I do not own X-Men.
A big Thank You to my followers,
And a Special Thanks to hippiechick2112 who read beta for me.
Enjoy!
Storm stood on the egde of the wide gravel driveway, peering out into the darkness.
It was nighttime, but she had come out to exercise her powers.
Her need to do so was understandable, as she had been asked to restrain herself, after her last display of power nearly unleashed a monsoon on Xavier mansion.
Even though Pyro had accidently, for once, caused a fire on the south grounds of the mansion with the help of a rickety coal pit and a can of gasoline, Storm hadn't needed to send down a deluge of water to extinguish it, explained the Professor.
As she manipulated the air flow, and caused breezes and light rain to swirl around her, she saw through the mist of dancing water droplets the unmistakable headlights of a car.
Startled, and thinking that the car could be hosting possible intruders, Storm sent a lighting bolt diving down onto the ground between her and the car.
The automoblie's engine sputtered to a halt. Logan's unmistakable voice roared out of one of the car windows, "What the hell Stormy!"
Storm sighed, the ghostly white sheen fading from her eyes, "Why are you back so early?" she asked.
The Professor had made it clear that the mission to Canada would more than likely take weeks, due to the cause of having to search extensive high schools.
Logan didn't answer, Storm hadn't expected him to, but now she was confused, she frowned, the confusion in her mind was mirrored by the weather, as she
subconsciously made the rain fall erratically, with much more force and capacity.
Charles, knowing the dark-skinned mutant would likley contract pneumonia from the side effects of her own powers, invited her to ride with them in the car for the remandier of the trip to the mansion.
Accepting the invitation, Storm squeezed into the backseat beside Logan, and saw a small teenaged girl sitting beside the notorius Wolverine.
The girl's skin was pale, but fading tan spread over it, and two thick, dark fishtail braids hung down over her shoulders. Whatever hair the braids had not collected, had streamed over her face and brown eyes in thin wisps.
Storm realized she was staring, and turned away, but the girl had already extended her hand in greeting. "Lorraine." she greeted.
Storm took her hand. "Call me Storm." said Storm, turning to face the front seat, Storm addressed the Professor.
"Is this the new recruit ?" she asked.
Scott, who had maintained model silence throughout Storm and Lorraine's short conversation, decided to offer some helpful information, lest Storm suffer the same fate as he had, for mistaking the Wolverine's Daughter for something else.
"She's Logan's daughter." Scott announced.
"What!"screeched Storm in surprise.
She whipped her head around, searching for verifacation of Scott's outlandish tale on Logan's face, she was met by identical smirks, from both Logan and Lorraine.
Storm sunk back against the car's highly expensive cushions, weak from the shock.
She wondered about this new development. It had come right at the time when she had just convinced herself that nothing about Logan could surprise her anymore.
Apparently, she still had much to discover about him.
"I need a drink." she muttered uncharacteristically.
Logan began to laugh accordingly at Storm's shocked expression, the laugh startled everyone, because the laugh wasn't disdainful, or mocking, it was true, pure joy-filled laughter.
But only the Professor knew what was going through Logan's head at the moment, and he was not offering any insight as to what that was.
Logan had a fearsome reputation to maintain. Nobody was going to hear from Charles that underneath Logan's hardened outside, he had the capacity to be a very good-humored person.
Storm was silent for the rest of the ride, when the car pulled into Scott's garage, Storm hastily got out, and dashed into the garage's adjacent locker room.
The remaining mutants stared at each other in uncertainty. "I think you broke Storm." said Scott.
"Summers, you told her first!" Logan roared. Logan counted on his voice doing the job of silencing Scott, as he was unnaturally tired.
Scott took cover behind the Professor's seat.
Charles let out a soft laugh, knowing that Logan had no intention of attacking Scott...yet. It was then that Storm made a reappearance, a glass in one hand.
"Come on, to bed." said Storm, staring down at them through the car's open window.
"Did I finally drive you to drink, Stormy?" snickered Logan in amusement, thunder crackled warningly overhead, and Logan had the good sense to keep quiet, if Storm hit him with a lightning bolt it wouldn't kill him, but hell, it would hurt.
"Logan, get out of here, go to bed." growled Storm.
Usually no one but the Professor would dare to order Logan around, but Storm was horribly confused, and holding half a glass of brandy she had found sitting in the next door locker, and yes, she would be looking into that, she was deadly earnest.
"Lorraine?" Logan started to say, realizing that Storm was serious.
"Lorraine can sleep in my room until we get things figured out." said Storm, looking at Logan in a way that demanded instant obedience.
"And tomorrow you have some explaining to do." Storm added. Logan decided not to dispute this. First because he was too tired, and because he wished to spare Lorraine a barrage of questions and possible accusations.
"What is going on?" said another voice. Jean's red head appeared in the garage's doorway.
Logan felt the surge of undeniable passion that would always rise up in him whenever he saw her.
But this time, that passion wasn't directed at Jean, instead Logan saw the face of another woman staring back at him, the same woman whom he would catch glimpes of in his dreams.
And he knew he had loved that dream woman, turning back to Jean, he saw her examing the parallel scratches on the hood of Scott's car. "Logan!" snapped Jean, anger apparent in her voice. "What did you do!"
Logan grinned, Jean's fireiness was one of the things he loved about her. But then, the face of the dream woman flashed in his mind again.
Confused and tired like he had never been before, Logan shoved the car's rear door open, leapt from his seat, and bolted out of the room.
Scott shrugged, and moved out of his seat to help Jean pull the Professor's wheelchair from the car's trunk.
Lorraine followed her father in a likewise manner, Storm tossed down the contents of her strange glass, before running after Lorraine.
Logan ran down the hallways to his room, not caring who he woke up in the process,Storm and Lorraine caught up to him at his bedroom door, but before they could question him, Scott's enraged voice echoed down to them, "Logan!"
Several students woke up at Scott's outraged and annoyed scream, but when they heard Logan's laughter float back down the hall, they settled back down to sleep.
That was nothing new, after all.
Logan reasoned that Scott had found the remaining bottles of Tom's moonshine.
Despite the small bit of malicious glee Logan felt from ticking off Scott, he knew where his liquor was headed, straight down Scott's bathroom drain.
Lorraine must have noticed her father's downcast expression.
"Dad, I told to hide them under the seats, not in the trunk." chastised Lorraine in exasperation.
- oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo-
It was morning now...or so Logan determined by the radiance spilling through his open windows. Logan unraveled himself from his nest of blankets, and pulled on some clothes without bothering to check if they were clean.
Tucking a few brown cigars into his shirt pocket, Logan sauntered out of his room and down towards the dining hall.
Storm and Lorraine met him halfway there, and in companionable silence the three walked down to breakfast.
All the eyes in the dining room fell on Lorraine when she entered the room, it was to be expected though, as everyone there had every reason to be curious about one another.
Storm cleared her throat, "Attention!" she said, "Logan has an announcement he wishes to make." Everyone craned foward, eager to hear, even if their enthusiasm stemmed from the belief that they would soon be laughing.
The last public announcement that Logan had chose to make, was an extremly scandalous one, inviting everybody to a fake wedding between him and Jean Grey, there was no wedding of course, Logan had done it just to get a rise out of Scott.
Needless to say, Scott had been extremely furious.
"Ladies and gentlemen." said Logan, putting an arm around around Lorraine's shoulders,"This is my daughter Lorraine, she will be living with us now, and if any of you mess with her, you can kiss your ass goodbye."
Unfazed by the shocked stares, and Storm's disapproval at the use of his profanity, Logan plopped down onto the nearest chair, near a regiment of teachers.
"Pass the syrup" he requested. From across the table, the Professor handed him the syrup.
Logan pulled a lighter from his back pocket,and lit up one of his vile brown cigars.
Since this was a common ocurrence, and the last person to object to the Wolverine's smoking habits needed hospitalization,no one said anything, except for Lorraine.
After her introduction, Lorraine had taken a seat by her father, pinching her nostrils together with one hand, Lorraine plucked the cigar from her father's mouth with the other.
"You said you were going to stop smoking, Dad." she said. "I said that?" Logan inquired in absolute disbelief. Attempting to humor his daughter though, Logan took back the cigar, and extinguished it in Scott's coffee, while Scott's head was turned. "That is going to be hard, sweetie" he said truthfully.
"As long as you are not smoking", said Lorraine.
The now familiar pain in Logan's head returned, he had remembered a different voice, a woman's voice, telling him the exact same thing.
The pain was pushed away when Scott reached for his coffee.
Scott took one drink, and immediately spat his mouthful of the hot black liquid and cigar ash back out, right onto Logan's face.
Calling on past experience, Scott knew the best thing to do was to leave the dining hall in a dead sprint.
With coffee dripping from his hair, Logan was preparing to chase Scott, when Lorraine grabbed the back of his jacket and forced him back down onto his seat.
Fuming as any chance of retaliation disappeared, Logan had to content himself by unleashing a verbal torrent of obscenities on Scott.
Charles, noting that some children in the room were too young for the caliber of Logan's cursing, sent out a gentle wave through his telepathy,
rendering everyone deaf to Logan's onslaught of vocal wrath.
The people around the dining hall that could still form coherent thought, were thinking one thing, life in Xavier mansion was possibly about to become even more different than the norm.
Next: Training!