Disclaimer: This fan fiction is not written for profit and no infringement of copyright is intended.

Marie nodded silently to herself: The girls were on their way.

She placed the phone on top of her green satchel and hefted it onto her shoulder, already estimating how much money she had in her bank account and whether it would get her back to Westchester. She doubted it would. She might have to get in touch with Warren, ask if he could lend her some cash- Or maybe a plane. She could still fly one, she’d been top of her class… Marie pulled out her phone, wondering whether she had Angel’s number, all her attention so focussed on the task at hand that she didn’t even notice Callum walk in through the front door. She only realised he was there when she heard him put his briefcase down. Cross his arms. His look was long-suffering.

Your boyfriend looks like a little fucking teapot, the Wolverine in her head muttered.

She pushed the thought away.

“Seriously, Marie?” Callum was muttering in a tone like the parent of a particularly badly-behaved toddler. The Wolverine in her head was growling. Loudly. “We’re going through this again?”

If you hit him on the noggin darlin’, her inner Logan rumbled, I’ll tell you how to hide the body. The cops’ll never even know…

Marie sighed. She supposed she shouldn’t get pissed off: Callum was the kinda man who had been middle-aged since he hit puberty. She told herself that she liked that about him. He was steady. Dependable. Unable to ride a motorcycle and not known to the local police. In fact, aside from Scott (Lord rest him) he was just about the closest she could find to the Anti-Wolveri-

And again she pushed the thought away. Her inner Logan was snickering.

Laugh it up hairball, she told him. Callum’s still the one Ah come home to at night.

Immediately the laughing stopped.

But her boyfriend was still talking. “Marie, you promised me!” he was saying tightly, fingers at the bridge of his nose. And again, she thought, with the long-suffering. “You swore there’d be no more of this superhero nonsense. You’re- we’re- grownups! Spandex is not part of our life.” He gestured incredulously to her bag, the same green satchel she’d carried into and out of the Mansion all those years ago. The same one she’d had over her shoulder when they moved in together eighteen months before. She’d never been able to bring herself to get rid of it and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out why… “We have responsibilities, Marie,” he was saying. “We have a life here…”

Let me gut ‘im, darlin’, the Wolverine in her head growled then. I promise I’ll make it quick- Or slow, you want I can make it slow-

And again with the pushing the thought away.

Marie sighed again then. She didn’t want to lose Callum: She’d worked too damn hard to get to this nice, safe, normal place they inhabited together. And he was what she wanted; She’d grown up, she was done chasing after men she couldn’t have. Men who broke her heart. If she let Callum dig his heels in she’d be there all day arguing, and she didn’t know how much time Logan might have. And she wasn’t willing to dump her boyfriend just for her former mentor’s sake-

Which meant she’d have to take him to the Mansion with her, like it or not.

Well shit.

She’d just have to get him there and then slip away. Leave the kids entertaining him since Bobby Drake owed her a loooot of favours from his days dating John Allerdyce and it was now time to pay up. For a moment she wondered what Logan would make of their relationship but instantly she stopped the thought in its tracks. Soon as Logan was safely back to the Mansion she and Callum would be outta there. She couldn’t bear the thought of her former- of her Wolverine knowing who she shared her bed with these days. He’d know why she was in this stupid relationship, and she could just imagine his smug, shit-eating grin. Her pride wouldn’t be able to bear it- And she’d sworn when she left the Mansion that she’d never let him take her pride again.

Besides, she was a grownup now. And she was with the man she… loved.

That’s your story and you’re stickin’ to it, her inner Wolverine grinned.

So she set her shoulders. Pulled an excuse out of her ass and gave him what he wanted: a reason why she was returning to Westchester that included him. “Ah’m not running away,” she told him. “Ah just thought Ah- we- should head back home for a while. See mah folks. It’s been nearly two years, and Ah ain’t seen anyone. They should get to know you.” A beat. “It was supposed t’be a surprise.”

And she shot him her most trustworthy smile.

Callum blinked suspiciously but Marie knew her smile was dazzling. He just had to think this was about him: So long as he thought that he’d play along. Eventually he smiled, relieved, chucking her nose and making her feel about three years old. Agreeing to go and guilt-tripping her into packing his stuff. Marie shot him a small smile, ignoring her inner Wolverine’s catalogue of ways to cause his death and trying to suppress a thrill of excitement at the idea of going back to the Mansion. It’d been so long since she’d thought about her old life but now it seemed like she was back to saving the world- Or at least the Logan-shaped portion of it- and the idea sent a traitorous thrill up her spine. One way or another, Wolverine had called for her and she’d be damned if she didn’t reply: He needed her.

But this time it would be different. This time she’d keep her heart to herself.

She didn’t look at Callum for the whole of the ride to Westchester.

It didn’t occur to him to wonder why she was wearing a pair of dog tags around her neck.