If she would skip it tomorrow, she would have to learn again since she doubted she would still know the stuff in a week's time. "Ah've learned. Ah'd be away for only an hour…" She saw his approving nod. A moment later she half turned around so she could see his face. "Ah hadn't time to ask ya how your trip was. Any clues?"

"Nothing." His face was gruff as always when his search had ended fruitless. "Though I explored the area stream downwards from the dam at Alkali Lake… There was that construction site for detached houses a few miles away. Thought to remember it was once farmland. Asked one of the workers. Guess what he told me."

She turned her head so she could see his face. "That there had been a farm?"

His features almost lit up in the slight hope that he might have remembered something. "Yep. Now almost 16 years ago an explosion had blown the cot to bits together with the old farmer couple. The fire flashed over to the house… everythin' was destroyed. Their son eventually sold the land a year ago."

She got curious, but she wouldn't give him false hope. "16 years ago… could it be that this incident had anything to do with your lost past?"

"Also thought so, started to ask questions, but in the end it was a dead end again." Marie didn't tell him 'I'm sorry' or didn't give him that pitiful view the other X-Men gave him and he was grateful for that. That was another reason, why he loved this girl. She simply understood him and knew when he needed comfort and when not.

They sat in comfortable silence till Logan spoke up again. "Wished I'd have found my last name at least." His gaze traveled to his daughter's serene face. "I want nothin' more than Becca to carry my real last name. But I can't even offer a family name to the two of you."

"The two of us? Almost sounds like a proposal?!" Marie half joked. She could feel, she literally knew how much he loved her – both parts of him did, though Wolverine's emotion's for her were more primal, protective and territorial, but she had figured out that it was the beast's version of love. That she was the only reason Logan returned to the mansion in the first place. Even considered it his home.

"Nah. You'll get a real proposal." Her eyes were wide like saucers and she swallowed hard as she stared at his features. He was serious. Before she registered what she was doing, her lips had crushed onto Logan's into a long passionate kiss. When she broke away, panting hard, she remembered with horror that she just broke one of the professor's conditions.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." Logan grinned cocky.

The brunette crawled to her knees, backing away a little. "Nah. Ya'll get a real 'yes' when Ah get mah proposal." She smiled slyly and slid off the edge of the bed. Deposing the empty ice cream box in the bin, she stacked the plates of their dinner onto each other and then on the desk.

Logan also left the bed and lay the sleeping baby in her makeshift crib. "You should go to bed, Marie. The night will be long and you'll need the little sleep you can get for your test tomorrow." With a soft smile he placed a kiss onto Becca's downy head and approached Marie.

"Ya promised me something, Logan." The brunette chewed on her lower lip and watched him expectantly. On his rather clueless gaze, she lifted her shirt slightly and poked on her flabby belly.

Chuckling he held his hand out to her. "Yeah, right."

A few minutes later, Logan staggered back to his feet from his sitting position on Rogue's bed and eyed her flat stomach. "Doesn't look like you've given birth a few hours ago, Kid." He placed a peck onto her forehead and approached the door that separated their rooms. "G'Night, my girls."

The brunette crawled under the covers of her bed with a content smile. Before switching the light off, the young mother bent forward to her daughter and kissed her cheek. "Night, Becca."

X X X X X

It was the third time that night and Logan could swear he had just closed his eyes. He was tempted to simply bury his head under his pillow, shielding his sensitive ears from the wailing of his daughter and drift back to his dreamless sleep. But he couldn't do that. For one, the stupid pillow wouldn't muffle the cries enough for his enhanced senses and two, Marie'd be pissed as hell in the morning if he left her to deal alone with the dirty diaper.

They had an arrangement: She'd nurse their daughter and he would change her. And since the cries hadn't stopped yet, Logan figured it was his turn to take care of the demanding little girl. Sighing he rolled over and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. With a few strides he was in the other room and next to the leather armchair, picking the sobbing child from her mother's tired arms. Marie immediately snuggled back against her pillow and resumed her sleep and he began his diaper-duty.