Jean didn't sleep that night, tossing and turning under the covers as she tried to come to grips with Logan being alive, after all this time. Kitty and Jubliee had been hysterical at hearing the news, while Jean had tried to be a calming presence as they staggered through their shock.
She checked on James in his room, placing the teddy bear under his arm, and retreated to the solitude of her room. Changing into a pair of cotton pants and a light t-shirt, she drifted to the pictures of Logan in their frames on the wall.
"You're alive," she whispered, resting her hand on the glass as she leaned into the wall sobbing.
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"Jean...wake up," Emma stood at the door, midday sunlight streaming in.
"Yeah," she raised her head, realizing at some point near dawn she had finally drifted off.
"They'll be here in two hours."
"I'd better get up and shower," Jean scrambled out of bed. "Where's James?"
"Paro and Jess have come over...can we talk?"
Jean stopped looking through her closet, knowing Emma wanted to explain herself.
"Emma, I am so sorry you had to carry this around with you for so long."
"I am, too," she muttered.
They embraced, and stepped back.
"Go take a shower, you look a mess," Emma commented.
"And we're back," Jean laughed.
Jean stood under the warm water, her heart skipping happily in her chest. In her towel, she rifled through her clothes until she decided on a black tank top and long black skirt, draping a light purple dupatta on the bed. Running a brush through her hair, she contemplated makeup, and second-guessed her choice of clothes. What did it matter? Logan liked her in anything, makeup or no. With an hour left, she sat on her bed and waited.
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She stood on the balcony of her bedroom above the street, waiting for the car that would bring him. Seeing the familiar car come through the gates, she nearly threw herself over the side leaning over the railing to catch a glimpse of him. Scott, Ororo, and Hank stepped out...but no Logan. Consumed with panic, she whirled to run downstairs and demand an explanation, and saw Logan standing in the doorway.
Everything she wanted to say left her mind, she could only stare at him as her heart hammered hard under her ribs.
"Jean," he crossed the room, gathering her up in his arms. "Jean...darlin'."
Jean clung to him, tears racing over the apples of her cheeks. The smell of cigar smoke on his clothes, plain soap from his morning shower, and his deodorant made her dizzy with happiness.
He was alive, this was real.
"How..." she pressed her forehead to his.
"I wanted to see you first," he breathed quickly, brushing his lips over hers.
She froze in his arms, stunned at the sensation of kissing him again. Slowly, he eased their mouths into a familiar dance and groaned his contentment as she relaxed into his chest, running her fingers through his hair.
"Logan," she sighed, smiling as he kissed the damp trails on her face.
"Where is he?"
"Playing outside with Paro and her mother, Jess."
They kissed again, and walked down the two flights of stairs to the courtyard. Logan hesitated as he heard the sounds of children playing, Jean looking back at him with a questioning tilt to her head.
"I just want to watch him first, you go."
Jean walked to their son, who called to her and raised his face for a kiss. For a moment he was afraid of his own child, having lived two years without him. Pictures were one thing, but to suddenly have a child that depended on him scared him to death. Would James like him, or would he be afraid? He stepped out from behind the pillar, and James noticed right away. They watched each other for a moment and then the boy ran toward him, arms outstretched as Logan reached down to pick him up.
They studied each other. James touched Logan's facial hair, since very few men he had been around had any if even close to that much. Chuckling at the confused eyebrow quirk, Logan wandered into the house.
Emma walked out into the courtyard with a smirk as Jean and Jess talked.
"What," Jean smiled.
"He made James a snack, and didn't give him any beer."
"We agreed not until he's four," Jean smirked back, getting up from her chair.
"Emma was right when she called you a bottomless pit," Logan chuckled at James.
Logan turned as he sensed Jean approach, James looking to her with a happy smile as he munched on a cracker.
"There's Mama," he pointed, looking Logan in the eye.
"Here I am," she grinned, kissing James' pointing hand.
Logan put his free arm around Jean's waist, holding her to his side.
"So what do you think," she asked, brushing crumbs off of James' shirt.
"He's amazin', Jean."
"Yeah, well half of that is you," she smiled.
Bobby and the girls came through the front door, free from university, in their usual manner of harnassed energy ready to explode.
"I can't belive she made us go to classes-" Jubliee voiced her displeasure, not for the first time by the sound of Bobby and Kitty groaning.
"In here," Jean called.
The girls saw Logan, and Jean plucked James from Logan's arms as they charged at him. They talked and cried as Logan held them, Bobby leaned against the wall smiling at the sight of the Wolverine being mobbed by women.
"What ya lookin' at, Icicle," Logan smiled.
"You always make women cry," he joked.
"For good reason, you just make them cry by talking too much," Logan replied.
"I'm going to get dinner started. Here," Jean handed James back to Logan.
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Logan watched as Jean bathed and dressed James for bed, seeing the admiration James had for his mother shining in his eyes that Jean gave right back to him with every smile.
"We make a good-lookin' kid," he grinned at James curled up around a teddy bear.
"I agree completely," she smiled, resting her chin on his shoulder as they stood in the doorway.
"Jean, I didn't want to stay away from you this long."
"I know...but why the big secret?"
"I was just starting to walk when James was born, and I knew if they told you...I just didn't want you to see me-" he shook his head, ashamed to be weak.
Jean kissed his shoulder. "You're here now. Come on, let's go to bed."
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Logan woke up as Jean slipped out from under his arm in the middle of the night, reaching for her robe.
"Where ya goin'?"
"James is crying."
"I got him," Logan pushed himself out of bed, wearing a pair of loose black pants that sat low on his hips.
"Are you sure?"
Logan leaned in and kissed her gently, happy to see her smiling up at him. "Go back to bed."
Half an hour later, Logan was thinking maybe Jean should have gotten up with him. He considered going to get her, but decided against it as James cried against his shoulder.
"I can do this," he muttered. "Hey, James. What's it ya need?"
Logan could speak in a variety of languages, but toddler wasn't one of them, so he decided to just start somewhere. James wasn't warm with fever, he wasn't cold...but as he looked closer into his son's tear-filled eyes he recognized fear. It was a simple nightmare.
"Just a dream, nothin' to be scared of now," Logan dried James' tears with a large thumb.
The deep tone of Logan's voice settled James, and his cries dissolved into gulps and hiccups as he drifted off to sleep in his father's arms. Laying him back in his small bed, Logan tucked the covers around him, and shufffled back to bed.
"Hey," Jean woke up as Logan slipped into bed behind her.
"Didn't mean to startle you."
"I'm not used to big warm man crawling into bed with me," she smiled.
"You had better not," he pulled her closer, tucking his face into her neck.
"This has got to be a dream," she murmured.
"Ain't no dream, darlin'. I'm as real as they come," he grinned.
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Logan grunted in his sleep, wrapping his arm around Jean's waist.
"Shush, your dad's sleepin'," Jean laughed quietly.
"Day time, get up," James insisted.
"Hey," Logan muttered.
"Hey," James picked his head up off the pillow with a grin.
Logan chuckled, and pushed James' head back onto the pillow.
"He comes in some mornings to have a cuddle," Jean explained.
"I don't mind it, I'm the one who has to fit into the life you two have."
"Well, there'll be some mornings he might not be so welcome in here," Jean smiled.
"That's where I come in, with my excellent hearing," Logan smirked.
"And I can wake Ororo up to get him before he runs in," she laughed.
"What," James asked, sensing he was being talked about.
"Nothin', kid," Logan cuffed him again, and James giggled.