Chapter 4

When Logan got back from the kitchen bearing four bottles of water, he found that Scott had left and that Shadow was curled into herself in the corner of the sofa, her forehead resting on her knees. He noted the defensive position and approved. He handed a bottle of water to each of the men and then carefully sat near her on the sofa. "Hey, Darlin'. You thirsty?"

She shook her head.

"You wanna talk about what happened with Scott?" He asked quietly, looking at her and apparently ignoring the other two in the room. He didn't really give a rat's ass if it bothered them or not, his main focus was on the very troubled young woman. As he placed the two water bottles on the coffee table, he noticed that she was starting to shake and the emotions coming at him through their link were very chaotic. He was willing to bet that there were at least a couple of people fighting to come Out.

When the internal battle was over, it was Shadow that looked up at him wearily, eyes swimming with tears. "I'm so tired. Of being afraid, of having to fight for every little bit of happiness, of being rejected by Vic again, of everything. All I want to do right now is sleep." She whispered as she crawled into his lap. She laid her head down on his shoulder and closed her eyes, a few tears slipped down her face, as his arms came up and cradled her close to him. She made a small contented sound as she breathed his scent in.

When her eyes opened again about a minute later, her entire face lit. "Very!" someone said in a light, childish voice with all the enthusiasm of a small child.

"Hey, there, Buttercup." The gruff man answered somewhat indulgently.

"I'm not Buttercup! I'm Lily." She responded cheerfully, bouncing in his lap.

"And I'm Wolverine. Not Very." He said using the same tone as her.

Spencer noticed that general mood of the room just significantly rose and, given the person's response, they were now dealing with a child.

"Hello, Lily." Spencer said, watching her with a neutral expression.

When her eyes lit on him, she gave him a great big, cheerful smile. "Hi, Penny. It's very nice to finally meet you eye to face." She said impishly, her eyes a sparkling green.

"Lily, do you know what happened the last time you were here?" Spencer asked.

"Let's see." She said, thinking hard about it. "Well, I went swimming and I coloured and I watched t.v with some of the others in the house and I helped 'Ro in the greenhouse and the gardens and I sat for Peter and then I had dinner and then I went to bed and Logan told me a story and then I went to sleep." She concluded with a satisfied nod. "If you want to know about the rest of the day, you'll have to ask one of the others and if you want to know about any fights, you'll have to ask Magda or Dala. Other than Shadow, they're the ones that deal the most with physical conflicts."

"May I speak with one of them?" He asked politely.

She gave him an impish smile and replied "And what do I get in return?"

He narrowed his eyes contemplatively. "What would you like?"

"More Out time. I like it here. They have the best gardens, a lake, a forest and I can go swimming whenever I want!"

"I don't know if I can do that for you." He replied gently.

"Oh." She replied disappointedly. "Well than you can tell me why you want to talk to them."

"I need to know what happened to make Scott so angry with you."

"Why do you care?" She asked and then she frowned. "Are you going to try to make us integrate?" She asked suspiciously.

To say that he was startled by this response would be understatement. He, however, schooled his features so that it didn't show.