Disclaimer in part one.
Previous parts can be found at:
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And outside into the desert we're gonna ride.
The arrival of the baby bear into the camp eased some of the tension the inhabitants had been feeling. Scott had come over to deliver some bear books to Marie, and he identified the bear immediately as the cub he'd seen earlier, and Andrew had been happy to see it again. The cub had also been the thing to pull Marie out of her funk. She had decided to keep it around and try to raise it herself. Without her intervention it would most certainly die before winter, and besides, it was cute.
Andrew had been excited at having a 'pet' of sorts to play with, and had named the bear Magneto. It had been his baby name for Erik because the man had entertained a then toddler Andrew by making refrigerator magnets fly around the room. Andrew had enjoyed it, and started calling Erik 'magneto.' The cub was just as curious about Andrew as the boy was about the little bear. Neither had ever seen the other animal before.
The little bear had taken to Marie right away and followed her around wherever she went. Little Magneto had also established himself as a constant presence in her bed. Marie didn't have to worry about accidentally touching him since he was so furry and preferred to sleep at the foot of the bed. Logan had noted a positive change in Marie since Magneto's arrival and had relayed the information to Kitty since he knew she was worried about Marie and would pass the information on to the others. He avoided Scott, there was something he just didn't like about the other man.
The feeling seemed to be mutual, but Logan honestly didn't know what he'd done to offend the other man. But he could see it in the way the younger man's jaw tightened when he was around, he could hear the clipped speech and he could read the 'fuck-off' body language. There was defiantly something up with Scott, and Logan really didn't like mysteries. He'd taken it upon himself to address the other man sometime in the near future. And now that Marie had finally had a breakthrough and begun the grieving process, he felt free to leave her for a few hours and have it out with Scott.
He walked towards the cabin Marie had pointed him towards and knocked on the door. A very pregnant Jubilee opened the door and Logan didn't miss the look of surprise she expressed before her face hardened into a carefully controlled mask. "Yes?"
"Is Scott around?"
"Yeah. I'll get him." She said before closing the door again and searching for her husband.
Scott soon appeared and walked out the door. "What do you want Logan?"
"How do you know me?" The larger man asked, arms across his chest.
"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Scott gawked incredulously.
"Do I look like I'm joking?" Logan bit back.
"You know very well our history Wolverine." Scott emphasized the last word.
"Listen bub, I don't know who the hell you are, but you seem to know me and I want to know why that is." The Canadian snarled.
"Stay away from my wife. And stay away from my boy. I don't want you around Andrew unless Marie's around." Scott said evenly.
"Is that an order there one-eye?"
"Yeah. It is." Scott finished and turned his back on Logan and slammed the door.
Logan's claws shot out and he sliced through a small tree in the front yard. The resounding crash calmed him somewhat and he turned away from the Summers' house. "You really don't know who you are, do you?" Kitty's soft voice asked.
"No." Logan answered.
"Why don't you come in for a few minutes."? Kitty said, resigned to the fact that she had to tell Logan who he was.
The two sat down and Kitty began. "Before the whole end of the world thing, Scott, Jubilee all lived together. Well, we lived at a place called Xavier's Institute to be exact. There were a lot of us there. Kids and adults, I mean." She said shooting a glance at Logan.
He just stared back; it apparently didn't ring a bell.
"Jubilee and I grew up at the mansion, and we met you when she was 18 and I was 16. The X-Men had been going on a lot of raids, and freeing people from labs and stuff. You were in one of the labs, and it was sort of like how you are now. You didn't know who you were when they brought you to the mansion." Kitty paused again.
"Was Marie there?"
"No," Kitty said convinced now that Logan really didn't remember any of this. "She was Erik's daughter, and he ran the Brotherhood which was sort of the nemesis of the X-Men."
"Oh. Right. Keep talking." Logan said quietly.
"Jean, who was the doctor at the mansion at the time took care of you. She liked you, and you liked her I guess." Kitty's voice had hardened at the mention of the woman's name.
"You'd been at the mansion for a little while when the accident happened. Your room was across the hall from the room Jubes and I shared, and you were having a nightmare. Jubes went over to wake you up, and when she touched you, claws shot out of your arm and you stabbed her in the stomach. Everybody thought you'd done it on purpose, because that night you and Jean took off from the mansion and Jubes almost died. Jean refused to fix her. She just took all her med stuff and left. We had to take Jubes to the hospital." Kitty finished.
"I'm sorry." Logan muttered, horrified at what he'd just heard.
"It's not me you need to apologize too."
A sharp knock on the door interrupted the silence. "Kitty its time, we need you!" An excited Scott said.
Kitty lept from the cabin and left without ushering Logan out. The man followed the other two back to the Summers and offered to take Andrew back to Marie's cabin. It had been decided that when the big event was to take place that Andrew would spend the time at Marie's. He was more than eager to go back there to play with Magneto.
"How long am I going to be at Aunt Marie's?" He asked as Logan and Scott walked the child back.
Scott had refused Logan's offer. "I can't say son, but you'll probably be back tomorrow."
Andrew had accepted that answer and entered Marie's cabin. Scott had immediately turned around and jogged back to his wife leaving Logan alone to his thoughts. He wasn't sure what to think. Kitty had seemed like she was telling the truth, and loathe as he was to believe that he would intentionally have hurt Jubilee or anyone for that matter, he couldn't honestly say that he knew for certain that he hadn't. It was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
He shrugged it off for now and entered the cabin. Andrew was happily playing with the bear and Marie was engrossed in a book. Logan sat down and just looked at the young woman. He liked her best out of everybody who was around, but that wasn't saying much. He had a feeling that if they had met under different circumstances he'd feel the same way about her.
After Andrew had been put to bed, Logan and Marie retired to the porch to look at the stars. The sun set early, and the sky was clear sprinkled with constellations, untainted by city lights. "What was it like growing up where you did?" Logan had asked a few questions about her childhood, but hadn't questioned her in depth.
"It was kind of strange. My parents did all this mutant rights activism, well terrorism the way Scott talks about it" she began, smiling lightly.
"But to me, they were just my parents you know? We were just a normal family. I went to school, they worked and we ate dinner together every night. We were pretty happy. When the war started, things changed of course, but they always tried hard to keep things normal for me. I was happy where I was, I never wanted to go to Xavier's school even though they gave me the choice."
Logan looked over and saw two tears spill down her cheeks, he doubted she even noticed it. He was glad that he could get her to talk to him. He had only seen her cry a few times, and for some reason the idea that crying was healthy had stuck in his head. "It sounds nice. What was your mom like?"
She was quiet for about a minute, obviously thinking of what to say before she opened her mouth again. "Mom was a lot of things. She had a work persona that was intimidating and well, bitchy to put it nicely. But the real mom wasn't like that. She was warm, and funny, and sarcastic. I know that sounds like a strange combination but it worked. She was easy to talk to, and always sided with me when dad and I got into it. She changed into Victor once and pinned my dad against the wall when he was trying to persuade me to join his team when I was older. Mom didn't want that for me, and that's the only time dad brought it up."
Logan chuckles softly and pulled Marie into his chest. He liked holding her, and guessed that she liked the contact as well since she had never pulled back. He felt sort of guilty for wanting more than a friendship with her when she was still grieving over her father, but he didn't know how much longer he'd be able to keep it secret.
"What are you thinking?"
"How do you know I'm thinking?" Logan asked.
"You have that thinking, breathing thing going on."
"Thinking, breathing thing huh? Well, I'll just have too tell you then I suppose."
"Well, go on then" Marie chided.
"I was just wondering, do you think that this, you and me'll go anywhere?"
Marie turned to look at him. "I don't know Logan. But I'd like it." She smiled.
"Me too." He graced her with a rare grin.
On a whim he took her hand and laced his fingers through her own gloved one. He looked down at their now joined hands and a feeling of warmth spread through him. He didn't know what he'd done in the past, but he knew he was enjoying the future.