Disclaimer: I don't own X-men, only own this plot!!

A/N: Thank you Xiowolfe, Silver Spider, and Aleandra Alyra Sarienna for your reviews! ^_^

~*~

The judge took a seat looking through some papers then looked up at the courtroom.

 "I've come to a decision," He announced, Logan felt his heart speed up, "I've decided that Max Howlett should be returned to his father."

 Logan's ears refused to work after that; the thought that he'd be able to see his son for the first time wasn't quiet sinking in like it should. Suddenly he felt himself stand up and shake his attorney's hand, he blinked shaking his head a smile creeping over his lips. As he walked towards the door he caught a glimpse of the other family, comforting each other and looking miserable. His attention was quickly averted to the door as he was pushed out through it and led to another room.

 The room was a boring shade of white and had very few chairs scattered around by the walls. In one of the chairs sat Max, he looked up and Logan didn't miss the look in his eyes.

Max's bottom lip began to quiver as he stared at his father in the doorway, "Daddy?" He whispered tears welling up in his eyes causing them to shine.

Quickly he got to his feet and ran to Logan jumping into his arms, "Where were you?" He cried into Logan's shoulder his arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

  "I-I," Logan whispered his voice catching in his throat as he held onto Max.

~*~

It had been a long day, an extremely long day. Finally the sun set and the shadows crept out from their hiding places to the corners of poorly lit areas.

 Logan found himself standing in the doorway of Max's room just watching him sleep, sighing he turned away closing the door and walked out into the kitchen of the small apartment. Grabbing a beer from the fridge he walked over to the kitchen table and sat down placing his beer down in front of himself. His eyes flickered over to the cardboard box sitting in the center of the room, picking up his beer he walked over to the box and sat down next to it. Opening the box he pulled out several objects before pulling out an photograph album. He stared at the cover for a while contemplating whether or not to open it, his hands moved over the cover a few times before finally pulling the book open.

 His eyes scanned over the first picture a smile tugging at his lips; it was their wedding picture, both him and Ripley were smiling at the camera as they cut the first piece of cake. Closing his eyes he flipped to the next page finding it filled with pictures of Max, from his first year of life. He chuckled at the picture of Max's first birthday; he was sitting in the grass with cake all over his face and hands.

 He squinted his eyes at the picture, there was something no, someone in the background. He began looking at all the other pictures finding the same thing in each of them, why hadn't he seen this before? He flipped to a page with pictures of the zoo and gaped, there standing behind himself was the same guy that was in all of the other pictures.

The man was staring at the camera a sick grin playing on his lips; he wore a pair of sunglasses and had short messy brown hair.      

  "Dad?" Came a small voice from the hallway.

Logan's head jerked up and he dropped the book to the floor, he looked over his shoulder at Max standing in the hallway rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

 "Yea Squirt?" He frowned noticing the tears running down Max's cheeks, "Hey, what's wrong?" He climbed to his feet.

Max looked up at him trembling as even more tears welled up in his eyes, "Nightmares." He whimpered wiping at his eyes again.

 Logan bent down picking him up and hugged him, "Want to talk about it?"

 "No." Came Max's muffled reply as he laid his head onto Logan's shoulder.

~*~

 Else where…

A lamp flickered on lighting up the pitch-black room illuminating the wall in front of it. The wall was covered in pictures of a happy family and newspaper clippings of a murder. A man stepped out of the shadows humming softly to himself as he taped his new addition of pictures to the wall.

 "Thought I got 'em all," He hummed stepping back to admire his work, "but missed two…" He smirked shaking his head then turned off the light shrouding himself in darkness once again.

~*~

A/N: An X-men plushy for whoever can guess who the murderer is!!