"Dadadada."
"No."
"Nyo! Dadadada."
"Lo...lo g...."
"NYO!!!! Dadadada."
Steph sighed and gave her baby sister a pained look. "What, I'm supposed to repeat after you?"
"Esha buggo dtampa la." Ruhko nodded, black eyes serious. "Dadadada."
"Fine. 'Dadadada'...." Steph's eyes widened and she sat up, using one hand to hold onto the tiles so they didn't slide off the roof. "Hey, there wasn't any vibration in that. Da da da da.... Wow. Da, da, dada, dad, daddy, no, not that. Dad, dad, ha!" Her face creased into a grin of delight. "Ha-lo. Hah! Halohah. Hahaha."
"Dadadada," instructed Ruhko, waving her fist in the air and then getting distracted as her claws popped out. "Ooo, brusha ta lo!"
Steph snorted and peered over the edge of the roof, but didn't see anyone. Picking up the baby, she rose into the air and looked down at the mansion that had become her home during the past two months.
Home. The word still sounded alien when she used it in context with herself.
Never thought I'd have a home, she thought, frowning pensively. Or a family. 'N now I'm the middle sister in a family of three. With a dad who's the worst suck I've ever met, though I'd never tell anyone.
She hugged Ruhko as the baby babbled and waved her hands, giggling as a passing crow back-winged in surprise and scolded them with a harsh croak.
"HAH!" Steph told it, waving her free hand, then dive-bombed it and swooped down to the front step, landing neatly and walking inside.
Ruhko wriggled to be let down the minute she came into the hall, then raced away into the den, clamoring at the top of her voice.
"Hey, shugah!" said Rogue, picking her up as Steph walked in. "Yah enjoyin' havin' the Mansion tah yohself?"
"Hah!" said Steph, flopping down on the couch next to them and picking up the remote.
"Good job!" Her older sister beamed, then winced as Ruhko tried yet again to pull one of her white streaks out. "No, no, shugah, that's grown on."
"Dato momba lorgle bletha pbbbttt." Ruhko sat back and looked at her, then lifted one hand and proudly showed her the claws. "Beesha!"
"Ah see that, shugah." Rogue smiled, and the baby grinned back, then yawned and snuggled against her chest, blinking sleepily.
Steph straightened her leg so that she could get her slate out and wrote on it languidly, watching with one eye as Sailor Moon fell down and bawled stormily. "Where is everybody?"
Rogue read it and shrugged. "All ovah. Most the othah kids are in town. Ah think Logan's talkin' with the Proffessah 'bout 'Ro 'n Kurt."
Steph winced and looked away from her, scowling as she thought of the two people laying down in the medbay. It'd been a month since they were knocked out by one of the other students of the Xavier Academy for gifted children, during Steph's frightened rage after Logan had been critically injured in the Danger room. So far the Professor hadn't been able to find out what was keeping them from waking up.
Rogue got up, breaking Steph's unhappy train of thought. "Let's go scare Hank," she said, putting the sleeping baby on her hip.
"You mean, 'let's go steal Twinkies'," wrote Steph sourly.
"What evah." Rogue grinned cheerfully. "Same thing."
Steph nodded and stood slowly, followed her elder sister out of the room and down the hall to the elevator. "Do we have to go into the medlab?" she wrote.
Rogue shook her head as she pressed the button. "Nah, Ah think he's in his lab, messin' round with his experiments."
"Ooo!" Steph scribbled, her grin becoming more real. "Maybe he'll blow something up this time!"
Rogue giggled. "Ah hope not! That'd scare Ruhko, 'n Ah don't like gettin' cut."
"Wimp," wrote Steph, sniggering.
"Ah don't see you lettin' her use you foh a scratchin' post," retorted Rogue, reaching up to adjust her power suppressor as they stepped out into the gleaming white hall that only a few people had ever seen.
"Hah!" said Steph, then peered around the edge of the lab door. "Ha- lo."
Hank started and turned, hastily setting down half a Twinkie. "Stephanie?" His face broke into a beam. "It's so good to hear your dulcet tones!"
"Hah." She shook her head and rolled her eyes, then grinned and did a hula. "Ha-lo-hah!"
Hank applauded. "Lovely! Truly lovely! What other utterances are in your power?"
She looked at him thoughtfully, running over syllables in her mind, then got a truly evil grin on her face and said, "Da...."
"Oh, my stars and garters!" His eyes widened in alarm. "Don't!"
Steph shook her head, giggling soundlessly as she wrote, "Rube!" in huge letters on her slate and showed it to him.
He gave her a reproachful look from his soft brown eyes, then reached back and picked up his Twinkie and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Don't tell me you never swore to bug your parents?" she wrote, cocking her head as she turned the slate for him to read.
"Not to my recollection, Steph, I was far too caught up in more fascinating pursuits." He turned and tinkered with something on the equipment set up on the counter, then turned back to the girls. "Hast thou come to raid my treasure chest?"
"Nah, just yoh Twinkie drawah." Rogue grinned evilly.
"Yea, verily." He pulled it open with a sigh and took out the half- empty box. "Set to, fair maids."
"Well, that takes all the fun outtah it, Doc." Rogue looked at the little cakes disinterestedly, shifting Ruhko on her hip as the baby went totally limp with a sigh.
Hank grinned at her, eyes twinkling as he peered over his glasses. "Yes, I know."
Steph gave him a raspberry and grabbed a Twinkie out of the box, ripping off the plastic and stuffing it into her mouth, then reached for another one and opened it as she chewed.
"Alas, I see that my ploy was fruitless." Hank chuckled and pushed his chair toward Rogue. "Canst stay and lighten my work with thy sweet presences for a time?"
"Shore, we can stay 'n visit, right, Steph?"
She muffled a burp and ate the second Twinkie, then wandered over to look through one of the magnifying ports on his aquarium, more interested in alien paramecium than she was in talking.
"Ah guess that's a yeah." Rogue chuckled, then asked Hank if he knew that Bobby liked Twinkies.
"Yes," said the doctor jovially. "He oft comes down to assist me in my work and to share in my bounty.... Would that he would think to replenish the store once in awhile, but one must conclude that a student's salary is best saved for other things. That is a very fine ring. Tis the one he gave you, is it not?"
Steph tuned them out, having found the football that Bobby and Hank had gotten in trouble for playing with in the house several times over the past five weeks. Tossing it up in the air and catching it, she was soon lost in thoughts of indoor football, Twinkies, and little lavender cells swimming around.
Rogue's voice snapped her out of her zoned state and she turned her head to look at her sister, who was frowning at Hank in concern.
"Hank? Yah alright? Yah don't look too good." She shifted Ruhko and got up.
Steph turned to look at him, her eyes widening as she saw how pale the doctor had gone.
"Feel...most strange...." he murmured, his eyes going out of focus. He blinked, his shoulders hunching slightly as he braced himself with both hands on the counter. "I'll...."
Steph dropped the football and darted forward, catching him and staggering under his weight as his legs gave way. "Ro'?" She looked toward the chair and Rogue juggled Ruhko to one arm and pulled it forward, holding it in place.
Steph nodded her thanks and got him into it, then pushed him upright and put her hand to his neck. "#$%," she said softly, not noticing that she'd said it or that it had been untainted in her concern over how shallow and uneven the doctor's pulse was. "He's really sick."
"Ah'll go get Logan 'n the Proffessah." Rogue turned and bolted out of the room, holding Ruhko tightly in her arms to keep the baby from being " Hank's eyes slipped shut for a minute, then opened again. "Contaminated Twinkie."
Steph nodded and said, "Shh," reaching one hand toward the pocket that held her suppressor.
She put it up again hurriedly to catch him as he stiffened with a gasp and nearly fell out of the chair. "Hey! Careful!"
"Apologies," he muttered weakly, sweat beading his brow. "Could you help me lie down? I feel...." He bit his lip, going even paler.
"Here," lean on my shoulder. She pulled him up and tried to brace herself under his arm, only to find that she was too tall. "K, fine, I've got you, now lets...."
She broke off in horror as he gave a roar of agony and went completely limp, falling before she could catch him again.
Steph hastily knelt beside him, wadding up her duster for a pillow and then straightening his arms and legs. "Hank? Hank, can you hear me?"
He didn't respond, even when she slapped his face gently.
"Don't $#% do this to me, man!" She blinked back tears, then gasped as he gave a final sigh and lay still. "No! No, you're not #$% dyin'. No $#% way."
Tipping his head back, she started blowing breath into his lungs, pausing to administer CPR the way Logan had taught her. "Live, stupid, live, come on...."
Logan was suddenly there beside her, pushing on Hank's chest as she did the kiss of life.
"Keep it up, darlin', the ambulance's on the way," he said gruffly.
They worked over him for what seemed like hours till finally two young men came through the lab door behind Bobby, whose face was nearly as pale as his friend's. Hank was strapped onto the gurney and wheeled away, the paramedics working over him quickly and efficiently.
Steph watched them from her seat on the floor, then looked at Logan as he offered her his hand. "He's dead, isn't he?"
Logan's face filled with sadness and he hunkered down beside her. "Darlin' do you know what you just did?"
She shook her head, turning to look at Bobby, who was hovering anxiously next to them.
"Yer talkin'." Logan pulled her close and lay his cheek on her hair.
"No," she said absently, then sighed and relaxed with her head on his shoulder for a few minutes.
"Yeah, you are. Perfectly."
She sighed indifferently, feeling rung out and sick as she gently pushed away from him and stood up. "Where's Rogue 'n Ruhko?"
"Upstairs with Chuck." Logan stood too and gave Bobby a brief one armed hug.
"Are they...." The boy bit his lip. "Will they take care of him? I mean, he's a mutant...."
Logan nodded. "They'll take care 'a him. Chuck's money'll see ta that." He turned to Steph. "D'ya know what happened? Rogue's too excited ta make sense."
"He got something on one of his stupid Twinkies," she said listlessly.
Logan frowned up at her. "Yeh don't think this was yer fault?"
She shook her head. "He's dead, isn't he?"
"Not necessarily." He put his hand on her back and gently herded her and Bobby down the hall and onto the elevator, then toward the garage and into the Jeep. "Get your seatbelts on, I'll go git Rogue 'n Ruhko."
======================
"Steph, you awake?" Logan peered at her in the darkness of the waiting room and saw her start and nod.
"Yeah, just thinking." She turned to look at him, her eyes dull.
He shook his head and glanced at Rogue and Bobby where they lay on the couch curled up with Ruhko. "How'd they pull that?"
"Ruhko saw them hugging and wanted in on it." Steph shrugged.
Logan chuckled. "Wonder if she's decided she wants a new chew toy?" He thought of his baby daughter's rough affection and wondered if the young 'ice-man' was up to it. Probably. Bobby was a good kid.
"Is it time to go home?" Steph's musical voice broke into his thoughts and he turned to grin at her, feeling like his heart was going to pop with pride.
"Not yet, darlin'. Somebody wants ta talk ta ya first."
She looked at him questioningly, but he only grinned wider. "Come on."
They walked past the nurse's station and the woman behind the counter smiled at Logan. He grinned back, knowing very well that Steph was giving him a dangerous look, then headed down the hall to a room that said, 'McCoy, Henry" beside the door.
Steph's expression changed to surprise. "He's alive?"
Logan nodded and pushed the door open for her. "Go on, he wants ta talk ta ya."
"You come too." She looked at him anxiously.
"Accourse."
"Stephanie?" came a weak voice from behind the curtain around the bed. "Is that you?"
"Yeah." She pushed the curtain aside and froze, then gave Logan a startled, questioning look.
"That's him," he said gently. "Go ahead, darlin'."
Steph stared at the large, furry blue creature in the bed, then stepped forward hesitantly. "Hank?"
"Yes, it is I." He turned his head to look at her. "You see me sadly changed, a beast in truth now as well as name, but alive thanks to your perseverance." He reached out a huge blue paw and she put her hand in it uncertainly. "Thank you, Steph."
"But...." Her forehead wrinkled. "Are you going to change back?"
"I do not know," he said gently. "But it is unlikely, my mutation was furthered by my unfortunate snack. I am most likely a beast to stay. But do not weep, sweet Stephanie, look at the wondrous good that has come from the incident! Your sweet voice, unleashed for the whole world to hear without harm!"
Steph stared at her friend for a few more minutes while Logan, recognizing her expression, got an evil grin on his hairy mug and braced himself.
"You are crazy as a $#%& bed bug!" she said at last, then added several other unprintable words.
"Ack!" Hank winced. "My stars and garters! Maybe we scorned a blessing, Logan."
"I didn't scorn anythin', bub, I knew what we were in for," retorted Logan grimly, thinking of how interesting things were going to be around the mansion now.
"No."
"Nyo! Dadadada."
"Lo...lo g...."
"NYO!!!! Dadadada."
Steph sighed and gave her baby sister a pained look. "What, I'm supposed to repeat after you?"
"Esha buggo dtampa la." Ruhko nodded, black eyes serious. "Dadadada."
"Fine. 'Dadadada'...." Steph's eyes widened and she sat up, using one hand to hold onto the tiles so they didn't slide off the roof. "Hey, there wasn't any vibration in that. Da da da da.... Wow. Da, da, dada, dad, daddy, no, not that. Dad, dad, ha!" Her face creased into a grin of delight. "Ha-lo. Hah! Halohah. Hahaha."
"Dadadada," instructed Ruhko, waving her fist in the air and then getting distracted as her claws popped out. "Ooo, brusha ta lo!"
Steph snorted and peered over the edge of the roof, but didn't see anyone. Picking up the baby, she rose into the air and looked down at the mansion that had become her home during the past two months.
Home. The word still sounded alien when she used it in context with herself.
Never thought I'd have a home, she thought, frowning pensively. Or a family. 'N now I'm the middle sister in a family of three. With a dad who's the worst suck I've ever met, though I'd never tell anyone.
She hugged Ruhko as the baby babbled and waved her hands, giggling as a passing crow back-winged in surprise and scolded them with a harsh croak.
"HAH!" Steph told it, waving her free hand, then dive-bombed it and swooped down to the front step, landing neatly and walking inside.
Ruhko wriggled to be let down the minute she came into the hall, then raced away into the den, clamoring at the top of her voice.
"Hey, shugah!" said Rogue, picking her up as Steph walked in. "Yah enjoyin' havin' the Mansion tah yohself?"
"Hah!" said Steph, flopping down on the couch next to them and picking up the remote.
"Good job!" Her older sister beamed, then winced as Ruhko tried yet again to pull one of her white streaks out. "No, no, shugah, that's grown on."
"Dato momba lorgle bletha pbbbttt." Ruhko sat back and looked at her, then lifted one hand and proudly showed her the claws. "Beesha!"
"Ah see that, shugah." Rogue smiled, and the baby grinned back, then yawned and snuggled against her chest, blinking sleepily.
Steph straightened her leg so that she could get her slate out and wrote on it languidly, watching with one eye as Sailor Moon fell down and bawled stormily. "Where is everybody?"
Rogue read it and shrugged. "All ovah. Most the othah kids are in town. Ah think Logan's talkin' with the Proffessah 'bout 'Ro 'n Kurt."
Steph winced and looked away from her, scowling as she thought of the two people laying down in the medbay. It'd been a month since they were knocked out by one of the other students of the Xavier Academy for gifted children, during Steph's frightened rage after Logan had been critically injured in the Danger room. So far the Professor hadn't been able to find out what was keeping them from waking up.
Rogue got up, breaking Steph's unhappy train of thought. "Let's go scare Hank," she said, putting the sleeping baby on her hip.
"You mean, 'let's go steal Twinkies'," wrote Steph sourly.
"What evah." Rogue grinned cheerfully. "Same thing."
Steph nodded and stood slowly, followed her elder sister out of the room and down the hall to the elevator. "Do we have to go into the medlab?" she wrote.
Rogue shook her head as she pressed the button. "Nah, Ah think he's in his lab, messin' round with his experiments."
"Ooo!" Steph scribbled, her grin becoming more real. "Maybe he'll blow something up this time!"
Rogue giggled. "Ah hope not! That'd scare Ruhko, 'n Ah don't like gettin' cut."
"Wimp," wrote Steph, sniggering.
"Ah don't see you lettin' her use you foh a scratchin' post," retorted Rogue, reaching up to adjust her power suppressor as they stepped out into the gleaming white hall that only a few people had ever seen.
"Hah!" said Steph, then peered around the edge of the lab door. "Ha- lo."
Hank started and turned, hastily setting down half a Twinkie. "Stephanie?" His face broke into a beam. "It's so good to hear your dulcet tones!"
"Hah." She shook her head and rolled her eyes, then grinned and did a hula. "Ha-lo-hah!"
Hank applauded. "Lovely! Truly lovely! What other utterances are in your power?"
She looked at him thoughtfully, running over syllables in her mind, then got a truly evil grin on her face and said, "Da...."
"Oh, my stars and garters!" His eyes widened in alarm. "Don't!"
Steph shook her head, giggling soundlessly as she wrote, "Rube!" in huge letters on her slate and showed it to him.
He gave her a reproachful look from his soft brown eyes, then reached back and picked up his Twinkie and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Don't tell me you never swore to bug your parents?" she wrote, cocking her head as she turned the slate for him to read.
"Not to my recollection, Steph, I was far too caught up in more fascinating pursuits." He turned and tinkered with something on the equipment set up on the counter, then turned back to the girls. "Hast thou come to raid my treasure chest?"
"Nah, just yoh Twinkie drawah." Rogue grinned evilly.
"Yea, verily." He pulled it open with a sigh and took out the half- empty box. "Set to, fair maids."
"Well, that takes all the fun outtah it, Doc." Rogue looked at the little cakes disinterestedly, shifting Ruhko on her hip as the baby went totally limp with a sigh.
Hank grinned at her, eyes twinkling as he peered over his glasses. "Yes, I know."
Steph gave him a raspberry and grabbed a Twinkie out of the box, ripping off the plastic and stuffing it into her mouth, then reached for another one and opened it as she chewed.
"Alas, I see that my ploy was fruitless." Hank chuckled and pushed his chair toward Rogue. "Canst stay and lighten my work with thy sweet presences for a time?"
"Shore, we can stay 'n visit, right, Steph?"
She muffled a burp and ate the second Twinkie, then wandered over to look through one of the magnifying ports on his aquarium, more interested in alien paramecium than she was in talking.
"Ah guess that's a yeah." Rogue chuckled, then asked Hank if he knew that Bobby liked Twinkies.
"Yes," said the doctor jovially. "He oft comes down to assist me in my work and to share in my bounty.... Would that he would think to replenish the store once in awhile, but one must conclude that a student's salary is best saved for other things. That is a very fine ring. Tis the one he gave you, is it not?"
Steph tuned them out, having found the football that Bobby and Hank had gotten in trouble for playing with in the house several times over the past five weeks. Tossing it up in the air and catching it, she was soon lost in thoughts of indoor football, Twinkies, and little lavender cells swimming around.
Rogue's voice snapped her out of her zoned state and she turned her head to look at her sister, who was frowning at Hank in concern.
"Hank? Yah alright? Yah don't look too good." She shifted Ruhko and got up.
Steph turned to look at him, her eyes widening as she saw how pale the doctor had gone.
"Feel...most strange...." he murmured, his eyes going out of focus. He blinked, his shoulders hunching slightly as he braced himself with both hands on the counter. "I'll...."
Steph dropped the football and darted forward, catching him and staggering under his weight as his legs gave way. "Ro'?" She looked toward the chair and Rogue juggled Ruhko to one arm and pulled it forward, holding it in place.
Steph nodded her thanks and got him into it, then pushed him upright and put her hand to his neck. "#$%," she said softly, not noticing that she'd said it or that it had been untainted in her concern over how shallow and uneven the doctor's pulse was. "He's really sick."
"Ah'll go get Logan 'n the Proffessah." Rogue turned and bolted out of the room, holding Ruhko tightly in her arms to keep the baby from being " Hank's eyes slipped shut for a minute, then opened again. "Contaminated Twinkie."
Steph nodded and said, "Shh," reaching one hand toward the pocket that held her suppressor.
She put it up again hurriedly to catch him as he stiffened with a gasp and nearly fell out of the chair. "Hey! Careful!"
"Apologies," he muttered weakly, sweat beading his brow. "Could you help me lie down? I feel...." He bit his lip, going even paler.
"Here," lean on my shoulder. She pulled him up and tried to brace herself under his arm, only to find that she was too tall. "K, fine, I've got you, now lets...."
She broke off in horror as he gave a roar of agony and went completely limp, falling before she could catch him again.
Steph hastily knelt beside him, wadding up her duster for a pillow and then straightening his arms and legs. "Hank? Hank, can you hear me?"
He didn't respond, even when she slapped his face gently.
"Don't $#% do this to me, man!" She blinked back tears, then gasped as he gave a final sigh and lay still. "No! No, you're not #$% dyin'. No $#% way."
Tipping his head back, she started blowing breath into his lungs, pausing to administer CPR the way Logan had taught her. "Live, stupid, live, come on...."
Logan was suddenly there beside her, pushing on Hank's chest as she did the kiss of life.
"Keep it up, darlin', the ambulance's on the way," he said gruffly.
They worked over him for what seemed like hours till finally two young men came through the lab door behind Bobby, whose face was nearly as pale as his friend's. Hank was strapped onto the gurney and wheeled away, the paramedics working over him quickly and efficiently.
Steph watched them from her seat on the floor, then looked at Logan as he offered her his hand. "He's dead, isn't he?"
Logan's face filled with sadness and he hunkered down beside her. "Darlin' do you know what you just did?"
She shook her head, turning to look at Bobby, who was hovering anxiously next to them.
"Yer talkin'." Logan pulled her close and lay his cheek on her hair.
"No," she said absently, then sighed and relaxed with her head on his shoulder for a few minutes.
"Yeah, you are. Perfectly."
She sighed indifferently, feeling rung out and sick as she gently pushed away from him and stood up. "Where's Rogue 'n Ruhko?"
"Upstairs with Chuck." Logan stood too and gave Bobby a brief one armed hug.
"Are they...." The boy bit his lip. "Will they take care of him? I mean, he's a mutant...."
Logan nodded. "They'll take care 'a him. Chuck's money'll see ta that." He turned to Steph. "D'ya know what happened? Rogue's too excited ta make sense."
"He got something on one of his stupid Twinkies," she said listlessly.
Logan frowned up at her. "Yeh don't think this was yer fault?"
She shook her head. "He's dead, isn't he?"
"Not necessarily." He put his hand on her back and gently herded her and Bobby down the hall and onto the elevator, then toward the garage and into the Jeep. "Get your seatbelts on, I'll go git Rogue 'n Ruhko."
======================
"Steph, you awake?" Logan peered at her in the darkness of the waiting room and saw her start and nod.
"Yeah, just thinking." She turned to look at him, her eyes dull.
He shook his head and glanced at Rogue and Bobby where they lay on the couch curled up with Ruhko. "How'd they pull that?"
"Ruhko saw them hugging and wanted in on it." Steph shrugged.
Logan chuckled. "Wonder if she's decided she wants a new chew toy?" He thought of his baby daughter's rough affection and wondered if the young 'ice-man' was up to it. Probably. Bobby was a good kid.
"Is it time to go home?" Steph's musical voice broke into his thoughts and he turned to grin at her, feeling like his heart was going to pop with pride.
"Not yet, darlin'. Somebody wants ta talk ta ya first."
She looked at him questioningly, but he only grinned wider. "Come on."
They walked past the nurse's station and the woman behind the counter smiled at Logan. He grinned back, knowing very well that Steph was giving him a dangerous look, then headed down the hall to a room that said, 'McCoy, Henry" beside the door.
Steph's expression changed to surprise. "He's alive?"
Logan nodded and pushed the door open for her. "Go on, he wants ta talk ta ya."
"You come too." She looked at him anxiously.
"Accourse."
"Stephanie?" came a weak voice from behind the curtain around the bed. "Is that you?"
"Yeah." She pushed the curtain aside and froze, then gave Logan a startled, questioning look.
"That's him," he said gently. "Go ahead, darlin'."
Steph stared at the large, furry blue creature in the bed, then stepped forward hesitantly. "Hank?"
"Yes, it is I." He turned his head to look at her. "You see me sadly changed, a beast in truth now as well as name, but alive thanks to your perseverance." He reached out a huge blue paw and she put her hand in it uncertainly. "Thank you, Steph."
"But...." Her forehead wrinkled. "Are you going to change back?"
"I do not know," he said gently. "But it is unlikely, my mutation was furthered by my unfortunate snack. I am most likely a beast to stay. But do not weep, sweet Stephanie, look at the wondrous good that has come from the incident! Your sweet voice, unleashed for the whole world to hear without harm!"
Steph stared at her friend for a few more minutes while Logan, recognizing her expression, got an evil grin on his hairy mug and braced himself.
"You are crazy as a $#%& bed bug!" she said at last, then added several other unprintable words.
"Ack!" Hank winced. "My stars and garters! Maybe we scorned a blessing, Logan."
"I didn't scorn anythin', bub, I knew what we were in for," retorted Logan grimly, thinking of how interesting things were going to be around the mansion now.