This chapter is dedicated to donnadie20x. Thank you for the review and here are the scenes you requested.

After wolfing down a bucket of fried chicken between them, Logan had sent Anna to bed. He went to smoke on the balcony of the hotel suite and his thoughts lingered on Jean. He wondered how long the space between them would last and then he thought about the baby. In seven short days, he had become a father of two and entered a fake marriage while child services sniffed around. Middle age had caught him fast and he looked forward to ending the drama. "You're not meant to be out here," he growled without turning around.

"Ah can't sleep," Anna complained quietly, peering through the open balcony doors.

He watched the harbor lights instead of her. "Then try harder," he ordered with a chomp on his cigar.

She took a single step out onto the balcony because she felt brave. "Ya bein' grouchy again."

Logan swung around, closed the distance between them and swatted her backside four times. "Get your ass inside and go to bed."

Anna burst into tears and fled to her bedroom as fast as her frightened feet would take her. She slammed the door closed, dived in her bed, and stayed hidden under the sheets while she cried.

"Damn it," Logan muttered, crushing the cigar under his boot. He felt like an asshole and headed inside. After he locked the balcony doors shut, he pocketed the keys and walked to her bedroom. He opened it and heaved an even heavier sigh when he listened to her tears.

He had warned her time and again to stay away from the balcony, taking Jean's rule a step further, he had banned Anna from setting a single foot out here. Despite her rule-breaking behavior, he still felt like an asshole. "Come here, Stripes," he said, sitting on the bed beside her and tugging the sheets off her head. He wiped her tears away and hugged her. "I don't want you going out there. The way you act around heights doesn't make it a safe place for you to be."

"Ah want Mama," Anna sniffled, fresh tears rolling down her face.

When he heard her answer, he relented on an earlier promise not to sit with her until she fell asleep. "You and me both," he told her gruffly. "Now lie down and I'll stay right here."

#

"Logan's the father?" Scott repeated for the third time, staring at Jean with horror.

Jean nodded, still stood beside the incubator while the baby slept peacefully. "Logan's the baby's father," she confirmed.

"You were only away for a week," he said, confused as he looked at her face. "Do you love him?"

She avoided answering the question. "It not as simple as that, Scott. All week we've looked after Anna while child services have investigated us every step of the way. Have you any idea how exhausting it's been?"

"Have you slept with him?" Scott asked her angrily. "You have, haven't you?"

"You started this by sleeping with Emma," she replied, returning his frown.

"So, this is revenge? I apologized for what happened between me and Emma," he pointed out, walking over to her. "It wasn't like I brought a baby home and announced Emma was the mom."

Jean raised her hand to stop him in his tracks. "It's not revenge," she promised him. "I had to think about Anna."

"Her name's Rogue, Jean. She's Rogue! She wouldn't even stand in the same room as you last week. Are you really telling me you're willing to throw our relationship away for Rogue?" he asked her, still furious.

"I'm not just doing this for her sake," Jean replied, warning him not to come any closer unless he wanted to faceplant the nearest wall. She pulled her engagement ring off and floated it across the room to him. "I'm putting my entire family first."

A devastated Scott caught the ring and looked at her. "Do my feelings even matter to you?"

Jean turned her back on him to tearfully gaze down at the baby. "Not until you stop to consider Rogue had feelings too. She still does Scott, and she's going to be a wonderful big sister." After he left the room, she brushed her tears away and started to mourn the end of their decade-long relationship.

#

Logan watched Anna's bedroom ceiling. He seemed sleepier than her. "Close your eyes," he grunted at her for the tenth time in twenty minutes.

Anna snuggled against his side, her head resting on his chest. She kept moving her face because the shirt buttons scraped against her skin. "Ah'm still not tired," she told him.

His eyes closed and he thought about how tired he felt. He really needed to sleep. The minutes passed by and he had started to snooze beside her.

Sitting up, Anna frowned down at him. She let him nap for a while and rifled through his jacket pockets. Holding a cigar, she put it to her lips and scowled. "Don't ya go bein' rude, Daddy," she said, shaking him awake. "Ya meant to be helpin' meh."

He woke up, grunted, and eyed her tiredly. Snarling, he snatched the cigar from her lips. It reminded him of a scene that had played out the previous month and the words spilled out before he gave it a second thought. "Quit playing around and go to sleep, Rogue."

Anna stood up on the bed. She started to bounce about, finding it fun. She was full of energy. "Who's Rogue?"

Logan returned the cigar to the safety of his pocket and checked he still had the balcony keys. "She's somebody I used to know."

"Did ya like her?" Anna asked, jumping at him.

He caught her in midair and settled her down beside him again. With one arm wrapped around her shoulders, he held her close. "Yeah, I liked her. Come to think of it, she was like a daughter to me."

She gazed up at him with curious eyes. "What happened to her, Daddy?"

"She left to be somewhere she needed to be," he explained gruffly, the loss of Rogue suddenly hitting him like a freight train.

Anna continued to be curious. "Can we go see her?"

Logan looked down at her, struck dumb for a moment. He hugged her close and sighed. "That ain't possible Stripes, but we can meet her together in another seven or eight years."

#

When Anna woke the next morning, she found herself alone in bed. She grinned because she wanted to watch TV. She crept to her bedroom door and opened it slowly, excited by all the thoughts of the new characters she could create while she climbed on the dining table.

Logan stood directly outside her bedroom door and smirked at the shocked look on her face. He ruffled her hair. "You're not causing any trouble today," he told her. "Go get ready for the pool, we'll eat later."

Eventually, Logan sat poolside at his usual table and read his newspaper. He had trouble with his concentration. Happy to give Jean the space she craved, he had little contact with Xavier's. He put his paper down on the seat beside him and looked over to the other hotel guests. There were beautiful women everywhere baking under the sun in their tiny bikinis, but his thoughts remained on Jean. He soon left his chair when he realized it had been at least thirty minutes since he last checked on Anna.

He crossed to the pool and started to scowl. "Where the hell is she?" he growled, his eyes darting around the patio.

With no Anna to be found, he felt the familiar feeling of worry he had carried when Rogue put herself in danger. He started to sniff the air while he walked, tracking her scent across the patio and over to a winding sandy path that led all the way to a basketball court by the beach. He scowled while he made his way down to the spot where the teens hung out. Pushing open the wire gate, he stepped onto the asphalt and looked around. He spotted her on the other side of the court, talking to a group of boys who had to be at least three or four years older than her.

"Goddamn it," Logan grumbled, closing the distance between him and the group of kids.

Anna picked up a stone and showed the boys how to use the slingshot. "Ya use a sharp one like this and then ya find a real good target," she explained with an infection grin.

Logan stopped meters from them and growled deep in his chest. "Don't you dare," he snarled, pointing a finger at her.

Anna didn't dare. She stepped from foot to foot and waited impatiently for him to stop threatening the boys. "Daddy," she said.

"Stay there," he ordered her gruffly and continued to yell at the other kids.

She shuffled her feet uncomfortably again. "Daddy?" When he still ignored her, she let the rubber band snap from her fingers and the stone struck his back. He turned around and made a threatening grab for her, and she flung the slingshot back to the boys and took off in a run.

A snarling Logan looked over at the boys. "Get out of here now," he told them.

While they grabbed their basketball and trudged out of the court, Anna backed her way into a corner. "Daddy, ya wouldn't listen to meh," she said, scared when her back bumped against the fence.

He waited for the boys to walk in the direction of the coastal path and looked at her. "Where should you be right now?"

"In the pool," she suggested in a quiet voice as he walked over to her.

"Wrong answer," Logan told her gruffly, taking her by the arm and leading her over to a nearby bench.

He sat down, scowled, and dragged her closer to him. He tilted her chin up and looked directly into her eyes. "If I ever catch you with a slingshot in your hands again this tanning is gonna feel like a trip to Disney World." He dumped her over his knee and set to work, cracking his hand down across her backside while she whimpered and kicked her sore feet.

"Ow!" Anna cried and kicked her feet until she thought they would drop off. She whimpered and started to cry. "Daddy!" she sobbed, her bathing suit doing little to protect her reddening butt.

Logan's hand continued to meet its target until he felt the heat radiating from the sobbing girl's backside. He stopped and blamed Jean for this. If she had stuck to the plan and kept her apologies to herself, Anna would have learned her lesson at the college. He stood her on her feet and watched her hop from one foot to the other.

"Ah'm sorry," Anna said, sniffling heavily and rubbing at her flaming butt.

He frowned suddenly, reached down, and touched the hot asphalt for a moment. Scowling, he scooped her into his arms. "Why didn't you just say the ground's burning your feet."

"Why didn't ya just take meh back to the pool," she asked, still sobbing as she buried her face against his shoulder.

Shaking his head at her way of dealing with conflict, he carried her back to their hotel. "You're gonna be the death of me, Stripes."

#

Hours later, after dinner had been eaten in the hotel's busy dining room, Logan rested his hand on Anna's shoulder and walked her to the elevator. "It's time for bed," he said.

"Yeah, ya look real tired," she answered back, looking at him.

He sighed at that and was tempted to agree. When they reached the elevator, he let her press the button. "We still haven't talked about you wandering from the pool," he warned her firmly and took a cigar from his pocket.

"We're talkin' now ain't we?" she asked him as the elevator doors opened.

Logan failed to detect whether she was being cheeky or playing dumb. He pulled her closer to him when he caught a familiar scent in the air.

John Hargreaves stepped out of the elevator and smiled at them. "Good evening, Anna," he said, spotting the fresh food stains on the girl's top. "Oh dear, it was a late dinner tonight, I take it?"

"Ah had to wait for mah feet and butt to stop hurtin'," Anna answered, stepping inside the elevator, and pressing all the buttons while she waited.

"It's a long story," Logan grumbled, scowling at Hargreaves, and using his foot to stop the elevator doors from sliding closed on him. His glare settled on the girl, and he waited for her to back away from the buttons. He looked at Hargreaves again. "Wife thrown you out?"

"You're very cheerful for a man days away from losing two daughters," Hargreaves warned with a sly smile and glanced around them. "Is Mrs Logan expected to return or is she filing divorce papers as we speak?"

Logan's eyes narrowed and his knuckles itched. He would have sliced Hargreaves down to a foot tall if Anna hadn't used his favorite phrase.

"Daddy, Ah'm tired," she called out.

Smiling, Logan looked away from Hargreaves. "It's about time," he said, walking into the elevator. He pressed the right button, held Anna's hand, and put the cigar between his lips. The doors slid closed on the revengeful John Hargreaves.

While the elevator traveled twice to every floor in the building, Logan glanced down at the sleepy Anna and thought about Rogue. "You're both gonna be the death of me," he muttered.