If being a single father to a pre-schooler had been hard, over the next few days Logan realised, it came nowhere near the difficulty of being single father to a newborn. Unlike Emily's early days, there was no Marie to trade off sleeping shifts with, though he did take the opportunity to nap when they stopped at the mansion every day for Marie to have a couple of hours of interaction with Daniel. Despite this, by the sixth day Logan’s healing factor was having trouble keeping up with the lack of sleep, and he was starting to feel the effects.

"Are you sure everything's alright Jean? I mean, he barely manages to sleep an hour at a time, and when he cries it's not the all-out screaming like Emily used to do, it's like he can't draw in a deep enough breath to really let rip," Logan advised Jean, at Daniel's second week follow up appointment.

"... I want to do some x-rays, is that okay with you two?" she asked, a contemplative look on her face.

"You have a theory," Marie stated matter of factly.

"Bronchopulmonary dysplasia," Jean replied, "Its a type of lung disease in infants, basically it's scarring of the lungs, one of the things that can induce it is oxygen therapy – the ventilator Daniel was on right after he was born – usually though it affects prematurely born babies, Daniel was almost a week overdue so I didn't consider the possibility sooner, his lungs should have been adequately developed, though... developmental interruption could explain them being slightly weaker,” she theorized.

"You mean the substance exposure," Marie replied glumly, tearing up again as she said it, she didn't need to see Jean's sympathetic nod to know she was right.

After x-rays, and a few other tests to measure Daniel's blood oxygen levels, he was sent home with a mild diuretic, to reduce pressure on his lungs, and an apnoea monitor, so Logan could move him if his heart rate or breathing slowed, hopefully before it woke Daniel, so the boy could sleep longer uninterrupted.

--

Marie sat on the porch in tears, wallowing in her own misery. Since Daniel's additional diagnosis earlier that day she had again felt herself spiralling into darkness. There was no one to blame for Daniel's problems but her, it was all her fault. Her current state of mind was not being helped by the fact she had discovered one of the students weed stash and was now on her third joint, a fact that was only serving to feed her self-loathing even more.

When the dark voice slipped into her thoughts, she was powerless to fight it. Why was she even bothering with the pretence of trying to get well, her children would be better off without her. All she had done was hurt them, and Logan didn't need her, he could take better care of them than she ever could. It would be better for everyone if she just left, if she just wasn't here...

--

Logan was woken by the ringing phone, with a groan he knocked it off the cradle, stopping it ringing before it woke Daniel. Then he groped for the fallen handset blindly.

"Wha'?" he muttered, without even opening his eyes.

"Logan, have you seen Rogue tonight?" Scott's voice cut across the line.

"What!? No, what's going on?" Logan asked, suddenly wide awake.

"Jean was woken up by a car driving out of the garage, the only person missing is Rogue, her bed's empty and Jean couldn't pick her up on the grounds, Xavier's not here to search with Cerebro, so we're stuck physically looking for her, look, don't you worry but if she turns up at your place let us know so we can stop looking, Jean picked up thoughts from her earlier in the night about the kids, she thought she was missing them, so..." Scott trailed off.

"I'll let you know if she ends up here," Logan replied, scrubbing a hand tiredly over his face. After ending the call, he did a quick check on both Daniel and Emily, before lying back down in bed. Unsurprisingly, he was asleep again in moments.

A soft but sharp sound woke him some time later, lying in bed confused and exhausted he listened to see if he could figure out what it had been. Probably just the neighbours cat being an asshole again and knocking shit over.

*Knock* *knock* *knock*.

Nope, not the neighbour's cat, unless the wily bastard had learned how to ding-dong-ditch. Dragging himself up, Logan stumbled bleary eyed into the hallway, and down the stairs, immediately spying a slim dark figure through the distorted glass of the front door. Yanking the door open he scowled.

"Damnit Marie, you've got everyone worried and half the damn mansion up looking for you, what the hell's going on?" Logan asked, probably a little more irritably than he intended.

"I need to see the kids," she murmured softly.

"That's fine, of course, just next time let someone know that before you disappear in the middle of the night," Logan replied, gentling his tone in the face of her obvious distress, opening the door wider and stepping aside so Marie could come in. She stumbled a bit as she stepped in the door and his worry again skyrocketed as he caught her. "Marie, have you been drinking?" he demanded.

"No, you said I couldn't see them if I was drunk," Marie reminded him, "And I need to see them... one last time..." The last comment was murmured so softly he didn't think she meant to say it, and she tugged away from him and moved toward the stairs.

She still had yet to even look at him, and Logan was beyond suspicious. Grabbing her arm, he yanked her around suddenly, causing her to lose her balance again. He caught her, and used her momentary disorientation to yank her head up. "You're high!" he stated, quickly spotting her dilated pupils and slightly bloodshot eyes.

"It was just weed, I'm sorry, I really need to see them... I need to say goodbye," she explained softly.

"What do mean 'say goodbye'?" he demanded roughly, shaking her a little as he said it. The soft, calm look that fell over her face did nothing to ease his rising panic. She was too calm, too mellow for this to be just the effect of weed. "What else did you take Marie?" he almost yelled in her face in his panic.

"It's okay Logan, it'll be better this way, I just want to see them one last time," Marie repeated.

"Shit!" Logan fumed, releasing his hold on her long enough to grab the nearby phone. Without his hand on her arm Marie began to make her way toward the stairs again, Logan quickly caught her up as he dialled the mansion and hauled her back to the foyer. "Scott! She's here, get Jean here now, she needs her stomach pumped, she's taken something, she won't tell me what just keeps going on about having to 'say goodbye' to the kids, get here now!" he shouted into the phone, as Marie began to fight against him.

"I don't have time Logan, I need to say goodbye," she was sobbing now, as she tried to push him away.

"What did you take Marie?" he demanded again, refusing to let go his hold on her wrist.

"It doesn't matter, just let me see them, please, one last time," she begged.

"And what, leave Emily with the memory of her mother dying in front of her? Are you nuts! What the hell did you take?" Logan demanded again, panic like he had never felt churning inside him as he watched Marie's desperate struggle quickly weakening.

Suddenly she gasped, falling limply to her knees. "Tell them I love them, tell them I'm sorry... for being such a horrible mother, for not being stronger... and I love you too... it's better this way," she said softly, reaching one hand up as if to cradle his cheek. Her hand never made it though, as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Thinking quickly, Logan did the only thing he could, reaching for her bare skin and hoping like hell she wasn't able to keep her mutation off right now. He felt it, flickering to life weakly as he tried to will his healing into her, he couldn't lose her, it was bad enough her not being around. As much as he sometimes hated what she had done, he loved her more, and if she was truly gone, they would never be able to fix their relationship, and that would break him. He felt her mutation slam on fully, and suck him in, just as he heard a soft voice from the landing above.

"Go to bed Em," he choked out, a moment before he too lost consciousness and fell to the ground beside Marie.
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