In the morning, Jay was ready to roll. Although he had to wake Danielle up from her slumbers after his call to Xavier and get her to watch Jax (their mother in bed for the day), he still felt the need to get his day started and get his life back in order finally. It had been some time since he was downstairs and even outside the house and he felt the need to prepare to go back to the mansion as a man ready for the next chapter in his life. He made a pot of coffee (which was sure to get Danielle going), tended to Jax with the most attention he could offer after three months and even cleaned up the downstairs, already filled with toys for his son. By then, he was growing restless, waking his sister up and waiting until she was on her first cup of coffee before leaving. Taking his motorcycle on the clear roads (won in a poker match when he was in Kuwait), he drove to the mansion, intent first on talking with someone and appearing normal to the rest.

Jay managed to part the offending motorcycle in the garage, missing Xavier and his disapproving glance by seconds. As the Professor managed to slip away with Scott Summers as his driver in the Rolls Royce (out for a joy ride, no doubt about it), Jay went in the opposite direction, through the side door and up the stairs. He managed to find the right hallway that led to the main floor, took it and ended up near Xavier's office. While Hank noticed him and waved casually, mouthing off that he would maybe speak to Jay later, the former soldier took little notice. Instead, he scanned the floor, to see if he could find the one person he was searching for. With no luck, Jay walked around the mansion, passing this student and that, and still could not find Logan. Discouraged, he went outside, sitting on the fountain's edge. He put his fingers into the water, the goldfish gently kissing them, and tried pushing his mind further and further into the property.

However, this did not seem to be working out. It only agitated the other telepaths around the area. While Xavier gently told Jay to calm down and not pull such power, especially from Danielle (who had been screaming at him from the farmhouse), Jean had not been nicer. While her college courses had taken her from the school, she still called the mansion her home and was there more often to study with Ororo. By the time Jay managed to pull his awareness back, Jean was on top of him, yelling at him, mind to mind, from her bedroom on the second floor.

Jayden Mitchell! What the hell are you doing?!

A smile crept on Jay's face as he imagined Jean so pissed off. Nothing that is your concern, Miss Grey. I'd go back to your studies, if I were you.

You are impossible still, you know that?!

I said this was none of your business. I was being honest.

You're looking for someone. Maybe, instead of sneaking into the school and playing with your powers, you can make it easy and ask? Hmm?

Well, Jean, you see, that would be too easy. Jay laughed to himself, pulling his hand from the water and the gold fish. I know that you and the Professor can get headaches from me or Danielle using our powers. I thought it would be a little more fun this way.

Dammit, why can't you just tell me who you're looking for?! I don't need your coy answers today.

Well, he's kinda short, an asshole and constantly runs away. Familiar yet?

Jean sighed in frustration. You're so childish, Jay. Logan is alone and out in the woods. He's been out there recently because he feels it's better to watch the town there.

How convenient. It'll also be easier to hide a body. I'm sure I can find a way with Logan.

JAY! This time, Jean was extremely livid. Seriously, stop acting like your sister. This isn't a game anymore.

His task complete, Jay proceeded to bid a fond farewell to Jean. Well, my dearest Miss Grey, things are always a game and one is afoot. Now, if you would please excuse me, I need to find Logan and have a good talk with the nearly indestructible mutant.

Jay –

Before Jean could go further, Jay had cut her off completely. With an idea of where Logan was, he got up from his seat on the fountain and walked towards the woods. Further in, when Jay decided it was a good idea to scan again, he caught Logan on the other end of the property. Taking his time, Jay turned himself invisible, hoping that he had the element of surprise and feeling like he needed to take another risk. Although he mentally heard Danielle groan because he was using too much of her energy too, he did not care. He was more interested in grasping what Logan's game plan was and why he was always badgering his kid sister.

It did not take long for Jay to find Logan's exact position. Although hidden in the higher branches of a tree near a stream and in camo from who knew what era, Logan seemed to be scouting a different direction in town. Jay followed his gaze from the bottom of the tree and found the older mutant to be eying the farmlands some miles from their own home. Unsure of why, Jay decided it was worth it to still be invisible and climb the tree to meet the older mutant. Quietly, he managed to get to Logan without a sound and sit next to him. Just before he could do anything though, Logan turned to him and released his claws, as if to give him a warning.

Suddenly, it was no longer fun. Jay opted to show his red eyes to Logan before appearing and changing the red shade back to their usual hazel. "How did you know I was here?" he asked Logan, unwilling to read his mind for the answer. "How did you know it was me?"

"I could smell you from a mile away," Logan replied, retracting his claws and turning away, his glance back on Salem Center. "Don't do it again, kid. I don't want to have to slice you."

"You can try." Jay felt pretty brazen then. "Anyway, I didn't come to sit in a tree with you to discuss why I shouldn't be running around invisible with you."

"If it's about Danielle, don't go there." Logan wasn't feeling patient enough to discuss the twelve-year-old yet. Her childishness and pity party didn't seem conversation worthy at the moment. "I saw her yesterday. I feel bad for your sister. I'm not willing to help her this time around though. Time for her to get on her own feet and see her way through this mess."

"Just enough to send her my way, right? Just so that she could be bothersome to me?" Jay sounded annoyed, although he was not ready to show that card yet. "You did help her in many ways, Logan. Just enough to keep her interest going. She loves you, adores you in many ways. Don't encourage her."

"Hey, I'm was trying to help you really, jackass." Now, Logan was irritated, turning to Jay. "You did not need to lock yourself in that damned room of yours and play the pity games your sister does. You're not a kid like her, although she needs all the help she could get without me around. You're a grown man who went off to war, just like I did, many times over. And I've lost women just like you did, asshole, women who I've held to the same esteem as you did with your wife, although I've never been married. I've lived a longer life than you have too, Jay, years in which I sometimes wonder if it was all worth it. Being over a hundred years old and aging slowly while everyone around you stays mortal and dies isn't a walk in the park. It's harsh."

Jay never thought of it that way before and was speechless, feeling surprised that Logan was so hard on him. He did not think of the older mutant along the same terms as he did. Although he planned on not asking about his love life right then and there, Jay was certain that there had been pain in that turbulent past of Logan's, more than just the usual death and betrayal. To live that over and over again and still stand is as unforgiving as Logan was claiming. It was a hell that Jay hoped that he never had to go through again.

"Your sister is the only one who can reach you and that's why I pushed her that way," Logan continued, as if he did not see that Jay was shocked into silence. "She's just a kid, not even a teenage, and already taking on adult roles, most of them starting from more than half her lifetime ago. She's got guts, don't let her fool you, and she plays with people for attention, just like you. However, you're better than that and have grown more than she has. I don't know what the hell happened in all of those years between you, her and everything else since I was not there, but I sure as hell am not going to allow it to continue. You can't put the war behind you. You sure can control it before it takes over your mind and affects your sister and son. Man up, Jay. Be the stronger one, for the kids."

There was a million things that Jay could have said. He could have made excuses to justify his behavior, punched Logan in the face and made a run for it or even decide that manipulating his mind was the best fun he had in a year. However, he knew that Logan was right. There were many things in his life that he could control. The things he could were so little that he hardly thought them of any worth in doing so. However, if he and Danielle had to survive, especially with a baby not even a year old, then he had to push himself to the maximum. He could not reason with insanity anymore.

"You can be the same asshole you've always been," Logan offered. "Just don't let it get to your family. Blood first before yourself."

"You really can make a guy think," Jay only said, trying to close the subject matter.

"Practice makes perfect." Logan shrugged his shoulders.

"What are you looking at?" Jay was finally curious.

"Someplace suspicious," Logan answered, his gaze back on the town.

"That much I figured." Jay bit down a sarcastic comment. "What's so special about it?"

"It's been said that someone has an extra hideaway house for things. What they're for, I can't tell, but there's fire there."

"They're burning something."

"I knew that. I could smell the ashes."

"Of what though?"

"Paper, sometimes a body. It depends on the day."

"And who murdered who."

"Nobody has reported anyone missing in town or in the neighboring cities in the last week, Jay. It could be from the Big Apple, for all we know. Hell, I could not be caught up on the news too."

"That's where Ellis has his offices."

"Right. It's also where the dying Trask Industries has been located. Its creator was arrested on treason charges and forgotten in federal prison, but his company still stands as proudly as it could."

"That's disturbing enough. I heard enough about Trask from my father before he left, enough to fill me with nightmares for months."

Logan had never heard Jay talk about Chameleon before and tried to still his curiosity. "Really?" he asked, interested. "Like what?"

"Experiments, torture, things like that." Jay made the list as if he was talking about the weather. "Think that Ellis would pick the company back up and buy it?"

"Why not?" It was an idea that Logan had not thought of. "A so-called revolutionary company out in the political world? It's a possibility."

"And one worth looking into."

"Does this mean you'll apply for that job?"

"I'm seriously thinking about it. If Teller is interested in me, then he'll want me there."

"It'll be no secret. He'll know why."

"And? It seems that he's a double agent anyway."

Logan was amazed that someone shared his opinion. "I thought so too," he said carefully, unwilling to allow nobody, not even Jay, to know if his secrets. "We'll see."

"Well, what Teller does for one, he might do for another," Jay theorized. "We'll see how that turns out. Regardless, is he doing applications in the bar?"

"I would assume so. I have not been there recently."

"Care to join me tonight?"

"Sounds like a plan. I don't have a hot date anyway."

"Not even with my sister?"

The tone was teasing and Logan knew it. However, that one question alone bothered him immensely. Everybody seemed to think that, because Danielle had a major crush on him, then he would indulge her in everything. It wasn't so. There was still the line that Logan was not going to cross. Thinking about it for the second time in two days boiled his blood. He kept his cool with Jay though, making himself the adult of the pair.

"I wasn't even thinking of it," Logan replied nonchalantly. "Besides, I'm more into the tall, dark and annoying types. You know, the kind that keep disappearing and reappearing? The master spy sort of person?"

"Oh, Roger?" Jay laughed. "He's just been a pain in the ass lately. He's been badgering Danielle more than me lately."

"I thought it was the other way around," Logan said, confused.

"I don't think so, Logan," Jay replied gravely. "Danielle would say that just so that nobody suspects what has been going on. The truth is, ever since Danielle was six and even as recently as a few years ago, Roger has been trying to get her into self-defense classes and turn her into an assassin. He claims it's in her blood and all, with our father so tough and the Vietnam War sniper, but I don't think so. There's an ulterior motive and I had yet to find out what it is."

This made Logan angry. "Why want Danielle?" he growled. "She's just a kid."

"It's a typical lament we all have," Jay continued. "However, it's not uncommon and one that I wish would be rare. Turning Danielle into a cold killer would be worse for her in the long run. With her already so needy, it might turn her into a person without a heart. She would be alone her whole life, waiting for her turn to die, and never lift a finger to help another again except to the next life. She would be in it for her own gain and might even turn on the same people who love her. That's what gets me. She might find ways to kill us all."