After his conversation with Jean, Logan walked back to his room. He sat
down on the bed, then realized that exactly the same thing would probably
happen again. He had to get out of there and go somewhere they wouldn't be
able to find him for a couple of hours. He only needed a couple of hours,
he was sure.
He made it downstairs and to a side door undetected. He slipped out and started for the training center. It was separate from the main building and even though it was known for being where he went when he wanted to be alone that didn't mean somebody could find him there. He knew a hiding spot or two in there, ones no one else knew about.
He didn't even make it across the grass to his little haven. And what was worse, it was Jubilee who called to him.
"Wolvie! Where you going?" She and a couple of the other older girls walked up to him. He considered growling and leaving anyway but he definitely didn't want these girls, of all people, to suspect something. Then they would never leave him alone.
"Wolvie? Are you still lookin' for me to rearrange your face?"
"You'd do that for me? What a guy!"
"So, why aren't you in there with them?" asked Kitty Pryde.
He just stared at her.
"I mean with Tyler and Raelee and Brock," she continued, "I mean, how can you not love them? They're so cute! And Tyler looks so much li..."
"Stop!" he ordered, cutting her off. "Don't say another word."
"But they..."
"What did I say?" snapped Logan.
"Damn. Somebody's grumpy!" put in Jubilee. "You'd think he didn't like being a daddy, or something."
"You know, she's pretty hot," added Amanda Carlson, "You got a good catch there. Can we come to the wedding?"
Now he knew they were trying to annoy him. "This isn't a real good time, you know. This is one of those times when you end up saying something like, 'But we were only joking; we never thought he'd actually kill anybody.'"
"You're gonna kill us?" asked Amanda menacingly. She looked at him hard. He could smell the anger on her.
Remembering her power, he broke the eye contact. "And I don't need any of that bull either." He walked away from them, toward the training center again.
Once he got inside he sat down in a corner of the main room and tried not to think about anything. He failed. How the hell was this going to work out? Would his life ever be stable again?
He had gotten used to the Mansion, he realized suddenly. He had never stayed in one place for long, and he had just accepted that as a part of him; he was a drifter. But he had found a place at the Mansion, a space where he just stayed, without even thinking about it. And now that was probably gone, especially if they just let any of the girls walk in and make themselves comfortable. He didn't put it past Chuck to offer Ettie a teaching job too. And any others.
So he'd leave. He'd leave the Mansion and live on his own, like he had all those years. But he stayed sitting. It wasn't that easy anymore. He remembered what Jeannie had said, that he had changed since his cage days. How much had he changed? So much he couldn't even live by himself? No damn way.
He stood up, walked to the door, and stopped without opening it. Then he turned around and released his claws. The pain made him feel better, so he pulled them in and released them again. He was still the Wolverine, wasn't he? Nobody could beat him, especially not a baby or three. He turned back around and whipped the door open. Amanda Carlson fell into his arms. He threw her onto her feet.
"What...the...hell?"
"We just wanted to see what's up with you," explained Jubilee. "You looked kinda off about something."
"You were listenin' to me?"
"Well...Kitty was watching you but she was afraid you'd see her if she got too close."
He pushed past them and walked back to the main building. He just had to get his things. He opened the door and immediately caught a strong whiff of someone he didn't want to deal with at the moment.
"I'm sorry to barge in on you," said Ettie. "I didn't mean...I just wanted to see you, is all."
"Well, look, Ettie, I..." He stopped. Her kids weren't with her. She wasn't about to leave if she didn't have her kids. "Where are...you know, your kids?"
"Well, some of the girls kinda took to 'em. They're in...one of those rooms over there." She pointed to her left. "There's too many rooms in this place."
Logan stared at her for a few seconds. "How did you find this place?"
She shrugged. "How'd you? I just asked a friend of mine who knew some people and he told me your real name was Logan. From there it wasn't that hard to find you."
He blinked. He was picked up in the middle of the Canadian wilderness and flown to an underground laboratory in New York and that wasn't that hard to find?
"Your name goes pretty far still, you know. You show up in BC two months after disappearing out of Manitoba and people notice."
That made a lot more sense: she had followed his trail back from Alkali Lake.
"That's the first time you called me by my name," said Ettie.
"Huh?"
"Just a minute ago, you said my name. Did you...remember me?"
"Of course. How many...relationships you think I had? It took me a minute, that's all."
"Oh." Her scent was stronger than ever now. Why would that be? Would she be sweating more now for any reason?
"So, you said you had a boyfriend a couple years back, when you had..." He couldn't remember which kid she had mentioned.
"Tyler and Raelee. I got together with him while I was pregnant with Tyler and we stayed together until...well, till I got pregnant with Brock."
"It was because of...Brock, then?"
"Well, it was really because of Raelee, you know, because of her bein' white. He thought I cheated. And then I got pregnant with Brock..." She shrugged.
"Sorry." It wasn't like he did it on purpose or anything, so there was no reason that he should feel sorry, but it was still crap luck. It wasn't her fault or the boyfriend's fault either, just crap luck.
"You never answered me," said Ettie, "How did you find this place? It's...somethin' else." She looked around, gawking. A lot like he had his first couple days at the Mansion.
"I didn't. It found me. The Professor – the guy in the wheelchair from earlier – he's interested in people who...who can do unusual things."
"Like have their skull cracked open and keep fighting?" She smiled at him.
"Yeah. Did you see that? Where was that?"
"Pike City, the second day you were there. I remember you were bleedin' all over and then I realized that I was seein' your skull and a little bit of your brain...I near died."
"You near died?"
She blushed. "Well, I...you know what I mean. I thought you were gonna die. I know I hadn't even met you yet, but I thought I'd die too if you did right there in that cage. But you didn't. You didn't even leave the cage." She shook her head. "I should've known right then."
"Known what?"
"I don't know; all of this. I should've known you'd do this to me, I guess. Nobody's that tough."
Logan just looked back at her. It didn't sound like a school for mutant kids was the place for her if she reacted bad to him having a healing ability.
"So everybody here is like you, then? Not like you, I mean, but they can do somethin' nobody else can?"
"Yep."
She looked down at her hand. "I wish I could do somethin' nobody else can."
Logan was busy trying to come up with some kind of response to that when Jeannie showed up and signaled to him. Then she walked up to him and whispered in his ear, "If you can get away for a second or two there's something else you need to see." Then she walked to the end of the hall and waited for him.
"I...um...'scuse me," he said to Ettie. As he walked over to where Jeannie was standing he felt like his legs weighed twice as much as usual. And it only got worse as they continued to walk.
As he feared, their journey ended at exactly the same classroom where they had discovered Leanna's website earlier that day.
"Oh, I should mention," said Jeannie as she led him over to the computer, "the Professor is contacting Leanna Ingersen right now."
"What?" he started. Then he was distracted by what was on the screen. It was an article, one that looked pretty official. It had a picture with it, of a woman completely surrounded by babies. He tried to tell himself that she was in no way familiar but it didn't quite work; he had seen her somewhere. He tore his eyes away from her image and looked back to the text. It was an article about a new world record: the woman had had a set of quadruplets every year for four years in a row. By the time he read that much Logan could no longer swallow. Then he read her name, and felt a little better. He didn't recognize it at all: Marcie Herbert.
"Have you read it?" asked Jean.
"Yeah, but what is this? I don't recognize the name at all."
"Well, wait a second." She clicked a link, followed by another. When the new page resolved she gestured for him to look again.
He was looking at a sketch of himself. And even if the hair and the chin and everything else weren't enough to distinguish him, it said underneath, 'He goes by the name "The Wolverine."'
"What...what is that?"
"She's looking for you. Marcie Herbert, the woman who had four sets of quadruplets. She started up a site when she set the world record and that's most of it: everything she has on how to find you."
"She should've talked to Ettie." They were the only words that would come out, and the only way to stop himself from going on a screaming rampage.
"Logan." She stared at him until he came out of his trance and looked back at her. "This is important, far more important than Leanna starting a cult. Do you see that?"
"What? Now they..." He was still forcing himself not to go on a rampage.
"No, they won't all be like that. That's why she holds a world record. But it does mean that with you it's more likely for women who have twins running in their families to end up with multiple births. Or there's a strong possibility, anyway. I don't have any science to back that up, unfortunately."
"Sixteen."
"Yes, sixteen belonging to Marcie Herbert. That's twenty-six, including Ettie's unborn child. There is little chance that that child will not survive birth."
"Twenty-six."
"Now, Logan," said Jean calmingly, "I know this hard to take, but you're doing very well."
Rather than yell at her he stood up and walked out. She called after him and even held onto him with her power but he ignored her words and pulled out of her mental grip. He walked straight down the stairs and made for the same side door that he had used to get to the training center, completely forgetting about Ettie.
"You're back," she said once he came into view. "What's the matter?"
He looked at her, considering letting his claws do the talking. But then he shook the thought out of his head. Crap luck. She had had crap luck too. He couldn't take it out on her.
"Look, if that was about another woman...or women, then I have an idea."
"What? Oh, Jean? She's the school doctor."
"Oh. Is somethin' wrong?"
"No. She's the school doctor but she's also a friend and...never mind."
"Well anyway, if it was about other women I have an idea."
"What?"
"Well, you won't have the problem anymore if you say you're already involved with somebody. Me, for example."
Logan found himself with another big whiff of Ettie's scent. More sweat. She was that nervous. Fortunately for him the scent cleared his head a bit. He smiled. "You came here to meet me?"
"Well, yes."
"And to get me to shell out some cash?"
"No!" She was blushing again. "Or...not specifically. It wasn't about money."
Logan was still considering her when he saw it: an ear, sticking out of the wall about ten feet behind Ettie. He blinked, just to be sure he wasn't seeing things, then crept up to it while Ettie stopped and watched. When he got nice and close he said, in a voice just under a yell, "Kitty!" The ear disappeared immediately.
"What? An ear?"
"Well..." Logan started. He couldn't really come up with any reason why there might have been an ear sticking out of the wall.
"The walls have ears," said Professor Xavier as he rolled up behind them.
"I was hopin' to avoid the pun," said Logan.
"Miss Matheson," said the Professor, "I'm sure that as fascinated as the students were with your children, it would probably be best for you to check up on them now."
"Oh, crap! Excuse me." Ettie disappeared.
"What now?" asked Logan.
"I have spoken with Leanna. She does not believe she is the Virgin Mary, nor does she believe her youngest child is Jesus Christ. It is, as you would say, a scam. She said she would like to see you but that her children are being taken care of and so not to worry about them. I invited her for a visit."
"You...what?"
"There is also good news," said the Professor, holding up a hand. "Leanna's youngest child is now two years old. She has not had any other children since then. In other words, your spermatozoa have a lifespan after all, simply one that is much longer than any others. Six years may well be the limit."
The only response Logan made was the sound of his claws as they came out, retracted, and came out again.
He made it downstairs and to a side door undetected. He slipped out and started for the training center. It was separate from the main building and even though it was known for being where he went when he wanted to be alone that didn't mean somebody could find him there. He knew a hiding spot or two in there, ones no one else knew about.
He didn't even make it across the grass to his little haven. And what was worse, it was Jubilee who called to him.
"Wolvie! Where you going?" She and a couple of the other older girls walked up to him. He considered growling and leaving anyway but he definitely didn't want these girls, of all people, to suspect something. Then they would never leave him alone.
"Wolvie? Are you still lookin' for me to rearrange your face?"
"You'd do that for me? What a guy!"
"So, why aren't you in there with them?" asked Kitty Pryde.
He just stared at her.
"I mean with Tyler and Raelee and Brock," she continued, "I mean, how can you not love them? They're so cute! And Tyler looks so much li..."
"Stop!" he ordered, cutting her off. "Don't say another word."
"But they..."
"What did I say?" snapped Logan.
"Damn. Somebody's grumpy!" put in Jubilee. "You'd think he didn't like being a daddy, or something."
"You know, she's pretty hot," added Amanda Carlson, "You got a good catch there. Can we come to the wedding?"
Now he knew they were trying to annoy him. "This isn't a real good time, you know. This is one of those times when you end up saying something like, 'But we were only joking; we never thought he'd actually kill anybody.'"
"You're gonna kill us?" asked Amanda menacingly. She looked at him hard. He could smell the anger on her.
Remembering her power, he broke the eye contact. "And I don't need any of that bull either." He walked away from them, toward the training center again.
Once he got inside he sat down in a corner of the main room and tried not to think about anything. He failed. How the hell was this going to work out? Would his life ever be stable again?
He had gotten used to the Mansion, he realized suddenly. He had never stayed in one place for long, and he had just accepted that as a part of him; he was a drifter. But he had found a place at the Mansion, a space where he just stayed, without even thinking about it. And now that was probably gone, especially if they just let any of the girls walk in and make themselves comfortable. He didn't put it past Chuck to offer Ettie a teaching job too. And any others.
So he'd leave. He'd leave the Mansion and live on his own, like he had all those years. But he stayed sitting. It wasn't that easy anymore. He remembered what Jeannie had said, that he had changed since his cage days. How much had he changed? So much he couldn't even live by himself? No damn way.
He stood up, walked to the door, and stopped without opening it. Then he turned around and released his claws. The pain made him feel better, so he pulled them in and released them again. He was still the Wolverine, wasn't he? Nobody could beat him, especially not a baby or three. He turned back around and whipped the door open. Amanda Carlson fell into his arms. He threw her onto her feet.
"What...the...hell?"
"We just wanted to see what's up with you," explained Jubilee. "You looked kinda off about something."
"You were listenin' to me?"
"Well...Kitty was watching you but she was afraid you'd see her if she got too close."
He pushed past them and walked back to the main building. He just had to get his things. He opened the door and immediately caught a strong whiff of someone he didn't want to deal with at the moment.
"I'm sorry to barge in on you," said Ettie. "I didn't mean...I just wanted to see you, is all."
"Well, look, Ettie, I..." He stopped. Her kids weren't with her. She wasn't about to leave if she didn't have her kids. "Where are...you know, your kids?"
"Well, some of the girls kinda took to 'em. They're in...one of those rooms over there." She pointed to her left. "There's too many rooms in this place."
Logan stared at her for a few seconds. "How did you find this place?"
She shrugged. "How'd you? I just asked a friend of mine who knew some people and he told me your real name was Logan. From there it wasn't that hard to find you."
He blinked. He was picked up in the middle of the Canadian wilderness and flown to an underground laboratory in New York and that wasn't that hard to find?
"Your name goes pretty far still, you know. You show up in BC two months after disappearing out of Manitoba and people notice."
That made a lot more sense: she had followed his trail back from Alkali Lake.
"That's the first time you called me by my name," said Ettie.
"Huh?"
"Just a minute ago, you said my name. Did you...remember me?"
"Of course. How many...relationships you think I had? It took me a minute, that's all."
"Oh." Her scent was stronger than ever now. Why would that be? Would she be sweating more now for any reason?
"So, you said you had a boyfriend a couple years back, when you had..." He couldn't remember which kid she had mentioned.
"Tyler and Raelee. I got together with him while I was pregnant with Tyler and we stayed together until...well, till I got pregnant with Brock."
"It was because of...Brock, then?"
"Well, it was really because of Raelee, you know, because of her bein' white. He thought I cheated. And then I got pregnant with Brock..." She shrugged.
"Sorry." It wasn't like he did it on purpose or anything, so there was no reason that he should feel sorry, but it was still crap luck. It wasn't her fault or the boyfriend's fault either, just crap luck.
"You never answered me," said Ettie, "How did you find this place? It's...somethin' else." She looked around, gawking. A lot like he had his first couple days at the Mansion.
"I didn't. It found me. The Professor – the guy in the wheelchair from earlier – he's interested in people who...who can do unusual things."
"Like have their skull cracked open and keep fighting?" She smiled at him.
"Yeah. Did you see that? Where was that?"
"Pike City, the second day you were there. I remember you were bleedin' all over and then I realized that I was seein' your skull and a little bit of your brain...I near died."
"You near died?"
She blushed. "Well, I...you know what I mean. I thought you were gonna die. I know I hadn't even met you yet, but I thought I'd die too if you did right there in that cage. But you didn't. You didn't even leave the cage." She shook her head. "I should've known right then."
"Known what?"
"I don't know; all of this. I should've known you'd do this to me, I guess. Nobody's that tough."
Logan just looked back at her. It didn't sound like a school for mutant kids was the place for her if she reacted bad to him having a healing ability.
"So everybody here is like you, then? Not like you, I mean, but they can do somethin' nobody else can?"
"Yep."
She looked down at her hand. "I wish I could do somethin' nobody else can."
Logan was busy trying to come up with some kind of response to that when Jeannie showed up and signaled to him. Then she walked up to him and whispered in his ear, "If you can get away for a second or two there's something else you need to see." Then she walked to the end of the hall and waited for him.
"I...um...'scuse me," he said to Ettie. As he walked over to where Jeannie was standing he felt like his legs weighed twice as much as usual. And it only got worse as they continued to walk.
As he feared, their journey ended at exactly the same classroom where they had discovered Leanna's website earlier that day.
"Oh, I should mention," said Jeannie as she led him over to the computer, "the Professor is contacting Leanna Ingersen right now."
"What?" he started. Then he was distracted by what was on the screen. It was an article, one that looked pretty official. It had a picture with it, of a woman completely surrounded by babies. He tried to tell himself that she was in no way familiar but it didn't quite work; he had seen her somewhere. He tore his eyes away from her image and looked back to the text. It was an article about a new world record: the woman had had a set of quadruplets every year for four years in a row. By the time he read that much Logan could no longer swallow. Then he read her name, and felt a little better. He didn't recognize it at all: Marcie Herbert.
"Have you read it?" asked Jean.
"Yeah, but what is this? I don't recognize the name at all."
"Well, wait a second." She clicked a link, followed by another. When the new page resolved she gestured for him to look again.
He was looking at a sketch of himself. And even if the hair and the chin and everything else weren't enough to distinguish him, it said underneath, 'He goes by the name "The Wolverine."'
"What...what is that?"
"She's looking for you. Marcie Herbert, the woman who had four sets of quadruplets. She started up a site when she set the world record and that's most of it: everything she has on how to find you."
"She should've talked to Ettie." They were the only words that would come out, and the only way to stop himself from going on a screaming rampage.
"Logan." She stared at him until he came out of his trance and looked back at her. "This is important, far more important than Leanna starting a cult. Do you see that?"
"What? Now they..." He was still forcing himself not to go on a rampage.
"No, they won't all be like that. That's why she holds a world record. But it does mean that with you it's more likely for women who have twins running in their families to end up with multiple births. Or there's a strong possibility, anyway. I don't have any science to back that up, unfortunately."
"Sixteen."
"Yes, sixteen belonging to Marcie Herbert. That's twenty-six, including Ettie's unborn child. There is little chance that that child will not survive birth."
"Twenty-six."
"Now, Logan," said Jean calmingly, "I know this hard to take, but you're doing very well."
Rather than yell at her he stood up and walked out. She called after him and even held onto him with her power but he ignored her words and pulled out of her mental grip. He walked straight down the stairs and made for the same side door that he had used to get to the training center, completely forgetting about Ettie.
"You're back," she said once he came into view. "What's the matter?"
He looked at her, considering letting his claws do the talking. But then he shook the thought out of his head. Crap luck. She had had crap luck too. He couldn't take it out on her.
"Look, if that was about another woman...or women, then I have an idea."
"What? Oh, Jean? She's the school doctor."
"Oh. Is somethin' wrong?"
"No. She's the school doctor but she's also a friend and...never mind."
"Well anyway, if it was about other women I have an idea."
"What?"
"Well, you won't have the problem anymore if you say you're already involved with somebody. Me, for example."
Logan found himself with another big whiff of Ettie's scent. More sweat. She was that nervous. Fortunately for him the scent cleared his head a bit. He smiled. "You came here to meet me?"
"Well, yes."
"And to get me to shell out some cash?"
"No!" She was blushing again. "Or...not specifically. It wasn't about money."
Logan was still considering her when he saw it: an ear, sticking out of the wall about ten feet behind Ettie. He blinked, just to be sure he wasn't seeing things, then crept up to it while Ettie stopped and watched. When he got nice and close he said, in a voice just under a yell, "Kitty!" The ear disappeared immediately.
"What? An ear?"
"Well..." Logan started. He couldn't really come up with any reason why there might have been an ear sticking out of the wall.
"The walls have ears," said Professor Xavier as he rolled up behind them.
"I was hopin' to avoid the pun," said Logan.
"Miss Matheson," said the Professor, "I'm sure that as fascinated as the students were with your children, it would probably be best for you to check up on them now."
"Oh, crap! Excuse me." Ettie disappeared.
"What now?" asked Logan.
"I have spoken with Leanna. She does not believe she is the Virgin Mary, nor does she believe her youngest child is Jesus Christ. It is, as you would say, a scam. She said she would like to see you but that her children are being taken care of and so not to worry about them. I invited her for a visit."
"You...what?"
"There is also good news," said the Professor, holding up a hand. "Leanna's youngest child is now two years old. She has not had any other children since then. In other words, your spermatozoa have a lifespan after all, simply one that is much longer than any others. Six years may well be the limit."
The only response Logan made was the sound of his claws as they came out, retracted, and came out again.