About an hour later they both woke again with a start when Rogue's alarm clock began to sound, the tiny tot jumped, covering his ears and burrowing under the blankets pressing himself against Rogue. Quickly she reached over and turned the alarm off.

"It's okay," she said softly, "It's time to get up now, do you need to go to the bathroom?" she asked, softly, trying to make her voice sound soft and happy to allay his fears over the alarm – he’d had the same reaction when the alarms had gone off in the cell she'd rescued him from. He just looked confused when she asked about the "bathroom" so she rephrased her question, "Do you need to pee-pee?"

He grinned then, nodded, and quickly wriggled out of bed and ran over to the bathroom, he stopped at the door again she noticed, and seemed to reconsider entering. Picking him up she carried him into the room and set him down on the toilet. He did his business and then quickly lifted up his arms for her to wash his hands. It suddenly occurred to Rogue; he was balking at touching the floor. To test her theory she lifted him off the bench, once she had washed his hands, and leaned over to place him on the tile floor, almost instantly he pulled his legs up, tucked tight against his body, and began growling softly, she stopped and pulled him back up, he relaxed as he got further away from the floor.

Turning back to the bedroom, considering this revelation she paused, and again lowered him to the floor, this time onto the fluffy yellow bathmat Jubilee had given her as a 'room warming' present when she'd moved into her own room. He tensed momentarily but then let his feet land on the bathmat, standing under his own power he stood still and watched Rogue move back around the bathroom.

She did her own business - feeling kind of uncomfortable with the big dark eyes watching her every move - when she was done, she washed her hands and tidied up a little while she considered what to do next. Catching sight of the still grubby, naked, little boy she decided now was as good a time as any to try and get him washed.

Leaving him standing on the fluffy bathmat she went to her closet to grab a couple of new towels, either he'd get over whatever fear he had of the tiled floor and follow her out, or he would wait there for her to come back. It only took a few seconds of her being out of sight before she heard light, quick footsteps run across the bathroom and back into the bedroom. Rogue smiled to herself, he was afraid but it looked like he trusted her enough to push back the fear to move forward; hopefully he didn't have too strong fears of bathtubs.

Moving back into the bathroom Rogue set aside the towels and moved to the tub, plugging the tub and turning the water on she hunted through her collection of bubble baths trying to find one that wouldn't be too strong for a little boy with what appeared to be heightened senses.

'That one darlin',' Logan spoke, in her mind, as she sniffed at a lightly scented vanilla and lime.

'You've been awfully alert lately, what’s up Logan?' she replied, moving over to the bath and adding some bubble mix to the warm flow of water.

'You're not gonna like this Marie, he might look like a kid but you have no idea what ... conditioning they did to him, you don't know what he can do, what he might do...' Logan opined.

'He's a baby, Logan, he's scared and alone but you keep keeping an eye on him if you want, I will not keep treating him like a prisoner or a weapon like they did,' Rogue interrupted him, trying not to be too mad; he did have a point, though the way the little boy clung to her was triggering major maternal instincts Rogue didn't even know she had.

Turning her attention back outwards she saw the dark eyes watching from the doorway, craning his neck trying to see what was happening in the tub she was kneeled in front of. Smiling at him she indicated for him to come over to her. He paused, looking at the floor obviously considering his options, then he looked back to the bathmat and Rogue before he ran the few steps across the tile floor until he was standing right next to her, arms wrapped around her arm. He calmed quickly when he spied the growing foam of bubbles on top of the water.

Leaving the little boy to splash around with the bubbles over the side of the tub while it continued to fill, Rogue went back to the bedroom and quickly pulled out, and on, one of her brand new full bodysuits - she'd found them online and bought several only a few weeks before - and pulled her gloves back on. As she walked back into the bathroom, now clad in only the semi sheer bodysuit she noted that, though he turned to her quickly, the toddler had this time simply been listening to her move around the other room while playing with the bubbles.

Smiling at him again and ruffling his hair affectionately Rogue turned off the water. "Bath time now," she said, and stepped into the tub. It felt strange climbing in fully 'dressed' but it was necessary to protect him from her skin, and she had a feeling that she wouldn't be able to get him into the tub alone.

"Come on, hop in," Rogue turned, holding her arms out to the boy, she picked him up when he returned the gesture, holding his own arms out to her, lifting him into the tub, his arms closed instinctively around her neck and he whimpered when she sunk down into the water with him. After a few minutes petting him gently, murmuring soothingly, splashing around with a variety of things that would float in the tub, and building a little bubble castle one handed, she eventually felt the tot relax, after a while even the hand on her shoulder let go as well, though he stayed sitting in her lap as he played and splashed around in the water. After a few more minutes of letting him play Rogue picked up a nearby sponge and began to gently and playfully wash him all over, trying not to scrub too harshly, thankfully the ten minutes soak in the warm water had loosened most of the grime he was caked in.

Once his skin was pink and clean, she moved onto his hair, she figured the shower was probably going a bit far for now so she settled for damping his hair with the sponge, before massaging a little bit of shampoo though his hair. He seemed to like that, he stopped playing while she was massaging his head and began to again make the quiet purring noise she'd heard the night before on the flight home. Once his hair was shampooed, she instructed him to put his head back, nudging the bottom of his chin to move him gently to the position she wanted him in, and with the soaked sponge she rinsed his hair, wiping out the excess water so it didn't run in his eyes.

He played for a while longer until the water began to cool at which point Rogue stood him up, started the bath draining and wiped him down with the rinsed sponge. He was clean. Once the water was gone Rogue lifted him out of the tub, setting him back down on the mat and, from her position still in the tub, she rubbed him down all over with one of the thick fluffy towels until he was dry. Wrapping him up in the warm cotton she sat him on the lid of the toilet while she quickly stripped off the wet bodysuit, and quickly dried herself off, before picking him back up in his little towel cocoon and carrying him back into the bedroom, setting him down on the bed.

The next order of business was clothes, Rogue quickly hunted through her drawers, she pulled out another bodysuit, shorts, a t-shirt, and gloves for herself. Though she was still a little damp from her bath she thought it best to get covered quickly, the three year old on her bed was already unwrapping himself from the towel she'd left him in, and the last thing she needed was him trying to grab hold of her again when skin was showing. Clothes for said three-year-old were a little harder, she didn't have anything in his size. Eventually she pulled out one for her oversize shirts and, coaxing him closer she quickly dressed him in the shirt and tied the bottom shut between his legs, it wasn't fashionable but it afforded him a little modesty, though that was probably something he didn't care about.

As soon as he was finished scenting and tugging at the shirt, curiosity sated, he jumped off the bed and ran back over to the desk, pulling himself up onto the desk chair he pointed at the bottle of water on the desk while looking back to Rogue. "Please?" he said.

Smiling at the fact that some of the earlier lessons she'd been giving him had obviously stuck she moved over to the desk and opened the bottle for him, helping him take a few sips, then portioned out the last of the snacks she had on hand for him. Watching as he ate Rogue felt an odd contentment settle over her, even the voices in her head were calm, including Logan's.

"Well sweetie," she eventually spoke, "It's probably time to introduce ourselves. My name is Rogue, do you have a name?"

The little boy looked at her, tilting his head in the universal sign of confusion. "Name?"

"Yeah, name, my name is Rogue," pointing to herself she repeated, "Rogue." Pointing to him she just looked at him questioningly.

He sat silently for a while longer, seeming to be looking internally, like he was trying to remember something, rather than at Rogue. After a while he said, "No name."

Rogue considered that for a while, it was probably quite true, if he'd been born in the lab he probably hadn't been given an actual name, at best he'd have an identification number on a file somewhere, he'd probably never really even been addressed directly by anyone before, she was about to suggest picking him a name when he spoke again.

"James."

"James?" she asked, at the sudden admission.

He nodded. "Lady with food, long time ago, said James. Is that my name?"

With a soft sad smile, trying not to tear up, Rogue replied, "If you would like that to be your name, we can call you James, okay?"

The dark-haired toddler smiled and nodded, then pointed to himself and said, "My name James," then pointed to Rogue, "You name mama." He promptly threw himself into her lap and hugged her, exactly as he had on the jet on the flight home. Rogue just sat there, stunned, until a knock sounded at the door.

"You up Rogue?" Scott called through the door.

Before Rogue could reply James jumped off her lap and ran to the door, pulling the door open he growled at Scott, surprisingly loudly. Scott just stood in silence looking shocked. Rogue tried to suppress the laugh that tried to break out, 'Shut up, Logan,' she warned the presence still hovering around the edges of her conscious mind. Aloud she gently reprimanded the little boy, wouldn't do to have him going around growling at people, especially if Logan was going to be back in a couple of days, one growly feral was enough for the mansions population to handle.

"James, no growling," stepping up behind the little boy she crouched down to his level. "This is Scott, Scott is a friend, you don't growl at friends, you say 'hello Scott'," to demonstrate Rogue stood up and turned to their visitor. "Hi Scott," she reached out a hand to him, hoping he got the hint.

Scott grinned. "Hi Rogue," he replied, and reached out and shook her hand.

"Get down on his level," Rogue mouthed at Scott.

With a barely perceptible nod Scott slowly dropped down and held out his hand to the little boy. "Hi James."

James paused and looked up at Rogue, at her nod of encouragement he stepped cautiously forward and grabbed hold of the offered hand. "Hi Scott."

With a smile Scott stood back up, noting how the little boy quickly scooted backwards so he was now standing half hidden behind Rogue. "Just came to see if you were coming down for breakfast and if need you anything? I've got to go into town and I can grab a few things for the little guy if you like?"

"That would be great," Rogue answered, "Some changes of clothing would be good, I think that's all he's going to need urgently. We're going to head to the kitchen in a minute, he finished all the snacks I brought up already, and I guess Jean will want to see him in the med lab soon."

Scott nodded. "Yeah she was actually talking about that earlier, she's in the kitchen at the moment so she can talk to you about that down there, I'll grab some clothes for him while I'm out, I should be back in an hour or so, he'll have to put up with a girls shirt for a while."

Rogue laughed. "He spent the night running around naked, not to mention for however long before then, so I don't think he'll mind too much. See you when you get back."

"Bye Rogue, bye James," Scott waved to the little boy as he started to move away down the hall.

"Bye Scott," Rogue replied, and nudged James to do the same. "Bye Scott," the little boy parroted.

Rogue left the door open and turned back into the room, first contact for the little boy had gone well, she just hoped it would go so well once they got around more people. She wasn't going to risk taking him into the cafeteria yet, even she wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with that number of people, but she could take him down to the staff kitchen, after late night missions that's usually where the rest of the X-men ended up for breakfast.
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