Logan was sitting on the front porch, enjoying a cigar in the mid afternoon sunshine of late summer.
Bella was in her room, reading her first grade level story books. He and Marie had decided against sending her to school, for several reasons, including not wanting to draw attention from CPS for this child that didn't belong to either of them, not by blood at least, and also not wanting her to get bullied or teased for her wings. So they had started teaching Bella at home.
With the exception of reading, which she loved, it was a lot harder than Logan had been expecting. A lot harder than teaching the teenagers at the school for sure, at least with them you could threaten them with bodily harm to get them to self regulate their behaviour, Bella just went stark raving mad whenever they tried to get her sit still for more than ten minutes to work on a task she didn't want to. If he could get drunk he was sure it would have driven him to drink!
That was part of the reason why Marie was in their room having a nap. The other part of the reason was also the reason why canned fish, in fact any fish, had been banned from the house, and olives, and Logan's cigars. He chuckled remembering the green colour Marie had turned when he opened the box a few days before, and then promptly told him to get out and take his stinking cancer sticks with him.
He never would have thought he would ever find himself in the position he was now in. A woman who was effectively his wife - hell she was more than that simple term could ever convey to him, she was his lifeline, his mate, the other half of his soul. And a father, Bella had started calling him 'daddy' in the last few months - he was pretty sure that was her way of seeking assurance from him and 'mommy' Marie that she wasn't about to lose her place in their family. And their new baby, due in little over five months, would be joining the clan soon.
Xavier had been in contact with him recently, asking when he was returning, wanting to schedule him to teach from the beginning of the next school year, which was due to start in three days. Chuck was being nosy he was sure, though normally Logan would have returned to the school already. It wasn't like he had completely abandoned the X-Men though, he had joined them on two missions so far this summer, them swinging by to pick him up from a landing spot nearby, and returning him the same way. They were all curious about why he hadn't returned with them though.
And it seemed that curiosity had finally reached its boiling point, Logan noted, watching four figures make their way out of the trees, up the cabins rough driveway. Stubbing out the cigar with a sigh, Logan waited until they were closer before he rose to meet them.
"What?" he rumbled gruffly, when the group stopped a few meters off the porch.
"Where is she?" Scott demanded with a scowl.
"Who?" Logan asked, playing dumb, knowing he was either talking about Bella or, more probably, Marie.
"The girl you bought off the traffickers you sick--" Scott broke off near the beginning his angry tirade when Jean laid a calming hand on his arm.
"I didn't buy anyone off traffickers, in fact, they paid me, only fair for having to put up with their filth I guess," Logan replied, feigning nonchalance just to see how pissed he could get Scott. No matter how long he spent away from the mansion, pissing off the boy scout was still the best fun you could have... well, a close second... Actually, now that he thought about it, there were quite a few things he would rank as more enjoyable now, and all of them revolved around the two girls inside.
"Logan," Jean replied, sighing in irritation, "We all know you picked up a girl, you told Charles you would 'take her home', and we know she's in there," she set out their position.
"And?" Logan replied.
"So you didn't take her home did you?" Jean snapped.
"This is home," he pointed out, watching comprehension dawn on Jean's face. She appeared to be conversing telepathically for a few moments, she wasn't quite as good at hiding the body language that went along with regular conversation as she did that.
Just as Jean opened her mouth to speak again, probably to nag him about being a smartass, a surprised gasp from the back of the group caught everyone's attention. Logan wasn't sure why the geeks had brought Kitty with them but judging by where she was looking, eyes wide and mouth open, Bella must have been at her bedroom window. Kitty turned her eyes to him, a question evident but also a smile on her lips. Nice, sweet Kitty wouldn't be thinking any of the horrible thoughts the others no doubt were, and she was likely closest to the truth.
No one else appeared to spot what Kitty had, and from the noises inside he knew that meant Bella was planning on coming to him. With a resigned sigh he told everyone to come inside, while he wracked his brain for a way to explain. Everyone was taking seats at the table when a noise from behind the curtain to the loft drew their attention.
"You can come down," Logan called quietly, before the inevitable query could come from the loft. Immediately the curtain was pulled back, and Bella spun around and scooted down the ladder, before running over to him and taking shelter behind his legs, peeking out at the strangers shyly.
"Daddy, who's them?" she asked, once she had looked her fill at the newcomers and turned back to Logan.
"These are my friends, from that school we were talking about the other day," Logan told her, prompting her to come out of hiding and say hello. "And this, is Bella," he advised the others, by way of introduction.
"Daddy?" Kitty teased Logan, with a big grin on her face.
"I know you!" Bella exclaimed excitedly, "You were at the bad place, daddy helped save you too," she declared, smiling brighter when Kitty nodded and confirmed she was correct. "Why did you go with the other people and not come with daddy?" Bella asked curiously.
"Oh, I had to back to the school, so I could finish my studying," Kitty told her.
Bella considered her words with a disgusted scowl on her face before wrapping her arms around Logan's leg and pouting up at him. "Daddy I don't want to go to the school, I don't like study-ying," she told him.
"I'd noticed," Logan deadpan replied, before seating himself in the one remaining free chair in the room - his large leather armchair - and pulling Bella into his lap.
"Okay," Jean was the first to break the stunned groups silence, "Obviously she's not your daughter--"
"What gave it away?" Logan asked sarcastically.
"Well, she's what, four--"
"I'm five, I'm a big girl," Bella interrupted to say.
"-- I'm sure we'd have heard about her before if you had a daughter, admittedly her colouring matches," Jean said, comparing the odd pairs matching black hair and blue eyes. "But she has wings," she added, having not missed the little blue wings hanging down the girls back when she climbed down the ladder, in her pretty green sundress, the back of which had been modified so it didn't impede her wings.
"Biologically she's not my daughter," Logan confirmed, "But I'm her father in a much more meaningful way," he said, glancing down at the little girl who was smiling up at him with the happiest grin he had ever seen on her face.
"But... Logan, you can't just pick up a kid and decide to keep it, what about her real parents?" Scott suddenly blurted out. Funnily enough, all the anger he had been displaying outside had evaporated as he had watched Bella and Logan interact.
"Her biological parents were sacks of human garbage, who sold their child into... that-" he didn't want to say the words aloud where Bella could overhear but he knew the others would pick up his meaning- "Just because of a quirk of her DNA and a pair of fairy wings, you pick up kids every day for the same damn reason, admittedly they aren't usually as young as Bella but what does it matter when you've already been cast aside, she's no less deserving than any of the other kids of a safe home, her age just means she needs a little more one-on-one care and commitment, and that's what we're giving her," Logan replied.
"We?" Ororo finally spoke, for the first time, only to be interrupted by a noise from the other room.
By the time Marie stepped out into the room, all eyes were on her, and Logan was out of his seat, popping Bella on her feet while whispering something in her ear that sent her scampering toward the kitchen.
"What's all the noise out here?" Marie asked cheekily, keeping her attention on Logan as she moved into his arms and placed a soft kiss on his whiskered cheek, nodding a greeting to the strangers in turn.
"Sorry darlin, didn't mean to wake you, here, sit down," Logan said, offering her his chair, and helping her get comfortable. Bella was at her side the moment she was settled, with a glass of iced tea and the tin of cookies they had baked that morning.
"Go offer some to the visitors too, and get the lemonade out for people," Marie instructed the little girl, chucking a glare at Logan for not showing the little girl some manners when hosting guests. Logan just let out a grumbling growl and rolled his eyes, he didn't invite them, as far he was concerned they could fend for themselves.
When Logan turned back to the guests at the table Kitty was bouncing in her seat so excitedly he was worried she was going to disappear right through it, the floor, and into the cellar below. Everyone else was back to stunned silence, as they observed the pregnant young woman before them, and the rough and tough badass known as the Wolverine waiting on her.
"So, this is the other half of the 'we'?" Ororo asked, noticing Logan's relaxed, and dare she say happy, look absorb a bit of apprehension.
"Hi, I'm Rogue," Marie introduced herself before Logan got a chance to speak. "If I'm remembering correctly, white hair and controls weather, is Ororo, red hair and telepathic is Jean, and 'dumbass with the shades' is Scooter, is that right?" she queried innocently, directing her impish grin toward Logan, who chuckled at her daring diffusion of the situation.
"It's Scott actually, I'll let the rest pass but only because it's not your fault he's a moron," Scott replied, standing up and making his way past Logan to shake Marie's hand. He needed to get a closer look to be sure what he was seeing was real and not some trick if the light, or his visor. Nope, the girl was definitely pregnant. "And this is Kitty," he added, pointing to the last member of their party.
"Yeah, me and her have already met," Marie confirmed, offering Kitty a smile, as she finally launched herself off her seat and came over for a hug.
"I thought you couldn't control your power?" Kitty asked, noting the absence of the suppression collar, and her bare arms and hands, and her pregnant belly of course, hard to miss the implications of that.
"I couldn't, Logan convinced me to take the collar off and have a go at trying to control it," Marie informed her, ignoring the surprised looks several people cast at Logan, as he too ignored them.
"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is your mutation?" Jean asked, Kitty hadn't known other than it knocked people out and couldn't be controlled. She listened in awe as Marie explained what her power did, as best she understood, and explained how she had learned to control it.
"And I learned to control mine too, most of the time," Bella interjected, "It still happens sometimes when I'm sleepy and have bad dreams but I--"
"Bella," Logan interrupted gently, "The adults have to have a talk for a bit, why don't you go show Kitty your bedroom," he suggested, watching in amusement as the little girl sighed dramatically, before turning on Kitty as she launched into a detailed diatribe of her room being in 'the treehouse', as she tugged Kitty toward the ladder. Kitty winked at Logan, as she dropped the curtain back into place over the doorway to give the adults some privacy.
"Now that she's out of the way, what exactly do you want?" Logan queried of the team.
"Well... let's just say we weren't expecting what we found," Scott sheepishly admitted.
"And what exactly were you expecting?" Marie asked, a hint of ice in her tone that Logan had heard directed at himself once, a long time ago now. Marie didn't trust them.
"I'll admit, when Kitty told us Logan had 'bought' another girl, and then he took off without handing her over, and then he wouldn't come back to the school... well, we kind of thought he might be, uh... up to no good," Scott said, looking uncomfortable.
"I see, I wondered why Logan was reluctant to go back but if his 'friends' think so highly of him I suppose it makes sense," Marie replied, glaring daggers at Scott.
"Look we--"
"You what? Thought Logan might have picked up where the traffickers left off? Did you really, honestly, think he might have picked up a girl and been harming her?" she demanded.
"It was one of the possible scenarios we had to consider," Ororo interjected calmly, "I personally didn't believe it myself, I've known Logan for many years now and he's always been good with the students, always been trustworthy, and careful, in saying that, I've known Logan for many years and I didn't expect what we have found either, he never seemed the type who would be happy 'settling down', yet, here is his, seemingly settled and happy."
"It's all down to the company," Logan replied with a chuckle, pulling out Kitty's vacated seat at the table, and spinning it around to seat himself on, next to Marie. "I never expected it either but when I saw her, I knew I had to have her, like it was meant to be," he grinned over at Marie, who reached for his hand, and squeezed it; because once she was in this armchair she was stuck until someone helped her out of it thanks to her baby bump, so that was the best she could do.
"What about you Rogue?" Jean queried, still looking a little uncertain, she was a doctor, and though she may not be a psychiatrist she knew about things like Stockholm Syndrome.
"I went through a lot before I got to the point Logan picked us up, it took me a while to learn to trust again but I'm glad Logan stuck it out and helped me, I couldn't imagine being anywhere but right here, right now... well, I could imagine but I wouldn't want to be in any of those other places I can," she added with a shudder. At Jean's prompting, and Logan's encouragement, Marie hesitantly detailed her story, from manifestation to rescue.
"My god, how could anyone do that to their own child," Jean said, wiping away her tears, "I swear it never gets any easier, every time I hear a story like that... I'm sorry for everything you've been through Rogue--"
"I'm not," Marie replied, smiling softly at Logan again, "It got me where I am today, it got me a man, got us a daughter, got us a baby, life is good, a little harder without electricity but that can be fixed," she finished with a grin.
"You're just not going to let that one go are you," Logan replied with a chuckle.
"Don't get me wrong I love this place but you can't tell me life wouldn't be a little easier with a washing machine instead of having to do laundry at the creek," Marie giggled, and the guests couldn't help but feel like this conversation was one that had been had before.
"I told you, I booked the electric install for next summer, it was the earliest they could get out here," Logan replied.
"We could get a generator in the meantime," she suggested.
"... We could move to the school," Logan suggested. They had had this conversation too, off and on, since Chuck had first asked Logan to return to teach. "There's electric, there's heating, there's more space, you could take some college classes, Bella would be the youngest, until bubba pops out, but she'd have some friends, friends who wouldn't think wings were weird, we wouldn't have to worry about snow stopping the midwife getting through, the doc would only be a couple doors down the hall, full medical unit at our fingertips just in case," he rattled off a list of reasons why it was a good idea, things they had both already discussed though not made a call on yet.
"Do you think your 'friends' could handle that? Me and you, and Bella and baby?" Marie asked, watching the faces at the table as she posed her hypothetical query.
Funnily enough it was Scott that answered her, cracking a grin as he replied, "You know what, I don't think that would be a problem at all, though, the doc would be a floor down rather than a couple of doors down." At Logan curious glances he clarified. "Well, your old room might work for you and Rogue but with two kids you'll probably want to upgrade to one of the suites the Professor's been renovating in the attic; three bedrooms, living room, its own kitchen, what do you think?"
Logan looked surprised initially, then relieved, and Marie could see the grin starting to crack through even before he turned to her. "Wouldn't hurt to give it a shot, what do you think?"
"I think that would be a great idea, we could trial it until baby arrives and then re-evaluate after that,” Marie replied, though she couldn't help the nerves in the pit of her stomach at the idea of being surrounded by people again. She had gotten used to, and comfortable with it just being the three of them, at least they would have their own space though.
"Great, well, I'll go get the jet, I have no idea why you always made us land so far away, it'll fit in this clearing no problem," Scott pointed out, "Jean, Ororo, and Kitty can help you pack."
And just like that, they were ready to get on the move again.
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