Two days later there was a further breakthrough. Kitty came rushing into the cafeteria at lunch waving a sheaf of paper.
"I found one, he's in Manitoba," she said breathlessly, shoving the pages into Logan's hand.
He quickly flipped through the pages that identified a sixteen-year-old boy as his son. There was a school report, and digital copies of newspaper articles about the kid, showing him to be a local star high school hockey player. "Do you have a home address?" Logan asked, without looking up as he continued to scan the documents.
"No, only the school but I'll keep looking, I can update you en route if I find anything more," Kitty told him.
"Thanks," Logan called over his shoulder, as he rushed out of the cafeteria. He ran into Rogue, almost literally, and she fell into step beside him, James in tow, as he filled her in on what Kitty had found. He burst into the Professor's office, folder in hand. They went over the information quickly as they formed a plan to collect the teen.
"I'm afraid I can't spare the jet, or more specifically a pilot," Charles stated, "But you are welcome to your choice of vehicle from the garage. I would recommend you take an additional person with you, to act as a more 'official' representative of the school, I would suggest Rogue would be best for the job, she knows the school's admissions speech, she is also good at keeping you ferals calm and focused," he added with a grin.
"Thanks Chuck," Logan replied sarcastically, "I can't take Rogue though unless we take James as well and I'm not sure he's ready for that..."
"We could watch him," Jean offered from where she was standing at the door, having bumped into Kitty and heard the news. She nudged Scott to encourage him to agree, he had been trying to start conversations about having kids lately but Jean wasn't sure herself if she was ready, or even wanted children of her own. What better way to see if they were ready than to test out their parenting skills on one of the most challenging types of child.
"Yeah we could do that," Scott replied, "I really can't be away for the school for long but we can tag team around our classes, we'd be happy to watch him for a couple of days."
Logan didn't look entirely convinced, Rogue even less so, but the Professor simply continued on as if the decision had already been made.
"I would imagine the boys’ mother will not be keen on letting him go off alone, though perhaps you can convince her Logan, if need be, she appears to have a background in education, I will prepare an offer of employment that you can extend to her, it may be enough of an incentive if all else fails, simply let me know her preferred subjects and I will see where we can fit her in," Charles advised Rogue.
"What do you think?" Logan asked, turning to Rogue.
"How long will it take?" she queried, after a thoughtful pause.
"If we tag team on the driving, we could be there around two or three tomorrow afternoon, depending on how soon we get on the road," Logan replied, trying to figure out where he could make up time. "We should be able to catch the kid at school and follow him home, Kitty hasn't been able to get a home address yet."
"James would be alone for three days, wouldn't it be better to take him with us, even if takes a little longer to get there..." Rogue commented worriedly.
"If we're even an hour too late... and if the spooks turn up while we're there, the last thing I want is for them to get all four of us!" Logan said, a conflicted look crowding his face, he was obviously worried about the same thing but trying to balance his fears for both children. "He'd be in a house full of superheroes, with telepaths who could keep him calm, and an onsite doctor, what's the worst that could happen...?" he eventually suggested with a shrug.
"Never say that Logan, ever," Rogue commented with a chuckle. "Alright, the sooner we leave the sooner we'll get back, either way there's going to be something come up so I guess going for speed makes most sense," she agreed.
Jean and Scott followed them upstairs while the two hurriedly packed, and Rogue gathered up some things for James, as Logan bobbed down to the little boy’s height as he explained to him what was happening.
"Me and Rogue have to go away for a few days, you're going to stay here with Scott and Jean, you on board, kiddo?" Logan asked, James nodded in response. "And you're going to behave yourself?" Logan added, "Do what you're told, eat your veges, and go to bed when you're told to?" James laughed, and nodded, before reaching out to Logan to give him a hug.
"Bye dada, bye mama," he said, once he had hugged them both, before climbing onto the couch next to Scott.
"See, no problem," Scott laughed, "Bye dad."
--
Twenty-eight hours later they pulled into Dauphin, Manitoba. Logan had done most of the driving, including all night while Rogue slept. As he got closer to the little red dot on the GPS Rogue noticed him getting progressively quieter. The GPS took them straight to the local high school but they got there as the school was letting out. Logan immediately leapt out of the car, scanning the crowd of disbursing teenagers. Rogue got out of the car too, standing up on the seat to see over heads.
"Logan, the bus, third one in the queue," she called to him. Sure enough, one look at the kid currently boarding the bus was enough to get Logan back in the car.
He had managed to work his way through the crowd of departing vehicles to only be two behind the bus as it pulled away from the curb. Unsurprisingly they followed the bus past a small ice rink, where the tall, dark haired teen they were following disembarked. Logan pulled into the carpark and the two of them followed the group of high school boys into the rink. For an hour they watched the kids practice before Logan made his move as they were packing up.
"Hey, you Caleb?" he asked, as the crowd thinned and kids began to leave the practice rink. The kid in question nodded, observing him warily as he stepped away from his friend group.
"You don't know me, and I'm sorry for that, my name's Logan, I'm your dad," Logan told him.
The kid looked wary, though not surprised. "So, what do you want?" Caleb asked.
Logan paused; he had spent the whole trip trying to figure out what to say but he still hadn't been able to think of something. 'Well, here goes nothing...'
--
"Mom, I'm home," the teenager shouted, as he walked in the front door. Hockey gear dumped unceremoniously in a pile in the bottom of the hall cupboard, he slammed the door shut before anything could slide back out, before tossing his backpack at the stairs.
"Come on in," he gestured to the pair still standing in the doorway. "Shut the door behind you," he added, as he turned towards the kitchen.
Rogue followed him into the kitchen, Logan following along behind her as he took in their surroundings, noting only one other resident by scent, though the place appeared empty at the moment.
Rogue watched, amused, as Caleb fixed himself a snack. In typical teenage boy fashion it was enough for a full meal, for more than one person, and much like Logan it seemed to consist mainly of red meat. He paused halfway through making his roast beef sandwich, seeming to remember his manners.
"Uh, you guys want anything, food, drink?" he asked.
"Beer?" Logan asked, unsurprisingly. Rogue smothered her chuckle and shook her head.
Just then the front door opened. "Caleb, you home?" a woman's voice called from the foyer.
"Kitchen," the boy in question replied.
"Honey, whose car is that in the..." with a shocked gasp, the woman now standing in the kitchen doorway froze in place. "Well, this is unexpected," she breathed, after taking a moment to collect herself.
"He said he's my dad, is that true?" Caleb immediately blurted.
"... uh, yes," she confirmed, after a brief pause before turning to Logan. "How long have you known?"
"I found out yesterday morning, came straight here," Logan replied, his brow furrowed as he tried to place how he knew this woman.
She nodded her head in understanding. "I had no way to contact you after you... moved on, sorry, it must have been a shock." She noticed Rogue then, and smiled politely, "Hi, I'm Sarah."
"Rogue," was the reply, as she shook hands with the woman in greeting.
"So, did you just come to meet him?" Sarah asked, finally moving into the room to deposit her groceries on the counter.
"No," Logan answered seriously, "You're both in danger, I was hoping to at the very least convince Caleb to come to New York with me, there's a school, for mutants, down there. Somewhere he'll be safe, where I can keep an eye on him. You'd be welcome too but it's him who's most at risk."
"Why is he at risk?" Sarah queried.
"Because he's my son," Logan replied, "He may have my mutation, that makes him a target."
"Have you told him?" Sarah directed the question to her son, who shook his head in response.
"He began to manifest two months ago," Sarah started, "He got very sick, almost ended up in hospital even though they didn't know what was wrong with him, then all of a sudden one day he was up and about like normal. He got in a fight a few days later, he and the other three kids who attacked him were wailing on each other pretty good... Caleb walked away without so much as a bruise, the other kids, well, two broken arms, a broken nose, and a concussion between the three of them. Almost got himself expelled, would have if not for the CCTV camera that caught the other boys jumping him. He popped the claws for the first-time last week, thankfully it was at home so there hasn't been any public fallout. I think it's safe to say he took after you." She paused, watching Logan's expression, he seemed angry, or concerned, by what she was saying. He opened his mouth to speak but quickly snapped it shut again as a surprised look crossed his face.
"I remember you," Logan murmured, "I didn't remember your name but I remember your face. I remember... you found me out in the forest, you brought me home with you, like a lost fucking puppy," Logan paused to huff what might have been a laugh. "You taught me to be human again."
"I did my best," Sarah smiled, "I must have done something right because you're still alive, and you seem to be okay with the whole talking thing now," she said with a grin.
"So, when you were feral?" Rogue asked, skimming through her cache of stolen Logan memories.
"Not exactly," Logan replied, "Just confused, I'd figured out I was a human but had no idea what that meant or how I was supposed to function as one, I was still running off instinct but not out of control like when I'm feral."
Sarah was nodding and smiling. "Some things he remembered but not until he had the tools, like, he remembered how to eat with a knife and fork, though he preferred his fingers and teeth. He picked up a pen one day and started writing, at first, he didn't know what he'd written but by that night he was nose deep in a book reading. He loved his hockey, guess he was a fan and something had stuck, he remembered the rules and everything. The talking took time though, and when he couldn't remember the words he wanted he'd revert to growling, I never did get out of him what happened, how he ended up out there naked in the woods."
"That's sort of why we're here," Rogue answered, noting Logan's glazed look; he was obviously remembering something, Rogue was content to leave him to reminisce given it looked like a fairly happy memory, Logan didn't have many of those. "Logan had escaped from a lab that experimented on mutants, unfortunately those places, while still illegal, still exist in secret, we found one recently, the sole occupant was a three-year-old boy, when our doctor did a DNA test, she discovered this child was Logan's. From the records we uncovered it was clear they'd been trying to get their hands on a child of Logan's for some time, they'd gone to pretty nefarious lengths to get James. They'd determined that they wouldn't be able to hold Logan if they managed to recapture him, a child would be easier to control and manipulate. We immediately started scouring every source we could find, trying to find traces of children that might be Logan's, the plan was to beat the labs to any that might be out there," Rogue revealed.
"And you found Caleb," Sarah stated simply.
"Yeah," Logan confirmed. "They took a blood sample, must have been when he started manifesting, thanks to Canada's government run medical system our computer whiz managed to hack the records dump and matched the DNA. If we can do it that means they can too, we've pissed them off by stealing their most recent 'toy', the last thing I want is them coming here looking for a replacement," Logan finished.
"So, I have a brother?" Caleb asked, from where he'd been silently standing at the counter listening, snack forgotten.
"Yep, he's safe at the school now. We've matched a girl too but we haven't been able to get a location on her yet... her and her entire immediate family are currently listed as missing," Logan spoke directly to him.
"Do you think she's in a lab?" Caleb asked, sounding suitably concerned.
"Given the location she disappeared from, it's probable," Logan admitted.
"How old is she?" was the next query from the concerned teenager.
"... seven," Logan stated softly. The room went quiet as its occupants absorbed that information.
"What do they to mutants in labs?" Caleb asked again.
"A lot of really evil shit," Logan responded flatly.
"Like?" Caleb pressed, "Specifically what would they do to someone like her, you, me?"
Logan considered briefly how in depth an answer to give before deciding the kid was probably old enough to handle full disclosure. "I don't remember everything, most of what I remember is just random flashes they didn't manage to wipe from my memories, because they did that, I don't remember anything from before they got me, no idea if I had family beforehand, a home, I don't even remember my real name or my date of birth. I do remember them 'testing' my healing; being set on fire, shot, stabbed, having organs removed to see how long it took for them to grow back, that sort of thing. Once they knew my limits, they tried to rebuild me, including coating every bone in my body in metal, that procedure I remember in vivid detail, at least until the point I passed out from the pain, or possibly drowned, that one detail is a little fuzzy.
"When I came to I was fully feral, memories from that are patchy too, I don't always remember everything that happens when I'm feral, that part of my psyche sort of, tries to protect my mind from whatever's happening, but I know I obliterated that place, nothing but me left there alive. In addition, general lab conditions are dark, cold, dirty, bad food, even worse sanitation, rape, torture, experimentation, and, if you're lucky or they deem you expendable, death." Both Caleb and Sarah looked a little pale by the time he finished but it was Rogue whose reaction concerned him the most.
"Don't look at it, Marie," he said softly, watching as her eyes cleared and the very gentle tremble she'd had going stopped.
"I didn't mean to, you said organ removal and pictures just started flashing through..." She shuddered one more time, as she forcibly shoved the images from her mind.
After a moment Caleb asked another question. "And what happens to human family members?"
Logan immediately caught on to his concern, the unasked question, what would happen to his mother if a lab caught up with him. "If the family doesn't willingly hand over the subject, hell sometimes even if they do, instant termination. The last thing they want is someone coming looking for missing mutants."