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Author's note: The end, and Logan gets the epilogue. Thanks again for reading, I hope it was worth your while!

Logan

Dawn broke on the horizon. The morning was cool, the slight fog clinging to the surface of Breakstone Lake and obscuring the bottom of the old dock would burn away with the early morning sun. Chuck's original family home had been destroyed and rebuilt over and over, but the dock and the old boathouse had managed to come out of the last scrap intact. We had been back for a few months now, and I had been working slowly to fix the boathouse up to make it livable again. Don't get me wrong, I was freaking thrilled to be home, but sometimes the school and all the kids were a bit much to handle. The need for a little privacy, especially after so long away from people, had hit me real hard. I watched in silent appreciation the start of another day, a day on Earth. I had a lot to be thankful for.

I stubbed out my cigar on the rough wood pylon and turned back towards the shore, my boots heavy on the aging thick planks. A slight breeze stirred, wafting a familiar scent towards me. I stopped and turned, watching Ororo drop silently from the clear sky. I smiled.

"Mornin', darlin'," I said warmly. She smiled brightly, the light in her eyes matching the radiance peeking over the horizon.

"You are up early, Logan. Or have you not yet gone to bed?" She was so beautiful it still broke my heart. I knew everyone had been waiting for some big showdown between the two of us, but, even after everything, we had too much respect for each other. Sure, we had danced around what we had done, how we had ultimately ended things, but our friendship, old and strong as this dock, had won out. Some things, some connections, ran deeper than hurt feelings.

"Nah, just something I started since we got back. I get up and watch the sunrise, then get my day going." She nodded, looking pleasantly surprised.

"Getting a bit sentimental in your old age, my friend?" I snorted and began walking again.

"Yeah. Maybe. The last year sure put things into perspective. Y'know, you prioritize your life differently after going through something like that."

"I can imagine." She walked with me in measured steps, her white hair trailing behind us. "Your absence and return certainly affected everyone, changing things in ways I had not foreseen." We were still avoiding the elephant in the room, but we'd get there eventually. She had already been nicer to me than I probably deserved, and it had definitely helped settle other people's hurt feelings, whether it was their flamin' business or not. I guessed it was hard for her to stay angry at me when we had gone tit for tat in the betrayal department. I tried not to be sore at her for not coming to rescue me. Part of me wished she had come tearing across the universe to find me, to fight for me, but she had too many things to worry about, and I knew the effect so much time away from Earth had on her powers. Sometimes you just had to laugh at how things worked out, in this case for the better, and move on. We reached the end of the dock and I edged towards the boathouse. "Logan..." She called softly to me and I turned. "Do not forget, my friend, Robert has called a staff meeting. Seven a.m. Sharp." I scowled and she arched her perfect white eyebrows over her blue cat eyes.

Change number one, right there. Headmaster of the Jean Grey School was now Mr. Robert Drake. He had apparently taken on the bulk of running the school while everybody had been scrambling to find us, and he was surprisingly good at it. Maybe acting like he was still in high school gave him an edge dealing with surly teenagers. Rachel had been working hard as his second in command since we got back. I was glad for him, for them. They both seemed well-suited for their positions, and I was happy as hell for the opportunity to step back. I had enough responsibilities, even with taking time off from the Avengers.

"Please be on time. Do not irritate him further…" I nodded, and with assurances of my punctuality, she waved goodbye. I wanted to stop her and ask her about LeBeau. Change number two. I didn't talk to the Cajun much these days, and that was fine with both of us. It was just too weird. He and Ororo were still together, still happy, but somewhere along the way LeBeau had wound up running the Thieves' Guild in New Orleans. I didn't complain too loudly, mainly because the guild had apparently helped out big time in getting Guthrie and Lila patched up enough to rescue us. Ororo, with her background, naturally got sucked into the guild business. Good guys or criminal syndicate, the two of them were now blissfully spanning the hazy line between our worlds. She had been pretty tight-lipped about everything so far, but I would get it out of her soon enough. I hoped they could keep things separated and that I wouldn't have to make it an issue.

Change number three, Guthrie and Lila Cheney. The two of them took off together soon after our return, on her intergalactic comeback tour. Her powers had leveled out, didn't tire her so much anymore to teleport. Guthrie surprised me. Kid had balls after all, I would give him that. He had called Captain America and given his resignation the second we touched solid earth. Said he realized he didn't want to live without Cheney anymore. I could relate and had wished them luck. He knew he was always welcome, always would have a home here. Cheney, too.

I softly pushed open the front door of the boathouse and slid off my new leather jacket and laid it over the back of an even newer recliner. I kicked my boots off and looked around the room in the slowly growing light. As I stepped deeper into the house, I mentally catalogued the things I still wanted to do before I ran out of time. It wasn't much, patching a couple spots, a wall or two to paint, some furniture I needed to put together, but I was really…happy with what I had accomplished. I smiled and headed for the bedroom. Place was really starting to look like home.

Change number four was currently sprawled across the king-sized bed in a tangle of hair and sheets. I leaned over and brushed a spill of white tendrils from Anna's forehead and kissed her warm cheek. I placed my hand on the swell of her belly where our baby, change number five, was just beginning to show. There hadn't been anything wrong with her to fix, but Hank said my powers, which she still had a portion of, had somehow straightened out her uneven cycles without us realizing it. I hadn't known I even wanted it, but our baby was the best damn souvenir I could have ever asked for.

"Mornin', Logan," she mumbled, and I bent lower and brushed her lips with mine. She pouted sleepily when I pulled back and reached up for me, drawing me down onto the bed. "You can do better than that…" she teased softly and started unbuttoning my shirt.

"Staff meeting in half an hour…" I griped, but gave in when she slid her silky nightgown up and over her head. She was so damn stubborn and I loved every minute of it.

"We've got plenty of time, sugar."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

The end