Pulling to a stop in front of the cosy little home, the small crowd that had travelled out to carry out Logan's final wishes glanced around in amazement. This was surely not where Logan lived when he wasn't at the school, surely, it was so... normal. Still struggling to comprehend what little information they had to work off, the sombre group made their way through the double latched front gate, down the flower bordered front path running through the middle of the yard, and past a tiny tricycle and a few toys that littered the lawn.
Stepping up onto the front porch Scott observed the teddy bear on the porch swing, as he waited for someone to respond to his knock. Footsteps could be heard for only a moment before the door opened. The young woman who opened the door was not what any of them had expected to see, the toddler perched on her hip was even more unexpected, though it really shouldn't be judging by the toys in the yard... and the letter that led them there.
"Can I help you?" the dark haired woman asked, smiling at them politely even as she watched them closely.
"Uh, is- is this the McKinley residence?" Scott asked uncertainly, he had only double checked the address three times since arriving but this scene was still just too bizarre for him to comprehend.
"Yes," the woman answered, though she appeared wary of giving them any more information.
"Are you... Mrs Marie McKinley?" Scott asked, trying to smother his frown of confusion.
"Yes," the woman repeated.
"And, you know this man?" Scott queried, holding out the one and only photo anyone had been able to locate of Logan.
"Yes," Marie again repeated, her wariness beginning to make way for concern, "That's my husband, who are you?"
Scott stared, in shocked silence, at the young woman for a moment before he gently responded. "May we come in to speak with you, in private, please?" he suggested.
For a moment he thought she was going to turn them away, until she slowly took a step back, opening the door wider and ushered them in, directing them into the cosy little homes living room. She shut the door softly behind them, before she set the toddler on her feet, and directed her to a toy box in the corner. The little girl toddled off to happily play with her toys, as the woman, Marie, took a seat across from the group, who were all either sitting on, or standing behind, one of the sofa's.
"Who are you? And what does my husband have to do with any of this?" Marie asked again, an order if Scott had ever heard one.
"My apologies Mrs McKinley, we- we were rather shocked to discover Logan had family, we didn't know until... My name is Scott Summers, this is my wife, Jean, and Ororo Munroe, Peter Rasputin, Katherine Pryde, Jubilation Lee, and Robert Drake," Scott introduced their party, each person nodding in turn. "We all work with your husband, I don't know what he has told you abou--" Marie was apparently tired of his slow meandering approach of an explanation, eager to get to her main question, and hurriedly interrupted him.
"Logan said he works as a mercenary for a group that raids and recovers mutants from labs, like the one that experimented on him, in his down time he teaches practical classes at their school," Marie replied.
"Uh, yeah, that sums it up pretty good... There was a mission, a week ago-" a soft gasp sounded from the woman seated across from him, as she clearly caught on to where his comment was now quite quickly leading- "Logan was, trapped, inside the compound, and... someone set a self destruct... he helped rescue six mutants from that lab alone, he was headed down to the next sub level, where two more mutants were being held, when the base detonated... we--" Scott broke off as the girl before him stifled a sob, tears running down her face.
"... Keep going," she breathed, as she tried to hold herself together.
"We weren't able to recover him," Scott murmured softly. "There was no sign of him, we've been monitoring the site for life signs, his communications equipment was knocked out in the blast... our ground penetrating radar was unable to detect him... we had to abandon our ground search when the military arrived but we have continued to monitor... past any time survival is likely." Scott stopped again, as Marie began to weep.
"No... no it's not true, it's not possible, it's... he's coming home, he'll be home at the end of June, and his contract is finished, he's staying now, he doesn't have to go back to New York anymore because he's not renewing his contract.. and he... he's... oh god no! It's not true, this isn't happening..." Disbelief and denial quickly morphed into heaving sobs, as Marie buried her face in her hands, the sound attracting the attention of the toddler, who watched her curiously for a moment before wandering over, and trying to climb into the young woman’s lap.
"Mama?" the little girl asked, confusion reigning supreme across her face.
Scott heard Kitty and Jubilee's almost silent gasps of surprise as it finally began to sink in, this child was that of the woman before them, and if she was her child, and this woman was Logan's wife... Logan had had an entire family that no one knew about. A family that was being shattered by their news, Scott realised, as Marie picked the little girl up, wrapping her in her arms as she held onto her for dear life as she sobbed. The poor toddler was so confused she did the only thing she could think of, and joined in her mothers tears. Thankfully that seemed to snap Marie out of her grief to a degree, as she gently shushed the little girl and dried their combined tears, before she set about cuddling the little girl and telling her how much she, and 'daddy', loved her.
The team sat in silence for several minutes, until a high pitched cry suddenly broke the moment. All eyes turned to the sound, expecting to see... what exactly the strangers weren't sure but a baby monitor on the mantle was clearly not it.
"Excuse me a minute," Marie stated softly, as she robotically rose, picking up her daughter with her, and making her way out of the room. A moment later they overheard, through the monitor, a door open, and the soft soothing voice of the young mother murmured through the device. "Hush now baby, mama's here... mama's got you little one... ma... oh god, oh god Logan... Logan, I can't do this alone, I can't do this without you..." The sound of sobbing went on for a few minutes before Kitty suddenly jumped to her feet and rushed out of the room.
It didn't take them long to work out where she had gone, her own voice filtering through the baby monitor a few moments later. "Oh Marie, I'm so sorry," Kitty murmured, as the two young women sobbed together. Jean followed a short time later, when the baby’s cries began to become insistent, her shocked gasp when she got to the nursery, enough to draw the rest of the group to follow.
Sitting on the floor, between two cribs was Marie, Kitty clutching her comfortingly, as the toddler ran worriedly from her distraught mother to the cribs, each containing a very unhappy new-born. Jean was gently extricating one of the babies from a crib, rocking it gently to try and calm it, a move Jubilee mirrored with the other. The small nursery was too small for all the people now trying to crowd into it, so Scott gently collected Marie, and carried her back to the living room, Kitty still holding firmly to her hand, as everyone moved back to the more spacious living room.
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