A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you for those who reviewed last time and for those who continue to support this story. I have this quick little update to move some things along. Please enjoy.

OOOOOOOOO

"Seriously Scarlet," Jubilee said as the girls walked out of the garage after their trip into the town's best pizza place. "You devoured five pizzas on your own. That's more than Pete ate. And you're still eating more pizza. Where does it all go?"

Scarlet smiled and twirled her pizza box on her hand. "I have a really high metabolism and being the kind of mutant that I am, I can easily down more pizzas than what I did today. If I'm feeling up to it, there's no food eating competition that I can't win." She turned and offered the box to the guys that were following them. "Anyone want another slice?"

The boys shook their heads and passed on the pizza. Bobby and Rogue, who had been real snuggly with each other during the trip into town, excused themselves from the presence of the group. Pete said something about making his monthly phone call to someone in his family and made his departure. Kitty snuck after him without verbally explaining what she was doing. Only Jubilee stuck around to hang with Scarlet, not that the copy mutant wouldn't have minded being left alone with her pizza.

"So, I haven't seen you around the Danger Room in a while," Jubilee commented, shoving her hands into the pockets of her yellow jacket. "Is there a reason?"

"Yeah," Scarlet said, helping herself to a piece of peperoni. "I'm too dangerous for the Danger Room sessions with the others. It's something about me losing control and not placing nicely with the kiddies." She shrugged a shoulder. "I have to be all by myself until I can get everything under control."

"How are you supposed to get everything under control if you can't use your powers in the Danger Room training sessions?" Jubilee asked.

"I have my own private tutor," Scarlet told the other girl. "Funny Hair was designated to be my tutor since he's got the healing factor going on." She lifted an eyebrow when Jubilee smiled. "What?"

"You're having private lessons with Logan?"

"Yes. Why?"

"And you're not the slightest bit scared around him?"

Scarlet stopped walking and turned to look at her friend. "Why would I be scared of him? He's a rough person, yes. And he has a temper, but so do I. I've seen scarier toddlers compared to him."

Jubilee's smile widened. "Okay. So, what do you really think about him?"

"I think that he's a good opponent, teacher, and an asshole that was forced to work with me just because I can't hurt him like I could hurt anyone else." Scarlet frowned and turned away from Jubilee. "Besides, it doesn't matter what I think about him. I only have to be around him during the training sessions and any missions that Chuck decides that I can come and play for."

"All of those private training sessions could change your way of thinking," Jubilee commented, smiling wickedly. "You might even come out of this with a crush on Mr. Funny Hair."

"We'll see about that."

Storm appeared in front of them with a pad of paper in her hands. "I'm heading out for some girl shopping to restock our necessities. Scarlet, is there anything that you need for me to buy for you?"

"What? Like three big bottles of wine?" Scarlet asked, putting her free hand on her hip.

"No, like feminine products," Storm said, lowering her voice as some teenage boys ran by. "Tampons, pads, or a combination of both?"

"Oh! No, I don't need any of those at the moment. Come back in a year or so," Scarlet said and Jubilee gasped, causing Scarlet to look back at her. "What?"

"Your periods happen that far apart?" Jubilee asked. "Lucky."

Scarlet saw the concern in Storm's eyes when the woman lowered the pad of paper. Storm moved closer to the two girls.

"Scarlet, have you had a wellness check?" Storm asked, putting a hand on Scarlet's forearm. "Have you had an exam down there?"

"No. Why?" Scarlet brushed Storm's hand off of her. "Do I really need to have one? Because you need to know that I don't do hospitals. For anything."

Storm sighed. "What about an exam here? I could ask Jean if she could run a few tests and do an exam in the infirmary. Would that be better for you?"

"It still sounds like something unpleasant, but I guess that's what women have to go through. All the unpleasant things that only women have to endure: periods, acne, childbirth." Scarlet sighed and picked up a slice of pizza from her box. "Fine. I'll let Red take a look at me later, if it'll make you happy, Storm."

Storm nodded with a small smile. "I'll let her know."

Scarlet watched the older woman walk away and let her breath out in a hiss between her lips. She shoved the rest of her pizza slice in her mouth, swallowing hard. "Jubilee, I need to be by myself for a little bit," she said, looking at the other girl. "I'll check in with you guys later, okay?"

Jubilee backed up a step. "Okay. See you later, I guess."

The girl in the yellow jacket turned and headed off towards another group of friends. Scarlet envied the ease in which the other girl had joined that group's conversation. Talking with people had never really been something that she could do with that kind of ease. And being on the run all the time didn't help that situation either.

"Sometimes being lonely is the best policy," Scarlet muttered to herself, heading off in a random direction. "People don't get hurt that way."

"But you do."

Scarlet closed her red eyes for a moment, pressing the other voice back into the dark shadows of her mind. "I seriously don't need you right now. So shut up and leave me alone."

"Dammit!" someone said from the side. "Stupid piece of shit."

The girl's eyes turned towards the open garage where Logan was leaning over the inner parts of one of the trucks in that large room. He was wearing tight blue jeans and a stained white muscle shirt, sweat trickling down the sides of his face. Scarlet had to shake herself to get the attractive image out of her primary thoughts and focus on what was happening in that garage.
"Having problems, Funny Hair?" she asked, moving to stand on the opposite side of the truck.

"No, I'm having a party," Logan growled, lifting his gaze to meet hers for a moment. "This damn truck won't run and there are so many busted bits in tight places…I'm about to shred this thing into oblivion for all the shit I've tried to do to fix it."

Scarlet placed her pizza box on top of the truck's cab and then leaned over the engine, pretending to be examining the mechanism and its parts. "I can get it running in top shape if that will make you happy enough to not destroy this beauty."

Logan chuckled once. "Do you really think that you can fix a truck when you've never owned one yourself? If I can't fix it, how can you?"

A smirk touched Scarlet's face and she close the hood of the engine with a bang. She patted the hood twice and the stepped back. "Fixed it."

"You didn't do anything," Logan said, crossing his muscular arms over his fit chest. "All you did was close the hood."

Scarlet pointed towards the cab with her thumb. "Go ahead and try to start it up, Funny Hair. See if I didn't fix the many problems with this truck. The same problems that you couldn't do on your own with your temper the way that it is."

Logan hesitated, glaring at her. Scarlet retrieved her pizza box and took out a slice, watching the man move to the driver's seat. She smiled as she took a large bite of her pizza and heard the engine turn over, then purr with the right frequency. Logan turned the engine off and sat there in the driver's seat for a moment, staring at her through the windshield in disbelief.

"I told you that I fixed it," Scarlet said, rubbing it in his face when he got out of the truck. "You didn't believe me, Funny Hair. That's something that you need to work on."

"How did you do that?" Logan asked, staring at her over the hood of the truck.

"Would you believe that all you had to do was ask the truck to fix its own problems nicely?" She frowned when he shook his head. "Okay, okay. I used a power that I learned when I was eight that allows me to fix mechanical devices with eighty-nine percent accuracy. I can fix almost every vehicle known to man, but I don't flaunt it."

"Is that one of the powers that you can control completely?"

"I have my moments when the power doesn't work. Why do you think that I've said that I can do it with eighty-nine percent accuracy?" Scarlet scooted the pizza box across the hood of the truck. "Do you want some of that? I've had five whole ones earlier and I thought that it would be polite to offer a piece or two to someone."

She watched Logan look down at the pizza and saw that his eyebrow lifted. Half of the pizza was already devoured and she still felt a little hungry. But Logan looked like he was hungry too and Scarlet had been told to play nice while under the agreements made with Xavier.

Logan picked up a piece of pizza and looked at her doubtfully. "Five and a half pizzas? You hungry or something, princess?"

The girl nodded and tried to not stare at Logan's lips when a piece of cheese stuck to the corner of them. "I'm a growing mutant girl. We need to eat and eat a lot."

A slight buzzing sound in her head told Scarlet that someone wanted to talk to her telepathically. She sighed and allowed the voice to fully enter.

"Maria," Jean's voice said in her head. "Storm told me that you need a medical exam. Could you–?"

I'll be there in a minute, Red.

"I hate to cut and run, but I've got an exam to go to." Scarlet stepped back away from the truck. "Enjoy that pizza, Funny Hair. And remember to be nice to your vehicles if you want them to love you enough to work."

She smiled slightly when she saw his smirk at her words. As she walked away from the garage and headed into the mansion, the smile faded and was replaced by a frown.

OOOOOOOOO

Scarlet lay back on the metal examination table in the infirmary in the mansion's lower levels. She had refused to completely strip for the examination that Jean had needed to complete. Her shirt remained on her, but she had allowed herself to strip completely on the bottom, so long as she had a blanket covering her and Jean didn't take too long. The young girl stared up at the blinding light that hovered over the table, pretending that nothing was happening down in her nether regions.

"So, you're a real doctor?" Scarlet asked, putting her hands behind her head. "It's not just a college given title or something that comes from a PhD? You're a real doctor, Red?"

"Yes, I'm a real doctor," Jean said, doing the necessary exams on Scarlet. "Maria, how often do you have a period?"

Scarlet shrugged. "I get one every now and then. The longest time without one was two and a half years. I've never been a regular bleeder." She glanced at Jean quickly and then looked back up at the lights overhead. "Is that really a problem, Red? Aren't there a lot of girls out there who have irregular period cycles?"

"I haven't heard any medical stories about women having a period every year or so. Maria, can you think about when you had your last period? What was different in your life at that time?"

Scarlet's brow furrowed. "Well, I had a boyfriend, but that didn't last long."

"And the time before that?"

"I had a really big crush on one of my guy friends." Scarlet looked at Jean as the other woman put down her examination tools. "Why?"

"It sounds like your body decides to wake up whenever you're around a young man that you have feelings for."

"So, I'm not barren?"

"I don't believe so. I think that your body is highly selective of when it wants to have the chance to bear another life within it."

Scarlet shook her head and sat up, her lower garments appearing on the proper spots. "I don't want kids, Jean. I really don't."

"Maria, you're young. You don't know that you wouldn't want children later in life."

"I don't want kids. Ever."

"What if you meet a nice man in the future? Wouldn't you want to have children with him? Shouldn't he get a say?"

The younger mutant jumped off of the exam table and folded her arms over her chest. "It's my body and not any man's to control, Red. I said that I don't want children and no man will ever convince me otherwise. I will never bear another person's life inside of me, so you can drop it." She tilted her head back slightly. "Can I go now? I have things that I'd rather do than stand here and hear you talk about how I should have a baby one day when I don't want one."

"Maria," Jean began.

"I never want to have this conversation again, Red. Drop it. Leave me alone. And let me know what the results of my exam are when you get them because I may not come down here ever again."

Scarlet turned her back on Jean and headed out of the infirmary, hearing the doors hiss shut behind her. She brushed her hand across her face, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes.

Don't think about it. Don't. Don't.

OOOOOOOOO

Logan stepped into the kitchen after most of the kids in the mansion had gone off to bed, expecting to be alone in there. All he wanted was a moment to himself and a nice cold bottle of Canadian beer. But he heard sounds of someone muttering in there before he entered.

Scarlet was sitting on the counter, barefoot and dressed in really short shorts and a tank top. In her hands was a large container of ice cream. Cookie dough, by the smell of it. She didn't seem to notice him as she shoved a large spoonful into her mouth and stared into the container.

"Maria," Logan said, entering the room and heading for the fridge. "What are you doing up so late, eating that junk?"

"I'm hungry. I'm a girl. I'm in an emotional state that requires ice cream and a shot of whiskey." Scarlet stabbed her spoon viciously into the ice cream. "But I can't have whiskey. I don't want whiskey because I'm too young for that."

Logan turned to look at her once he had his beer in hand. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're moodier than usual. What happened tonight?"

The young girl shook her head and smiled weakly at her ice cream. "I had some medical exams done. Female stuff, you know? And I found out that my body only does what normal female bodies do monthly whenever it thinks that I've found a permanent mate." She stabbed her ice cream again before scooping out another spoonful. "I found out that I can have a baby, if I want to."

The topic made Logan feel a little awkward, but he wasn't about to walk away from the girl. He had promised to be there for her – to her, to Chuck, to himself – and it looked like she was opening up some more.

"And that's a bad thing?" Logan asked, taking a swig of his beer.

"Yes." Scarlet looked at him. "I don't want to have kids, Logan. I don't want them, but the world can't stand that. They say that I'm sixteen and that I shouldn't rush into that kind of thinking. I'm old enough to have sex, but I'm too young to decide that I don't want to have kids. Ever. Figure that one out because I seriously don't understand it."

"Why don't you want to have kids, Maria?"

"Because I don't want them to have a mother like me," Scarlet whispered and he saw tears swim in her eyes, overflowing down her cheeks. "Logan, I don't want them to be around the monster that I am. I don't want any child to look up at me in fear when I get overwhelmed by more powers or lose control over the ones that I already have. I don't want to be the monster that I know I am to those kids. I don't."

Logan set his beer bottle down and moved over to the young girl as she dissolved into a fountain of tears. When she would have normally pushed him off, Scarlet allowed him to wrap his arms around her and hold her close. Her skin burned against his, but he didn't pay it much attention as he patted her back.

"It's your decision to make, Maria. You don't have to be a mother," he said, his chin resting on top of her head. "But you're also not a monster and you never will be. Okay?"

Scarlet nodded, placing her hand against his chest where her face was still buried in the thin cloth of his top. "Okay."

"Now, how about a shot of whiskey?" Logan asked, smirking as he pulled back away from her. "I won't tell anyone, if you don't. You could use one."

"Thanks, Funny Hair," Scarlet said softly, brushing away her tears. "Seriously, thanks."

OOOOOOOOO

A/N: A lot of things happened in here and I know it was a bit rushed, but that's how it came out of my head at the middle of the night. Please leave a review in the little box and I'll try to answer with promptness. Please and thank you all! -Scarlet