“The meeting place is about twenty miles from here, at the Little Bear Park. It is very popular and on any give Saturday a hundred families will be there if not more.” The X-men had gathered in order to form some type of plan to Logan’s meeting with Mystique.
Charles located the easily disguisable woman easily with Cebrebo, and she openly admitted to allowing him to find her so easily. When the professor contacted her, she agreed to meeting with Logan, but had one condition, Ella had to come with him. At first Logan refused, he did not want Ella anywhere near Mystique. Knowing how important this meeting was Charles explained where the meeting place would be, and that, though Ella would be there, she would probably not recognize Mystique as the person sitting next to Logan. Logan too knew how important this meeting was but still had a hard time dealing with this condition to the meeting. With much thought and grunts he finally agreed to meeting with the blue woman with Ella present.
Even though Logan was hopping to handle this situation alone he knew that if Ella was to be there that he would need help. Charles agreed with Logan’s thoughts of having extra X-men around the park, just in case Mystique did try to pull anything, like kidnapping Ella. The meeting was supposed to be simple, but being X-men they wanted to plan out the ‘mission’ and a recovery mission just in case.
“That’s a lot of people to keep an eye on.” Jubilee stated plainly.
“We will not be watching the people that much. From what we can tell Mystique is hiding Ella from Erik, meaning she is going to be trying to keep a low profile.” Scott stated.
“And you will be keeping your eyes on Ella at all times.” Logan said with a glare at Jubilee.
“Yes sir.” The yellow clothed X-men said with a salute.
“Now Logan will be sitting on the bench here, and Ella will be playing around here. Jubilee you will be in-charge of keeping Ella safe. Mystique knows that someone will be close to the girl, but she might no recognize you as an X-man.” Scott did not give Jubilee any time to make a comment as he continued to explain the mission, and pointing out the different areas of the park on the X-men’s three-dimensional screen. “Jean will be in a vehicle in this area monitoring the brain activity, and I will be with her in case there is any need for backup. The four of us should be plenty, without seeming threatening.” All of the X-men present nodded there head’s in agreement. Scott kept his eye on Logan surprised that he seemed so calm about them talking about the situation as they were.
Logan saw Scott looking at him and nodded for him to continue, and also showing the fearless leader that he was still not to happy about this “mission”. Being a father himself Scott understood how Logan felt, because if anything happened to Aiden or Jean (again) he was sure he would not be handling the situation with the calm that Logan presented in the meeting. “Now if the worse should happen and Ella is kidnapped, she has two tracking devices. The first one is in a pin that she will be wearing on her clothes. The second Hank will be placing in Ella’s body.” Scott nodded at the big blue doctor to explain the device.
“The device is small enough to not be noticed by any metal detectors, but the key is that it will leave her body naturally.” Hank stated from his chair.
“How long will the second device…uh…work?” Bobby asked.
“For about thirty days.” Hank said very proud of his creation.
“But we will have my daughter back in a matter of minutes.” Logan said with a death stare at all of the X-geeks.
Before Logan could scare off his entire team Scott opened his mouth to continue, but Jubilee beat him to the bunch.
“Don’t worry Wolvie, that kid of yours will not leave my site. Plus she’s a smart kid and between you and Rogue raising her, she can protect herself with ease.”
“She’s only four Jubilee.” Storm said.
“Four and already showing signs of being able to control her mutation, that means she is smarter than the average four year old.” Jubilee said with a definite, I-don’t-care-if-you-were-my-teacher-I-still-know-my-stuff tone.
“Alright, everyone settle down. This mission hits close to home, everyone understands that. But it’s not like we have not been in this position before.” Everyone listened to Scott who was trying to finish up the mission briefing. When he mentioned close to home, they all thought of the many recovery missions they all have been on and other missions that were more emotional than dangerous. “This is suppose to be a simple meeting, but since it is with one of the more dangerous mutants on the streets, we needed a back-up plan. Everyone be prepared to leave tomorrow, in your designated vehicles at thirteen-hundred hours.”
*************************************************
“Mommy, I get to go to the park.” Ella said as she sat next to her mother, down in the under levels of the mansion.
Logan had gone to talk to Marie right after the mission briefing, and explain to her everything that would happen the following afternoon. Marie listened as best as she could in her condition, and told Logan that she trusted him and the X-men to keep their daughter safe. Her only request was that she got to see Ella in the morning. Logan was not sure about this, but knew how important it was for Marie, and Ella would like the chance to see her mother too. So after talking to both doctors, it was agreed upon that Marie could visit with Ella for an hour or until Marie was warn out.
“What are you going to do at the park?”
“Play on the swings and monkey bars. Jubilee says that I can play on anything as long as I am careful. She is so cool.” Ella had been sitting next to Marie the entire time talking about everything and anything that came to her four year old mind. She explained to her mom about the plants growing for her, and how much fun she was having with her daddy.
Logan stood off to the side and watched his two girls talk. Every once in a while he would make a comment or grunt, but for the most part he just listen. Marie would look over at him occasionally and give him a smile, in which he would return. An observer to the scene would know that the two adults in the room were deeply in love and that the young child with them was loved by both adults. It was what most would call a Kodak moment, if only Marie was not so sick and sallow looking.
“What has your cousin Aiden been up to?” Marie missed watching her godchild, but knew that Logan was looking out for the little guy not to mention both of his parents and a houseful of friends around to watch him and the other children in the mansion.
“I get to go over to his room a lot, whenever daddy is busy, though Jubilee tries getting me to come with her. She says that with you down her she needs mini Rogue to entertain her. Aunt Kitty is getting big, Uncle Bobby never leaves her alone and she gets kind of cranky. Mommy can you come to the park today and play with me?”
“No Ella, I have to stay here remember. You will have a lot of fun with Jubes and Wolvie.” Marie said giving Logan a wink.
“Daddy can you take a camera so mommy can see pictures of us at the park?” Ella asked while giving Logan her best puppy dog look.
“Yeah I will grab one as we head upstairs.” Logan said, even though he was not sure if having pictures of the day would be a good or bad thing. If Mystique does have the answers that Logan has been seeking, then tomorrow will be a day to be remembered, but if the blue woman tries capturing or hurting Ella then the day would not be such a pleasant memory.
Ella’s puppy dog look turned into a shining smile as soon as she heard her father agree to her idea. “Mommy I will make sure that we get a lot of pictures to show you.”
“Thank you baby.” Marie said while giving her daughter a light kiss on the cheek. She had to be careful with her mutation, but did not want her daughter to miss out on affection from her mother.
“Okay sunshine we have to get going, or we won’t be able to play on everything.” Logan said in an attempt to get his daughter ready to leave her mother in the infirmary.
“Just a few more minutes with mommy, PLEASE!” Ella said while hugging her mother close. “I miss you so much, mommy. Wolvie isn’t the same as you.”
“But you just said that you were having fun.” Marie said while hugging her daughter.
“Yeah, but daddy isn’t the same as having you too.”
“I know sunshine, I know.”
Logan didn’t say a word to this exchange. He knew that Ella loved him, and loved spending time with him. But the little girl was missing her mother, and who was he to deny her since he too was missing Marie. If only he could help Marie without meeting with the Blue Monster.
“Off you two go now, I need to rest.” Marie said while giving Ella one last squeeze. Ella took her leave from her mother and walked towards the door. Logan patted Ella on her head and walked over to sit next to Marie. He gave her a quick kiss and a hug. “I love you and I trust you too keep her safe.”
Logan sighed and held on to his love for a few seconds longer. “I love you too. Now get some rest and I will come see you later tonight.”
Logan kissed Marie’s forehead and left the couch to walk beside his daughter.
“Love you mommy. See you soon.” Ella and Marie waved at each other until they were both out of site.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Shorter chapter, more of a filler, but answers are coming. Short of death nothing is going to stop me from finishing this story now that it is so close to being done.