DECISIONS

"'Now is the winter of our discontent,'" Daken muttered. He sounded appropriately disgruntled.

Laura glanced curiously at Daken. Then she looked up at her father and asked, "What did he say?"

Like Daken, Logan was eyeing the dinner table with no little skepticism. However, he did take the time to answer Laura's question. "He's quoting Shakespeare. Richard the Third."

"What does it mean?" Laura continued curiously.

"It means I hate avocados," Daken announced as he glared at the green stuff on his plate.

Ororo just smiled calmly and said, "A vegetarian meal once a week is hardly a great burden."

"Avocados are okay!" Laura challenged Daken.

Daken glared at Laura. "'In thy foul throat thou liest.'"

"Quit being a jerk," Laura shot back. She was rather beginning to dislike the Shakespearean version of Daken.

"Eat up," Logan ordered. Then he took a deep breath and followed his own command.

Daken muttered a few choice comments about green slime. Logan gave him a long and level look. Daken ate the rest of his dinner in a state of silent protest.

They were in bed. Logan was mostly under the covers, with his back up against the headboard. Meanwhile, Ororo sat next to him on the edge of the bed. She was wearing a simple white nightgown that covered her from neck to ankle. And her eyes were closed in quiet pleasure as her husband worked a brush through her long and straight hair.

Logan had never exactly put it into words, but Ororo wasn't allowed to brush her own hair when he was around. Instead, Logan did it for her. Ororo thought that it was an eminently pleasant way to honor and obey her husband.

"You were very patient at dinner," Ororo said quietly as her head nodded from side-to-side to the rhythmic pull of the brush.

"Damn right I was," Logan chuckled. "Why the sudden avocado attack?"

"I talked to Hank. He says a meat-heavy diet is normal for you, Daken, and Laura. However, he is concerned that there are certain nutrients the children may not be getting."

That was good enough for Logan. "Okay, then. Meatless Mondays it is."

Ororo smiled, turned around, and wrapped her arms around Logan's neck. Logan tossed the brush aside. Then their lips met.

Making love was problematical in a home occupied by two children with inhumanly superb hearing. So Logan and Ororo had developed a habit of waiting until after Logan dropped Daken and Laura off at school. But in the evenings, it was possible for them to make some quietly extravagant promises about what tomorrow would bring.

Daken, Laura, and Hank-the-bear were lying in a pile on the cabin porch. Hank was curled up around Laura and snoring impressively. Laura was dozing on-and-off as she enjoyed the furry warmth. Daken was using Hank as something comfortable to lean against as he finished up some reading.

With a deep sigh, Daken suddenly closed his book and tossed it onto a nearby rocking chair.

"What's wrong, Dak?" Laura asked sleepily.

Daken was silent for a few moments before he responded. "Richard the Third was a bad guy."

"He's the king you've been reading about? The one who talked funny?"

"Yeah," Daken said shortly as he got to his feet. Hank growled a sleepy protest at the loss of body heat.

"Sorry, Hank," Daken said quietly, "but it's bedtime."

Laura held up her arms and Daken lifted her out of the bear's grasp.

Hank opened an eye and gave the kids a slightly betrayed look. Still clinging to her brother, Laura snikted out a foot-claw and reached down with her leg to scratch Hank behind the ears. He loved that.

It only took about a half-hour to drive to the rural school that Daken and Laura attended. Laura often dozed at least part of the way. Daken had lately taken to using the time to finish up schoolwork.

Laura was slumped bonelessly against her brother, with her eyes closed. Daken had an arm wrapped around her as he used his other hand to jot down some notes.

Daken silently closed the notebook, inserted his pen into the spine, and then stuffed it into his backpack with a little more force than necessary.

Logan glanced at his son. "Something bothering you, Dak?"

Daken was silent for a few moments before he responded. "I finished up that story about Richard the Third. He was kind of a creep. I kept hoping all of his talk about being bad was just talk. That he'd decide to be something else."

Logan nodded slowly. "Yeah. There are some holdouts, but most historians don't seem to have anything good to say about him. He pretty likely murdered his nephews. They were between him and the throne."

Daken didn't immediately respond. Logan could tell that something was on Daken's mind, but he'd long since learned that you were better off waiting for Daken to speak up in his own time.

"He was different from everyone else," Daken finally said.

Logan didn't immediately respond. "Different from everyone else" was a big subject in their family.

"You're talking about his back, right?" Logan finally asked.

Daken nodded. "Yeah. I read an article that had a picture of a guy with a deformed spine. It was pretty bad."

"He probably spent a lot of his life in pain," Logan said. His hands involuntarily flexed on the steering wheel.

Daken seemed to consider that for a while. "Maybe Richard wouldn't have been so bad, if he hadn't been different from everyone else."

"Maybe," Logan said quietly, "but you can't judge a man by what might have been. All you have to work with is what he actually was - and what he actually did."

"In the story, Richard said that he didn't have any choice except to be evil. Being different made him that way."

Logan paused as he considered his own blood-soaked past. Then he shook his head. "You always have a choice. You just have to be willing to make the right one."

Daken frowned and retired back into what Logan and Ororo both called "Dakenland" - a place of deep and silent brooding where their son went to consider the things he considered important.

They were another five miles down the road when Daken finally spoke up again.

"Being different is a pretty lousy excuse for hurting other people," Daken said as he stared out the window.

Logan wordlessly studied his son's profile.

The kids tumbled out of the truck in a flurry of limbs, jackets, scarves, gloves, and book-bags.

"Avocados are still okay!" Laura growled at her brother. The argument had started again just before they got to the school. Laura seemed pretty determined to defend the honor of avocados against all aggressors.

Daken rolled his eyes and then called upon his new-found familiarity with Shakespeare once again. "'Dispute not with her: she is lunatic.'"

Laura punched her brother in the shoulder. "'Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes!'"

It occurred to Logan that he hadn't heard this much Elizabethan English since the last time he had a drink with Thor.

Daken grinned at Laura as he rubbed his shoulder. As small as Laura was, she packed a considerable punch - and Daken respected that. "Did you get into my homework last night?"

Laura shrugged. "I didn't like that book. Too many funny words. And I didn't want Richard to be such a bad-guy. I kept hoping he'd get better."

Daken nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. Same here. I wanted him to change, but after a while I ran out of excuses for all of the bad things he was doing."

Laura nodded in silent agreement. Maybe there was something sad in her eyes.

Then Daken took Laura's hand in his so he could walk her to the front door. From inside the truck, Logan watched them enter the school.

"'So wise so young, they say, do never live long,'" he quoted quietly to himself.

Well, he and 'Ro were there to make damned sure that didn't happen.

Ororo greeted Logan back home with a kiss.

"How was the drive?" she asked as she wrapped her arms around Logan and tucked her hands into the back pockets of his jeans.

"Pretty good," Logan replied slowly.

Ororo noticed that something was off in Logan's voice. "Is something wrong?"

The ghost of a smile appeared on Logan's face. "Dak doesn't know it, but he's in the process of deciding what kind of man he's going to be."

Ororo frowned as she examined Logan's face. "What is he deciding?"

Logan's smile turned into a broad grin and he kissed Ororo again.