Chapter Two

Warren pouted. "Her plane's here."

Angela glared at him. "I know. That's probably why people are getting off of it."

"Let's just leave her here," Warren suggested. "I bet if we made a break for it now, she'd never even know we were here at all."

"We are not going to leave Briana stranded in the airport. It's rude. Besides, she knows where we live and she'll come after us," Angela said. A tall, strikingly-beautiful blonde woman came off the plane. "There she is. Look happy."

"I hate you," Warren said, his smile unwavering.

"Love you, too."

Briana walked over to her cousins. She smiled, hugging them. "Warren, Angie! It's so great to see you both!" she said. Warren continued to smile, although somehow he still managed to look the very picture of misery.

By the time they were headed towards the car, he was pouting again. Angela moved back to talk to her brother. "Cheer up," she ordered.

"That would be a hell of a lot easier if she wasn't making me carry all her luggage," Warren said through gritted teeth. "It certainly doesn't feel like she's only staying for a week. Unless she's taken up masonry for a hobby…"

"Looks like only a week's worth of her packing to me," Angie said. "You know how much stuff Briana claims to need."

Warren shifted one of the suitcases in order to ease the ache in his arms. He cursed the builders of the airport for making the parking lot so far away from the gate. "Isn't there some sort of limit to how much you can take on international flights?" he asked.

"I think they make an exception if you happen to be Captain Britain," Angie replied.

"Whatever," Warren said. "Why did they give her that title anyway? She's an idiot."

"They gave it to her because her father was Captain Britain before her, and she's his only child," Angie explained. "Not that it mattes much. Nowadays the name's mostly for show."

Briana was waiting by the car tapping her foot when Angela and Warren got there. "What took you so bloody long?" she asked.

"I would've been here sooner but I was dragging your da…" Warren caught Angie's stern look out of the corner of his eye. "Sorry," he finished lamely.

"Put everything in the trunk," Briana ordered with a wave of her hand. "And do be careful not to break anything."

"Put everything in the trunk. Do be careful not to break anything," Warren mimicked once Briana had gotten into the car. "It's my own damn car, and I'll do whatever the hell I want to do with whatever I choose to put in it." He carefully placed all of Briana's bags in the trunk.

Angela patted Warren's shoulder.

*** *** ***

Logan had been gone for four days, and Ric had barely eaten, slept, or spoken that whole time. He was cold and distant towards everyone, even Marie. At school, he simply did whatever work was assigned to him, avoiding conversation with anyone and spending the majority of his time staring at the clock. He was especially distant in the classes he shared with Logan and always sat in the back, whereas she sat in the front. Logan hadn't said one word to him—hadn't even looked at him—since she'd gone back home, and Ric was still uncertain about how he felt about that.

Ric now sat alone in his room, listening to his most depressing music and feeling rather sorry for himself. He heard a knock at his door and reached out with his magnetic powers to turn the doorknob. Marie stepped into the room.

"Warren and Angie's cousin is here. You wanna come downstairs and meet her?" Marie asked.

"Nope."

"Rather sit in here wallowing in misery?"

"Yep."

Marie put her fists on her hips. "Well, I don't see what you're so damn upset about," she said.

"What? Are you stupid? You should know exactly why I'm upset!"

"Well, I know why you're claiming to be upset," Marie said, "but I don't think you have any right to mope around about that."

Ric got up and walked over to her. "I don't have any right to mope around? I just broke up with my girlfriend!"

Marie glared up at him. "Exactly. You broke up with her. You did it to yourself. Logan is still in love with you, and she didn't want it to end. Anything that you're feeling because of that is your own fault. Besides, if you're so miserable you know her number. Call her and work things out."

"You know I can't do that, Marie," Ric said.

"Why not?" Marie asked. "Pride?"

Ric sighed, exasperated with his younger sister. "Pride has nothing to do with it. It just wouldn't ever work. I can't touch her," he said.

"You could work on controlling your magnetic shield," Marie said. "With some actual effort you could probably succeed."

"It's too much for me," Ric said. "I might get it right someday, but that could take years, and in the meantime the littlest touch could hurt Logan. It's not right for me to keep her in a relationship where she's in danger. Besides, she deserves someone who can touch her."

"So you're going to let the fact that she can't touch your skin keep you away from the woman you love?" Marie asked.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"That's ridiculous."

"You're too young to understand, Marie."

Marie threw her hands up into the air. "Whatever, Ric. Just sit here being all broken-hearted, completely cutting yourself off from human contact, and see if I friggin' care. If that's gonna be your attitude, you deserve to be unhappy. I'm just sorry you had to make one of my best friends miserable along with you."

Ric's eyes narrowed into red slits. "Good-bye, Marie."

"Bye, Richard," Marie snapped as she stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Ric lay down on his bed and went back to listening to his music.

*** *** ***

Wolverine invited Craig into the house. "The girl who answered the door is your daughter, huh?" Craig asked as Wolverine led him into the living room.

"Yeah. Her name's Addie," Logan said. He pointed to the couch. "Have a seat."

Craig sat down on the couch and Wolverine sat across from him. "So you say you think you're my son," Logan said.

"Yeah, well, my mother said you were—or at least a man fitting your description," Craig said.

"Well, then chances are, I'm him. Ain't too many guys around that look like me," Logan said. "Can I see the picture again?"

"Sure," Craig replied as he pulled it back out of his pocket. "Dammit."

"What is it?" Logan asked.

Craig looked nervous. "Nothing really…just a paper-cut."

"Want a Band-Aid or somethin'?"

"NO! I mean…I'm fine…really."

"Ya healed up already, didn't ya, Kid?"

Craig's eyes grew wide. "How…how did you know that?"

Logan smiled. "'Cause I do that, too. It's called a healin' factor. Means you're a mutant."

Craig nodded slowly. "I figured I was. I have ever since I fell out of a tree when I was twelve and within fifteen minutes I was as good as new. My mom was the only one who saw, and she told me not to tell anyone."

Jubilee walked into the room. "Honey, who was at the door?" She stopped when she saw Craig, "Oh. Hi."

Logan took Jubilee's hand and led her over to Craig. "Craig, this is my wife, Jubilee; Jubilee, this is my son, Craig."

*** *** ***

"Are you planning to leave my room anytime soon?" asked an annoyed Rachel Summers.

"Briana's out there," Warren answered. "I don't want to see her."

"She's your cousin. Go bond."

Someone knocked at the door and Rachel grumbled as she got up to answer it. It was Billy. "Is Warren here?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm here," Warren called from inside the room.

Billy walked in, ignoring Rachel's murderous look. "You're cousin is a pain, War," Billy said.

"Tell me about it," Warren replied.

"Can he tell you about it somewhere else, please?" Rachel asked. "I have a paper to write."

Another knock. Reluctantly, Rachel opened the door again. "Hey is…" Kacie stopped short. "Billy!" she said, coming into the room to get to her boyfriend. "She called me a ditzy! Billy, am I ditzy?"

Billy hugged her. "Of course not, Love."

Warren snickered.

Rachel started tapping her foot, her arms crossed firmly in front of her chest.

Twister walked in through the still-open door. "Hey, what are all y'all doing in here?" he asked.

"Hiding from Briana," Warren told him.

"I don't blame you," Twister said. "I don't think I've ever seen Rebecca dislike someone this adamantly before."

As if on cue, Rebecca walked into the room and wrapped her arms around Twister's waist. Rachel threw her arms up in exasperation.

Warren, Billy, Kacie, Twister, and Rebecca struck up a conversation on the evils of Briana Braddock as Rachel continued to stand by the door, tapping her foot and looking about as red as her hair. The others ignored her and kept on talking.

Marie came skipping into the room, and Rachel's patience broke. She pushed through the crowd, grabbed a disk out of her computer, and stormed out of the room in search of a place where she could finish her paper.

"Sheesh, what's wrong with her?" Billy asked.

Warren shrugged and the conversation began again.

*** *** ***

In an act of desperation, Rachel used her telekinesis to unlock Addie's door and went into her room, figuring that since Logan shouldn't be home for a while that she might finally have a place where she could write her paper in peace.

Rachel walked into Logan's room and looked around. She had only been in there a couple of times, but she noticed it really hadn't changed much, save for a poster over the bed that Rachel thought would look more appropriate in Marie's room than in Logan's. She'd never thought that boy bands were quite Addie's thing.

No sooner had Rachel finally sat down and turned on the computer, than did Briana come into the room. Rachel silently cursed herself for not shutting the door all the way behind her. "Hello, Briana," Rachel said without even attempting to fake her usual cheeriness.

"Where is everyone?" Briana asked.

Rachel debated whether or not she should tell her that they had all invaded her bedroom, but decided against it. If Briana knew they were in Rachel's room, she might go in there and flush them out down the hall to Logan's room. "I don't know," Rachel lied, hoping that Briana would just go away.

"Oh," Briana said. She sat down on the bed behind Rachel, and Rachel grimaced. She waited for a second for Briana to say something, and when she didn't, Rachel put her disk into the computer and started working on her paper.

"What are you writing?" Briana asked once Rachel had typed a few lines.

"My psychology term paper that's due tomorrow," Rachel answered.

"Shouldn't you have started earlier?"

"I've been too busy," Rachel said through clenched teeth.

Briana leaned over Rachel's shoulder and read what was written on the computer screen. "It would sound better if you wrote that sentence like this," Briana said, reaching over Rachel to make the correction. Rachel sighed then continued typing.

Briana hovered over Rachel. "You missed a comma there," she said, tapping a spot on the monitor.

Rachel clicked the mouse where Briana had indicated and slammed her finger down on the comma key.

"Couldn't you come up with a better title?"

"I'm going somewhere else," Rachel announced as she snatched her disk from the drive and left the room in a huff.

"Some people are so touchy," Briana said once Rachel was gone.

*** *** ***

"Your son, huh?" Jubilee said, sitting down in the chair beside her husband. "Well, I guess I always knew something like this could happen with you, Logan."

Craig was shocked at how easily they both seemed to be taking this. "And I was afraid they'd be upset…" he thought.

"So have ya been tryin' to find me for a while?" Wolverine asked.

"About a year," Craig answered. "That's when my fa…that's when Andrew Marshall died."

"Andrew was Jane's husband, right?" Wolverine asked.

"Yes," Craig replied. "And I always thought he was my biological father…until my mother told me the truth."

Jubilee raised her eyebrows a little when she realized that Craig's mother had been married at the time she knew Logan, but said nothing.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Wolverine said.

Craig looked down at the carpet. "It's okay. We weren't ever very close. I mean, he worked a lot and I think there were always other women besides Mom."

"Yeah, I remember Janey sayin' somethin' about that," Logan said.

Craig looked up to meet Wolverine's steady gaze. "How did you know my mother?" Craig asked. "She told me your relationship was brief—only one weekend—but she didn't tell me much more than that."

Jubilee noticed Logan grow suddenly tense. She reached over and patted his leg. "I'm going to check on Adanya," she said. Wolverine gave her a nod and she left.

"Are you wife and daughter mutants, too?" Craig asked, the thought suddenly occurring to him.

"Yeah," Logan replied. "Jubilee can shoot fireworks outta her hands, and Addie's got a healin' factor like m…like us."

"I'm not used to being around other mutants," Craig said. "Actually, I tend to forget I'm one myself most of the time—until I get hurt, that is."

"Does it make ya uncomfortable? Bein' around mutants."

"No."

Craig met Wolverine's gaze again, and Craig noticed that there was something eerily familiar about Logan's eyes. He realized with a start that they were almost exactly like his own. "So about my mother…" Craig said, getting back to the earlier topic.

"Yeah, Janey," Wolverine said. "There really isn't much to say, Kid. Wish there was, for your sake. I met her at a bar, and we got to talkin'. She said she was married, but her husband didn't pay much attention to her—always chasin' other women and whatnot. I'm not sure exactly what happened after that, but she ended up askin' me to spend the weekend with her at a cabin she had upstate, and I figure ya must've started somewhere up there."

Craig found it hard to believe that his mother would have gone off to spend the weekend in the family's summer home with some strange man, but he was living proof that it must've happened. The healing factor, the eyes—this man had to be his father.

Reading the expression on Craig's face, Logan said, "I don't think she made a habit of that, Kid. When she was with me, she said she's never done anything like that before, and I doubt she's done it since."

"Do you want me to leave now?" Craig asked suddenly. "I mean, you have a nice family here…I'm intruding…"

"You ain't intrudin'," Logan said. "You're my son, and I don't want ya just walkin' outta my life now that I know about you. Give it at least week before ya decide ya want to run away from me," Wolverine said.

"But your family…" Craig's voice trailed off as he remembered how nonchalant Logan's wife had been about the whole thing.

"They'll be fine," Wolverine assured Craig. "They realize that I've had a, well, full life. Actually, I think Jubilee's been expectin' somethin' like this the whole seventeen years we've been married."

"'Full life,' huh?" Craig thought. "Guess that explains why they're all so calm about this."

Jubilee came into the room with Addie. Wolverine looked up at his daughter. "Pun'kin, this is Craig—my son and your half-brother."

"My WHAT!?" Addie yelled. "Oh this is just it!" She turned around and ran back down the hallway."

"Well, maybe not everyone's calm," Craig amended his earlier thought.

*** *** ***

Rachel went downstairs to the medlab. Her brother, Nathan, was sitting on one of the lab tables with Dr. Angela Worthington sitting in his lap. They were giggling and talking in hushed tones. Rachel walked right past them and to the computer. "I'm commandeering this, Angie," Rachel announced.

"Um, Ray…" Cable began.

"I swear, Nate, if you say one word about wanting your privacy I will be short one much-older, time-traveling brother."

Angie and Nathan hurried out of the medlab without saying anything else, finally giving Rachel the peace and quiet she'd been searching for all afternoon.

*** *** ***

Jubilee glanced at Craig and Wolverine and then ran after Addie. "Uh, sorry about that," Wolverine said.

"I take it she's not too thrilled with the idea of having an older brother all of the sudden," Craig said.

"She'll come around," Logan assured him. "It's been a rough week for her. She just broke up with her boyfriend."

"Ah. She's taking that pretty hard?" Craig asked.

"She loves him," Wolverine replied. "And he's basically a good kid. A few problems, but I can think of people I'd like her bein' with a lot less. And even though I don't like the idea of her bein' with any guy, really, I wish she was still with him. At least Ric made her happy, and I hate to see her hurtin'."

"You're protective of her, aren't you?" Craig commented.

"Yeah, I'm real protective of her. Always have been," Logan said. "Although I'm not sure how much she needs it anymore. She's growin' up so fast, and I think she's reached a point where she's more than capable of takin' care of herself."

Jubilee came back into the living room. "Addie's crying again, Logan," she said. "You need to go talk to her."

Logan nodded. "I'll be back in a minute."

Wolverine walked down the hall to Addie's room and Jubilee sat down across from Craig, After a few moments of silence, Craig said, "So, I guess you're my step-mother."

Jubilee's eyes got wide. "Jeez, I didn't think about that!" She laughed. "I wonder if I'm even old enough to be your mother."

"How old are you—if you don't mind me asking."

"I'm forty-one," Jubilee said.

"So that means you're sixteen years older than me," Craig said, quickly doing the math. "How much older than you is Logan?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure," Jubilee replied. "No one's been able to determine his age. He does have some memories of fighting in World War II, however."

Craig blanched. "World War II?! Wow…"

*** *** ***

Logan came into Addie's room and went over to the bed where she lay on her stomach, crying into her pillow. He sat down on the edge of the bed. "Hey, Pun'kin."

"I don't want to talk to you," she said, her voice muffled.

"Addie, this really ain't that bad, Kiddo," Wolverine said.

Addie sat up and Logan winced at the sight of her tearstained face. He'd always hated seeing her cry. "Yes it is," she said. "It's just awful."

"Why?"

"Because you, me, and Mom, we've always been a family—just the three of us—and now there's someone else. I don't want you to have some other kid," Addie explained.

"Pun'kin, c'mere," Logan said, holding his arms out to her. Addie quickly moved into her father's embrace and began to cry on her shoulder. "First off, Craig isn't a kid. He's twenty-five. I doubt he's gonna be around here a lot, changin' our family life. Second, you're my little girl and nothin' is ever gonna change that. Ya don't have to feel threatened by Craig. I'm not gonna love ya any less."

Addie played with the necklace with the wildcat charm that she wore. Her father had given it to her, and she never took it off. "I just don't want to ever lose you, Daddy."

"Ya ain't gonna lose me, Pun'kin," Wolverine assured her, "so don't ya worry about that."

"I love you, Daddy."

"I love ya, too, Kid. Now will ya come out and meet Craig?"

"I already met him."

"Adanya…"

"But I don't want a brother," Addie said.

"Well, it looks like ya have one anyway," Wolverine replied.

"I didn't have any say in that."

"Who does?"

"Are you sure he's your son?" Addie asked. "He could be wrong…"

"He has a healin' factor," Wolverine told her.

"Why did you have to have so many women in you past?"

"I've lived a long life. If I'd waited for your mother to show up, I would've exploded."

"Are any other people going to show up claiming to be your offspring?" Addie asked.

"Hopefully not," Logan answered. "One's enough."

"One's too many," Addie muttered.

Wolverine hugged his daughter. "No need for ya to get jealous, Pun'kin."

"I'm not, It's just…" Addie frowned. "So what if I'm jealous! Maybe I just don't want to have to share you."

Logan laughed. "What's so funny?" Addie asked.

"Nothin', Kid. I was just thinkin' how you're just about as possessive as your mother. Don't worry about it, though. I doubt you'll have to share me much."

"I better not," Addie grumbled. "He may be older than me, but I still had you first."

Wolverine kissed the top of her head. "C'mon. Let's get back out there."

"Fine, I'll go," Addie conceded, "but I am not making any promises to like him."

*** *** ***

A young man with wings that glowed like fire stood high atop a mountain, staring into the night sky. His dark blue eyes where cold, emotionless, as he watched the stars. He had won his last battle, but he knew his enemy would not stay down for long. There would be another attack soon, and the fire-winged man had discovered the coordinates of the next planet his enemy planned to conquer. He had also discovered through old Shi'ar records that a group of heroes—the type legends were made of—resided on that planet. They could help him in his never-ending quest.

The young man knew he had to reach these heroes quickly, before it was too late. He spread his flaming wings and leapt into the sky, breaking through the atmosphere and hurtling through space. He would've prayed that he'd make it there before the Dark One if he hadn't already given up all faith in prayer.

*** *** ***

To be continued in part 3…

[Feedback please! And if anyone wants to read a story about Logan and Janey, let me know. If I get enough response I'll write it.]