Logan felt he had no choice but to leave for town in the morning, feeling the note burn inside of him before ridding himself of the words in a fire. He slept little that night (the note safely burned in the wood stove in the basement), but had gotten up early to explain to Danielle where he was going for the day. No use in leaving and giving her a reason to get upset again, he figured with a shrug and a shudder. If he was going to be more open with her, he might as well say something about disappearing for a while and coming back for dinner, at the latest.

Danielle was finishing up the laundry in the downstairs bathroom while the kids were doing some schooling upstairs (since Danielle had seemed want to keep them away from any public school and had given them too much time off, Logan had heard). When Logan approached her, she looked up smiling at him (perhaps in a happier mood), but frowned immediately when Logan said that he needed to leave for the day and was going to meet up with Roger.

"What for?" Danielle asked in a concerned fashion, folding a towel and putting it on the pile in a basket before taking another and repeating the action. "Roger's going into town for that rally today, but he usually has somewhat rational reasons why, like asking others what's going on. He can blend into and is known. But personally, if you weren't as familiar a figure in town like him, I wouldn't want to be there if I were you."

"Getting out of the house, I guess," Logan replied nonchalantly, trying to gauge Danielle's suspicions and how she figured out what Roger (possibly) could be doing.

But it was too late for Logan. Danielle had been onto what Logan was doing of some time now, but was saying nothing to his silent or subtle inquiries since the near break-in into her room the day after his arrival. She asked him not to speak and he listened in his own way. She did not want him knowing what had been happening and preferred to stick on her own, trying to figure out what exactly the Professor and Magneto wanted with everyone together again without being as obvious. It was nearly impossible to see, but Logan was like an open book sometimes with his thoughts…and one that left clues as to where he was. Danielle said nothing to him going into Jay's room (she noticed the dust kick-up where the closet was and the loose floorboard), but left him to think that she was in ignorance.

Indeed, it was much easier to leave Logan in his own unawareness. Danielle found it less painful for him that way, to spare him whatever emotional scars that were there for them both. She was already seeing what it had cost him to kill Jean and how he decided to come back within the space of some years. It would break his heart to know what happened to her, she was sure, and he would go out of his way to get Peter.

And, most certainly, Danielle did not want Logan tangling with Peter Ellis at this time.

"I don't control where you go or what you do," Danielle said evenly, trying to keep the highly concerned bitterness out of her voice as she continued to fold clothes and towels. "If you want to go to town, go. I'm not stopping you."

"See you later then." Logan's voice was even too, like he was trying to avoid a fight that was surely coming. He detected a tone of wistfulness from Danielle, but he ignored it, heeding Roger's words about letting her go. She was going to be taken care of as best as possible and will be safe and was sure that Roger's promises meant something.

That was all Logan needed to reassure himself of. He picked up his leather jacket and headed out the door as he put it on, walking up the road without much detection as he slid down towards the ditches by the farms alongside the road. He had noticed in the time he was living with Danielle (before and after his tenure) that the neighbors were not very nosy and did not bother Danielle for more than a cup of sugar…once. They had not said a word to anyone about his arrival either (considering the great encouragement for reporting and picking up mutants), which made Logan think that they were silently sympathetic in their way, but it might not be long before they said something.

And Logan didn't want to be around when that happened. He did not want Danielle and the kids there either.

Ears perked as the miles were behind him, Logan heard and felt the whirl of wind from vehicles passing him as he walked up and down the hills. About five miles from the farmhouse (and with no incidents), with little distance before he hit the main road, he heard a car stop nearby and a door slam shut. Logan quickly stopped, crouching down in the ditch, claws out and ready for an attack. He perched a position near some dead grass, waiting who would be picking him up. He had been certain that someone was ready to stick him in the slammer, like the rest of the mutants…

"Dammit, man, I thought you'd be here!"

It was only Roger Mortimer.

"Danielle said you went ahead," Roger continued, seeing the claws out, but also noting that Logan was still in a defensive position. "I figured you needed a lift. I didn't want you walking."

Logan put his claws back in, standing up to reveal himself fully. He said nothing, but obeyed Roger's motions to get in the passenger side of his pick-up truck before someone saw them. When Roger joined him inside and started driving again, the atmosphere felt awkward again. Roger turned down the heat in the truck because it was unbearable to him, next edging his fingers to shift the truck into the next gear. When he was in a place where he did not need to keep shifting, he stole a quick glance at Logan before returning his eyes to the road.

"It's gonna be bad out there," he began, not sure what they'd find once he and Logan were at the rally. "Be on the lookout. Keep yourself scarce."

Logan grumbled something akin to knowing what he was doing, but Roger stopped him.

"This isn't the mansion playground anymore, Logan," he warned, trying to avoid some kids who were pulling stupid stunts on the road. "You can't just run off into the woods and hide and growl when you want to be left alone. This is open town life. People have known the other since birth and beyond, known cousins, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters. You can't just stroll in there and expect not to be noticed. You may have been the oddity in town some five or so years ago, but people will remember that you were with Danielle, the senator's recently widowed wife, or with Xavier, the man who tried bringing humans and mutants together."

"People's memories are too short," Logan replied, staring in front of him. "Nothing in human or mutant history has changed that."

Roger only nodded, stopping to take a right into town when he saw no traffic to the left. "And since Trask has taken over the mansion, people are jumpy about the mutants and are security minded. I don't know what you're needed for, but whatever it is, we can't afford to cause a scene. Stick by me or make yourself invisible. Watch the rally and cheer for all I care, but be careful."

Logan noticed, since receiving the note the night before, that there had to have been reasons for him to come to the cocktail party. When he started going through the reasons and connections in his mind, from the time he came to the mansion and then met Danielle and then onward, it all started to click, one person being the middle person perhaps. The words Xavier had told him, the storyline that had played out, the characters of the little charade they were falling into…

It all led to one person: Danielle. And from her, it would ultimately go to Logan himself, falling into the trap.

It makes sense!

"So, tell me," Logan began as Roger started slowing down in town and a traffic light turned red, "where did you get the file from?"

"It was hidden where the Professor's office used to be," Roger answered honestly, seeing bits of the parade on the sidewalk as the light turned green and he moved forward. "My men knew where to look. I had been searching for that file for years now."

"Where had it come from?"

"I would assume it was given to the Professor," Roger offered. "I don't know where exactly it came from, but it was rumored and hinted by the Professor that invisible hands gave it to Jean Grey and Danielle on a trip just after Riley was born. They handed the file to him, where it was put into a safe only few could locate."

"Chameleon," Logan only stated.

Roger suddenly stopped the truck, almost stalling it without stepping on the clutch pedal. When he heard horns behind him protest that he was holding them up, he put the truck back into gear and drove. When he found a place near a business that he could safely park and talk to Logan, he moved quickly. When the keys were in his pocket as he stopped the engine, he glanced around. When he saw that nobody was in sight, he stared at Logan with eyes that asked him where his assumptions were formed and why.

"What about Chameleon?" Roger asked in a menacing fashion.

"Well, he seems to have popped in and out of people's lives for some years now," Logan mentioned, recalling his introduction to the mutant from Xavier when this whole thing started some five years ago. "Who is he? What exactly does he do, if he's on both their side and ours?"

"Because Chameleon is twisted soul who cannot bear to see harm done, but would do the world some justice by perhaps dying himself," Roger replied harshly, seeing the full circle Logan beckoned to at last. "Chameleon is very complicated, a character that would maybe be better off staying where he was and not bothering to come home to torture and complicate his home life."

"What is his real name?" Logan asked, seeing the memory in his mind at the mansion, of a time long ago, when he and Danielle were finally falling into place…

"Let me go…"

"Henry Jones Mitchell," Roger admitted, waiting to see a reaction out of Logan, but there was none. "Danielle and Jayden's father."

When Logan continued to sit in silence, Roger continued. "Listen, Logan, it's a long and difficult subject for anyone to acknowledge, but I'll say something. Part of the reason why many had considered Danielle and Jayden to be traitors was because of their father. Another reason is because it would come back to haunt them, hence the secrecy most of the time. Chameleon had many soft spots, most of them being saving everyone. He was a decorated war hero, a savior or demon to many in his unit perhaps, but he was also traumatized by what he saw and did in Vietnam. While he left behind his wife Shannon and Jayden when he was in the jungles, he still could not find the footing he once had beforehand when he came home. He hung out at bars, tangled with Leon Ellis to make some ends meet and even bounced for Phineas Teller at that damned bar. Nobody really wanted to hire him and he couldn't make a living except by walking into conspiracies.

"This alone picked at his PTSD and paranoia. While he was delighted when Danielle was born years after Jayden was, he had failed to see that his wife had turned into a depressed maniac and his son had taken over the farmhouse and was head of it. In the ten years since he had left Vietnam, he was blind to the faults he had and to the despicable deeds he forced himself into, including his dealings with Leon Ellis. To keep his family afloat, he had to destroy the same people he had grown with and was willing to fight with against discrimination and death.

"When Danielle was three, Chameleon just snapped. Shannon had enough and told him to leave. She didn't want a divorce, but she was tired of the fear she and the children lived in. Because of his job, those three could have been picked up for anything. They were nothing but leverage to Chameleon and he had to go in order to save them. However, whatever else prompted his leaving is a mystery and very few people know what happened, the Professor included in the circle of those in the know. Me? Don't ask. Mae won't tell me and I have a feeling she knows."

Logan sat in fascination. This hadn't been told to him.

"In the years since, I've been following Chameleon," Roger admitted with an indifferent shrug. "Mercenary for hire, almost like that other project of Stryker's that I can't remember the name for, but Chameleon's conscience has some morals somewhere. He was often seen by his red eyes by the time of assassinations, suspected in over three dozen murders in New York State alone. Everywhere else, I can't say, but the marks are like Chameleon. People say that red eyes pop out of nowhere before a shot from afar gets the victim. Now, I don't know what else he did, but I'm pretty certain that he's been in too deep with Leon without anyone knowing, but I'm also sure that my brother-in-law was using Chameleon to keep Danielle and the children alive for as long as they had been."

"You think he'd be the one to shot Senator Ellis?" Logan asked, his mind working into what Danielle had mentioned the first night.

"It wouldn't surprise me actually," Roger replied, seeing a group outside observe him and Logan seriously. "Chameleon's had some beef with Leon for years, probably because they both used each other. I personally think that the two were friends sort of, but had a falling out before Leon got the upper hand and used Chameleon for something…or vice versa. I haven't got anything else yet, but then again…when has Chameleon ever admitted anything?"

Logan dimly recalled the night when he caught Chameleon in Danielle's room. There was some coldness in those red and golden brown eyes, a life that had seen so much in so little time. There had also been some familial tenderness for Danielle, something she had thrown away just as easily. Logan considered a history between the two, but it now made sense. They were cut from the same clothe, two of the same who fought for what was right, but had to pay a high price for the cost of others' freedoms and safety. But there had also been the bad, when either one had burnt the other and would have reached or pushed away.

"Come on, Logan," Roger motioned as he got out of the truck, trying to cut down on the extremely suspicious townsfolk by giving out instructions as Logan was getting out too. "You stay within the alleyway down the street there, a block away. I'll be nearby. Just watch your step and be careful, like I said."

Before Logan could reply in a curt manner, Roger was gone. Logan lamely sagged his shoulders in relative defeat, locking the truck before moving. Easily slipping in with the crowds, he pulled the leather jacket's collar up a little to hide himself before easing into his position. When the alleyway came to him and he took his place, he perched himself near a dumpster, ready to run in case something was happening.

Already, the tension around him was enough to cut through with a knife and he needed an easier escape route. Logan turned left and right before finally settling against the corner of a building, away from the smell of the dumpster and freer to run. Smiling to himself, he could only think that another piece had been practically given to him, something he hadn't even much thought of until then. And it fit right into what he had been searching for this entire time.

Chameleon had been around all these years. Why then and now? And what had happened between him, Danielle and the rest of the Mitchell family?

Drum rolls started from down the street. A parade was about to begin. Cheers filled the air. A shadow behind Logan made itself known.

Logan turned around and saw nothing, listening to people yell in the cold air. Resisting the urge to allow his claws out, he only growled as a warning, turning around with caution in his body. He again leaned against the building, watching the line from afar come closer to him. And what he saw, he could easily ignore. After all, he mused to himself, ignorance may be bliss, but it could be more to people's lack of knowledge than sheer following.

Your country needs you.

Stryker's words brought back pain that Logan had yet to deal with. He shrugged that away too, watching as a slow procession starting walking past his unseeing eyes.