Somehow he got back to his room and fell onto the bed. His cage days were
playing in front of his eyes. A brutal fight here, a whole bottle of
whiskey there, an uncontrolled romp with a random fight groupie here, a
fistful of cash there. He tried to remember that name, Ettie Matheson. It
seemed just as almost-familiar as her scent and her face. Of course, their
names had never been what he remembered of them. He thought about it and
could only come up with a few names, like Juanita, Leanna, Sarah Denise...but
they were only the really unusual and strange cases. No, the name didn't
add anything to what he knew about her. Looking back on it he could almost
picture it, but he still thought the memory triggered by smelling her sweat
was the most accurate.
There was a strong knock on the door, one that he recognized subtly as Jeannie's when she was trying to seem confident. Then it opened and the red- headed doctor herself appeared.
"Hi there. Feeling any better?"
"Red. You finally come to tell me how you really feel now you have some competition?" Now matter how tired his brain was he could manage a flirt for Jeannie.
She smiled in recognition of his efforts. "No. But I did come to tell you something about this 'competition' besides wondering whether you were feeling any better."
"What's that?" he asked, again ignoring her question.
"Well, the only reason I know at all is that woman projects more than anyone...or maybe just around you...but anyway at first she was angry and was calling you all kinds of nasty things in her thoughts."
Logan laughed; something about the way she said that reminded him a lot of a child.
"But later she lost her anger and she started to remember how much she liked you back then. Or maybe I should say it this way: she loved you back then. There was no way for you to know but she was never a groupie in the sense that she didn't sleep with any of the other guys. Basically she's thinking by now that she loves you again and is thinking of using the kids as leverage to get you to settle down with her. I'm telling you only because I think you have the right to know so you can choose objectively for yourself."
He sat and blinked at her. "Well thanks, Jeannie, that made it a whole lot easier for me to accept all this."
"Sorry. I wouldn't have, but it really is important for you to figure out what you're going to do, before Ettie has a chance to work on you."
"What do you mean what am I gonna do? About what?"
"Well, you have at the very least 4 kids. And if this a common phenomenon then you may have a whole lot more, like 40 or 50. It depends on how many women you went unprotected with, I guess."
The number hit Logan hard and bounced around in his head for a little while. Fifty kids. Almost as many kids as there were at the Mansion. Or it could be worse, more kids than at the Mansion!
"I doubt you're going to be able to give them all money, anyway," continued Jean once she realized he wasn't going to answer her implied question, "much less support. Are you going to ignore them and leave it at that?"
"Well, they did know what they were gettin' themselves into at the time," said Logan, snapping out of his trance just a little.
"Did they? There wasn't even one little girl who was infatuated with the big tough cage champion without realizing the consequences?" She managed to make it exactly half way between a compliment and an insult.
He let some of those older memories wash over him for a few seconds, then regretted it. Leanna. Why did she have to bring up Leanna? It had been in a nothing town in Saskatchewan, only six months after he had started in the cage fighting set. Here had been this girl – she had said she was nineteen but afterwards he had realized that she was probably younger, maybe a lot younger – who had been exactly what he had needed after a crappy day. Then the very next day she had said she was pregnant. He had ignored her, but she hadn't let it go. He saw her for over a week before her claims of pregnancy had gotten to him and he had left the nothing town. She followed him after a couple weeks, so he left and she followed him again. Now she was not only annoying but also completely throwing him off. One night after he had had a really bad day – he had already killed some bastard in the cage – he had faced her once and for all and had threatened to show her the real reason he was called the Wolverine. She left and he hadn't seen her since but she had always stuck out in his mind. She had never looked pregnant any time while he knew her so he had always assumed she had been full of crap, but what if she had known something he hadn't?
"I take it that look is not a good sign?" Jean brought him back to the present.
"Naw, it's nothing."
"Well I saw a little of that so now I know you're lying."
"So I thought of a case that may be a little like you just said, but it ain't like I can do much about it."
Silence settled on the room. This was about as serious as he had ever let it get between Jeannie and himself. But at the moment he couldn't see any good ways to lighten the mood.
Then it got worse as Jean frowned in preparation for speaking. "As the school's doctor I have to ask you this question, but please don't think anything bad of it: have you ever had sex with any of the students of this school?"
"No."
She breathed a sigh of relief barely audible to even him. "Not even Rogue?"
He smiled. "Especially not Rogue." After he had given up on Alkali Lake and finding anything useful about his past he had joined the cage fighting circuit again for a few weeks before ending up at the Mansion again. When he got back Marie had run to him and looked at him in that very particular way, but he didn't even have to worry about letting her down easy because Frosty the Snowboy came in and stood himself right between them. Logan had laughed the whole thing off.
"Good, because it would be especially bad, what with them being younger and able to have more children..."
She was still looking so worried that Logan couldn't help but tease her. "That's right, nothing to worry about – Rogue and I always went protected, with her mutation and all."
Her jaw dropped, then she picked it up again and slapped at him. "That isn't something to joke about."
"You just didn't look like you'd be satisfied till you got some answer like that, that's all."
"Sorry." She got serious again. "No, really, I'm sorry. I should have known."
"Naw, back in my earlier cage days I wouldn't've thought twice."
"Well I know, but you've come a long way since those days. That's why you couldn't stay long when you went back to it."
"Yeah." He looked away from the pretty doctor. "Not like I'm some gentleman now; I'm still gonna end up abandonin' those kids...Leanna."
"Leanna? Was that the girl you were thinking about before?"
"Yeah."
"Well you don't have to abandon them, you know."
He looked back at her again. If it had been anyone other than Jeannie he would have made a very sarcastic comment.
"No, I'm serious. Okay, so you can't marry them all assuming it is more than just Ettie, but you can do something. Track them down, at least, and bring all the kids here. They're mutants, after all, so they'll belong. In fact you could bring everybody here and I'm sure the professor would be willing to help them make rent on an apartment around here somewhere, where they could come and get help with their children from the Mansion whenever they need it."
Now Logan was distinctly uncomfortable. The idea of having some kind of apartment complex filled with his old flings and hordes of kids all looking like him made shivers run down his spine. What if some of them tried to move in with him or something? Without being in any way arrogant he could say that at the least Ettie, Leanna, and Sarah Denise would be all over him if they were there and it wasn't impossible for every one of them to be all over him. He did not like the idea of being in the middle of that kind of war, no matter what he said while he was flirting with Jean.
"Well you don't sound too thrilled, so forget that for now," continued Jeannie. "At the least you have to figure out how many women it's happened to."
"How you want me to do that?"
"Retrace your cage fighting circuit?"
"Do you want me gone that bad?" He was teasing again, but this time it was to cover up real uncertainty. Or was it fear?
"You know we'll always have a place for you here, but I do think this is important. Can you at least sort through back issues of the local newspapers? Things like women getting pregnant without any help are enough to make the papers, even in large towns. Or maybe if not the headlines then someone will have put out a Personals ad or something."
"I don't know, Red, the towns you're talkin' about ain't exactly news capitals. I don't think many of them had a newspaper and they'd be too far away to be covered by the big city papers either."
"Well there has to be some way." Her cheeks were starting to get red and he could make out a little more blood in her scent, like she was one step away from yelling. "You at least remember their names, right? Or some of them?"
"A few, yeah."
"Then we can look them up online and at least see if they're in a phone book somewhere."
"I don't know if they'd be..."
"Follow me," said Jeannie, interrupting him. She pulled on him with her power so he gave up and got off the bed. They walked to the science classroom – the closest room with a computer – and Jeannie sat down at the computer desk. While she booted it up and tinkered with it, Logan stared out the window. There was no way she would be able to find any of them, right? How could they be on the Internet?
"Give me a name," ordered the doctor. "Leanna what?"
"I don't remember." He thought he could remember that it was Scandinavian – maybe Anderson or something like that – but the way he saw it he would be better off anyway if she couldn't find the girl.
She made a noise of exasperation. "Fine. Where is she? What province, at least?"
Logan considered not remembering that either, but something in her face told him it would be in his best interest to remember at least that much. "Saskatchewan."
"Well, there can't be that many Leannas in Saskatchewan." There was a pause. "Okay, look over the list and tell me if any of them are familiar."
Logan looked at the list. There were four names on it, and one of them caught his attention immediately: Leanna Ingersen. That had to be her. Then he looked at the location, and did a double-take; it said Saskatoon. Leanna was definitely not in a city as large as Saskatoon.
"What is it? You recognize one of them, don't you?"
"I don't think so. She was never in Saskatoon."
"Saskatoon...but her last name was Ingersen?"
"...Maybe."
Within seconds the site was gone and another, a search engine, was in its place. She typed in the name and hit the button. Logan looked out the window again.
"Huh? Uh oh." By the time Logan turned to look what had caused the red- haired doctor's exclamation she had already clicked on another page. Then, as he watched, this other page resolved, and Logan's heart stopped. 'This web-page is dedicated to the wonder that is the Virgin Mother resurrected' were the words at the top, and underneath, in huge, flowery letters, was her name: 'Leanna Ingersen.' Jeannie clicked on the link to get into the site, and Logan sat down at a desk near by. He didn't need this.
"She has six kids. I guess the last one is the prophet."
"Jesus."
Suddenly Red laughed. "They've got video footage! She volunteered to be on camera 24/7 after the birth of the fifth kid, Kyle. I guess she never even went near a man."
"Jesus."
"She's living in Saskatoon now. Wait...is this a cult? Yes, yes it is. She has followers. And guess what she named the sixth kid?"
"Jesus."
She turned to look at him. "You got it."
"Does this mean I don't have to bring her here?"
There was a strong knock on the door, one that he recognized subtly as Jeannie's when she was trying to seem confident. Then it opened and the red- headed doctor herself appeared.
"Hi there. Feeling any better?"
"Red. You finally come to tell me how you really feel now you have some competition?" Now matter how tired his brain was he could manage a flirt for Jeannie.
She smiled in recognition of his efforts. "No. But I did come to tell you something about this 'competition' besides wondering whether you were feeling any better."
"What's that?" he asked, again ignoring her question.
"Well, the only reason I know at all is that woman projects more than anyone...or maybe just around you...but anyway at first she was angry and was calling you all kinds of nasty things in her thoughts."
Logan laughed; something about the way she said that reminded him a lot of a child.
"But later she lost her anger and she started to remember how much she liked you back then. Or maybe I should say it this way: she loved you back then. There was no way for you to know but she was never a groupie in the sense that she didn't sleep with any of the other guys. Basically she's thinking by now that she loves you again and is thinking of using the kids as leverage to get you to settle down with her. I'm telling you only because I think you have the right to know so you can choose objectively for yourself."
He sat and blinked at her. "Well thanks, Jeannie, that made it a whole lot easier for me to accept all this."
"Sorry. I wouldn't have, but it really is important for you to figure out what you're going to do, before Ettie has a chance to work on you."
"What do you mean what am I gonna do? About what?"
"Well, you have at the very least 4 kids. And if this a common phenomenon then you may have a whole lot more, like 40 or 50. It depends on how many women you went unprotected with, I guess."
The number hit Logan hard and bounced around in his head for a little while. Fifty kids. Almost as many kids as there were at the Mansion. Or it could be worse, more kids than at the Mansion!
"I doubt you're going to be able to give them all money, anyway," continued Jean once she realized he wasn't going to answer her implied question, "much less support. Are you going to ignore them and leave it at that?"
"Well, they did know what they were gettin' themselves into at the time," said Logan, snapping out of his trance just a little.
"Did they? There wasn't even one little girl who was infatuated with the big tough cage champion without realizing the consequences?" She managed to make it exactly half way between a compliment and an insult.
He let some of those older memories wash over him for a few seconds, then regretted it. Leanna. Why did she have to bring up Leanna? It had been in a nothing town in Saskatchewan, only six months after he had started in the cage fighting set. Here had been this girl – she had said she was nineteen but afterwards he had realized that she was probably younger, maybe a lot younger – who had been exactly what he had needed after a crappy day. Then the very next day she had said she was pregnant. He had ignored her, but she hadn't let it go. He saw her for over a week before her claims of pregnancy had gotten to him and he had left the nothing town. She followed him after a couple weeks, so he left and she followed him again. Now she was not only annoying but also completely throwing him off. One night after he had had a really bad day – he had already killed some bastard in the cage – he had faced her once and for all and had threatened to show her the real reason he was called the Wolverine. She left and he hadn't seen her since but she had always stuck out in his mind. She had never looked pregnant any time while he knew her so he had always assumed she had been full of crap, but what if she had known something he hadn't?
"I take it that look is not a good sign?" Jean brought him back to the present.
"Naw, it's nothing."
"Well I saw a little of that so now I know you're lying."
"So I thought of a case that may be a little like you just said, but it ain't like I can do much about it."
Silence settled on the room. This was about as serious as he had ever let it get between Jeannie and himself. But at the moment he couldn't see any good ways to lighten the mood.
Then it got worse as Jean frowned in preparation for speaking. "As the school's doctor I have to ask you this question, but please don't think anything bad of it: have you ever had sex with any of the students of this school?"
"No."
She breathed a sigh of relief barely audible to even him. "Not even Rogue?"
He smiled. "Especially not Rogue." After he had given up on Alkali Lake and finding anything useful about his past he had joined the cage fighting circuit again for a few weeks before ending up at the Mansion again. When he got back Marie had run to him and looked at him in that very particular way, but he didn't even have to worry about letting her down easy because Frosty the Snowboy came in and stood himself right between them. Logan had laughed the whole thing off.
"Good, because it would be especially bad, what with them being younger and able to have more children..."
She was still looking so worried that Logan couldn't help but tease her. "That's right, nothing to worry about – Rogue and I always went protected, with her mutation and all."
Her jaw dropped, then she picked it up again and slapped at him. "That isn't something to joke about."
"You just didn't look like you'd be satisfied till you got some answer like that, that's all."
"Sorry." She got serious again. "No, really, I'm sorry. I should have known."
"Naw, back in my earlier cage days I wouldn't've thought twice."
"Well I know, but you've come a long way since those days. That's why you couldn't stay long when you went back to it."
"Yeah." He looked away from the pretty doctor. "Not like I'm some gentleman now; I'm still gonna end up abandonin' those kids...Leanna."
"Leanna? Was that the girl you were thinking about before?"
"Yeah."
"Well you don't have to abandon them, you know."
He looked back at her again. If it had been anyone other than Jeannie he would have made a very sarcastic comment.
"No, I'm serious. Okay, so you can't marry them all assuming it is more than just Ettie, but you can do something. Track them down, at least, and bring all the kids here. They're mutants, after all, so they'll belong. In fact you could bring everybody here and I'm sure the professor would be willing to help them make rent on an apartment around here somewhere, where they could come and get help with their children from the Mansion whenever they need it."
Now Logan was distinctly uncomfortable. The idea of having some kind of apartment complex filled with his old flings and hordes of kids all looking like him made shivers run down his spine. What if some of them tried to move in with him or something? Without being in any way arrogant he could say that at the least Ettie, Leanna, and Sarah Denise would be all over him if they were there and it wasn't impossible for every one of them to be all over him. He did not like the idea of being in the middle of that kind of war, no matter what he said while he was flirting with Jean.
"Well you don't sound too thrilled, so forget that for now," continued Jeannie. "At the least you have to figure out how many women it's happened to."
"How you want me to do that?"
"Retrace your cage fighting circuit?"
"Do you want me gone that bad?" He was teasing again, but this time it was to cover up real uncertainty. Or was it fear?
"You know we'll always have a place for you here, but I do think this is important. Can you at least sort through back issues of the local newspapers? Things like women getting pregnant without any help are enough to make the papers, even in large towns. Or maybe if not the headlines then someone will have put out a Personals ad or something."
"I don't know, Red, the towns you're talkin' about ain't exactly news capitals. I don't think many of them had a newspaper and they'd be too far away to be covered by the big city papers either."
"Well there has to be some way." Her cheeks were starting to get red and he could make out a little more blood in her scent, like she was one step away from yelling. "You at least remember their names, right? Or some of them?"
"A few, yeah."
"Then we can look them up online and at least see if they're in a phone book somewhere."
"I don't know if they'd be..."
"Follow me," said Jeannie, interrupting him. She pulled on him with her power so he gave up and got off the bed. They walked to the science classroom – the closest room with a computer – and Jeannie sat down at the computer desk. While she booted it up and tinkered with it, Logan stared out the window. There was no way she would be able to find any of them, right? How could they be on the Internet?
"Give me a name," ordered the doctor. "Leanna what?"
"I don't remember." He thought he could remember that it was Scandinavian – maybe Anderson or something like that – but the way he saw it he would be better off anyway if she couldn't find the girl.
She made a noise of exasperation. "Fine. Where is she? What province, at least?"
Logan considered not remembering that either, but something in her face told him it would be in his best interest to remember at least that much. "Saskatchewan."
"Well, there can't be that many Leannas in Saskatchewan." There was a pause. "Okay, look over the list and tell me if any of them are familiar."
Logan looked at the list. There were four names on it, and one of them caught his attention immediately: Leanna Ingersen. That had to be her. Then he looked at the location, and did a double-take; it said Saskatoon. Leanna was definitely not in a city as large as Saskatoon.
"What is it? You recognize one of them, don't you?"
"I don't think so. She was never in Saskatoon."
"Saskatoon...but her last name was Ingersen?"
"...Maybe."
Within seconds the site was gone and another, a search engine, was in its place. She typed in the name and hit the button. Logan looked out the window again.
"Huh? Uh oh." By the time Logan turned to look what had caused the red- haired doctor's exclamation she had already clicked on another page. Then, as he watched, this other page resolved, and Logan's heart stopped. 'This web-page is dedicated to the wonder that is the Virgin Mother resurrected' were the words at the top, and underneath, in huge, flowery letters, was her name: 'Leanna Ingersen.' Jeannie clicked on the link to get into the site, and Logan sat down at a desk near by. He didn't need this.
"She has six kids. I guess the last one is the prophet."
"Jesus."
Suddenly Red laughed. "They've got video footage! She volunteered to be on camera 24/7 after the birth of the fifth kid, Kyle. I guess she never even went near a man."
"Jesus."
"She's living in Saskatoon now. Wait...is this a cult? Yes, yes it is. She has followers. And guess what she named the sixth kid?"
"Jesus."
She turned to look at him. "You got it."
"Does this mean I don't have to bring her here?"