A/N: Thank you brigid1318 for your reviews and thank you to my silent readers who enjoyed Mutants Among Us and are now following the continuation. I hope you find this one just as enjoyable.

Chapter 2

Inside, they all sat as the detective nonchalantly took a look around the room, making mental notes of the pictures, placement of the nick-nacks on the shelves, the baby toys around the room and the bumper guards on the corners of the tables. "Your son, is he walking yet?"

Marie shook her head. "Not on his own. I still have to hold him up and help him, but he's trying to do it himself."

"Ah, I see. Good that you're covering the corners early, most first-time parents don't think about that until after there's an accident."

Marie chuckled. "Logan started baby-proofing the house before he was born. He already has a fence up around the pool and Jacuzzi."

The detective nodded an approval. "Good, good. Glad to hear that. Well...let's get down to business, shall we?"

Logan cocked his head to the side. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

"Oh! Sorry about that." The detective reached into his pocket and handed Logan his card. "Detective Mercer, Dave Mercer. You can call me Dave if you like. I will be the one on this case, and I'm available 24 hours. My office and private cell numbers are on the card, as well as my email. I want you all to know that I take child abduction cases very seriously, and I won't rest until your little boy is back home where he belongs."

Logan again looked the detective up and down. "I feel like I've seen you before, but I can't place where."

Dave smiled at him. "I was still a patrol officer last time I spoke with you. Then, you and your wife were only dating. I was one of the officers who responded when she was attacked outside of her apartment."

Logan's eyes got wide as he suddenly remembered this was the cop who was a fellow mutant and helped cover for Logan in his report as to the exact details of how one of Marie's attackers suffered a collapsed lung. "Oh yes, I remember now. Those punks still in jail? Did they have something to do with this? Revenge?"

Dave shook his head. "One of them got a reduced sentence, 8 months, the other...the one you nailed, he had other charges thrown on him and he got 3 years. Last I heard, he got into a fight with one of the other inmates and had an additional 6 months added to his sentence, so he's still locked up. I can assure you, they had nothing to do with this, they're petty low-lifes, small drug charges here and there, shoplifting, a few assault charges...but nothing as serious as this. From what I have gathered so far, this is something that has been thoughtfully planned out. Mrs. Howlett, I understand that it was you who did most of the work in interviewing and hiring your nanny? I would like to see all of the paperwork about this..." Dave checked his notes. "Kate Mills. Her application, resume, your background checks performed...everything you have about this woman."

Marie nodded. "It's in the office room. I'll be right back." She stood and started towards the office as she stopped. "Detective...what will happen now? What are the chances, real chances that you'll find our baby?"

Dave blew out a breath. "I'll be honest. After 24 hours of a child missing...the chances become smaller. In cases like this, it's like your husband said, to extort money, but there are also cases of people taking a child as their own, usually by someone with mental issues who has lost a child, or has lied to their families about being pregnant and need to produce a child to continue their deception."

Wade scowled. "What about...I'm sorry guys, but we need to think about all the angles here, as painful as it is. What about stories of people selling kids on some black market?"

Marie and Logan both let out audible gasps as Vanessa clutched Darlene closer to her. Dave nodded. "Yes, there are cases of that as well, but let's all pray that isn't the case here, considering..." Dave glanced around the room and locked his eyes with Logan.

"Considering what?" Vanessa demanded.

Logan looked up at Dave as the thought occurred to him. "It's alright, they all know I'm a mutant. Do you think that has something to do with this? Wade is one too, maybe his daughter is at risk as well."

"Hey! No need to blow my cover, dude!" Wade barked at Logan.

Dave held up a hand. "It's ok, Wade. We're all friends here, and your cover isn't blown. I'm a mutant too, and I can assure you that I won't add that detail to any of my reports, but Logan is correct in his concern. There has been an increase in abductions of children born to mutant parents as well as children who have shown signs of mutant abilities. For what purpose we don't know."

"Have any of these children been found?" Logan questioned.

"No, not as of yet, but I have heard of a specialized underground team who have taken up the cause in looking for these children, but since they don't work for any government agency...that anyone can tell that is, it's unknown what kind of progress or leads they might have."

"Dios mío!" Sophia called out. "But little mijo, he not mutant...not like his poppie! And the Mrs., she is no mutant at all! Dios mío."

Logan shook his head and put a gentle arm around Sophia's shoulders. "Sophia, the doctor said it was too soon to know if Luke would be a mutant or not. Just because Marie isn't, doesn't mean Luke won't be...it's just too soon to know for sure."

Dave eyed Wade and Vanessa. "What about your daughter? Usually a mutant's ability doesn't manifest until later in life, but there have been a few cases of abilities showing in infants. Maybe we should consider getting protection for her."

Wade shook his head. "Cases of infant mutants happen when both parents are mutants, Vanessa isn't a mutant, and she's a stay-at-home mother. Darlene is never out of either one of our sights."

Dave gave a slow nod. "Ok...Miss Mills, does she know that you're a mutant, that Luke might possibly hold the mutant gene?"

Logan shook his head. "No, I didn't tell her and both Marie and Sophia know not to mention it with anyone. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ashamed of being a mutant, I just feel that with so much prejudice about people like us, it's safer for my family and friends that outsiders shouldn't know about it."

Dave nodded. "I completely understand, I'm very guarded about who I tell myself. I most likely wouldn't be a detective or even on the force if they knew. Ah! Thank you Mrs. Howlett." He smiled at Marie as she handed him the papers he asked for.

"Please, call me Marie. Sophia, could you please get some coffee for everyone?"

"Si, si, of course! I forget our manners. Excuse me." Sophia replied as she rushed towards the kitchen trying to hide her tears.

Dave scanned over the paperwork as he hummed approvals now and then. "You were very extensive in your background checks, I'm impressed. Most parents usually go on recommendations from friends or family members and usually don't show the resources you seem to have exhibited here. Might I ask why you went to such lengths before hiring Miss Mills?"

Marie gave a thin smile. "Logan here is director of his facility and has a lot of experience in the hiring process, and I'm currently in school for business management. That's why Logan let me take the lead in the process for hiring a nanny, he said it would be good practice for me and allowed me to use the company's database...with his supervisor's approval of course, to run the criminal check."

Dave nodded again. "Very good. I'd like to keep these for my file, if that's alright with you."

Logan took Marie's hand into his. "Of course. I have copies on my flash drive, as well as the other applicants."

Dave's eyes grew wide. "That might be a better idea. Could you send those copies to my email? I might want to check out the other applicants, just to eliminate any possible connections with Miss Mills."

Logan nodded as Sophia set the tray holding the coffee pot, cups, sugar, cream and plates of cookies and assorted pastries down.

Dave reached for the coffee, pouring a cup for himself and selected a pastry. "If you don't mind my asking...you seem to live a pretty fancy life. How can you afford a house in a neighborhood like this, along with a housekeeper, nanny and nice vehicles?"

Logan shifted a moment. "Is that really relevant?"

Dave looked down a moment. "I'm afraid it is. This investigation won't be limited to your nanny, but will involve you as well. Your financial records will be searched, people at your place of business and college will be questioned, even your friends will be looked into. I'm sorry, I know it seems like an intrusion, and quite frankly it is, but I have to think of every motive, every scenario as to what someone would gain by taking your child. If there's something going on here, it's best that you tell me now rather than me finding it on my own."

Logan gulped. "It's...uh...well..." He glanced at Wade.

Dave groaned. "Oh god, please don't tell me you boys are involved with some sort of high operation drug dealing or something."

Wade was quick to speak. "No! Nothing like that! Why is that the first thing people think? It's just that me and Logan...we...uh...look, we're not doing anything like that, and there's no reason to get anyone thrown in jail! We know it's illegal, but we all know the risks going in, and we're all adults. Why does it have to be such a big issue?"

Dave set his coffee down and gave both Wade and Logan hard glares. "What's illegal? What are you boys involved in? Tell me now and I might...might be able to help keep this off the books...as long as it's not harmful for the children's well-being that is."

"We're cage fighters." Logan muttered.

Dave blinked a few times before busting out laughing. "Is that all? Ok, yeah, the unregulated underground fights are illegal, but it's not like we go out looking for the matches to arrest everyone. Even if a patrol officer should happen to stumble on one of the fights, we just break it up and run everyone off. Hell...even when someone comes into the hospital to get put back together after one of those fights, we're not stupid and see right through the flimsy "getting mugged" excuse. Ok, when it comes to how it is you got so much money in the bank, we'll call it...family inheritance."

Both Wade and Logan nodded. "Sounds good to us. Thanks."

Dave spent the next few hours questioning everyone about their habits, places they've been to recently, discussions they've had with people outside of the family circle, even down to their favorite cereal. When he questioned about family members, he found that he had hit a wall.

Wade, growing up in an orphanage, didn't have family other than Vanessa and Darlene. Sophia immigrated when she was barely 20, never married or had children and the rest of her family still lived in Mexico. Vanessa, running away from home at 16 to escape her step-father who sexually abused her, she never looked back and still held hatred towards her mother for turning a blind eye to what was going on. Marie, not having any living family... and then there was Logan.

Dave's eyes couldn't stop popping when Logan revealed his true age. "And...there's no other family?"

Logan shrugged. "I have a grandson. He's in his 60's now, but as far as he knows...I died in the 1960's, when he was a baby. He has a child, but..."

"Yeah...say no more." Dave held up a hand while shaking his head. "So, uh...who are those people in the picture there?" Tipping his head to the side in the direction of a shelf where he saw the picture earlier.

Logan looked over. "Oh. That's my brother and his family. Before you ask...he's 3 years older than me."

"Mm-hmm. So he's still alive then? Picture looks modern. Any problems between the two of you that might be a motive? You know...sometimes it's a family member that takes a child, if they feel the child isn't being taken care of properly. Is it possible that he hired Ms. Mills to take your son?"

Logan shook his head. "No, no problems. Vic and his family live in Germany, and he's military...he's been promoted to Captain 2 months ago, and he's supposed to come visit next month. I promised a big party and barbeque to celebrate his promotion, but now..."

Dave placed a hand on Logan's shoulder. "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that you'll not only be celebrating your brother's promotion, but also your son returning home, safe and sound."

~ooOoo~

Logan watched as Dave set up the devices on his and Marie's phones that would record any calls and text messages, if Kate were to try and contact them for blackmail.

He got nervous when Dave wanted to tap the computer as well, which caused Dave to question him. Logan shifted as he explained. "I use my computer to do some company work at home. The company has installed some good firewalls to prevent hacking, so there's no danger of anything getting leaked out. I guess...well...I also use my computer to talk with my brother. I told you he's in the military, but what I didn't tell you is that he works on classified research. I don't know what it is, and I don't want to know, so we don't talk about those things, but we do talk about stuff that involves us being mutants. I don't want some lackey in your station to listen to one of our conversations and go all ape-shit about me being a mutant, and possibly my kid being one too. They might decide it's not worth helping a..."mutie" to find his kid."

Dave shook his head. "The conversations are recorded. No one listens to them live, and the only person who will listen to them is me, and that's only the recordings of words or phrases that get flagged. All I ask is that you not tell your brother, or anyone else that the conversation is recorded, and that when you do speak to anyone, do so in a normal manner."

Logan crinkled his brows. "Why can't I tell people I know, friends, work associates, that the conversations are recorded? Isn't that illegal?"

Dave shook his head. "If anyone has heard any rumors through mutual friends or colleagues, they might not be as open to say something, fearing getting someone, who doesn't want to be involved. You know the conversations are being recorded, and as long as you and Marie consent to it...it's perfectly legal."

Marie cleared her throat. "So how come everytime you call one of those customer service numbers, there's an automatic message telling you the call might be recorded?"

Dave chuckled. "Because those are public businesses that deal with a multitude of people each day and they are obligated to advise the call is recorded. This is a personal, private line and you have no obligation to tell anyone that they're being recorded."

Marie's eyes got wide. "Logan...we need to keep our phones tapped for those damned scam callers."

"Right there with you, babe. Hate those idiots, especially the IRS scammers. Hey...uh...this thing doesn't record my downloads does it? I mean...uh..." Logan rubbed at the back of his neck. "I kinda like watching...craft videos. I'm sure that would be pretty boring."

Marie rolled her eyes. "I know about your porn downloads, Logan."

Logan looked at her in shock. "You do? Damnit!"

After Dave had everything set up, and the house settled down, Logan and Marie went to bed early from the exhaustion of the day. Logan held Marie tight to him as she sobbed and he made silent prayers that their baby would be found soon, returned home safely.