Chapter 18

(Logan)

The summer passed much the same as the summers before, except that fewer kids were staying here full-time these days. It had taken nearly ten years and in spite of the anti-mutant groups that seemed to crop up every day, mutants were still gaining acceptance amongst the rest of the population. Part of that was because the government finally released a statement that their own research showed the same thing Hank had known for years; mutant births were on the rise. For several weeks, every newscast featured an interview with some expert or another that confirmed the government report. Once that happened, more than half the students that would normally stay over the summer received surprise calls and letters from parents asking them to come home, sometimes for the first time in years. It was no surprise that some of them were skeptical or downright hostile about going home, but with the help of Xavier and the rest of the staff, they all decided to at least give it a try. I had my doubts about the whole thing, but none of the kids came home til it was time for school to start, so I guess that shows what I know.

Kyro, Angela and I hit a few more bases over that summer, but we still didn't get the one guy we wanted more than anyone. We did manage to get another one of the few big brains that had actually survived our escape from Alkali Lake all those years ago, but he didn't tell us anything we didn't already know. Buzz and Sage were still analyzing all the data we'd collected, but again there was nothing new. There were hints here and there about the project to clone me, along with something called "Project Phoenix", but there were few details about that in the files we'd confiscated to date. So, although our jaunts made us feel better, they really didn't bring us any closer to the resolution we all so desperately wanted.

A little less than three weeks before school started back up, Evie turned nine. The good news was she didn't have her party at that damned noise factory. The bad news was her mutation coming into full-blown power. In and of itself, it wasn't a bad thing, but the circumstances made for a scary couple of days for her. It all started four days after her birthday. She woke up like any other day and came bounding into our room, leaping on the bed between Angela and me and demanding we get up. Angela grumbled and pulled the pillow over her head, complaining that she simply never had that much energy, while I just laughed and grabbed my girl for a tickle fight. It lasted all of two seconds before she went pale, screamed and passed out in my arms. Angela and I immediately freaked out; I gathered Evie into my arms and I ran with her down to the infirmary, sending the strongest thoughts I could in the Professor's general direction, while Angela pounded on Hank's door to wake him and get him downstairs as soon as fucking possible.

I have to give the furball credit, he made it down there only a few seconds after me. I already had my girl settled on the examination table, holding her hand and whispering to her to just wake up when he came in. He checked her vitals, drew some blood and hooked her up to a bunch of monitors, while I just stood there and held my little angel's hand. "Logan, could you tell me what happened, please?" He asked as he fitted a blood pressure cuff to her arm.

"I dunno, Blue." I said as Angela came up beside me. I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close, while Hank continued to poke and prod at my little girl. I explained everything I remembered, but since there wasn't much it didn't take too long. About a minute later, Xavier came in and positioned himself near Evie's head and closed his eyes. Angela and I held our breath as we waited for the diagnosis. I had all kinds of things going through my head, none of them good and all of them sure to bring out the Wolverine quicker than anything. After an eternity, Hank and Charles excused themselves for a private conference, leaving us alone with our daughter. She looked so tiny, lying there with things attached to her head and chest, the monitors beeping and tracing lines I couldn't interpret over their screens. Angela moved to the other side of the table and gently ran a finger down Evie's cheek and I could smell the anxiety pouring off her. I looked over and smiled weakly, but Angela looked ready to kill me. "What?"

"That's it?" Angela said, glaring up at me. "That's all that happened? You tickled her for two seconds and now she's here looking like she's two steps from dead?"

"Angela, I swear that's all." She looked at me blankly, her mouth set in a thin line, but I didn't have anything else to give her. I looked away, not knowing what else to do. "I swear."

"That's it? She didn't hit her head or, I don't know, hit your head?" I shook my head and she looked back down. "Then tell me why she's laying here like this. Tell me what's wrong with my daughter."

"I believe we can do that." The Professor said as he glided across the floor from Hank's office, followed by Hank.

"All of her blood work came back normal," Hank began, consulting the chart in his hands, "as well as her EKG and EEG. After consulting with Charles, I believe an MRI or any other further testing will not be necessary."

"So what happened?" Angela asked, a tremor in her voice.

Charles took a deep breath and looked us in the eye. "Her mutation came into full manifestation today."

We both looked at him in confusion. "Dahell you talkin' 'bout Chuck?" I asked. "Her mutation manifested years ago."

"No, her mutation partially manifested." He settled himself back near Evie's head. "Before I explain anything else, I must ask you to please stop touching her, you're making it worse."

I dropped my daughter's hand and Angela snatched hers away as though Evie's forehead had burned her. "Worse?" She asked, a note of hysteria creeping into her voice. "How the hell are we making it worse?"

"If you recall, we were exploring the possibilities that her power may have been enhanced through touch." We nodded, remembering how she'd fainted after holding Angela's hand the night we brought her back dead from a mission. "We have been unable to recreate what happened to her last winter in our sessions and I have been under the impression it was sheer emotion that facilitated that particular incident. However, it seems I wasn't entirely correct in that assumption."

"So, what's going on now?"

"I still believe it was emotion that allowed her to learn what she learned through the physical contact she had with Angela that night, so I had assumed that would always be the case. But from what Hank and I have determined through our examination, it would seem that psychometry is most likely her primary mutation and her flashes of precognition have always been related to touch."

"How does that explain her dreams?" I asked. "The 'bad men', the one 'bout Angela dyin'?"

"Logan, you have to understand that precognition and psychometry are fairly uncommon psychic mutations. I can not rule out the possibility that she will occasionally receive precognitive flashes or dreams with no catalyst to cause them, but I am certain that it was her mutation that caused her to faint today, which is why I asked you to stop touching her."

I felt the color drain from my face. "Professor, what did she see?" I whispered, fearing the answer.

He looked at me sympathetically. "From what I saw in her mind during my initial examination…Logan, she relived what happened to you during the adamantium bonding process in the space of a heartbeat and her mind simply shut down."

Angela's hand flew to her mouth and she turned away, tears in her eyes and I sat down heavily in the chair next to the exam table. "No, God no." I lowered my head, staring at my hands and was surprised when a tear splashed between my knuckles right where the fucking claws come out. "Jesus Christ, what have I done?"

"Listen to me, Logan," Hank said as he placed a hand on my shoulder, "this is not your fault. You had no way of knowing."

I sprang from my chair and faced off with the doc. "NOT MY FAULT?" I shouted. "If not mine, then whose? She's my daughter an' I put her into a fuckin' coma by touchin' her!"

"Logan, please calm down and just listen," he said calmly, "I promise, this will all make sense in a moment."

"Calm down? How can I do that when I don't even know if I'll ever be able to hug my own daughter ever again? Brush her hair? Give her a god damn kiss goodnight?" I looked at my hands again and for the millionth time I cursed myself and the men who had made me into this thing that I am. "I shoulda known this was all too good to be true. Everything I touch just turns to shit."

"Logan, that's not true!" Angela cried and rushed over to me. Tears still streamed down her face as she reached out to me, but I flinched and pulled away from her. "Without you, I wouldn't have had anything to live for all those years we were apart. I wouldn't have met these wonderful people, become a super hero." Her eyes pleaded with me, but I just scowled at her and took a step back. "I wouldn't have this beautiful daughter if it wasn't for you."

"Maybe you'd both be better off without me." I whispered, my heart breaking. "You'd all be better off without me."

"No Logan, I wouldn't. Neither would Evie. We need you, do you understand that?"

"No darlin', I don't. How can you say that when our daughter is layin' there like that because of me?"

"It's not because of you, Logan," Hank spat, "and if you would stop feeling sorry for yourself for one minute, I would explain that to you." I shifted my glare to him, but he didn't seem impressed. "Now, as Charles and I were trying to explain, her mutation came into full manifestation some time within the past twenty-four hours. It's likely even she didn't know this had happened, so there was no way for anyone to guard against this." He placed his hand on my arm again and steered me back to the chair I had vacated earlier. "Now, even though psychometry works through touch, it is still a psychic mutation and because of that, it's possible to teach her to shield herself from unwanted visions."

"So she'll be able to control it?" I asked, my anger starting to fade a bit.

"Eventually, yes." Xavier replied. "Like with any other gift, the training will take time." He closed his eyes and bent over my daughter's head, his hands positioned on either side. "I know how this looks to you, but Evie is just fine. I'm explaining to her that what she saw didn't happen to her, that it's ok to wake up, that she's safe." He grew quiet and the atmosphere in the infirmary grew so tense, the hair on my arms was standing up. After a few minutes, Evie's eyes fluttered open and the Professor barely managed to get out of her way as she sat up with a gasp.

"Mommy!" She shouted and burst into tears. Angela wrapped her arms around her, taking care to avoid any contact with her bare skin. "It was like a bad dream but I was awake and it was happening to Daddy! What happened to Daddy?"

"Shh, Evie it's all right, it's fine." Angela soothed. "It was a long time ago, he's ok now." She turned so Evie could see me sitting there. "See? Daddy's just fine."

"Hey princess." I said and reached out to stroke her back. "Don't you worry 'bout what you saw, ok?"

"Daddy, they hurt you so much, like fire on your bones." She whispered. "Is that where your claws come from?"

"No, I always had claws, angel. When they put the metal in me, it covered my claws too and made them the way they are."

"Why'd they do that?"

I shook my head, not knowing what to say and looked at Angela. "Well honey, it's kind of hard to explain." She said.

"But why would people want to hurt other people like that on purpose? Daddy's already really strong an' stuff, so why did they need to put metal in him?"

"To make him stronger, make it so his bones can't break." She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "They did it to me too, Evie, just not on my claws. And I guess they did it because they wanted to see if they could."

"That's not a very good reason." Evie said, so matter-of-fact I couldn't help but smirk. "You always told me to have a good reason for doing stuff an' I know you wouldn't let me get away with anythin' with that for a reason."

We all chuckled at that. "Not everyone is as smart as you are, princess." I said. "An' well, some people are just bad all the time."

"But you don't have to worry about them, sweetie," Angela added, "they're gone now, they're not coming back."

"But they are, Mommy." Evie said, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks. "They are comin' back. They're gonna come here an' take me away."

I looked at Angela in alarm. Nothing we'd done over the years had changed that? And what had my little girl seen in my memory? "You still dreamin' 'bout the bad men?"

Evie shook her head. "No, not a dream. I saw them, Daddy, saw them in your head. Those are the men who come for me."

Angela cleared her throat and patted Evie on the shoulder. "Honey, I know that dream scared you a lot, but those men can't come after you. When me and your Daddy got away from them, well…we killed almost all of them. We got the others later. So those men can't come for you."

"Not all of them, but there's one there in Daddy's head an' he's the one who comes for me with all the bad men."

Was she talking about the Director? Had he been there that day we got away and we missed him? I closed my eyes and called up the memory myself, something I had never really done for obvious reasons. But no matter how hard I looked, how I tried to focus on something other than what was happening to me, all I could see were the hazmat suits, the needles, the blood. Once I was out of the tank, I wasn't looking for anyone specific, I just wanted to hurt everyone who had hurt me. I opened my eyes and looked at my little girl, and I felt the animal inside me stir again. "Princess, do you know when they're gonna come?"

She shook her head and sniffled, "Not really. It's warm out, but not summer warm. An' all the other kids are here, but most of them get away." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her tears drying on her cheeks. "But it's all different now, cuz they're comin' for me, but I'm already gone when they get here with Aunt Rogue an' Uncle Atlas, but I dunno where they take me." She gave Angela and me a suspicious look. "Are you an' Mommy gonna send me away?"

"She's your daughter." Angela said under her breath, then smiled at Evie. "Yeah honey, we are, but only if the bad men come. We don't want anything to happen to you, so we asked your Aunt and Uncle to take you away until it's safe to come back again."

"But I wanna stay with you!"

"We know, princess," I said, "but you're the most important thing in our life an' we don't want the bad men to get to you. An' you never know, maybe somethin'll happen before then an' they'll never come. But even if they do come, you ain't gonna be gone forever." I stood up and wrapped my arms around both of my girls. "We can't live without ya, punkin, you'll be home soon as it's safe."

She nodded and I kissed the top of her head. We stayed like that for a long moment, until Evie started to squirm. "Daddy, you're suffuffocating me." I chuckled and stepped back. "Can we have breakfast now?"

"Sure thing, princess. You go ahead with your mom an' I'll be up in a little bit." I watched the two of them leave, then turned to Xavier and Hank. "So, what'd ya make o' that?"

"My primary concern is teaching her to control her gift." The Professor said. "Previously, we had little success and I believe that's because it hadn't fully manifested. Now that it has and we know what we're dealing with, we'll be able to teach her how to use it as a matter of will."

"But what about now? What do we do now? We can't touch her an' I'm sure there's plenty o' secrets hidin' in every corner o' this house."

"I think it would be best if she were to wear gloves at the least." Hank said. "I know, it's not an ideal situation, but until she does get it under her control, it's best to protect her for the time being." He leaned on the table and looked at me intently. "I know it won't be easy for you, but try not to touch her exposed skin. It is possible that she'll catch glimpses from any contact, not just through her hands."

I swore softly. "That ain't gonna be easy, for any of us."

"I know. But she's young, in perfect health and we've already taught her the rudiments of controlling her gift. Now that we have more information, we'll be able to do more and she has no bad habits to unlearn."

"Are you sure? Cuz Remy's still the only person who can touch Rogue an' you've been workin' with her for how many years now?"

"Rogue's power is much different." Xavier said. "For all that it resembles a psychic power in many ways, it is primarily a physical power. The major difference between Rogue and your daughter is that Evie's power is purely psychic, physical contact simply amplifies it. By teaching her how to access the power only when she wants to use it will eventually allow her to touch people and things with no risk of seeing things she doesn't want to see."

"But her dreams will likely continue." Hank added. "The few precogs I spoke to in the underground all those years ago, for all that they each had their own ways of using their power consciously, were all united in their insistence that dreams were always the source of their most accurate visions. It is very unlikely that we'll be able to teach her to prevent visions in her sleep."

"We'll worry 'bout that if we have to." I let out a sigh and ran my fingers through my hair. "I trust ya both, you know that. Just help my little girl, ok? Do what ya gotta do, but help her."

"That was never up to question, Logan." Xavier smiled and thumbed the control on his chair. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I would also like to have some breakfast."

I watched him go and Hank came up and clapped me on the back. "Congratulations, Logan. If the tests we did earlier are any indication, you've managed to produce the strongest precog I've ever heard of."

"Lucky me." I snorted. "Can't even give her a hug."

"It's temporary, I assure you. She'll have this under her control before you know it. And once that happens, we'll help her refine it, make it so she can move within the visions, control her point of view, see details that may seem irrelevant at first but make all the difference in the end."

"That's possible?"

"Oh yes, absolutely. In fact, there's no reason for us to discount anything where she's concerned. As we've said before, precogs are the rarest of psychic mutants. Those I've had contact with have told me that it usually gives them a vague impression of the future, like a gut feeling with pictures or brief flashes except in the most extreme of circumstances. Evie's dream of the 'bad men' and the one she had of Angela's death support that. However, none of the precogs I've spoken to ever said anything about having psychometry as well. It may turn out that by using the two together, she'll be able to receive detailed visions, even in her waking hours."

"But you don't know for sure."

He shook his head. "No, I don't. She may only get brief flashes moments before something happens, unless they come to her in her dreams. We won't know for some time. Her power will grow as she grows and so will her control. We may not know the upper limits of her power until she's in her twenties." He checked his watch and smiled at me. "But this is all speculation on my part and as a physician, I'm more interested in facts. So, we'll take this a day at a time, teach her the control she needs now and let the rest fall into place on its own. Now, if I'm not mistaken, it's pancake day and the students are most likely eating our share."

I smiled weakly and we left the infirmary, but I was still worried about my girl. It had been bad enough when she was seeing horror in her future, but now she'd seen part of the horror in my past. How much more horror would she see before she had this under her control? But the part that hurt me the most was the knowledge that I couldn't protect her from that horror, no matter how much I wanted to or how hard I tried.

AN: For the record, the word "suffuffocating" is spelled that way on purpose...i think my own daughter was almost 11 before she could say it correctly...hell, i'm 38 and still can't say "Worcestershire" (or however the hell you spell that)...at any rate, i wanted to clear that up before i got fifteleven reviews on how i spelled that wrong...:) Special thanks go out to the usual suspects, including Ineluctability and theNightEnchantress for reviewing...who knows? Maybe i'll update again in a few days...anything's possible...:)

But, we all know the best way to get an earlier update out of me is for someone NEW to review! So, if you've never reviewed before, please give it a go! Just hit the button and say hello or something, that's good enough for me...:)