Once the team had packed up not only their injured, but also the bloody mess previously known as Victor Creed, Sabretooth was hauled into the cargo area of the blackbird for transport. It was a mark of how angry the group as a whole was when it was plain to see that Scott had openly agreed with Logan's assessment that the monster should have been set on fire. But … as detestable as Creed was, Scott felt obligated to follow through on Xavier's credo.

"Besides," Scott said in a dull tone. "We need to know what's been going on while she's been gone. If he's had her this whole time …" he let out a heavy sigh. "We just need to know what happened." Scott and Hank had been sure to restrain Creed in a manner similar to what Creed had done to Logan at the Weapon X facility. He was more or less hogtied with gauntlets that stopped him from using his claws should he break free- not that it would be wise while Jean was on the edge of a fiery meltdown on her friend's behalf. Hank had been sure to put him in a muzzle as well - and Logan was sure to add a little something himself - a collar eerily similar to the one that K had been wearing when Scott had first found her - complete with C4 ready to blow should his heart stop or Logan choose to press the proper button.

To make matters worse, K had been far enough out of her mind that Jean had needed to put her to sleep while Kurt got her restrained for Logan to watch over, and the careful way that Logan was handling her after that had all of them watching them both carefully. He was beyond his normal gentle and he didn't lose the look of concentration and concern one drop.

And once they were back in Westchester - things only got more wild. Creed had been reluctant to tell anything to anyone, insisting he speak to Logan only, and against all advice, once Ororo and Jean had started to help clean up K, Logan went ahead to find out what exactly the story was. When he stalked into the holding area, he was positively furious and unable to stop the growl as it crept past his lips.

But of course, Creed couldn't simply leave well enough alone when he knew Logan was on the edge. "Hey Runt. How's my girl doin'?" Creed taunted, as Logan's uncontrollable growl rose in volume and echoed the walls of the cell designed to hold Logan should they ever need it.

"She ain't your girl. She's my wife," Logan snarled.

"Right. Maybe she didn't get the memo," he purred, clearly goading him.

Logan's eyes flashed with anger as he stalked closer. "What the hell did you do to her?" Logan growled out.

Creed chuckled at the tone he was getting. This was truly one of the best reactions he'd gotten out of Logan in decades. "Like I'd give you pointers on that little thing," he replied with a low enough tone that the mics missed it entirely. "You can't have her back. Don't care if you have your mind witch on her or not. If I can't have her, you sure as hell can't either."

Logan couldn't feel anything. His entire body went numb at the open threat that he knew had been coming. He started to move without even thinking about it - and Creed was grinning outright knowing that he'd hit the right button on his old foe, But just before Logan started punching in his code to open the door so he could tear Creed's throat out, Scott spoke up.

"I've got this one," he called out, his hand already at his visor. "She's waking up. You don't need to deal with trash."

Logan froze, growling lower. It wasn't something he wanted to do - leave the fight that belonged to him … or to follow directions from anyone when he had so much riding on the line. But … when Creed agreed with him …

"You got no part in this, boy," Victor growled out toward Scott. "Mind your own business."

… That … was exactly what it took for Logan's growl to nearly cut off and he raised his hand, removing it from the controls that would have opened the door. "He's not goin' anywhere, Slim," Logan said as he took a step back. "But when he does, I'll be waitin' to take his head off.

While K was out, Hank was sure to pull blood samples - several of which he required the results to confirm a few suspicions immediately. Aside from the fact that K looked as if she'd been dragged through the wringer by how dirty she was when they found her - once she was cleaned up, it was clear that she'd lost weight in the weeks she'd been gone. And what's more, there was a scent that Hank needed to investigate and get answers to before Logan returned.

Fuzzy blue hands were rushing to complete several things at once, and Hank had started swearing long before he got out more testing equipment. Adamantium levels were rising in her blood, not that he was surprised, considering who her captor was.

But the scent … he needed more than a simple positive pregnancy test. He needed to know gestational time. And he needed it now.

Without a baseline, the blood itself was worthless. He needed images, and he glanced up at Kurt once he realized what he was seeing. "Lock the doors. We need privacy for a few moments."

Kurt frowned, but teleported over to lock up - just as Alex and Lorna came down to see how things were progressing. "Come back later," Kurt said before he teleported back and pulled the curtains around for Hank. He didn't know what he was seeing - not until Hank started the test, and once a heartbeat showed up, Kurt swore outright.

Of course, Hank ignored Kurt's commentary in favor of getting his answers - but it wasn't the balancing act he thought it would be once he got a solid heartbeat. In fact, while Kurt was swearing, Hank began to smile. "Oh. My. Stars." He looked at Kurt over the top of his glasses. "This is delightful news."

Kurt frowned at him but didn't manage to get the question out before Hank could explain. "This little sprout has been growing since before she disappeared. By three weeks at least. Four looks to be more accurate, though."

"How could he have missed that?" Kurt asked, staring at the screen. "I thought he'd scent it out …"

"The first few weeks wouldn't do anything to change her scent," Hank pointed out. "She likely doesn't know - and definitely didn't know before she disappeared." He stopped the scan after freezing the picture in place to show the tiny developing structures and tipped his head for Kurt to unlock the doors. "Logan will be back soon and we'll need to give him all the information before he catches the scent."

Kurt tore his gaze away from the screen to wordlessly nod at Hank before he let out a breath and teleported over to the doors again to unlock them again. This was not anything like he was expecting to find. And he could only guess that Logan would take it badly if he didn't have all of the information right away. Without thinking about it, Kurt began muttering a few prayers in German under his breath, subconsciously rubbing each knuckle on his left hand and then the tenth prayer came as he shifted hands to keep track while he ran through his mental rosary.

K on the other hand had just started to wake up, and she wasn't in any kind of solid frame of mind when she found herself in a hospital bed. In a panic she sat stock upright and tried to back up … only to begin hyperventilating as she looked around the lab, clearly not trusting that she was where she thought she was. The fact that her head was killing her and she was dizzy … that went on par to her with whatever it was that Creed had doped her with.

Both Hank and Kurt were there in a blink, trying to get her to calm down as her heart raced to the point it was setting off the equipment that Hank had monitoring her. He reached for her and she recoiled, holding her hand tight to her chest as she stared wide eyed. It was far worse than when they'd brought her in initially.

"You're safe here," Kurt said in a consoling tone.

"You have to relax, my dear," Hank told her in his most gentle tone as K began to shake. Fearing that she was going to bolt or do something hasty, Hank reached over to the nearby tray to retrieve some medication for her. Her gaze locked onto the syringe as he approached and to Hank's shock, she seemed to hold her breath and positively freeze, even as her heart ticked up faster still. Her muscles were tensed as Hank took a hold of her arm and pushed the sleeve of her shirt up to administer the meds. She didn't try to recoil from it, and that inaction in itself was more than a little concerning to the good doctor considering how much he knew she hated needles. He thought he'd used just enough to calm her, but within a few moments, her eyes were rolling in her head, and a few moments after that, she slid down the bed, which only had Hank scrambling for the countermeasures. Her healing factor should have been counteracting the medication on its own.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asked, but he frowned deeply when he saw the expression Hank was wearing.

"She should be burning it off," he said. "There must be some new kind of inhibitor." He was already pushing the countermeasures for the meds, and as soon as he'd finished, he rushed to restrain her. "She's not in her right mind. I think we need Charles or Jean. And Logan, of course."

Kurt didn't need to be told twice, and he was gone in a blink only to return with Jean - who already looked ready to go to war. "Wait before you get Logan," Jean told him. "If he gets here before I'm done, that's one thing but …"

Kurt agreed quickly and stepped back to wait and watch for his best friend as Jean got to work - surprised at how much easier it was to get into her friend's head.

She looked over at how Hank had K restrained and frowned for just an instant before Hank filled her in with a silent projection. "Let me see what happened," Jean said as she settled in with a frown. She was trying to be positive, but she was sure that there was going to be a brawl one way or another.

Jean took just a moment to get a little more comfortable, as she gently placed her hands on the sides of K's head, concentrating on sifting through the jumble of memories that were now wildly out of order and clearly tampered with.

Jean let out a scoff of disgust when she realized how extensive the manipulations were - and how incredibly rooted in true memories they were. "Oh, that slimy, worthless …" she let out a huff and sat back once she was sure to push a strong hypnotic suggestion for K to sleep deeply.

"What happened?" Kurt had to ask, but that only got a deeper glare from Jean.

"I'm not sure," she said. "Birdie got in there somehow. That woman has no finesse. No sense of how to …" Jean stopped and closed her eyes, flexing her hands at her side as she tried to rein in her temper. "She was using actual memories as bases for his … games."

"What does that mean?" Kurt asked, frowning deeper before he unconsciously rested a hand on K's restrained wrist.

"It means that what they attached to was at least partly real - and therefore harder to tell what wasn't right. I don't know how old some of those memories were … but they were ones that I couldn't see before, so they had to have pushed her abilities back somehow …" She shook her head. "I don't think she'd ever show anyone some of those things …"

The lttle pow wow was interrupted when Scott and Logan came in, though Scott had already caught up at least partway through the bond that he and Jean shared.

The two men were barely five steps into the room when Logan stopped short and Hank quickly darted in to fill him in on what he knew. "It's not as bad as you think," Hank started out before h led Logan over to go over the test results more privately giving Jean a chance to fill in Scott more thoroughly. I don't know if I can repair what he did on my own, Jean told him. I'm too emotional and I know it.

I'm sure the professor won't mind, Scott replied as he frowned thinking about it. "How is she still unconscious?"

"Well partly because I suggested it," Jean admitted as Logan came over to join them looking like he'd gotten the wind knocked out of him. "And I'm entirely sure that something was done to alter her healing."

"I'll run more scans. Something must have been missed," Hank said before Jean started to explain to Logan what was going on.

"I don't think we should take her upstairs until she's at least a little more stable," Jean said quietly. "I know Abbey is missing her but …"

"No, I get it," Logan agreed, taking a seat on K's bed so he was facing her. There was so much for him to unpack, and so much time that she'd been stuck with Victor and his idiot telepath.

But as the little group sat in silence for a moment trying to decide on a plan, Jean heard Creed's line of thinking while he was stitching himself up and decided that she would get to the bottom of this while the her friend lay unconscious with Hank positively vexed on why she wasn't healing right.

Things had devolved much better than Creed had hoped. He had planned that K would be crushed mentally, though the next steps of his idea hadn't come to pass - and Jean's eyes flashed with fire as determination set in. Creed wanted to kill Abbey and turn Logan against K, hoping that losing what was there would leave her with few options outside of leaving the relative safety of Xaviers - where he'd be sure to snatch her up again. This time with no one looking for her.

It was all Jean could do not to simply roast him on the spot and tear him apart atom by atom as painfully as the Phoenix could imagine to do …

So when Hank asked Logan to help him find the source of K's slowed healing - the two men got to work on a fresh set of more comprehensive scans and Jean waited just long enough to be sure that the two of them were fully occupied before she turned to Kurt and held one finger up over her lips and tipped her head toward the door. Cover me, she told him as she raised up enough to float out of the room silently.

Of course, Kurt frowned on watching her, but he wasn't about to argue with her. Not when she was like this. Instead, he simply followed and kept back slightly to give her room to do … whatever it was she had planned. Until he figured it out. "Jean, you can't …"

"Don't even start," she said, finally letting a touch of the Phoenix out as she turned his way. "Just stay back be ready to get Scott if I lose my temper."

That might be a bit too late, frauline, Kurt projected, though Jean only gave him a soft sort of smile at that before she headed right for Creed's cell.

"You will tell me what you did to her," Jean said when she arrived, fire flashing in her eyes again.

Creed chuckled to himself. "Why, you rethinkin' that skinny little dweeb, Red?" He leered, expecting her to get angry. Only he didn't realize how angry she already was.

Jean narrowed her eyes and let the fire start to reach out. "I won't ask again. What did you do to her?" Jean growled out.

"Maybe you should ask what she did to me – tells better that way."

"Have it your way," Jean said coldly before invading his mind as violently as she could and knocking him backward against the wall telekinetically as she did. She was only more angry the deeper she went, wading through his twisted fantasies to find his memories of the past month that he'd had K captive. And she was beyond furious at what she found there.

To call it a psychic battle would have been overly generous. It was more akin to firebombing a sleepy fishing village as Jean tore through not only his plan, but his memories - which seemed to be the source of some of what she found in K's mind.

When Jean exited his mind she'd had enough and before Creed could say a word about anything, Jean narrowed her eyes and completely wiped him. It was fast and brutal - and when she was done he was no better than a vegetable, drooling as he lay on his side, hogtied on the floor.

"I'm done with his idiocy," Jean said as she turned to Kurt. "And that telepath … I want to find her and teach her a lesson."

Kurt watched her for a moment, though it was clear he wasn't going to weep over how she'd handled Victor … and instead of walking back with her, he took a few quick steps to catch up then teleported both of them back to the lab.

"Focus Logan. I'll show you what happened," Jean told him when he turned to look at the two new additions to the lab. "But you'll need to help me get her through this mess that Creed and Birdy made."

Logan let out a grumble. "I'm gonna kill him," he said. "Either way."

Jean shook her head at that. "No. You won't. Not right now anyhow. He's not … he's just a husk."

Logan frowned as Jean waved it off and then placed her hands on his temples, leaning close enough to look at him levelly before showing him everything. It took little time for her to relay all of Creed's memories to him of not only the events, but the planning that took place. She took it a step further when she projected to him K's memories of the events.

The kidnapping that kicked it all off – K fighting him with all she had to no avail, the torture, the threats, the drugs, Birdy's manipulation of K's mind, all of it. Every rotten disaster of the month she was gone. But what had Logan upset was the overwhelming feeling of something being off shoved to the back of her head when she couldn't smell Creed or Logan or any of the people in the memories– or anything else. A part of her brain had known it was all lies, but the combination of the telepath and the drugs and who knows what else had her unable to string two coherent thoughts together, effectively giving Creed a blank slate to torture and twist.

When Jean finished with him Logan wanted nothing more than to fix it all for her. The only problem was that Jean didn't know if K would be able to process any of them - all things considered.

"She's pregnant," Logan said, frowning to himself. "How's she gonna handle that when she comes around?"

"I know. We'll figure it out," Jean said, still angry.

The lab was silent, save for the beeping equipment and Hank working. "She's not healing still," Hank said. "I don't know why. My tests can't determine the cause."

Logan sat next to K, and it took a while before he pulled up the nerve to reach out and hold her hand, absently stroking the back of it with his thumb. He knew there was a lot of work ahead of him. He knew far too intimately how hard it was to believe anything when your mind had been freshly screwed with. And considering the fact that she had some major hormone fluctuations going on with a pregnancy to boot … This was going to be rough. And all he wanted was for her to be able to curl up with Abbey. But that obviously wasn't going to happen over night.

When K woke up hours later when Jean's suggestion finally wore off, Logan had fallen asleep with his head resting on crossed arms near her hand. That in itself was confusing enough. She tried to pull her hand out of the restraints but no luck other than to wake Logan. And considering the way things had been going, K positively froze like a scared rabbit. Once again, her heart pounding in her chest as she waited for the other shoe to drop. She wasn't sure what to expect, but she was very convinced that whatever Creed did while masquerading as Logan was going to be horrible. And she didn't want to see what it was.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to you faster,darlin'," Logan said in a clear, soft tone as he sat up slightly and took her hand in both of his. "It's been pretty miserable without you."

K narrowed her eyes as she continued to hold her breath. The words … were nothing that Creed would use. But she was having a severe problem deciphering if it was him or not. She flinched when he reached for her face and that got him to stop entirely.

"If you don't believe it's me, check my scent. I won't touch you again until you believe me," he said as he carefully let go of her hand.

K studied him for a moment then nodded minutely, looking at his shoulder, avoiding any eye contact. Logan stood up and leaned over her, offering his neck so she could get a good angle without straining. She paused, sure that this was a trick before she closed her yes and leaned closer, careful not to touch him as she inhaled deeply, then shook her head slightly as she tried to process.

"Convinced yet?" Logan asked, though the concern only deepened when he saw the expression on his face. It was obviously more than just her healing that was off. He expected her to look more relaxed or at least open to talking to him. The last thing he thought would happen was for her to wrinkle her brow like that. "Sweetheart ..."

"I can't smell you," K said quietly, glaring at him hard when he pulled back. The distrust was palpable in the tone of her voice. "I can't smell anything."

But with the drugs gone from her system, and all of the scans coming in empty …. Her inability to use her senses was a mystery. Logan called for Hank, who K seemed to trust only marginally than him at the moment. He didn't blame her. Not after what Jean had shown him Creed had been dong.

Hank did a quick exam of her, and pulled a blanket up to her neck after, as she felt cold to his touch. He sighed as he sat on her bed with her, resting his hand on her knee.

"My friend, you are without your abilities," Hank said quietly. Her eyes flicked up to meet his. "The only possible explanation I can garner is an inhibitor of some sort, but I don't know how that's possible without a collar. I have attempted several scans while you were asleep, but so far nothing has been showing up. I'd like to try again. While you're up and about rather than lying flat."

She stared at him silently for several minutes before she quietly agreed. Hank gave her a kind smile before he got up and returned a few moments later with a pair of bracelets that he snapped on her as her hands came out of the restraints which earned him a questioning look.

"They're to keep you from using your claws. It's not wise to use them until your abilities are to your full disposal, and frankly, I don't trust that you wouldn't try to harm yourself at this point - knowing all that we do about what Creed has done or tried to do," Hank said honestly.

K's mouth tightened and she looked grim. "I wouldn't trust me either," she said quietly, her gaze darting to Logan as she swung off the bed away from him and allowed Hank to lead her to the machine. He gently directed her to lay down and as soon as she was prone and even halfway comfortable looking, he covered her stomach with a lead apron. "What …"

"To protect the baby," Hank said with a kind smile, but that only had K turning more pale.

"I don't … I wasn't … no," she said, looking more upset as she leaned her head back.

"Yes, well, we need to talk about that. The child's parentage is not what you fear," Hank informed her with a little smile.

But K's gaze flicked across the room to Logan. She was almost glaring as she looked him over and Hank told her all he knew.

"If I find out you're not who you look like ..." K said in a slow, metered tone as she glared at Logan. "I'll find a way to make you suffer."

Logan couldn't help but smirk at that though, even if it might not have been the best move. "That's my girl," he said. "Just hope I look like me."

She narrowed her eyes and growled his way, still not trusting any of it - and rightfully so. Several minutes passed, with K watching Logan carefully the whole time before Hank finally let out a frustrated noise. Once again - in some places of the readouts, the scans proved to be inconclusive for anything that wasn't there already.

"The metal in your skeleton is obscuring my view. If there is some implanted cause, they were smart enough to put it near your bones to hide it," Hank said, squinting at the scans on screen.

"What about a simple x-ray?" Celia suggested. "We could start at the most likely places first so she doesn't have to put up with too many more tests."

And so it began. They x-rayed all the places that seemed most likely still with no luck.

"We really should be careful of the baby," Hank murmured quietly over Celia's shoulder and K stared off into space while they worked. None of their tests had shown anything new.

Logan was getting frustrated himself, too. He didn't expect any of this. It should have been a lot simpler - and he'd never been on the receiving end of K's watchful, angry glare. Even if she was mad, he was glad to see it. It just meant that she wasn't done fighting. And she wasn't about to give up any time soon. So it shouldn't have come as a shock when it was Logan that had an inspired idea that started off looking very bad to his wife - and the onlookers.

"You need to do her hand again." Logan said suddenly, standing and walking toward them. Hank started to protest when Logan picked up K's left hand and removed her rings. She started to growl outright at the move until he paused to kiss the spot where her wedding band had just sat. "I'll put these back on in a minute," he promised as she glared harder at him.

"You're damn right you will," she said coldly, refusing to even blink as she glared harder somehow. As Logan stepped back, he had to drop his gaze to his feet to hide the smile he had at the fire she was still carrying.

A few minutes after the x-ray was finished. Hank returned to her with a scalpel, and a pleased smile.

"You do know it's unsettling when people in lab coats come at you smiling while intending to cut you open?" K said, watching Hank doubtfully. He set the instrument down and laid a drape across her lap, before he carefully took her hand and set it on the drape and starting to clean her hand thoroughly with betadine.

"Your short tempered husband was correct. They hid an inhibitor chip right next to your ring metacarpal under your wedding rings." He looked overly pleased with himself as he gave her a local anesthetic and waited for her hand to numb up. "I will remove it forthwith and your abilities should return quickly."

She nodded with a sigh and simply let him continue. It didn't sound like something Creed would do. Of course, when he raised the scalpel to cut into her, she still turned her head to look away. Under more normal circumstances, she would have looked to Logan for something like this, but until she had full use of her senses, she didn't trust anyone.

The chip was small - slightly smaller than a grain of rice, but once it was out, she began to heal slowly at first, then gained speed steadily and by the end of the hour, she was back to herself, physically.

With Hank's blessing, she changed into something more 'her' and Jean returned in time to take her upstairs where Charles was waiting to talk to her.

"I'm having some serious trust issues with telepaths," K growled out as the two women stepped into Charles' office.

"Believe me, I know," Jean said. "And you have every right to. Just remember - that blonde bimbo was second rate at best."

"Must be something to do with the hair color," Logan muttered under his breath - which only got a smirk out of Jean and a dry, raised eyebrow look from Charles.

Charles took a moment to simply let out a breath before he forced himself to pull it together. "K," he said, doing his best to ignore Logan - and Jean's entirely entertained thoughts. "I don't want to keep you from Abbey any longer than you already have been. So let's work quickly, shall we?"

"Please," she said, looking relieved as Charles gestured for her to relax. A few moments later, he was encouraging her to open her mind … and after that, K simply melted back while Charles and Jean got to work - sorting out what they could between her memories and what Birdy had manipulated from Creed's recollection.

Only … there were definitely some memories that had been dislodged that were close to what Creed had - but not close enough to be an implant. And nothing in those memories showed any telltale marks of manipulation.

It took longer than they had expected - and it seemed like one memory recovered cracked open the door to more - but once the doors were opened, there wasn't anything that they could do ethically to remove them. She was going to have to simply process them.

When she opened her eyes, Charles and Jean looked worn out as they delivered the news. "We removed the damaged and twisted memories," Charles said. "But in doing so, we found that some of what was there was not all lies."

"What he's trying to say," Jean said, cutting in when Charles looked more disturbed by the revelation. "Is that Creed and Birdy opened a few doors in your mind that had been firmly shut. And we can't close them. You can expect to have some old repressed memories popping up. They'll probably make themselves known through dreams or you could be triggered. Be aware of them. We'll be around to help."

"And congratulations," Charles said. "I know you were considering adding to the family."

"Yeah … that …"

You're eight weeks in, Jean projected. Eight. He's only had you for three and a half. Don't even think it.

"Wow. That's more the kind of pushy telepath I've been missing," K said, but that only got a wider smile out of Jean.

"I missed you too - and we get to be pregnant together, so … be ready to shop," Jean warned.

K pulled a spectacular face at that as Logan stepped forward to take her hand. "Abbey's been missing you," he told her quietly. "She's with Kitty right now."

K let out a breath as the two of them headed out. Her head was still swimming and the headache was spectacular, though once they were partway down the hall, Logan pulled her over into a long, involved 'hello' kiss that he'd been waiting to do for far too long.

Not a word was spoken before the two of them got to Kitty for a teary reunion. Once Abbey saw her mother, there was no putting her down.

K held her tightly and after the little girl took half of a break in the constant snuggle, K carried Abbey toward the boathouse, where the little one only let go once they were inside. Logan had followed and opened the door for her as they went. When Abbey finally let go of K, Logan pulled her over and wrapped her up in a tight embrace and for the first time, she really got a good dose of his scent finally as he held her close.

She closed her eyes, and took it in, letting his warmth wash over her and the effect it had on her took her totally off guard. Maybe it was the stress, or the hormones … or just the fact that it had been longer than she was anywhere close to comfortable with … but with a soft and almost hollow sob, she started to cry. Logan closed his eyes and simply pulled her that much closer. She clutched to him loosely and simply let herself fall apart.

It wasn't long before little Abbey managed to toddle her way over to them, and then parked at their feet. She didn't know why Mom was so upset when she should obviously be happy to be home, but she was really glad that her Dad was there to try to fix it. When K had started to calm down a bit, Abbey began pulling on their pants legs. Logan dipped down and picked her up with one arm and then rested her on his hip. The little one turned toward her mother, hugging her even as she was sure to keep leaning part way toward Logan as he kept a hold on his girls.

When Abbey patted her mother finally and straightened up, she pushed her mother's head to face her father.

"No baby doll. No kisses right now," K said with a shake to her voice even as Abbey got a more determined look on her face. Logan let go of K's waist and slid his hand into her hair, tipping her face to his and leaning forward to kiss her on the forehead.

But that was not the kiss Abbey wanted to see, and she was more than ready to cry foul in her own way. She tried to get him to kiss her mother again with a more insistent look. But when Logan kissed her cheek, it was clear the little girl was not. Amused.

By the third try Abbey was getting rough, and K finally leaned forward and gave him a quick peck on the lips. Abbey clapped and pushed again for more. And by the fourth or fifth peck, Logan extended the contact and K closed her eyes, finally relaxing into him.

That was the one Abbey wanted to see.

Before K's eyes opened, Logan leaned forward to give her another, much more involved kiss as he pulled her closer and both of them seemed to get a bit lost in it after such a long gap. By the time it ended, Both of them were half out of breath and Abbey was happily making her teddy bears kiss across the room.

"You're heart's beating awfully fast. If that's happening all the time, I'd talk to Hank," K said as a weak attempt at a joke after so long of fighting in her own head.

Logan couldn't help but counter with a response that there was no way Creed or anyone else would manage to come up with. "Only happens when I'm with you." Which of course, took her off guard just long enough for her to break into a broad smile.