'All the world is a stage,
All the men and women
Merely players on this fragile shell,
They have their entrances and exits...
And this is ours'

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Sarah sat at her desk, pinching her nose. The accounts weren't making any more sense than they did an hour ago. Switching off the screen she went out of the office and walked through the corridors of the Moira MacTaggart Memorial Insitute. A ball careened down the hall at her head height and she just lifted a hand to stop it dead. A mousy haired youngster ran round the corner toward her his face beet red.
"Now what have we said about using cannonballs to play with Henry?" The child looked remorseful and his voice was quick to speak in answer, he knew better than to try to lie to Miss Sarah Logan.
"Not to do it because it causes too much damage." She nodded to him and reached out a hand to his head, feeling the slight fever on his skin she took his hand.
"Come on lets get you back to bed, we'll see if we can keep your temperature down a bit, then hopefully you won't feel the need to go flinging around heavy cannonballs." He nodded as they walked back to his room, being a person of responibility meant she couldn't indulge her own childish streak.

But perhaps....just this once...she stopped at the end of the corridor and tugged on Henry's hand. He looked at her and then at the cannonball she still held in space, using her fingers she twisted and turned the metal inside out. Building something straight out of her imagination, a fairy with wings so thin you could see through them. When she'd finished she let it settle on the floor of the corridor. Looking at Henry his face aglow with wonder she led him back to his room. Getting him settled again she went to look for James.

She found him, resting with her father against the rocks of the bay. Her mother was nowhere in sight so she just relaxed her shoulders and went over. When she got there she just crawled straight into her fathers lap, kissing him on the cheek and seeing his face smile.
"Hey pumpkin' how you been?" He hadn't changed at all, not in the five years since his last visit. James was the same, he was still the young man she'd seen that night of the raid while her hair had finally gotten silver inside it.
"Better for seeing you two, where's mum?" James answered for him.
"She's with Catherine." Smiling at the two of them, two peas from the same pod, one light, one dark.
"Great! How does it feel to be a grandad James?" Logan smiled at the thought until Sarah turned her attention to her father. "Hey your not getting off the hook mister, you're a *GREAT*-Grandad!" James's laughter upped a notch and coloured the air with it's richness.

Logan looked at his daughter, the salt in her hair and the lines on her face. Her moods were always open to him, whenever she needed him he was there, and this was one of those times. James caught his scent and moved off saying he was going to see how his daughter was doing. Sarah watched him go, no amount of words could make up what she felt and he knew it.
"I still wonder why you never married pumkin'." She turned her smiling face to his, seeing the light and darkness of her own thoughts reflected in her fathers.
"Never had the time," she took in his lop sided smile and added, "Besides never found anyone who matched up to my dad." He hugged her close to him and felt her relax in his grip.

Logan knew she was avoiding her mother, and he called her on it. "She misses you, you know."
"I know she does, I feel it when she's here. But I cant' cope with the emotional baggage dad, she won't age and she feels guilty for that still. Hell I'm glad I'm the only one with a few powers and that I'll finally be able to let go one day. While as you James and mum...." She left the sentence uncompleted, they'd been down this road before.

"I know."
She let her head drop onto his shoulder and felt his deep sigh go through him. "Anyway how are you doing in the rebuilding back over there?"
Civil war had broken out in the US, mutants and humans on different sides and finally the battle had come down to who was most stubborn. The mutants had won with the help of the rest of the world behind them. Humans weren't fighting them anymore but nor were they completely trusted either. It'd take time and thats what they had ahead of them.

Sarah looked at her father and found something new, smiling she snagged the small white hair in her fingers and pulled it out.
"OW! What was that for?" Sarah held up the errant hair.
"See your first one...so if we logically extrapellate that would mean that you'd be completely grey by the time.." Logan just put his hand over her mouth, seeing her eyes recognise the pain she was causing him.
"Sorry."
"S'Okay pumpkin. Lets just enjoy what we have while we've got it huh?" She nodded as they watched the sun dance over the water, lost in each other until a shout roused them to the prospect of another Logan joining the clan. Turning to see her mother waving at them they both got up and walked back to the Institute.

Time may pass for some and stay still for others but love that lasts no matter how long it takes to get there.