Second Chances

A/N: I have written an X rated version of this chapter as well. If anyone would like to read it, please e-mail me and I will send it to you.

Chapter 12

Logan could understand where Jubilee was coming from but it didn't make it any easier. He had been worrying about her well being for over ten years. Even when she was at school in Massachusetts, he worried. He had screwed up with her so many times that he didn't want take the risk of doing it again. In the end, he promised to treat her like an adult and she promised to paff him if her ever back slid again.

They spent three days, tearing their relationship apart and stitching it back together again. What they ended up with was a strong base to build on that they both felt comfortable with. They didn't know it yet, but theirs was the only pairing among the X-Men that would stand the test of time.

When they returned to the mansion, Hank was ready to try the experiment on Jubilee. Logan found that he was a bundle of nerves as he escorted her to the Med-Lab the morning before the procedure. Hank wanted a fresh bone marrow sample and a blood test to determine her overall health. He wasn't happy with her recent weight loss but believed that it would reverse itself as her healing factor activated.

Jubilee limped back to the lab the next morning, hanging on to Logan and grouching at everyone in the halls. Hank had refused to prescribe pain killers. He needed her system to be clear of all drugs to allow the graft to take evenly throughout her body. Her hip was killing her. Every step shot fire up her back and she had been unable to find a comfortable position to sleep in. Her restlessness during the night had kept Logan awake all night so he wasn't Mr. Sunshine that morning either.

Jubilee snarled a 'Good morning' to Hank and heaved her body onto the table he had indicated. Logan didn't help her. She had bitten him when he helped her get dressed before coming down to the lab and he didn't want his hands anywhere near her.

The procedure itself, was anticlimactic. Hank numbed her arm and inserted what he called a PICC line that went from the crook of her arm to her heart. He took one X-Ray to make sure the line was placed properly then injected less than a teaspoon of red liquid into the line, followed by what Logan felt was a gallon of salt water.

"That's it?" Jubilee asked as Hank removed the PICC line.

"That's it," he confirmed. "Hold pressure here." he indicated the large wad of gauze he had placed over the hole in her arm.

"No surgery or anything?" Wow, that was nothing.

"All I needed to do was return your bone marrow to your body," he told her as he cleaned up. "By placing it in circulation in your blood stream, I have done that. The marrow will find it's way to your bones over the next twenty-four hours where it will replicate and begin to produce the red and white blood cells that are part of the healing factor. As the stem cells disperse and mature, a healing factor will develop. We should know if it worked in about seven days. You may have some tenderness around the access site for a few days. If you have any shortness of breath or chest pain, I want to know immediately. Take it easy for today and tomorrow you may resume your regular activities."

"Can I have something for the pain in my hip now?" she asked.

"The wound from the bone marrow extraction is the best indicator that you have a working healing factor. The pain will suddenly disappear and you will feel much better. Pain medication will mask that." He grabbed a communicator badge from his desk and handed it to her. "I will need to examine you twice a day until the process is complete. I will be watching the control sample here in the lab. If anything happens to it, I will call you and you must return right away. Likewise, if you have any unusual symptoms, I expect you to call me. Once we are sure that this will work, I must remove the Teflon mesh before your body tries to eject it through your skin."

"Eeeww."

"Ya see me do that with bullets all the time, darlin'," Logan chuckled.

"But that's you," she countered. "It's never happened to me before." She turned back to Hank. "What can I do about the pain in my hip so we can get some sleep?"

"Smart ass Popsicle," Logan grumbled as he helped Jubilee to bed later.

"It was Hank's suggestion," she said as she settled into the bed.

"I coulda just gotten the stuff from the kitchen," he told her as he undressed and climbed in beside her. "Damn, that's cold."

Bobby Drake had been asked to help Jubilee with her pain by his best friend. Hank knew that for her to be comfortable, the hip would need to be iced and the best way to do that was to have the ice formed around her hip. As a result, Bobby sat for two minutes, under the watchful eye of Wolverine, with his hand touching her bare hip, forming an arc of ice around the affected area. Jubilee wasn't embarrassed. When you live in close quarters with so many people, privacy is a luxury and modesty is squashed very quickly. Bobby, to his regret, couldn't prevent the appreciative whistle that escaped his lips when she stripped to her undies. His ears were still ringing from the adamantium backed slap to his head.

"If you think you're cold, try having a block of ice strapped to your butt." she told him. "I do feel more comfortable, though."

"Wish I did," Logan grumbled under his breath.

"What's that?" she asked sleepily.

"Nothin' darlin'," he said. "Let's get some sleep. I got a Danger Room session at four."

By the fifth day, Jubilee was beginning to regret deciding to do this. She woke up that morning feeling nauseous and hot. In another two hours, she was vomiting, sweating and shivering like she had the flu. A panicked Logan rushed her down to the lab where Beast waited. The control sample was doing well so he didn't expect to see Logan dash in with a barely conscious Jubilee cradled in his arms.

"I had hoped this wouldn't happen," Hank sighed as Logan placed his burden on the bed. "I suppose I should have expected it, though. The more complex the organism, the more traumatic the changes."

"Quit yer hypothesizin' and get over here," Wolverine demanded.

"She'll be fine, Logan," Hank told him as he attached the monitor leads. "Her body is fighting all of the pathogens that it presently hosts, all at the same time. The procedure has worked."

"Then why is she so damned sick?"

"It's like when you take an enormous amount of damage. Your healing factor works overtime to heal and clear your system of the poisons you produce when you replace your cells so quickly. Jubilee is not only trying to heal several areas of damage but she also trying to rid herself of billions of pathogenic microorganisms. She has fallen into a healing coma. She will be fine."

Hank removed the mesh not three hours after Logan's mad dash to the Med-Lab. The entire team was present when Hank came out and told them that she would be better than okay and he was returning her to active status if she wished. The cheer that echoed through the room gave Logan a good feeling. He knew that it would be her choice if she wanted to return to duty now of try for a baby first. He was just happy she was okay.

Logan was listening to the cheering when he heard a sudden squeak from the other side of the room and the air was filled with the sweet/salty scent of amniotic fluid. He was out of his chair and across the room to catch her before she slipped in the growing puddle of liquid running down her legs.

"Hank," he called over the noise, "Jean's water just broke." A hush fell over the room, lasting several seconds. When Jean moaned with her first contraction, everyone started shouting, almost driving Logan to his knees in pain. Hank swept Jean up in his arms and looked around the room, shaking his head.

In the chaos that followed, Logan slipped away from the group and pulled a chair next to Jubilee's bed. He turned and watched the mighty X-Men brought low by a tiny baby making her entrance two weeks early. It was pandemonium. Cyke, Popsicle, Gumbo and Wings, all trying to get through the Med-Lab door at the same time. It looked for all the world like a Keystone Kops short. Rogue finally managed to break the log jamb by shoving the masculine mass through the door. The door jamb warped under the pressure and Bobby went head first into the wall opposite the door. The remaining Kops landed in a tangle of arms and legs on the floor in the hall. Rogue stood over them berating them to get their shit together. She sent Scott to get the prepared suitcase, told Bobby to get the car, handed Warren her cell phone to call the doctor and shoved Remy at a wheelchair and told him to make himself useful. Under her direction, everything came together and Jean was swept off to have her baby.

Once the rush was over, Logan turned his attention back to Jubilee. Her features were still relaxed in deep sleep. The noise hadn't wakened her. He wished he had a camera. Jubes would have appreciated the slapstick routine. A noise at the door drew his attention. Hank entered, glanced at the monitor readout and pulled a tape from behind his back.

"From the Med-Lab cameras," he told him. "I think Jubilation would like to see it."

A huge grin lit Logan's face. "Hank, yer one in a million," he told him.

"I know," he said demurely. "You can take her back to your room when she wakes up as long as she's steady on her feet. Remember what I said about contraception. Not until I give the okay."

"I remember but isn't too soon?"

"She will be perfectly healthy when she wakes up. I see no reason for you not to have relations."

The only reason would be if she didn't want to. Her period had caught them off guard. Her bought of depression had knocked her cycle out of whack and her period appeared a week early. Jubilee hated to get physical during this time so he would have to curb his enthusiasm until she was ready.

He thanked Hank and settled down to wait. Two hours later, he was wondering how Jubilee had kept her mind waiting for him to wake up from a coma. The waiting was killing him. She hadn't moved since he came in. He watched as her skin pinked up and regained the healthy glow he was used to. The puncture wound in her arm healed and the bruise on her hip from the marrow sample shrunk and faded. Her healing factor was definitely working.

An hour later, she began to stir. He called her name until she opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Hey," he smiled.

"How long have I been out?" she croaked. He held a cup of water to her lips and she drank, appreciatively.

"I brought ya down around seven this mornin'. It's 5:30 now."

"What happened?"

"Yer healing factor kicked in." Her eyes widened.

"It worked?" she squeaked.

"Yeah darlin', it worked."

She threw herself into his arms with a small shriek. He held her as she wept and blubbered. He couldn't help but smile. Everything that had been taken from her seven months ago was finally back. She could defend herself again. She could even try to have a baby now.

"Let's go to our room," he suggested.

"Can I?" she asked, sniffling.

"Why not?" he shrugged. "I never stay once I'm awake. I gotta tape ya need ta see."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. C'mon, let's get outta here." He pulled her out of the bed and toward the door.

"Bye Hank," Jubilee yelled as she stumbled through the door.

"But you're not steady on your feet," he objected, striding after them.

"I would be if Wolvie'd quit dragging me," she yelled back. "Be in our room." The elevator door closed on them and Hank was left alone in the lower levels.

She was able to watch the tape twice before Scott called and informed the mansion that Jean had given birth to a 7lb 10oz red head girl named Rachel. Champaign and beer flowed and Jubilee discovered the first disadvantage of a healing factor.

Because of her smaller body mass, she was able to get a buzz sooner than Logan but it only lasted five minutes. She sat on the sofa in the den, frowning at her bottle of beer.

"It doesn't help ta get mad at it, darlin'," Logan told her as he sat beside her.

"This really bites, Wolvie," she pouted. "I can't even get a buzz. Might as well just pour it in the toilet. The only thing I'm doing is making urine."

"Ya got yer life back," he said, giving her a comforting hug. "Don't ya think it's a fair trade?"

"I suppose," she shrugged.

"Look at it this way. You can drink anyone but me and Creed under the table and remember what happened. Ya get to watch everyone else get shit faced and blackmail 'em with it later."

"Why'd he save me?" she asked. It had been bothering her for a while now.

"He likes ya," Logan told her.

"As what?" she asked. "A lover? A slave? What?"

"Yer not his type," Logan said. "He usually goes fer the tall, busty airhead type. The kind he can dominate. I don't know what he wants ya fer but it ain't as a bed partner. Maybe it's 'cause yer mine."

"Shit," she swore. "I wish I knew what he wanted."

"Not too healthy ta go too deep inta his mind Jubes. C'mon, let's get ta bed. I'm takin' ya inta the Danger Room tomorrow. Gotta get ya back inta shape."

They waved good night to the inebriated X-Men and went to their room.

It only took Logan two weeks to get Jubilee into fighting shape. The healing factor increased her body's ability to take the punishing routine and she found that she needed to exercise. Hank told them he believed it was because of the alterations to her brain. The healing factor needed to be used and exercise did that.

A month after the procedure, Hank gave them the okay to get pregnant and Logan's behavior suddenly changed for the weirder. Her period came and went and Logan took to sniffing and nuzzling her several times a day. It was creeping her out.

The first month, nothing happened except Logan's strange sniffing behavior. Sex became very, very satisfying. She found that she was able to go most of the night. For the better part of their relationship, Logan wasn't able to completely satisfy himself. Jubilee didn't have the stamina to go on as long as he could so he frequently fell asleep hard or semi hard. The night Jubilee was able to defeat him and make him go completely limp, she celebrated. He was too exhausted at the time but he congratulated her the next morning.

His strange behavior continued for five weeks. When he started to seek her out and sniff her more often, she couldn't take it any more.

"What are you doing?" she asked, exasperated, when he had sniffed her for the fifth time in less than six hours.

"Yer gonna ovulate soon," he told her, happily inhaling her scent. "I got somethin' special fer ya when ya do."

That night at dinner, he leaned over and sniffed her neck. His eyes widened with a gleam of satisfaction and lust. He grabbed her hand and yanked her out of her chair, dragging her to the door.

"Excuse us," she yelled to her bewildered teammates, and followed him out the front door. She stumbled after him until they got to the tree line where he stopped.

"Run." he ordered, his eyes red with feral passion.

"What?" she demanded, confused.

A low growl rumbled in his throat. "Run." he told her again.

She knew better than to disobey him when the animal was in control. She turned and dashed into the trees. He held himself back. It wouldn't do for the hunt to end too soon. For the first time, the beast was holding back the man. The man wanted to find Jubilee and fuck her senseless. The beast insisted that this was the most important hunt in his life. From this hunt, they would get the pup they both craved. They needed her to get far away so the hunt would be a challenge for all of them. A challenging hunt would produce a very strong pup. So he waited, crouched at the edge of the trees, more animal than man.

Jubilee ran through the trees making sure she didn't leave a clear trail. She knew what he was doing. He had explained the mating hunt to her several months ago. She just never had thought she would get the chance to do it. It was exciting. It was like hide and seek with a more exciting outcome at the end. She knew she couldn't make it easy for him. She would need to fight back when he found her. She could make it easier for herself. The long skirt and floppy blouse would hamper her movements so she stripped to her panties and camisole top, leaving the clothes where they lay and heading in a different direction.

A stream ran through the woods to the west of the mansion. She hoped she could hide her scent in the water though she doubted it. He always became more amorous in the middle of her cycle. He told her that she gave off the most delicious pheromones during those three days that he couldn't help himself. Sex pheromones were very strong. Even normal men react to them and Logan was hardly a normal man.

She splashed through the stream for about a half a mile before leaving it and making her way to the small escarpment near the edge of the property. She had climbed the twenty foot wall many times and knew there was a copse of hardwood trees at the top she could climb. The branches of several of them would support her weight but not his.

She was just pulling herself over the top of the wall when she heard the low growl telling her she had been found. She quickly moved away from the sheer drop. This was about sex, not death. It wouldn't do to fall off the cliff at a time like this.

This was where Emma's training came in handy. She opened her mind and followed the shimmering link back to her mate. There he was, hiding in the trees. She sent a small paff at him and waited until it expanded into a blinding white light. When the flash died, she was already running for the trees, searching for the smaller ones that he couldn't climb. She was almost there when her legs were knocked out from under her by nearly four hundred pounds of Wolverine. She was lucky he didn't break anything.

She rolled and came up paffing. Two mid level paffs caught him in the chest, driving him into a large oak He recovered quickly and came at her again. She back flipped away from his diving grab and clipped him on the chin with her booted foot. She knew she couldn't let him grab her. He outweighed her by over two hundred pounds. She needed

to stay out of reach as long as possible. They circled each other, warily

"You want me, don't you, Wolvie," she taunted. "You want me so bad that it's killing you." He started to growl, softly at first, gradually increasing in volume. "I won't be easy." she continue, her voice husky with need. "You're gonna have to beat me first. I'm stronger now and I won't mate with a weak man. Are you prepared to hurt me, Wolverine? I'm prepared to hurt you to stop you. You have to win the right to fuck me. Show me what you've got. Show me what you are."

His eyes flashed in fierce approval. She knew. She knew exactly what he needed. He quickly stripped out his clothes. He needed the freedom of movement if he was going to catch the female. Her breath caught in her throat. He was magnificent.

She saw the muscles of his thighs quiver as he readied himself to leap at her. When he did. She was already moving. She ducked under him as he leapt and drove one fist into his exposed belly and using the other hand to stroke him. He landed, hard, but was up and after her, quickly. She rained paffs down on him as fast as she could, burning in several places. He ignored the burns and jumped at her again. She twisted out of the way and brought her hand up and punched him in the throat. She knew she was getting tired but he wasn't ready yet. She flipped over him and kicked him in the back of the head. She rained blow after blow on him and he still wasn't ready.

Finally, he was able to take her to the ground, pop his outside claws and pin her to the ground by the neck. Now, he was ready.

He slowly, retracted his claws and reached down to remove her panties. It was time to take his prize. Jubilee couldn't remember sex every being this good, this hot. It was everything she ever read in romance novels come to life. When her world exploded, he was there with her, man and animal.

He collapsed on her, out of breath and trembling. The man rose to the surface and looked down on the mate. She had passed out. He rolled over, taking her with him, and settled her on his chest. God, he loved her. No other woman would have let him do what he just did to her. No other woman would have been able to hold him off as long as she did. No one understood him like she did, and no one ever would.

She stirred in his arms and looked up at him.

"Wow!" she breathed.

"No kidding!" he said.

"Why don't we do this all the time?"

"I'm only motivated ta do this when yer fertile."

"So we can do this once a month?" she asked eagerly.

"Till ya get pregnant if ya want ta."

"How come we didn't last month," she asked, frowning.

"Ya didn't ovulate last month," he told her.

"Oh," she said. "What time is it?"

"After ten. We should be going in."

She pulled herself up and straddled his waist, a sultry grin on her face. Crossing her arms in front of her, she pulled her camisole off and unhooked her bra. Dropping her clothes beside them,she smiled.

"I'm not finished with you yet," she told him as she brought her mouth to his and kissed him.