Disclaimer: Again, I don't own the rights to anything Marvel or Fox, but I did just buy a really gorgeous pair of earrings today, so that's spiffy!

Sidenote: I realized that I suck at writing summaries. What could I do to make them interesting? Anyway, please enjoy the chapter and let me know what ya'll think, I'm still a little nervous about this one!

The nearest two was an hour's walk back. Although the road was a fairly easy walk, the rained that seemed to be a constant in the weather made the trip less than pleasant. It was freezing cold and coupled with the wind that was blowing right on me, it was more than a little annoying. By the time I reached the two, I was shaking and my teeth were chattering.

As soon as I saw the first diner in town, I all but ran to it. I found the bathroom straight away and went to it. I changed my clothes for dryer ones and then rung out and dried my hair and clothes the best I could with the hand dryer. After twenty minutes of being locked in there, I decided that I was as good as I was going to get and decided to pack my stuff up and get something to eat. I found a booth away from everyone else and shoved my bag into the seat before sitting down. In a few moments, a waitress came to take my order.

"Um, a coffee," I said absentmindedly, staring out the tick pane glass window my booth was pushed up against. When she came back with my coffee, I felt curious. "Does it always rain this much here during the fall?" I asked.

"No, I haven't seen it rain this much in about eighteen or twenty years. From the looks of it, you must have gotten caught in the thick of it.

I gave her a small, fake smile. "Yeah, I walked in it for about an hour."

"Well sweetheart, you must be freezing half to death. Let me bring you something hot to eat to warm you up, okay?"

I gave her a larger, more genuine smile and nodded my head. "Alright."

"What can I get for you?"

"Um…I don't know."

"Well just sit back and rest. Auntie Barbara will take care of everything for you."

"Thank you," I said, but as she began to walk away, I had a feeling. Not quite a vision, but more than a thought. Something that latched itself onto my mind and pulled at me. "Uh, ma'am," I called her back. "This may sound odd and out of no where, but by any chance do you know anyone named Bridget Lumness?"

"Now I know a Bridget Joan, everyone calls her Brie, though."

"Is there any possible way that she could've been a Lumness?"

"I don't know. Some of the other girls here know her so I can ask and get back to you?"

"I would appreciate that," I said. "Thank you."

"No problem, honey."

As I sat there waiting for my food, my mind reeled. I looked around myself and felt as if I had been there before. I didn't know if I personally had actually been there or if I had only seen it, but it was definitely familiar. And the more I looked around, the more I felt as if I had really been there before. Everything felt family. The building, the decorations, the people.

I sighed to myself and shook my head. I was probably just having a major case of déjà vu. I was going to have a mental breakdown before I ever turned twenty if I wasn't careful. I was having a hard time distinguishing between my own reality, someone else's and a complete thought of fiction.

I bowed my head and held it in my hands, taking deep breathes to calm myself. I was still upset about Logan leaving me, cold from being out in the rain, and my head was pounding. I felt overly emotional and fought to keep from breaking into tears.

I wanted to go home; I just didn't know how I could. After everything I had put them through, there was no way that I could possibly tell my parents that I was a mutant. I was scared about being on my own and was doing my best to delay the actual realization that I was, in fact, all by myself. Everything was all just a rush, I felt as if everything was happening so fast that I barely had time to figure out what was going on from one minute to the next.

I had gotten too comfortable, that was it. Clear and simple. I had forgotten that there was going to be an end to my little adventure and that eventually I would have to leave him. I cured myself for my thought from the day before. I had allowed myself to actually believe that there was a possibility that he might keep me.

"I'm so stupid," I muttered to myself.

"Now dear, whatever it is that's wrong, you can't blame yourself." I looked up and saw my waitress, Barbara, standing by me.

"Yeah, I think I can, actually."

"Now why would you say that?" she asked, sitting a plate with a hamburger and fries down on the table in front of me, then sat in the seat opposite of me.

I looked around. "Do they not mind you sitting down?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm an old woman, they know I have to take a break every once in a while. Now tell Auntie Barbara what's wrong."

"I'm trying to find my mother," I half lied. "I was traveling with someone but they sort of…let me out about an hour away."

"You poor thing! Why would someone do that?"

"Because he was a jackass," I said, then shook my head. "Well, he was, but he was in a bad mood too and I sort of just pissed him off further. I really should have left him alone."

"Well my mother used to say someone's bad apple shouldn't ruin your meal."

"I've never heard that one before," I said, eating one of my French fries.

"Now tell me about your mother; what happened to her?"

"Well, we lived here in Canada until I was three and then she gave me up for adoption. When I was adopted, I moved to the states with my new parents. I haven't seen her since."

"What's her name dear?"

"Bridget Lumness."

"So that's why you were asking about her," she said. "Now I asked the other girls but they've only known our Brie as a Joan. She's been married for about fifteen or so years, so there's a possibility that she could've been a Lumness, I don't know. She's not working today, but tomorrow morning there's a girl who's know her for about twenty years and she should be able to tell you all about her."

"Okay, thank you."

"Do you remember your way around town?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Do you remember where everything is? Oh, I suppose you don't, you said you were only three when you moved from here to the states, didn't you?"

"I was four when I moved, actually, but I don't know that I've ever been to this town before."

"Well Brie's lived here since she was a little girl. You sort of get stuck here that way. If you don't remember being here, then why did you ask me about your mother?"

I shook my head. "I don't know," I admitted truthfully. "Have you ever just had one of those feelings?"

"Well heaven's to Betsy, yes! That's what separates us from the men: woman's intuition. You know if men had half the mind to listen to their instincts as we do, they wouldn't get into so much trouble." I smiled. "How long have you been looking for your mother?"

"Well, I wanted to find her when I was about ten, but I wasn't legally allowed to. When I turned eighteen, I tried to get all of the information about her that I could, but all they had or would release was her name. I knew that already."

"So you came here to look for her?"

"Pretty much," I lied again.

"Do your other parents know where you are?"

"Um…not really. I mean, they know I'm okay, I've called and spoken to them both and they know that I'm in Canada somewhere."

"Are you here all by yourself?"

"Yeah…yeah, I am."

"Who was that man you were riding with, was he a friend?"

"Uh, no, I don't know who he was," I said. "I sort of talked him into letting me ride with him for the past three weeks."

"No, sweetheart, you can't just get into cars with strangers; you never know what people will do these days! Now promise me that while you're looking for your mother, you won't go riding around with any strangers, okay? I have too much to worry about as it is without having to worry whether a nice girl like you will get into a car with some crazy person."

"Alright, no more getting in cars with crazy strangers."

"That's better. Now, do you have a place to stay?"

"No, but when we passed through here earlier I saw a motel, so I'll probably check in there for a few nights until I can figure out my next move."

"Okay, but if they don't have any rooms you come back here and tell me, alright? I've got plenty of spare rooms and Auntie Barbara would be more than happy to put you up for a few nights."

I smiled at her again. "Alright, thank you, I really appreciate it."

"No problem dear, but this old mule has to get back to work. You just rest and eat up. If you need anything else, just yell at me."

"Okay," I said as she stood from the booth. "Will you be working tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," I said with a small smile.

"Well, I'll be looking for you, then."

By eight o'clock the next morning, I was up, showered, dressed and ready to go. I ran my fingers through my still damp her to untangle it before pulled up my hood and leaving my motel room. The diner was only about a five-minute walk away.

I walked out the door and onto the sidewalk, into the mildest case of rain that I had seen since I had been there. It was barely sprinkling and the sun was trying to fight its way through the clouds. It made me wonder if perhaps Logan could've been responsible for the bed weather as it seemed to have gone north with him.

Once I reached the diner, my heart sped up. Someone there might know my mother. My real mother. If they did, then there was also a possibility that I might be able to see her again. It had been nearly fifteen years since I had last seen her.

I pushed open the door and walked into the already crowding restaurant. I spotted the booth that I had sat in the day before and saw that it was empty. I went to it and sat down. After a few minutes, Barbara came to take my order.

"Good morning, sugar. How are doing today?" she asked.

"Pretty good, you?"

"I'm doing as well as an old woman can be expected." She laughed. "Can I get anything for you?"

"Do you have pancakes?"

"Only the best in town."

"Then I'll have pancakes and a cup of coffee, please."

"I'll have May send them over and the two of you can talk."

"Alright, thanks."

My heart was racing and so were my thoughts. I was nervous, scared, anxious, excited. I had so many emotions running through my mind at once that I could barely focus. I was happy but scared out of my mind.

What if this Brie was really my birth mother? Would she want to see me? Would she want to know about my life?

What if it wasn't her? What if it was all just a coincidence that she happened to have the same first name as my mother? How common was the name Bridget, anyway?

I shook my head as if in an attempt to shake all of my thoughts into order. It didn't work.

I decided to keep my mind off the more serious thoughts and think of something lighter. I looked around me, surveying the people and the decorations. The end of October was approaching and bringing with it Halloween. The diner had been decorated to coordinate with the upcoming holiday. There were large, fake, attempting to be cute spiders sitting on tables and banisters. Doorways were adorned with black and orange streamers as well as fake cobwebs. Plastic pumpkins sat at the bar and by the cash register. A fake ghost shouting 'Boo!' had been painted on one of the windows as well as scenes of a graveyard with tombstones displaying slightly humorous engravings.

This also didn't work. Nothing seemed to. I let out an exasperated sigh and was amazed to find that with everything going on, with all that was running through my head, my thoughts when back to Logan. Why am I so stuck on him? I wondered.

By now, you may know and fully realize that I had never needed or wanted people in my life. Maybe it had been spurred on by losing my mother at such a young age. Maybe a part of me had agreed with what Logan had said to me; if she really loved me then she could have found a way to take care of me, to have kept us together. Maybe something inside of me had decided that if I couldn't be with my mother, the one person that I wanted to be with, then I just wasn't going to need anyone else. Maybe.

Whatever it was, I hated the fact that he clung to the forefront of my mind. I saw and felt him when I slept. I thought about him while I was awake. And no matter where I was, I was constantly reminded of him. Sitting there, waiting to talk to a complete stranger, I felt as if he had been gone for longer than a day. Crazy as it seemed, I sort of missed him. I could talk to him; I could sit in complete silence with him. He felt distantly familiar to me alone. Not as though I had known him in my life, but as though he were more relatable than my family. He understood and embodied all of the pain, sadness, fear, loneliness, all of the emotions that I felt. He got it. While I was still learning the extent of all of the damage done to me over my short life.

I swore under my breath and massaged my temples. What was I thinking? Neither of us knows what the other was going through. We were totally different people and there was nothing that would ever make us the same. I was still trying to figure out if this was a good or a bad thing when a waitress came to my table.

"I've got your coffee, but the pancakes are going to be a while," she said, setting the steaming cup in front of me. I could feel the heat rolling off it as I looked up at her. "Barbara said that you needed to ask me about someone?"

"Uh, yeah. She said that you know someone named Brie John, but I was wondering if you happened to know what her name was before she got married?"

She sat down in the seat across from me with a loud 'flop'. "I sure do. It was Lumness. Why, do you know her?"

My hear rate which had previously been beating far too fast suddenly seemed to have stopped. I nodded slow and numbly. "Yeah," I said. "She's my mother."

She stared and me hard for a moment before her eyes widened. "Oh. My. Stars. You are not little Jayden are you?"

"You know me?"

"Well sweetheart, who do you think took care of you when your mother had to work her?" She laughed. "Wow. I can't believe how much you've grown up. You know, you've got a lot of Brie in you, but darn it all if you don't look like your daddy."

Now there was too much going on. I didn't know what to concentrate on first. "You knew my father?"

"Oh yeah, all the girls here did back then. He was a good lookin' man, I'll tell you that much. We all wanted him, but your mother…well, she was the only one brave enough to talk to him. We were all too scared. Oh, I was so jealous of her."

"How long were they together?"

The smile slid from her face. "Just that night. Then he left town and as far as I know, they never saw or spoke to each other again after that."

"Do you know where she lives?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Do you think she would mind if you told me?"

"Well how about this; I'll go call and talk to her, tell her what's going on and then when she gets off from work, I'll see if you can go over?"

I let out a nervous breath. "Okay, that sounds good."

"Don't worry honey, she'll want to see you; you have no idea how much she's missed you."

At five o'clock that afternoon, I found myself standing outside of a house that, until then, I had never seen before. It was my mother's house. I stood there in the rain, my heart pounding in my chest, and I was having a hard time breathing. My hands were sweaty and shaky, and my mouth was dry. I wanted to move, but I didn't know how. As a matter of a fact, I didn't even know how to think right then. My mind would only form half a thought before moving onto the next one.

I swore aloud and shook my head. "This is stupid, you've wanted to do this since you were ten, just move," I ordered myself quietly. And with that, I picked up my right foot, sat it forward and began to walk. Once I got to the door, I rang the bell and waited. After only a few moments, a man opened the door.

He smiled at me. "Are you Jayden?"

"Yeah." I nodded.

He reached out his hand for me to shake, which I did, and continued smiling. "Hey, I'm Mark. It's so nice to finally meet the infamous daughter. When I first met Brie, you were all she talked about."

I fake a small smile. "It's nice to meet you, too," I said, not bothering to mention that she couldn't have had too much to say about me; I was only three the last time she had seen me.

"Well come on it, get out of the rain." He moved, allowing me to step through the doorway and into the house. "Brie's in the den, I'll show you to it. She's helping Vanessa and Crystal with their costumes; they have a Halloween party tonight."

"Who?" I asked, following him as he led me through the strange and new house.

"Vanessa and Crystal, they're our daughters."

"Oh, I didn't know that you had kids."

"May didn't tell you?"

"Uh, well…no. I didn't get to speak to her much, she had to work, but she didn't mention that bit."

"Well, we have the girls, they're six and nine, and we also have a son; he's thirteen. He's staying at a friend's house, so I'm afraid that you won't get to meet him tonight."

"What's his name?"

"Jay."

"Jay?" I repeated in question.

"I know what you're thinking and she did that on purpose. He was sort of named after you."

"Flattering," I said. It came out dryer than I had intended and I felt a little bad about it. But only just a little.

"How long have you been here?" he asked, side stepping my rude comment.

"Here as in town or here as in Canada?"

"Either."

"Canada for a little over a month and in town since yesterday morning."

"You work fast, don't you?" He laughed.

"Yeah, I try," I said as we entered what I assumed was the den.

There were two girls running around in costume and a woman was laughing at them. I stopped and stared at her; she was my mother. She was right there. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to cry. I wanted to run to her and hug her. But I didn't. I couldn't. I just stood there, feeling more as if I were watching a show, a play about a whole new family involving my mother rather than seeing the real thing. It didn't feel right that I could actually watch her, or talk to her. Not after going so many years of wanted but never being able to.

Standing there, I realized I couldn't breathe. Or maybe it was just that I had forgotten to. I sucked in a sharp breath. Yeah, that was it; I had just forgotten to breathe.

"Honey, girls, our guest is here," Mark announced.

All three of them turned their eyes on me. My mother stood and walked over to my. She placed a hand on my shoulder, smiling at me. "Hey sweetheart, it's so good to see you!" she exclaimed.

My nervousness and excitement disappeared and was replaced by confusion. I blinked at her. Had she really just said to her daughter that she hadn't seen in fifteen years, 'Hi sweetheart, it's so good to see you'? Certainly not. Certainly she had run to me, held me and wept over our reunion. I couldn't believe that there was anyway that she could be so casual about the whole thing. Not unless she's heavily drugged, I thought. If she's on Valium, I might be able to understand.

"Uh, yeah, you too," I said, still stunned by her greeting. Mark had been warmer to me than she had, and we had only just met.

"Girls, come meet your sister," she called.

The two girls stopped whatever game they were playing, to come stand beside my mother. And theirs as well, really.

"Girls, what do you say?" Mark inquired.

"Hi, it's very nice to meet you, welcome to our home," they said in unison, sounding slightly creepy.

"Hey, I'm Jayden."

"Are you going to live with us now?" the youngest one asked.

"Uh, no."

"Why not? Don't you like our family? We can share our mom and dad with you, if you want," she said.

"No, I'm good; I've got a set of my own back in California. Thanks, though."

"But mom said that you were our sister. She said that she was your mom, too. How can you have other parents?" the oldest one asked.

Honestly, did these kids know nothing? "They adopted me when I was little."

"Dad let us adopt a dog, is that the same thing?" the youngest one asked.

I cocked an eyebrow. "I don't know, but I would probably think not."

"Well why don't you have a seat; you probably have a lot you want to talk about, right?" Mark said, motioning towards the single couch in the room.

I walked to it and sat down. Following behind me were Vanessa and Crystal, though I still didn't know which was which. On the other side of me sat my mother and Mark. She took my hand in hers and petted it. "So, what have you been up to?" she asked.

Oh yeah, she has to be on something, I thought.

"Well, quite a bit since you last saw me," I said, still confused and slightly hurt by her actions. Why was she being this way?

"Fair enough. Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Uh," I said and paused. My mind reeled trying to make sense of the surreal events. But it couldn't. "No." I shook my head lamely. "I don't."

"Well you're pretty, you look like your father, but I guess I can forgive you for that," she said, trying to make a joke.

"That's what May said, but it really doesn't mean much to me; I never knew him. Who was he?"

"He was a solider and died in the war before you were born," she responded immediately.

I looked at her with a quirked eyebrow. "But May said that you were only together for one-"

"Yes, May's a blabber-mouth who likes to gossip, don't listen to everything she says," she said with a laugh.

I was very confused now. "Okay, uh…how long did you know each other?"

"We grew up together, high school sweethearts, married right after we graduated and only three months later, he was sent to fight. He never came back."

"Someone had lied to me and something told me it wasn't May. The longer I sat there listening to her speak, the more disappointed I became. Was this who I had really been looking for?

"Our daddy's still alive," the oldest daughter said to me.

No kidding, Sherlock, and he must be so freakin' proud of how smart you are, I thought.

"Crystal, that's not very nice. Apologize to her," Mark said.

"I'm sorry," Crystal said, sounding unenthusiastic and bored.

"It's all right," I lied. "Don't worry about it."

"What are you going to be for Halloween?" Vanessa asked me.

The conversation was so erratic that I could barely focus. I felt tapped in a bad movie. One that tried to cram in drama, comedy, and for me, a little too much mystery. It wasn't jelling, there was no order to it and it was far too confusing. In all honestly, I had no idea what was going on.

"I'm not," I said.

"You're not dressing up?" she asked, her mother falling open, as if in shock.

This was one weird family.

"I stopped dressing up for Halloween when I was like, eleven."

"Well, I'm going to be a ballerina," she said. "And Crystal's going to be a fairy."

"How delightful," I said dryly, intending for it to come out the way that it had. I couldn't take it. "Is there anyway that you and I could talk along for a little bit? There's some things that I really need to ask you."

She looked at me seriously for the first time since I had arrived. "Uh, Mark, could you help the girls finish getting their costumes on and take them over to the Baker's?"

"Yeah, Chris, Van, let your mother and Jayden talk," Mark said as he stood. "Jayden, it was nice to meet you and I hope you come back and visit us soon. Our home's always open to you."

I smiled at him as he and his daughters walked from the den. He seemed nice; I liked him. "Thank you," I said, being honestly sincere. "Does he know the real truth about my father?" I asked, once they had left.

"What real truth? I told you about him, he knew that."

"I don't remember a lot about living with you, but I know that out of all of my memories, you never spoke about him. If you really were that close and that in love, I think I would have remembered you talking about him."

"He died in the war-"

"What war? How old was he? What was his name? Where was he born? What did he look like?" I quizzed, raising my voice in frustration. "I lived with you until I was three, I don't remember anything about him. None of his family, no pictures, nothing. I'm not your husband, I'm not someone you need to impress, I'm your daughter. You gave me away and I deserve explanations. I deserve answers because I've had to live my life not knowing who I am. Why couldn't you keep me?"

I was upset, confused and on the verge of tears. I had dreamt of meeting her since I was old enough to and yet all of my dreams were dashed in the few short minutes that I sat there talking to her.

"You don't really want to hear the truth, sweetie, you just think you do."

"No, you're not copping out on me again. I'm an adult now, I deserve the truth and I want to hear it."

I felt my expression turn to the same as I had seen Logan wear that night in the bar, just before he had agreed to let me stay with him. It was pain. It was anger. It was frustration. It was something I couldn't understand.

I looked in her eyes and tried to forge a connection with her. She was my mother. She gave birth to me. But, there was nothing there. She was simply a person that I had once known.

I shook my head. "I've waited fifteen years to find out why you dropped me off at an orphanage in Edmonton and just left me. People have told me that you didn't love me, you didn't care about me, that if you wanted to keep me, you could have found a way. I've taken up for you before I remember you telling me before you left that you wanted me to have a better life. But that's not really why you gave me away, is it? For all of these years I've defended your decision and that's…" I stopped and shook my head. "It had nothing do with me having a better life, did it?"

"I was very young and made a bad decision when I slept with your father. I made a mistake, I paid for it, and I didn't think that you should have to, too."

Thoughts, images and sounds flashed through my mind at a painful rate. I saw things that contradicted what she said, and made it all perfectly clear. "You were ashamed of me," I said, looking at her. I had never felt so hurt by anything in my life. "You were ashamed of me because of what you had done. You didn't care if I was ever adopted; you just wanted me away from you. The only person you wanted a better life for was yourself. You still don't want me here or as a part of your family because you're scared of how it'll reflect you. The only reason why you've told your family about me was because you felt guilty, and even still, you made up a complete lie to feed to them about what happened." I couldn't get over what I had seen. "How could you do that to me?"

She looked away. "You looked like him when you were born, but the older you got, the more you looked like him and I couldn't take it. It was weak on my part, yes, but don't you think it was a fair trade? You didn't have me but you got a family that didn't resent you for who you were."

I stood from the couch. "No, I didn't get a fair trade. I got handed some game of charades that I had to keep up. I was given a responsibility in my life that I never asked for. Decisions were made for me without my consent. I was given an empty life. All for what? So that you could get married and play house?" I said, walking towards the door of the den. I turned back before leaving the room. She stood, as if she were going to try to consol me. I put up my hand to stop her. "Don't, just…don't, okay? I'm still trying to figure out if this was stupid or not. Because even though I've spent almost all of my life wanting to be with you, at least now I know better and I don't have to waste any more time on you. You know…I owe some people an apology. I told them that you cared about me." I shook my head. "I guess I was wrong."

"Jayden, I do care about you and I'm sorry."

"No, this will be a lot easier if you don't do that." I let out a sigh. "I hope you enjoy your family. Or at least the one you're not ashamed of."

As I left, I found myself wondering about me. I no longer knew who I was and I had just walked away from the last person who did.