“Okay Wolvie, I’m ready to go.” Ella said as she walked out of her room.
Logan looked her over, noticing her jean shorts and faded Tee-shirt that sad ‘Mommy’s little Angel’. He nodded in appreciation of her wearing older clothes, and led her back out the door. As they walked out of the mansion the pair did not talk, Logan was still lost in his memories and Ella was just quite. But as Logan led her closer to the forest she started to walk slower.
“What’s the matter?” Logan asked as he noticed her sluggish walk.
“Where are we going?”
“Into the woods.”
“I’m not allowed to go into the woods.” Logan just looked at her and waited for her to continue. “The kids are not suppose to wonder into the woods, we could get hurt.”
“I will be with and will protect you from getting hurt.”
“Did mommy say it was okay?”
“I did not tell mommy, because this is going to be a surprise for her when she gets better.” Logan said while kneeling down to her level.
Ella got excited at the idea of a surprise, but was still cautious about going into the woods. “Will she like this surprise?”
“I think she will. Ella we are going to give mommy a house.”
“A house?”
“Yes. Uncle Chuck has a cabin and he is going to allow us to live in it together.”
“Me, you and mommy?” Ella was not sure what to think of this.
“Yes.”
“Like a family, like Uncle Scott, Aunt Jean, and Aiden?”
“Yes.”
Ella thought about Logan’s answer and took in all the information that he was telling her. She tried to grasp the concept of having a family. After about a minute of Logan staring at her, waiting for her to ask whatever other questions she had locked in her mind, she came up with one last question. “Can I call you daddy?”
Logan was a bit thrown off by this question. He was expecting questions about becoming a family but this, well this he was not expecting at all for some reason. He figured he would always be known as Wolvie to her. But to be called dad by this little girl, that was so much like Marie, and yet not literally a part of her, was well shocking to his brain. And after the question sank in he realized he did not have an answer for her. He would love to be called daddy by her, but what would Marie say? But Marie was not there and Ella was staring at him waiting for his response. He took a deep breath and tried his luck at answering the child in front of him.
“I would love to be your daddy, if it is what you want.” There he said it, but was it the right answer. In his heart he felt like it was, to be her dad, the male role in her life, the man to watch her grow up and protect her from all the evil of the world, but what would Marie say?
Ella’s face lit up with a bright big smile and she ran into his arms, and knocking him flat on his back. “Yea I have a daddy and mommy now.”
Logan embraced her and at that moment he knew that he said the right thing, because he would be this girl’s dad full heartily.
“Okay Ella, let’s get going we have a lot of work to do.” Logan stood her back up while he stood up himself, and took her hand to lead her into the forest. “This path is going to lead us straight to the cabin. Latter this week the professor is going to have lights set up along the path. That way when you and mommy travel to the mansion you will be able to see where you are going.” Logan explained some of the changes to the forest to help Ella become comfortable with the fact that they would be living in the forest.
“What about when you are traveling to the mansion?”
“With my wolverine senses I can see in the dark.”
“Really?”
“Yes really.” Logan said with a light chuckle. He thought to himself that if any other child would ask him so many questions he would probably walk away from them, but not his little Ella. She was special, and now his.
“Is that the cabin?” Logan looked at where the girl was pointing and realized that they had reached the cabin. It was a small cabin, but there was plenty of room to add on, if need be. From the outside you could see the porch that went across the front, the front door and two large bay windows. Along the side you could see a garden and a shed in the back.
“Yes that is our new home.”
“Can we go inside?”
“Lead the way Sunshine.” Ella ran towards the door, and Logan walked behind her. She of course reached the door first, and realized that it was locked.
“Hurry up, Wolvie. I want to see my new home.” Ella said impatiently with her hands on her hips. Logan had to hide his smirk, she looked just like Marie.
“You will have a lifetime to look at it.” Logan said while opening the door and allowing her to walk in under his arm. He stood in the door way and watched her twirl around to take in the cabin. From the door way you saw, a large living room with a fire place, a small dinning room, a staircase, and a door that lead to the kitchen. Ella walked backed to the kitchen and saw all the new stainless steal appliances, marble counter tops, and another staircase. She looked back at Logan, who had followed her into the kitchen, and with his nod ran up the stairs. Logan followed her at a distance and watched as she walked into every room. There were three bedrooms and a bathroom. The master bedroom took up half of the upstairs and the other two rooms were a good size, for what was suppose to be a small get away cabin.
“Can I have this room?” Ella said as she looked into a room that looked over the back yard and had windows on both the west and south side of the cabin.
Logan smirked. “You can have either room. Just decide what color you want me to paint it, and we can go from there.”
Ella smiled and jumped into Logan’s arms. “Thank you Daddy. Thank you so much. Mommy is going to love this house.” Logan embraced the girl in a strong hug, and had tears in his eyes from being called daddy for the first time.
“You are welcome sweetheart. Now as you can see we do not have to do too much work to the inside, because most of the furniture we will need Marie’s help to pick out. But the outside could use some work, and there is some cleaning we might have to do.
“Let’s do the outside work today, and save the inside stuff for a rainy day.” Ella said while walking out the door.
“That sound like a good plan.” As they walked out the door Logan showed Ella to the shed. “Would you like to dig up the front garden so we can plant new plants?”
“But there are already flowers there?” Ella said in confusion.
“Yes but they do not get enough sun so we need to put plants there that do not need a lot of sun, and replant those flowers in the back.”
“Okay I will go work with the plants.”
Logan handed her a small shovel, and a pair of gloves. Now some might think that a child of Ella’s age should not be working outside, but this was a small project to keep her busy. Logan had to work on the house, and the mansion staff was already helping him out so much, that if Ella could help him with the cabin work, it would be a few less times he would need to ask them to baby-sit. As Ella started on the front garden, Logan started to rack the leaves from the yard. He was just finishing up when Ella shouted at him to come look at her garden. When he looked over to where she was standing, he was amazed to see flowers blooming and looking as if they had just blossomed.
To say the least, Logan was shocked and amazed, but he did not want to frighten her, so he acted happy and surprised. “Ella they are beautiful. How did you bring the flowers back to life?” He asked without sounding completely shocked.
“You said all they needed was sunshine. So I thought really hard about how to get the sun to them, while I worked the dirt around them. Then my hands got really warm and they glowed a little bit. And right before my eyes the flowers started to look like flowers again.”
Logan of course realized that this must have to do with her mutation. It would explain why her body was always warm. Logan went to sit in the dirt next to her, and started asking her simple questions, in hopes of find out information about the incident without scarring her. “Why did you not call for me when you hands started glowing? Weren’t you scarred?”
“I was scarred, but I don’t know, it felt right.” She said with a shrug. “Did I do something wrong daddy?” Ella said has if she was about to cry.
Her mouth started to quiver and she was calling him daddy again, he couldn’t help but take her into his arms. “No you did nothing wrong. Ella you will have to go see Aunt Jean though when we get back to the mansion.”
“Will she put me in the hospital like Mommy?” Ella asked half scarred.
“No, she will just want to find out why you were able to make the flowers grow.”
“Oh.” Ella was silent for a moment then asked another question. “Do we have to go right away? I want to work with the flowers some more.”
“No we can wait a little while.” Logan said while getting up to start his yard work again. Only now he staid in the front yard to watch Ella, incase she used her mutation again.
******************************************************
“Well it seems that she can not summon her powers at will, and therefore there is no way for us to find out exactly what her abilities will be. Though, we do know that she is a mutant.” Jean said as she discussed Ella’s mutation. She had just got done examining Ella, and she found nothing unusual, except for the fact that the little girl was extremely excited for her mother to get better.
Jean allowed Logan to view most of the examination by a one-way mirror, since it was more of a mental exam than a physical. The red headed doctor was now talking to him in that same room, as they watched Ella color in a coloring book.
“How do you know she is a mutant?”
“I ran some blood and genetic tests when she first arrived at the Mansion. Between Hank’s and my own findings we can locate the mutation gene with ease.” (See X-1) “But what people’s mutations are varies, as well as when their mutations appear. For most mutants they start realizing they are mutants during puberty when their bodies are all ready going through so many changes, or during high levels of emotion.” Jean said with a sigh.
“Ella is only four.”
“Which indicates that she is mostly likely from mutant parents; Children of two mutant parents tend to show signs of mutation earlier. In Ella’s case her excitement and genetics, enabled her to use her powers. Unfortunately that is not a sound reasoning for her mutation to have been called upon as it was, but more like an assumption. I suggest allowing Charles to talk to her, and look into her thoughts. And before you say no, just think about it, and how it might help Ella control her powers sooner.”
Logan looked at the doctor and then back at Ella, and thought.
“Have you told Rogue yet?”
“No.”
“Are you going too?”
“Yes.” Jean nodded her head at his statement, but refrained from asking anymore questions. “She needs to know about this, I can’t keep this from her. And she is going to be so upset that she missed it.” Jean nodded again, and once again refrained from speaking. “I’ll take Ella up to see Jubilee and then go talk to Rogue. She will know what to do.” Logan turned away from the mirror and started heading towards the door. “Thanks Jeannie, for everything.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I wanted to make this chapter longer, but my computer is going to be down for a while, and thought I better get this posted before then. It’s an interesting chapter dealing with Ella. I wanted more info about Rogue in there, but I guess that will have to wait for the next chapter. Oh and if you think it’s weird that Ella is four, and so smart, well yeah she’s just a really smart four year old. I try portraying her as I remember how my youngest cousin acted at times, and she was really smart for her age.