Logan pushed through the hospital doors, an unconscious Miranda hanging in his arms, her blood staining his shirt. "Help her!" he yelled as soon as a doctor was in sight. The doctor saw Miranda and hid any shock he felt over the amount of blood. A nurse had rushed over to looked at Miranda. "Put her down here," the doctor demanded and Logan put Miranda onto the trolley the nurse was now bringing over.

As he put her down he noticed, with a sense of growing horror, that her body flopped and her face was now very pale against the mass of dark hair. As the nurse pushed Miranda quickly down the hall, the doctor turned to Logan. "Sir. We need to know what happened to her." his voice was quick, but unnervingly calm.

"She was attacked," he said quickly, not wanting to let out anything more than that. "Look, could you just go do something?"

The doctor nodded quickly. "Just take a seat." Then he was gone up the corridor, rushing to get to the girl that Logan had likely killed.

Logan watched down the corridor, and then walked away, pacing the room. After a moment he pulled out his phone and flicked it open. Jean's voice was almost instantly on the line. "Yes?"

"Jean. It's me."

"Logan. Where are you?"

He looked around the almost empty waiting room. "I'm at the hospital."

There was silence. "What's happened?" Jean's voice was concerned, but Logan assumed it wasn't for him. When would he every need the hospital?

"There was a young girl- mutant. I hurt her pretty bad."

"A mutant," Jean repeated. "What happened?"

"She was following me. Has some sort of invisibility. I knew she was there and was planning on confronting her. But then.there was a problem. And she ended up getting hurt."

"How?"

Logan looked around the room again, and his answer came slowly. "By me. Look, I gotta go see what's happening. I'll be back there soon as I can. And I'm bringing her with me."

There was a slight pause from Jean. "Alright." He voice was gentle. "Be careful, Logan."

He nodded and closed the phone. Now all he had to do was wait.

* Miranda opened her eyes painfully. Morning light was streaming into the room she was in and she looked around, attempting not to move too much. Everything hurt. The room was obviously a hospital room. Miranda could tell that much without even looking around much. Everything screamed 'sterile.' Everything except the man who sat in the chair by the door. He looked incredibly out of place, in his jeans and white t-shirt stained brown with dried blood. Her blood. Remembering it made her stomach seem to hurt. She let her hand drift down and felt bandages covering tender, stitched flesh. "Ow," she said voicelessly. Looking back up at the man she frowned and swallowed, her throat dry. She wanted to say something, but wasn't sure what to say. Hi, nice of you to drop by? Say, have fun almost killing me? Luckily for Miranda, the man chose to speak first.

"How you feeling?"

She laughed slightly and then stopped, grimacing at the pain and squeezing her eyes shut. Laughing was not good at the moment. Too bad it was one of her favourite activities. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "I'm feeling much like I was impaled through the stomach by a bunch of knives." She narrowed her eyes at him. "And I wasn't imagining, was I? Those knives, they came from in your hands, didn't they?"

He nodded. "Yes, they did." He stood up and walked over to her bedside. She may have flinched away before, but any movement now seemed like it should have been avoided. So instead she just watched him. "You're a mutant," she whispered.

"Yeah," he said gruffly. "And so are you. A mutant who can go invisible."

She shook her head quickly. "It's not invisibility. It's like it, but it's not the same. invisibility would mean I could disappear right now. But I can't do that. But if I were standing in that shadowy corner just there, then you might not be able to see me at all. And at night I look different."

"Different?"

She thought for a moment, deciding on a term. "Darker. I look darker. My skin, my hair, my eyes- They all darken slightly."

He was looking at her carefully. "How much is slightly?"

She attempted a shrug but cut it short as it made the skin stretch on her stomach. "Six months ago- when all this started- it used to be hardly anything. But now it's getting more. I look in the mirror and I notice it right away. I'm not sure how much longer it will take till other people notice it clearly. My friends and my father." She looked down, thinking. This had been what had been playing on her mind recently. She had not minded so much having the mutation. She was just glad it wasn't something that showed up physically. But now that it was doing just that, it worried her. Would the darkness continue? And how far? The man was looking out the window and she watched him as she spoke. "My name's Miranda."

He looked at her and then nodded. "Logan." She smiled lopsidedly. "And what's your mutant thing. Besides stabbing knife things."

He didn't look at her. "I heal fast," he said off-handedly before looking down at her bandaged stomach. "Which you also seem to have?"

"What?" she blurted out, also looking at her stomach. "No, I don't."

He nodded and smiled slightly. "You do. Not much, but it's there. I'm not saying you'd survive a bullet- and you almost died last night- but you've still got it. if you didn't have it, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have made it to this hospital alive last night."

She didn't say anything for a long while. "Oh." She'd been quite happy dealing with one bizarre power, and now there was another one? Whoopee?

"You ever heard of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters?"

She shrugged. "Isn't that some posh private school near here?"

Logan nodded. "That's the one. Just.be expecting a call for there."

She narrowed her eyes, having no idea what Logan was trying to get at. "Sure," she said slowly. "Whatever."

He had stood up and was walking across the room. "Later, Miranda."

*

It was almost an hour later when he father rushed into the room, his face flustered. "Miranda!"

"I'm okay," she assured him as he reached her bedside.

He took a deep breath and leaned on the edge of the bed. "Oh god, what happened? I've been calling the hospitals for hours. They've only just been able to tell me you were here. Are you okay? What happened?"

"Dad!" she said quickly to silence him. He was going to have a stroke if he kept this up!

He smiled at her and then kissed her forehead. "I'm just glad you're alive." He was looking at her, trying to find what the problem was. And it hit her that she was going to have to explain. She had three slices through her stomach. (Or so the doctor had told her. He had also informed her that she was lucky to be alive at all. Maybe Logan's talk of healing powers was on the right track after all.) And then her father spoke. "Who did this?"

"I was mugged," she said blankly and wondered quickly if she had a wallet on her. Her father was staring at her in horror. "I didn't see them though," she added quickly. "Cause it was dark and all."

"Oh, Miranda." He kissed her again and Miranda closed her eyes. She hated to lie to him, but she didn't really have any other choice. She wasn't going to give away Logan. She was sure that he had never meant to hurt her. It had been some sort of reflex, and she decided it would be best to never jump out of the darkness at him again.

*

Miranda had to stay at the hospital for a few more days before she was finally released. The doctor joked with her that she was a fast healer. She just smiled. She had to make sure that she changed her bandages often and made sure the wound didn't get infected. A police call had been put out for her 'mugger' but Miranda doubted they'd have much luck on that front. She didn't think Logan would be found if he didn't want to be. That seemed to be the way he was.

As she looked at stomach in the mirror she grimaced. It looked horrible. Three gashes stitched together tightly, and she didn't even want to know the things they had to fix inside of her. Logan's claws were pretty deadly. What the hell kind of mutation was that? She shook her head and pulled her shirt back down, before exiting the bathroom.

Her father was standing in front of the TV, pushing at the aerial. "We're not picking up channel four again, honey," he said as he saw her walk in. "We need to get the TV guy back in."

Miranda nodded and then took a deep breath. "Dad. Sit down, could you?"

Her father turned and stared at her strangely, and then sat. "What's going on?" he asked slowly.

She took a deep breath. "I have to tell you something, and you're probably not going to like it."

He smiled. "Stop wringing you hands, Miranda." He looked at her. "Are you gay? Is that it?"

She stared at him and blinked. "Um, no. At least I don't think so," she shook her head with frustration. "You're confusing my point!"

He nodded and hid a smile. "Alright. What is it?"

She took a deep breath and felt her heart against her ribcage. "Dad," her voice sounded weak. "I'm a mutant." She held her breath and waited.

Her father looked mildly amused. "That's it?"

Miranda blinked and stared at him, sure she'd heard wrong. "What?"

"That's what all this fuss is about?" he stood up and hugged. "Oh, honey, I'm sorry you got all worked up about that."

Her father was squishing her in the hug and Miranda was still quite sure she was misunderstanding him. "No, you don't get it. I'm a mutant. Like..a mutant!"

He pulled back and smiled at her. "I know." Then he looked thoughtful. "I think it's time I told you a little more about your mother."

Miranda just stared.