This chapter is dedicated to:
hippiechick2112,
my first reviewer.

"Scott!" yelled Logan. However, the high school parking lot remained as silent as the proverbial grave Logan was imagining for Scott.

"Where the hell are they!" Logan roared. His short legged temper had already been lost somewhere along his and Lorraine's trek around the high school.

Lorraine sighed, leaning against Scott's car. "They're not here, Dad " she said.

''They were supposed to meet me here, once they were done inside that damn school!" snarled Logan.

"Then they are probably still in the school." Lorraine reasoned.

"We just searched the fuckin' school!" said Logan. "But we didn't check the actual classrooms, though." Lorraine pointed out.

"They were going to visit the principal, what the hell would they be doing in the classrooms!" said Logan.

"What do your friends even look like?" questioned Lorraine. "One is bald and in a wheelchair, the other is a flower-shitting pansy wearing red glasses." Logan said flatly.

Lorraine snickered at her father's descriptions, "They were probably mistaken for teachers." she said. "Yeah" Logan agreed fondly.

"Can we go over to the cafeteria? I'm missing lunch hour." Lorraine asked, straightening the front of her gray sweater.

Logan looked down at his daughter, "Are you hungry?" he said. Lorraine glared at him. " Do you have to ask." she snapped. "You always knew when I was hungry."
"Did I?" Logan whispered, he had recognized his daughter the moment he had seen her face, but his memory was still lacking so many finer details of her.

His head was beginning to throb again, so Logan abandoned his attempts to unlock his amnesia. "Forget the cafeteria, the food there tastes like crap anyway." he said. " Let's go down to visit Tom."

Logan could not even remember who Tom was, but the name had slipped off his tounge so easily, he knew he should remember.

It was infuriating when his brain would not yield a single hint.

"Tom may be illegal, but his wife sure does know how to cook." said Lorraine. And now Logan remembered, Tom was a young man who had a house in the town, but spent most of his time up in the woods, manufacturing bootleg whiskey, moonshine to boot, a profession he had inherited from his father.

"Tom has opened up some sort of restaurant in his basement" Lorraine said. "But everyone knows the only thing anyone buys there is the liquor. The bartenders in town always went to him."
"Sounds like my kind of place" grinned Logan, "Come on, lets go down there."

Lorraine cast a questioning glance over her shoulder. "What about your friends, shouldn't we wait for them?"

"No." Logan declared.

"Does Ricky still live here" Logan asked suddenly, although he winced inside as he asked, he didn't even remember the people he was making inquires after.

"Ricky? The trapper?" Lorraine seemed to intensely think for a moment. "Yeah, he still lives here, but he moved to the other side of town." she finally said.

Logan reached down and fingered the rough wool fabric of his daughter's drab coat. "Is this the only jacket you have, girl?" he said.

Lorraine shifted uncomfortably. "Yes, the Freighthams are good people, but they are bartenders, they never really had enough money when I was living with them, not that they couldn't take care of me."

"Come on." Logan said to his daughter, "I'll buy you dinner, and you can tell me everything that happened while I was away, starting with that Vic boy."
Lorraine let out a laugh, "Dad, homicide isn't an option here."

"We'll see about that." growled Logan, he motioned to Scott's car. "Get in." he said.

"Some Dad." grumbled Lorraine teasingly at him. "He doesn't even offer to help me in." Not to be criticized on his parenting, Logan journeyed around the car to make a huge show of assisting his daughter.

Lorraine endured her father's antics with amusement, soon they were speeding down the highway, doing a solid fifty-five, Logan was seatbelt-less, and apparently unconcerned about any fatal injuries he could garner from his reckless driving.

Lorraine was justifiably worried that her father had torn out the transmission, but they managed to pull to a screeching halt in front of Tom's two story brick house.

Logan zipped up his leather jacket, as they walked up the front steps, an icy wind was beginning to blow.

When Tom answered the door, he immediately saw Logan, a huge grin spread across his face "Logan, where the hell have you been!" Tom greeted enthusiastically.

"Traveling" Logan replied vaguely, Tom's grin grew wider when he noticed Lorraine. "Logan, I swear, you are only fellow I know who would bring their daughter down to a place like this. I remember her when she was knee-high, but the Freighthams would never let her visit." he said.

Logan grinned, "I told them not to let her visit, bub." Yes, he remembered that, at least. Logan shrugged, "No hard feelings, friend?" It was true that Logan remembered next to nothing about Tom, but he did recall that calling him 'friend' was appropriate between them.

Logan and Lorraine were seated at a small table in the basement, the throngs of lumberjacks sitting around them had welcomed them coolly.

Logan was slurping down a tall glass of clear liquor, Lorraine's hands were curled around a mug of steaming hot chocolate that had been ladled out in the kitchen by Tom's wife, while Logan and Tom had been draining various bottles under the guise of 'taste-testing'."

"So kid, talk to me." Logan drawled from the depths of his glass. It was at that moment, that Logan's communicator chose to beep.

"What the fuck." Logan swore, tugging his communicator out of his jacket pocket. Scott's voice bounced through to his ear.

"Logan is that you?" "Of course it's fucking me." Logan snarled impatiently. "Where in the hell are you!" "We have a slight situation." said Scott. "Wherever you are at Logan, stay there, and me and the Professor will catch up to you."

"Fuck that." Logan said promptly. Tilting his head back, Logan drained the rest of his glass. "Sorry sweetie, but we have to go." he said to Lorraine.

Tom didn't mind their hasty exit, but extracted from Logan a promise to visit him again. As Logan was climbing into the driver's seat of Scott's car, Tom came stumbling up to him, carrying a crate of bottles.

"Here." said Tom, passing the bottles of liquor through the open window, "Take some of these." Logan grinned in appreciation, if something could finally manage to get him drunk, it would be Tom's moonshine.

"What's going on Dad?" Lorraine inquired, as she huddled in the backseat, trying to shield herself from the cold.
Logan noticed her discomfort, and started rolling up the windows.

"Scott is doing something stupid again." Logan muttered, taking his hands off the steering wheel to open a bottle. "Scott is which one?" said Lorraine.

"Scott is the pansy." snorted Logan, "The Professor is the one in the wheelchair".

Logan took a drink from the bottle, the liquor sent warm chills up his body, making the effects of the Canadian cold vanish.

"You're not supposed to drink and drive." Lorraine said. In response Logan handed her his canteen, "Really, Dad?" said Lorraine in disbelief.
"It's your chocolate." Logan said.

Lorraine was laughing between gulps of her hot cocoa. Logan felt a warm thrill that was not from his liquor run through him.
He had missed the sound of his daughter's laughter.

Every time Logan had heard another child laugh, he was pervaded by a feeling of emptiness, as a result, he had made it a point to never interact with children as much as he could help.

Daylight was half gone, by the time they reached the high school. Lorraine had not been fully convinced of her father's sobriety, and had made Logan drive as slowly as he could handle.

Logan had given up after just the first four blocks, and gunned the car.

Lorraine wasn't amused, and rather carsick, Logan had told her he wouldn't mind if she threw up, it was Scott's car anyways.

"I can't believe we are doing this again." said Logan, as he stood ready to begin his second lap around the high school.

"No shit." muttered Lorraine. "Watch your mouth." said her father, "Then why do you talk like that?" Lorraine shot back. "I'm an adult." said Logan with finality. "Well, you don't act like one sometimes." Lorraine retorted.

Their rather pointless nitpicking would have probably continued for a while, if they hadn't heard the shouting.

"Must be the football team, or a school rally." said Lorraine. "Let's just find the Professor and get out of here." grunted Logan, ignoring the shouts.

"We can go to the principal's office, and see if he knows anything." Lorraine said.
Logan shrugged, uninterested, it didn't matter to him where they started looking, what mattered was that he found Charles and Scott, quickly.

As they pushed against the wind, making an admirable effort to reach the principal's office as fast as they could, Logan noticed the shouting was getting louder.

When Logan and Lorraine rounded the final corner, and arrived in front of the administrative offices, Logan could not help the expression of shock that worked its way across his face.

Charles and Scott were standing inside a ring of jeering teenagers, Logan could hear the schoolchildren shout unsavory words at them.

Logan would never admit to it, but the scene made his blood boil.

And that was when Logan saw Vic, the boy was standing in front of the rest of the children, wearing a nasty sneer, he was obviously the horde's instigator.

Without second thought, Logan waded forward into the mass of children. "All right you little punks, break it up!" he roared, for good measure, Logan let his claws unsheathe.

The children's offensive shouts turned to shrieks, and within minutes, the surrounding area was as empty and silent as a graveyard.

"Logan!" Scott hissed in a displeased tone,"We do not threaten children!"

"Shut up, Summers" Logan growled, lunging forward to grab Vic.

"What did I tell you would happen, if you did something like this again." Logan questioned.

Since Logan was nearly dangling him in the air, by a grip around his throat, the only answer Vic managed was a choking sound.

Logan wasn't interested in answers, "So I interrupted your little good time, and you got your friends to gang up on my friends, is that right ?"

Vic gave a weak nod, Logan's hand tightened around his throat.

The Professor, probably sensing Logan's murderous intents, spoke up. Not that he was afraid that Logan would actually kill the child, but hospitalization was a sure alternative.

"Put him down Logan." said Charles.

Logan set Vic down, "Well, go." he snarled, brandishing his claws.

Vic ran.

Lorraine broke out into peals of laughter as she witnessed Vic's haphazard retreat.

Scott finally saw her, and frowned "It looks like you have been busy Logan." he said "I didn't know you liked them young, I thought you liked redheads."

As soon as Logan had deduced what Scott was implying, he had swung at Scott, knocking him to the ground.

"You asshole, she is my daughter!" Logan growled.

Scott, who had been about to unleash a plasma blast on Logan, and call it self defense later, stopped in amazement.
"Your, daughter ?" he stuttered. "How is that even possible?"

"Professor, I think you might need to instruct Scott on the finer points of reproduction." Logan smirked.

"I know how that works!" protested Scott.

Logan ignored him, and turned to Lorraine "Sweetie." he said, pointing to Charles " This is Professor Charles Xavier."

Charles extended a hand in greeting, carefully hiding all signs of surprise. But, oh, yes, he would be having a long talk with Logan soon. "Hello." he said.

Next chapter: Back to Xavier mansion !