Happy Friday the Thirteenth! Thought i'd post this for all you superstitious types, so you could think to yourself "at least one thing went right today!" Enjoy!

Chapter 24

(Logan)

I'm pretty sure Angela had no idea how much her late gift meant to me and still means to this day. She gave me a lot more than a set of antique swords and the finest kimono I've ever seen. She reminded me that there is a lot more to me than the weapon Stryker tried to forge out of me, more than just the animal that came with the mutation. I made a decision that night while I was meditating that if it was the very last thing I did, I was going to take her to Japan and show her where I'd learned the way of the samurai. And if I could, I would find someone to teach her.

Winter turned to spring and I could feel Fate drawing close to me, the day I'd been dreading for almost a year. I was sitting in my office near the workout room, a lesson plan in front of me for the next defense class, but I was really trying to plot a way to get out of the horrible thing I was going to have to do later that day. I found myself secretly wishing that Magneto would break out of jail, or the FOH would plot an attack somewhere nearby. Hell, I would have settled for a nice natural disaster with lots of people trapped in precarious positions, anything to get me out of my tuxedo fitting.

But, like I said, Fate had it in for me and when five o'clock rolled around, Scott was there with an unbearably smug look on his face. "Hey Logan, we're leaving in ten minutes." He said and I could hear the amusement in his voice. I mumbled something under my breath that related to him going and fucking himself, but he acted like he didn't hear me. "What was that? Never mind, not important. We have to go to the tuxedo fitting in ten minutes."

I looked up and I could see he was on the verge of outright laughter. "Shove it up your ass, Cyke. This ain't funny."

"Oh, I disagree completely." He leaned into the office, a full grin on his face. "It's absolutely hilarious."

"Remind me again why I called a truce with you? Please? Cuz right now, I'm thinkin' it might be over."

"Oh relax Logan, we won't be there long."

"Yeah, just long enough for me to feel like a complete ass."

"I'd think you'd be used to that by now." I growled and he laughed out loud.

"Laugh it up, One-Eye, but I guaranfuckin'tee that I'll be the one laughin' the hardest when you get tanked at the reception and start doin' the Funky White Man dance."

"Hey, you're the one with all the slick moves around here, not me. Or did you forget about that time…"

I stood up, my fists balled at my sides. "Don't even fuckin' go there. I will deck you." It was bad enough that, despite my best threats, the damned DDR scenario had somehow NOT been deleted from the Danger Room mainframe. In fact, the file had "mysteriously" been password protected and no one seemed to know what the password was. Buzz insisted that he'd done all he could to purge it, but it kept coming back. I suspected Hank, since he was the one that'd had the most fun with it, but I didn't have proof. And right when I thought things couldn't get worse, when the kids came back from Christmas break, the Professor unveiled his special gift for the school – our very own DDR machine. Pretty much the only good thing about it was we could use that as punishment along with the half-pipe AND it wouldn't melt when winter was over. But I still had some of the younger kids coming up to me whenever they caught me alone and begging to compete with me. It usually only took a glare or a growl to get rid of them, but they'd always rediscover their courage and ask me again. Xavier also told me, in no uncertain terms, I was definitely not allowed to give the machine a makeover with my claws. I was doomed.

Scott had taken a step back, his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, it's good, no need to get violent." He glanced at his watch, then lowered his hands. "Come on, we leave in five minutes. And you already promised Sam you'd do this, so you can't get out of it."

I grumbled under my breath again, but reached over and closed the lesson plan. "All right, let's get this fuckin' thing over with."

Half an hour later, I was standing in the middle of the tailor's while some guy who was roughly as masculine as Nicole Kidman measured my inseam. I looked over at the others and the only other person who was being fitted by a man was the Professor, whose measurements were already on file there and just needed to be re-verified. Everyone else had a woman, including Sam, which I thought was just plainly unfair. The guy seemed to be taking an awful long time to figure out one little number, so I looked down at him. "Problem, bub?"

"What? Oh no, nothing." He replied, but I heard him mumble "you're a big boy, aren't you?" under his breath.

I clenched my fists, the tips of my claws straining just inside my hands when I heard the Professor's voice in my mind. 'Logan, behave yourself. It will never do to have you gutting one of the finest tailors in New York.'

'Remind me again why I'm doin' this then, cuz I ain't seein' any reason to put up with this guy gettin' his jollies doin' my measurements.'

'Because Sam and Ororo are your friends and it means a great deal to them to include you.'

I scowled over my shoulder at him, but relaxed my claws back into my forearms. A moment later, Mr. Nicole Kidman scolded me for moving and I turned back around. "How much more you gotta measure anyway?"

"That was the last of it, Mr. Logan." He replied and I stepped off the platform I'd been standing on, but it didn't escape my notice that he watched me as I walked outside to light up a cigar. I've had men hit on me before but that was just kind of creepy. I also had a strange feeling that this little story would make its way around Alpha team at the least and I was not looking forward to that at all. Fifteen minutes later, the rest of the guys came left the shop, so I stubbed out my cigar and we all went back to the mansion.

I was impressed that it took longer than ten minutes for the story to get back to Angela, but she was the only one who was at least sympathetic to me. "I heard there was a…situation at the tailor's." She said as we sat down to dinner.

I rolled my eyes and gave her a slightly pleading look. "C'mon darlin', not you too." I groaned.

"Oh no! I'm not gonna pick on you for it." She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "Was he at least cute?"

"What?" I snapped and she sat back, laughing. "I don't fuckin' know!"

"Calm down, lover. If it makes you feel any better, Storm's making us wear flower circlets in our hair."

I raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Really? That'll be a hoot."

"Oh yeah, just what I always wanted. At least all of us bridesmaids managed to squash the idea of parasols before she got too far with it."

I snorted with barely-suppressed laughter. "Flower circlets and a parasol? I thought she was your friend."

"Yeah, so did I." She spooned some potatoes onto her plate, then asked Kurt to pass her the pork chops. "Thank the fucking gods we're not wearing pink!"

"Really, what color did she decide?" For some reason, what the bridesmaids wore had been a huge debate for months now. Jubilee wanted yellow, Kitty wanted bright pink and Rogue wanted green. Angela had been pushing for black, but Storm was right against that.

"Well, in the end we talked her into this kind of middling shade of blue, almost like the hakama to your kimono." She shrugged and handed the plate of meat to me. "But she also told me I am absolutely not allowed to dye my streaks to match." She picked up a lock of her hair, which hadn't been dyed a crazy color for some time, mostly due to the fact that the X-Men were now so much in the public eye. Xavier's interview with CNN after the Colorado avalanche had been repeated worldwide and he was still receiving offers for interviews and other speaking engagements. She frowned at the blond streak she'd been able to talk the Professor into, then shrugged. "I don't know, I thought it would be cute."

"I think you're beautiful no matter what ya do, crazy colors an' all."

"But you have a biased opinion. I've been looking at the same face for a hundred years and I don't see anything special about it."

"Then you ain't lookin' hard enough." I leaned over and gave her kiss, and we passed the rest of the meal making small talk with Kurt and Buzz.

Five weeks later, we had our final fittings for the tuxedos, which made me completely unhappy. Fortunately, Mr. Nicole Kidman was off doing the initial measurements for another wedding, so I was taken care of by a woman who was roughly as feminine as Ernest Borgnine. I couldn't fucking win in that place. But when I came out of the dressing room, she pronounced that I wouldn't need any more adjustments and I could leave. Thank God for small favors.

Xavier cancelled classes for the next week so that we could get the mansion ready for the wedding. As the students were assigned various chores to get the place looking its best, I was feeling restless. I kept eyeing the trees and the new leaves coming out on them and thinking about Evie's vision, which had still not changed since the last variation. If this was a movie, the "bad men" would attack some time after "I do" but before cake. So while everyone else was dusting, polishing, sweeping and washing, I was stalking around the perimeter, checking sensors and wishing Xavier would have agreed with me about the surface to air missiles in the rosebushes all those years ago.

On Wednesday night, the happy couple had their bachelor parties. I have no idea what the ladies did and no matter how hard I tried, Angela, Jubilee, Kitty and Rogue wouldn't tell me a thing about Storm's party. Asking Storm was also asking for a lightning bolt to the ass, so I didn't bother. I figured two could play at that game and refused to tell any of them what happened at Sam's party, which wasn't that big a deal anyway. It wasn't like we could take him out and get him drunk; his metabolism works like my healing factor in that regard and he threw off alcohol as well as I do. But the rest of the guys – Scott, Bobby, Kurt and Hank – still wanted to do the whole bar-hopping thing, so we went. It figured that McCoy would know where all the mutant-friendly bars were in New York City, so he was elected the leader of the bunch and took us to everything from a high-class piano bar (boring) to seedy dives (outstanding!) and even a strip club. We ended up almost carrying Scott and Bobby home, neither one of them really able to hold their liquor, but that's the whole reason why the party was three days before the wedding. It was hard not to rib them the next morning when they stumbled into breakfast, looking a bit green and definitely hung over.

Saturday morning finally came and the first thing I noticed was Angela and Evie's absence. I looked around and saw the note on the nightstand, but I didn't need to read it to know that the two of them were off helping Storm get ready. Why it takes a whole gaggle of women several hours to help one person get dressed and made up is beyond me, but it did. I jumped in the shower, trimmed my sideburns and threw on a pair of jeans and a tank before going in search of my woman.

I found where they had sequestered themselves, which was pretty much the entire girl's wing of the dorms. Piotr was helpfully guarding the hallway as the only person with a chance of keeping Sam away from the bride. I nodded to him as I walked by and simply followed the giggles to Marie's room. I knocked on the door and was immediately hailed by a chorus of "you better not be Sam!" from everyone in there. A few seconds later, Angela opened the door about an inch and peeked out, then slipped into the hallway with a smile. "Hey lover, whatcha doing here?"

I looked at her and tried really hard not to laugh. Her already curly hair was rolled up in curlers the size of beer cans and she had a smudge of light-colored powder on her nose. I reached out and swiped it away, which made her flinch. "Wow, you look…fuckin' silly as hell."

She punched me in the arm and I did laugh. "Fuck you too." She looked me over and scowled. "Why aren't you dressed?"

"'Scuse me? The damn thing don't start for another two hours!"

"Trust me, that time will fly. And you have to help seat the guests as they arrive, which will be in about an hour if I have the time right."

I scowled, but smiled when she leaned up to kiss me. "Fine, I'll go put the damn thing on. Can't fuckin' believe I'm doin' this."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll look handsome as all hell. Now go! I have to finish primping." I gave her another quick kiss and went back to the suite. Twenty minutes later, I had everything on except the bow tie. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't tie the stupid thing and I was seriously considering shredding it and telling Sam I had a horrible accident with the disposal in the kitchen. But I knew that if he didn't kill me, my woman would, so I went back towards the women in search of help. What I found would have been the height of funny if it hadn't been kind of pathetic at the same time. Sam was trying his level best to get past Piotr, but Colossus was in his steel form and at least a match for Atlas in strength. I shook my head and pulled them apart.

"Logan, he won't let me past to talk to Ororo." Sam pleaded.

I raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"And what? I want to talk to my almost-wife!"

"You know how it is, my friend," Piotr said as he crossed his arms, "they have their superstitions and you can not go down there."

"I have a right to talk to her!"

I slung my arm over his shoulder and steered him away. "Look, you know how women get. You got a message ya want me to give her?"

"I…no, I don't. It's just…" he lowered his voice and leaned in to me, "Logan, I keep thinking she'll change her mind at the last minute or that she's already gone or something."

It took all of my willpower not to laugh. "Sam, listen to me. I know she's still in there, I can hear her and I can smell her. So find Scott, go outside and try to relax, all right?"

He nodded and went back down the hallway. I shook my head and remembered with extreme clarity why I never wanted to have another wedding, no matter how much I loved the woman in question. Unbidden, my mind flashed back to the day I had married Elena so long ago. It had been a small ceremony, just the two of us, a few close friends and her family. My family had been dead for years by then, but I didn't need any of them there that day. The fact that it ultimately ended in tragedy for us wasn't the point of this memory coming up on me. The point was that I hadn't thought I'd ever be happier than I was the day I took Elena as my wife, a point that has since been proven wrong.

I shook my head to clear it and continued back to Marie's room and tapped on the door. Again, the chorus chimed out, only this time they said "get outta here Sam!" I chuckled to myself. Women are so weird. "It ain't Sam, open the door." I said.

The door was all but flung open and Evie leapt into my arms. "Daddy! Look, I have a flower crown!" My daughter looked beautiful in her pale blue dress with white carnations and blue delphiniums in her hair.

I laughed and gave her a kiss. "Now you're really a princess, princess!" I said.

"I ain't half as pretty as Aunt 'Roro or Mommy." She leaned in and whispered loudly. "Mommy's wearing makeup."

I raised an eyebrow. In all the time I've known her, I can count on one hand the number of times Angela put on more than a little eyeliner and those were all back in Detroit at her club. She always said she didn't have time to fuss with all that crap just to have to wash it off later. "How'd that happen?"

Evie giggled. "Aunt Marie threatened to knock her out with her skin if Mommy didn't let Kitty put some on her."

"Aunt Marie can be kind of scary when she wants to be." I replied and Evie nodded gravely. I gave her another kiss and set her down. "Can you get your Mommy for me? I need help."

"She'll never believe that, but ok." She turned as she closed the door and pointed at the floor. "Wait right there." I pointed to the same exact spot and cocked my head and she nodded before closing the door.

I waited a few minutes, hands in my pockets and finally Angela opened the door. "I have no idea what this is about Logan, but…whoa." She stopped mid-rant and looked at me like I was lunch, whistling. "Well, well, well. We may not make it to the ceremony after all."

I just stood there and gaped like an idiot. Her dress was just above knee-length in a shade of blue with an almost silvery sheen to it. It clung to her like a second skin and I didn't need to touch it to know it was pure silk. Her hair was pinned up in a way that looked really complicated, with little strands framing her face and a few long ringlets hung down her back along with the blue and white ribbons from the flower circlet her hair was woven around. She was also wearing silver high heels, which only made her three inches taller but what they did for her legs…yeah, she was right. We might not make it to the ceremony. "Uhh, wow."

She smirked at me in that way that said "just wait until we're alone" and I had to beat down my inner animal, who just wanted to sling her over my shoulder and carry her off. She caught the low growl that escaped my throat and slipped into the hallway, her finger over my lips. "Shh lover, calm down," she whispered, her voice husky, "we have to wait at least until after cake."

I tried to listen to her, but her lips were painted a dark red just a bit lighter than a black cherry, which set off her fair skin rather well. She wasn't pale like one of them Goth kids – we had a couple of them running around the mansion – but a tan just never took on her for long and she didn't go out of her way to try. I leaned in and gave her a deep kiss. "Darlin', you look good enough to eat."

"Mm, I'm gonna hold you to that later," she replied, pressing her forehead to mine. "Lucky for you this lipstick's kiss-proof." I growled again and leaned in for another one, but she dodged me this time. "So, Evie said you needed help with something?"

"Oh, uh yeah I do." I said and fumbled the evil bow tie out of my pocket. "Can't work this damn thing."

She laughed and took it from me. "Turn around, get on your knees." I raised an eyebrow and she laughed again. "You're a foot taller than me, Logan. I can't put this on you if you're standing."

"Oh." I did as she asked and she slid the thing under the collar of my shirt. Less than a minute later, she gave it a tug and patted me on the shoulder. I looked down and there it was, a perfect bow tie. "How'd you do that so fast?"

She shrugged as I stood up. "My dad taught me how to do it when I was little. I guess it's just one of those things I never forgot how to do."

"Lucky me." I wrapped my arms around her and she sighed as she leaned into my chest. "How come you never talk 'bout your family?"

"I dunno. I guess because they've been gone so long, there's no point. You never talk about yours either, not since the memories came back."

"True. Same reasons too." A burst of giggles, followed by a frantic shout came through the door and I smiled. "Sounds like they need ya in there."

She sighed again. "A maid of honor's work is never done." She kissed me again and turned to the door, giving me another once-over and a wink. "I'll see you later sexy."

I smiled and headed out to the garden where the ceremony was going to take place. Sam and Scott were there, the former with a large glass of Scotch in his hand. It wouldn't get him drunk, but it seemed that having something to do with his hands did wonders to keep him calm. I clapped the groom on the back and smiled. "So, you ready?"

"I've been ready since last month." He tugged at his collar, which I could sympathize with. "Tried to get her to take off to Vegas, but she wouldn't have it, said the invitations were already out and all that crap." He gulped his Scotch and Scott took the glass from him to refill it. "If I'd known it was gonna be like this, I would have just flown her to Vegas and married her a year ago."

"Oh relax Sam, you'll be fine." Scott said as he handed him the glass. "You'll get one look at her and all the other stuff will just go away."

"I hope so." He mumbled and sipped his drink. Hank and Bobby showed up a few minutes later and I would have thought a tuxedo would look even sillier on the doc than it did on me, but he managed to pull it off nicely. We stood around chatting for a while until the first guests started to show up and the rest of us had work to do. For the next hour, I had to endure everything from a charming old woman who said I was the spitting image of her grandson (poor kid) to a little girl of about six who wanted to know if I was the Wolfman. Scott nearly gave himself a hernia laughing about that one, though he was smart enough to stop when I glared at him and showed the very tips of my claws between my knuckles. At a few minutes after noon, Kurt went to the front of the assembly and I knew it was time.

Sam took his place at the front with the elf while the rest of us went back inside the patio doors to pick up the girls. I paused and gave Angela another quick kiss before taking Rogue's gloved arm, who looked gorgeous in her own right. Even Jubilee looked amazing, clinging to Hank's arm and smiling. The two of them and Kitty wore dresses of the same basic style as Angela's, but the color was a bit darker and didn't have the silvery sheen to it. Evie was adorable, holding tightly to the hand of a boy named Cory Landry who was a year older than her and looked about as happy to be in his tux as I was. But it wouldn't be fair if I didn't talk about Storm.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still certain Angela is the most beautiful woman on the planet, even if I'm a bit biased. But the only way to describe Storm that day is absolute perfection. Her dress was white silk the exact same color as her hair in a halter style (as Angela explained to me later), but the back was completely open to just above her hips. Her hair had also been done up in some complicated way, and when I looked closely I could see a circlet of silver with diamonds woven into it; she had no need of a veil with that hair of hers. She stood next to the Professor, clinging to his hand with a faint shimmer of tears in her eyes. I gave her a wink and she smiled at me. Then the music started and the ceremony began.

The actual ceremony only took about twenty-five minutes and went off without a hitch. Of course, with all these mutants all over, it would have gone very badly if anyone had actually stood up to protest when Kurt asked if anyone had a reason why they shouldn't be joined. Finally, the "I do's" were said, the rings exchanged and Kurt pronounced them man and wife. A huge cheer went up and the happy couple was pelted with rose petals as they took their walk back down the aisle.

I had to suffer the indignity of wedding pictures for the next hour while the senior students rearranged everything outside for the reception. Rahne finally announced that everything was ready and we went back outside for the party. Sam and Storm had to do the whole required mingling thing, but after the wedding party was introduced we got to sit down and relax. First thing I did was take off the evil bow tie and I unfastened the top button of my shirt before heading right to the bar. The hired bartender tried handing me a Budweiser when I asked for a beer, but I just raised an eyebrow and leaned in to him. "I know the maid o' honor's got a secret stash back there," I growled, "so just gimme one o' those." He glanced over to where Angela was standing with Evie and a woman I knew was Sam's agent for his art and she nodded. The guy shrugged and popped open one of those wonderful Waterloo's that Ricky sent her every couple of months. I thanked him and went to sit down.

Angela came over a few minutes later and sat on my lap, kicking off her shoes in the process. "Gods above, I hate high heels!" She breathed as she took the bottle out of my hand, tossing back half of it in one go. "I see the tie's missing already."

"Yup," I replied, retrieving my beer, "damn thing flew right off o' me, couldn't stop it if I tried."

She threw her head back and laughed. "Oh Logan, you are the most impossible man I've ever known." She kissed me softly, rubbing her nose against mine. "I just love you."

"Mm, I love you too darlin'." We sat there for a while, just watching people go by. Dinner was served, buffet style and we all loaded up on an odd mixture of African and Jewish cuisine, which somehow managed to work together better than I thought it would. It was getting towards early evening and some of the people who had arrived with small children were leaving, since the little tykes were wound up enough as it was without adding dancing and cake into the mix. Xavier had offered rooms for many of them, but they'd all begged off out of respect for the rest of the school, saying it wasn't fair to inflict so many riled up kids on the rest of us. I was secretly grateful, but most people don't hear things the way I do and to be honest, their shrill screams were already grating on my nerves.

The sun started to go down about an hour or so later and except for students, the only guests left were adults. The cake had been cut (with no smashing, not for these two. Not their style.) and the only thing left was the bouquet and garter. Kitty and Rogue, with Evie and Jubilee pushing from behind, forcibly dragged Angela to the terrace for the bouquet toss. What they hadn't counted on was the fact that she had her shoes off, so as the flowers arced towards her, she simply dodged out of the way, allowing the bouquet to land neatly in Sarah's waiting hands. When the guys tried to come for me and force me up there in the same way, I calmly slid out the middle claw on my left hand as I took a long pull from my beer. Not wanting to risk anything, they backed off and it was Remy who wound up catching it.

I danced with Evie, Angela, Rogue and Storm before the night was over, just little slow ones where you really just walk around in a circle and let the girl lead. The DDR incident aside, I'm not much of a dancer anyway, so no one else really pushed it except my daughter. I just scowled at anyone who even looked like they were going to comment on that, which kept them quiet enough on the topic. As things were winding down, I was sitting at the head table, looking at Angela in the fading light as she watched the people on the dance floor with a half-smile on her face. She must have sensed me staring at her, because she turned to me and gave me a lazy grin. "Penny for your thoughts." She murmured.

"Are they worth that much?" I replied, finishing my beer.

"Mm, more than that, but I'm too happy to argue about it right now." I continued to take her in, the way the light breeze blew through her hair, the last rays of sun catching the blond streaks and turning them to gold. She blushed suddenly and looked down. "Stop that, you're embarrassing me." She said.

"Angela I…" I swallowed hard as she raised her eyes back to me, looking confused. "Marry me."

That definitely took her by surprise as her eyes popped wide open. "What?"

I took her tiny hands in mine and stroked my thumbs across her knuckles. "Marry me. I know we said we don't need to an' all that, but…I want to, I really do. Marry me."

"Logan, you're just all caught up in all of this. Tomorrow morning…"

"No, I'm serious. An' I don't mean next week or anythin', not til this thing Evie keeps seein' is over but…Angela, I mean it. Marry me."

She looked down, her hands tightened on mine and I was suddenly afraid I'd really fucked up. She had always been so adamant that she didn't need to, didn't want to, it didn't mean that much to her, so maybe just coming out with it out of the blue like this hadn't been very smart. But something in me said it was the right thing to do, this was the right time. My gut had never led me wrong before and I hoped this wasn't the first time it did. After about a minute, she looked up at me and I saw the tears shimmering in her eyes. "You really want to do this?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I really wanna do this. More'n anythin'."

She smiled. "Ok. Ok, yeah I'll marry you." She threw herself into my arms and kissed me hard, her arms tight around my neck. Suddenly filled with joy, I stood up and twirled her around, making her laugh. "You and your impulses, always getting me in trouble."

I grinned and kissed her again. "Yeah well, what can I say? Just seems like the right time, ya know?"

"I do." I relaxed my arms and she slid to the ground, then bent over and picked up her shoes. "Come on, Evie's staying with Wendy tonight. Let's go celebrate our engagement." She didn't have to ask me twice.

AN: Ok...i can't remember who it was, but i do recall receiving a review where someone asked when Logan and Angela were gonna take the plunge and i specifically said "they aren't"...in fact, for those of you who have been here for the long haul, it's been an ongoing theme...now, in my defense, there are times when i don't feel like i'm writing so much as taking dictation and sometimes, scenes go wildly off the course i had originally thought they would take...and dammit, no matter how hard i try, i can't wrench them back on the track i had planned...:) So, AT THE TIME, it was true...i had no control over this abrupt change of plans...:) Special thanks to all the usual suspects, but especially to theNightEnchantress and TnTornado for reviewing...:)

Now, this chapter COULD have been posted sooner, except i didn't get any new reviewers...and there's only 3 chapters to go after this...it could take up to TWELVE DAYS for those to come out, unless someone takes a deep breath, hits the review button and says hello or something...come on, do you really want to wait TWELVE DAYS for this to finish?