The next day the trio was woken by a commotion in the hallway about mid-morning. At some point in the night they had all shifted around and Logan woke wrapped around Rogue, both of them holding James who was in her arms. And that's how Scott found them when he burst into Rogue's room.
"We've found the lab, we're leaving in fifteen minutes, suit up," he called, throwing a uniform onto the bed as he turned and jogged back out of the room.
Logan was on his feet before Scott was out the door. By the time he had finished pulling on the reinforced leather uniform, James was awake, and the other occupants of the hallway were up and coming to see what all the noise had been about.
"No Rogue, you're not coming," Logan was saying, as he walked out of the room pulling on his gloves. This uniform fit better than the one of Scott's he had borrowed the time he helped rescue Rogue, it must be a new one made specifically for him. Unfortunately because it was new it was quite stiff.
"But Logan..." Rogue tried to argue, when James jumped off the bed and followed them out of the room.
"No, no, don't go," James yelled, grabbing hold of Rogue and trying to reach for Logan too.
"James," Logan said, dropping onto his knees so he was closer to the boys level. "You remember the place Rogue found you, the bad place?" he asked patiently, James nodded, eyes wide and worried. "Well, there's a little girl, a bit older than you, your sister, family, she's in a place like that right now, I have to go get her and bring her home, so she can live here too, with you, and Caleb, and Rogue. I need you to stay here while I'm gone, look after Rogue for me, okay?" he asked, hoping to distract the boy by giving him a task.
James stopped, considering what Logan was saying. "Mama stay?" he asked hopefully, turning to Rogue, who shot Logan an irritated look before giving in with a smile and confirming she would stay. James hugged her legs and hesitantly waved goodbye to Logan. "Be back soon?" he asked, still obviously apprehensive about being left behind.
"I'll be back soon buddy, by tomorrow at the latest," Logan replied, offering the boy a goodbye hug as he stood. Caleb was watching what was going on curiously, having caught part of the conversation. "We found her," Logan told him, knowing he would know who he was talking about. He handed James back to Rogue as Scott's voice broke over the comm attached to his uniform, telling him to hurry up.
Hitting the elevator moments later, he waited impatiently for the doors to close and the car to reach the sub level. The jets hatch was closing as he dove through the opening, the hanger door above was already open, and the engines were fired up and ready. He had a split second to sit in the nearest seat before the plane lifted off the ground, not even waiting for him to strap in.
He observed the other occupants of the jet, along with Scott, Jean, and Ororo, there were three junior members. A hulk of a teen who was mumbling a prayer in Russian, a dark-haired teen who was obsessively flicking a lighter, and super hacker Kitty, who looked surprisingly determined and focused for a kid he'd once seen fall through a chair when someone spooked her.
When the jet levelled out Scott turned to the team, in the hush that fell over the crowd he explained the mission, and ran everyone over the blueprints of the base, and their entry strategy. The mission had been planned on the fly, literally, the location and the intel had only been gathered that morning. Scott, remembering how unbearable Logan had been during the waiting and planning phase of Rogue's rescue, had intentionally waited until the last minute to tell him anything this time, and it looked like the right course of action.
As they made their final approach to the base, Logan felt the pure rage and hatred coursing through him. With the pick-up of Caleb, he had been more worried about getting to him before a lab. James had been rescued without an opportunity for him to exact vengeance. Now though, these fuckers were going down, every last one of them would pay for what had been done to him, and his family.
He noticed Scott watching him oddly, as his claws ripped through his gloves. "Make sure everyone stays out of my way," Wolverine warned, he was on the verge of going fully berserker, he couldn't guarantee the rest of the team’s safety if that happened.
"You want us to get the girl out?" Scott asked, unsure how to proceed; suddenly it didn't seem like such a great idea to have left Rogue behind after all.
"No, don't touch her, if she's there, leave her for me," Logan replied, she was his objective, it would be suicide for anyone else to try and get her.
--
An hour later the base was in shambles, blood and body parts littered most of the halls, the team had barely even seen a solider, a whole or live one at least, let alone engaged one. Wolverine had torn into the base the moment the alarms had sounded, tearing down everything in his path single-handedly.
In all, seven mutants had been rescued. As agreed, Scott left the youngest, a small girl, for Logan to retrieve, though he kept close to make sure there was no issues, he was expecting the poor kid to freak out when she saw the blood saturated clawed mutant approach her. He was shocked by Logan's appearance himself, they'd been able to hear the gunshots and screams of the soldiers and doctors as they echoed through the halls but the sight of Logan, coated in blood with gaping holes in his uniform as he stalked toward him, claws still drawn, was almost enough to make him piss his pants, and they were on the same side!
He didn't say anything to Logan, just pointed to the one remaining closed door at the end of the hall. The screech of metal on metal, accompanied by the popping and crackling of electricity, were the only sounds as Logan mercilessly hacked his way into the cell, ignoring the sting of the electrical currents he cut through to sever the locking mechanisms. He stood in the doorway for a few seconds, visibly scenting the area to make sure he hadn't missed anyone else. Once he was sure only the girl was present the claws, almost silently, slid away. Walking slowly across the room to the huddled form watching him warily from the furthest corner, he knelt down beside the blanket covered child.
"It's okay, Ava, I'm here now, I've got you," Logan said gently.
The girl’s eyes widened, as hope flared in her eyes. "Can I go home now?" she asked softly.
"I'm taking you home sweetheart but to my home, your home..." Logan paused, not sure if now was the best time to tell her, her family was dead, he had found what he believed to be their bodies.
"It’s gone huh, they're all gone, aren't they?" she asked, tears filling her eyes.
"Yeah sweetheart, they're gone," he confirmed.
The girl began to sob before pulling herself together with a deep breath. "Why would I go with you?" she challenged, annoying him as much it impressed him.
"I'm your dad kiddo, I'm sorry it took me so long to find you..." He was surprised when the girl suddenly jumped up and wrapped her arms around him.
"I knew it, I knew you would come, mommy said you wouldn't but I knew you would," the girl whispered.
"Always baby girl," he replied, hugging the girl back as he picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he began the trek to the jet, refusing to let go of him. As he was about to step out into the main base hallway he paused. "Keep your eyes closed okay sweetheart, you don't need to see this, promise me?" he said to the girl.
She pulled back, looking pointedly at his hand before she nodded. "Promise," she said, as she squeezed her eyes shut before resuming her position wrapped around him.
He quickly made his way out of the base, following Scott made his trek out faster, he didn't remember which way he'd come to get to the cells. The other captive mutants were being secured in the back of the jet so Logan moved, with his own cargo, to his seat, only loosening Ava's grip enough to strap himself in before pulling her back to him. Jean was too busy with her other patients to bother him during the trip but she refused to let him leave the basement level until she had checked the girl over.
He convinced Jean to let them both shower first, both were covered in a substantial amount of gore that didn't belong to either of them. Ava still wouldn't release her grip on him, until she was in the shower. He peeled the blood-soaked hospital gown off her, checking her for any signs of injury himself as he hosed the blood off her with warm water. Handing her a thick fluffy towel he left her to dry herself as he moved to a separate shower stall and cut off what was left of his ‘brand new’ leather uniform. As he washed himself off, he cut a few remaining bullets out of his flesh that had healed up before the foreign objects had been expelled.
When he was clear of gore, he grabbed his own towel before going in search of clothes. He found a tracksuit for himself, unsurprisingly they didn't have anything in seven-year-old girl size, so he pulled out an extra hoodie, wrapping it around the petite girl, he watched her giggle as he rolled the sleeves up until her hands appeared. "Sorry kiddo, that's going to have to do for now, we'll find you some new clothes later okay?" She smiled and nodded before reaching out for him again, she was almost as clingy as James.
Jean gave her a thorough check over, she was just finishing up when the doors slid open, causing Ava to jump, as they admitted Rogue with James in tow.
"I bring a peace offering of clothes," Rogue cheekily said to Logan, holding out a bag.
"Thanks darlin," he replied, hugging her and James, before dropping a kiss on her forehead. He dug through the bag, pulling out the change of his clothes. "Ava, you stay here with Jean and Rogue, okay, I'll be back in a minute. You want to come with me little guy?" he asked James, catching the little boy as he threw himself into his arms, taking him with him to the changing room.
As Jean packed up the last of her medical supplies she sat with a sigh. "Well, they're not in as bad shape as they could have been, and you little lady are one hundred percent healthy, though that's not surprising," she added.
"Healing active?" Rogue confirmed, as she pulled out the outfit she had brought for the little girl. Jubilee had grabbed a few outfits for her while she'd been at the mall earlier that day, taking advantage of the day of cancelled classes.
Ava warily but obediently helped dress herself, Rogue was putting socks and shoes on her as Logan came back in along with James. "How come he doesn’t have to wear shoes?" Ava groused, pointing at James, who Rogue had finally managed to get a pair of socks onto for the first time.
"James has never had shoes before, maybe you can help us teach him to wear shoes so he doesn't get cold toes?" Rogue suggested to the little girl, who looked suitably surprised and immediately ceased complaining about her shoes.
Logan chuckled, before pulling up a chair in front of Ava and taking a seat. He introduced Ava and James, not surprised when both sniffed at each other as part of their introduction process. Caleb was led in a short time later by Scott, who Logan had run into in the locker room and asked to show him down, feeling these introductions would be better to do without an audience.