Someone was holding her, hugging her to their strong chest and whispering words she couldn't and didn't want to make out. She felt large hands rub her arms and kisses being placed onto the tip of her head. No one would dare to touch her like this, not even now after she had mastered to control her deathly skin. When someone accidentally bumped into her, they would jump away with fearful expressions, still expecting to be sucked to death.

The only one, who never cared about her toxic skin, was Logan. He even let her sleep curled up to his body after she had cried herself to sleep in his embrace after one of his nightmares, she had had on a nightly basis after Liberty Island. Then shortly before dawn, he would wake her with soft kisses to her head, her dark hair a safe barrier between their bare skins. She would spent a last few minutes spooned to his warm body, his strong arms holding her protectively till it was time for her to sneak back into her own bed.

But he was gone. The only person, who had loved her and was never afraid of her, had left her for good.

She felt her face being pulled into the soft fabric of a cotton shirt and her cheek leaned involuntarily against someone's chest. Then she breathed in the scent of tobacco, wood and leather and something stirred in her. It couldn't be. Her mind played tricks on her. Tentatively she inhaled again, this time deeper. Again, it was Logan's scent she was met with and strength returned to her. Eventually she dared to crawl slowly back out from her safe refuge in her mind and let her brains register the soothing words. "… Marie, c'mon, Kid. I'm here…"

The gruff, yet gentle voice called her Marie. Nobody, but Logan knew her real name. Carefully she blinked against his chest and murmured a hardly audible "Logan". But she knew if it was really him, his sensitive ears would catch her word.

He pulled slowly away, so he could meet her watery gaze. "Yeah, kid." She blinked a few times in disbelief, before a small smile tugged on her lips and she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face deep in his chest. Logan breathed a sigh of relief and hugged her, caressing her back gently. He felt his shirt go damp at her tears and he rested his chin on her head. "It's fine."

After a long moment of just being held Marie pushed away gently and looked deep into Logan's concerned eyes. "Mr. Summers said ya had left for good."

"And you little idiot believe him." He smiled at her and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Scooter knows nothin'." Then he threw an evil sideways glance at Scott and snarled.

It was then that Marie noticed the presence of the other adults with alarm, who stared at the pair. The professor, Storm and Jean held an amazed expression, while Scott looked wary and somewhat pissed. She felt a blush creep to her cheeks and pushed completely away from Logan's embrace, looking awkwardly at her lap.

The Canadian was afraid the girl would drift back to her own world again, so he ruffled her hair. "Need your help with two important decisions, Kid."

"Huh?"

This made her meet his gaze again and he walked over to his purchases and fetched one of the bags. On his way back he rummaged through it and eventually came up with two tiny romper suits, one pink, and the other pastel green. He tossed them both onto Rogue's lap and walked over to Ororo while retrieving a diaper from the package.

The brunette lifted the clothes up and decided he must have been shopping in the doll-department of a toy-store. "What should Ah do, Logan?"

"Decide which one should be her first to wear." The Canadian replied and picked his daughter up from Storm's arms.

Jean watched with a concerned frown the young mother slide away a few inches, when Logan placed the baby gently on the tabletop next to her. Thus she walked over to the young parents, but as soon as Logan saw her approach, he shot her a glance, and then his view switched to the professor. A moment later Jean, like her fellow X-Men, got the mental order to stay back and to not interfere.

Logan eyed the disposable diaper warily and began to fiddle with the paper cover of the glue strips clumsily. From time to time he shot a helpless gaze towards Marie, but the girl pretended to be oblivious to what he wanted from her.

After he had finally removed the paper-strips, he swung the diaper open, only to glue it to the metallic tabletop by accident. Cursing slightly he peeled the adhesive strips back, just to glue them to his fingertips a moment later.

Marie narrowed her eyes at him in annoyance. "Logan, stop playing dumb. Ah know ya aren't so stupid to not being able to figure out how a diaper works. It's just your attempt to make me help ya."

Logan sighed and shot her a sheepish gaze. "Guilty." Then he flipped the diaper over, so it was placed in the right direction, opened it and lifted the baby's butt carefully by picking her little legs up. He slid the diaper under her body, placed her feet down on every side of the fabric and clapped the other half of the diaper towards her belly. But when he tried to fasten the adhesive strips, the glue wasn't sticky enough anymore and the diaper opened again. "Fuck!"

He heard a chorus of giggles and shot everybody a dark glare. "Jeannie, do you have tape by chance?"

Chuckling, the redhead walked over to a cupboard and opened a drawer, retrieving a surgical tape, which she soon handed to a bothered Logan. "Here you go."

Wolverine grunted something alike "thanks" and shoved the tape into Rogue's hands. "Rip off two strips, Kid." He glowered at her. "And wipe that grin off your face."

"Spoilsport." The girl muttered and searched for the beginning of the tape.

Meanwhile Storm had snatched the second bag and inspected its contents curiously, spreading two baby plastic bottles, formula, a book about 'how to handle newborns', three different colors of teething rings, miniature socks in pink, yellow, and white and at least half a dozen pacifiers onto the examination table. The weather witch struggled hard to not break into a fit of laughter. "Logan, why on earth did you buy…" She began to count. "Eight pacifiers?"

He looked up from the baby and met Ro's startled gaze. "Why the hell not?" Now her expression turned to disbelief. "Pacifier sounds nice… will keep her hopefully quite. If she doesn't need 'em, we could always give 'em to the students." Now her face was blank and he continued. "Thought 'bout chatty kids like Yellow."

Storm laughed at the picture of Jubilee with a soother and picked up the teething rings. "She won't need those in the near future."

Logan growled at her. "Just took a few of everything they had in the baby department… and that looked useful…" He grumbled and concentrated to close the diaper not too tight, so it might hurt his daughter. From the corner of his eyes he caught Storm fetch the formula and a bottle and head out of the room.

Rogue frowned when she saw Logan's finished work on the baby. The diaper was much too big for the tiny newborn and it reached up to her chest. "Wasn't there a number smaller, Logan?"

"No." He lifted the package up and threw it unceremoniously on her lap.

She eyed the inscription, he was right it was for newborns and put the package next to her on the table. When she looked up, Logan was watching her expectantly. "What?"

He lifted his brow at her. "Have you decided?"

"The green one." The girl stated and handed it to him. "Ya said two decisions, Logan. What's the other one?"

Wolverine smirked at her for a while. "A name." He eventually said and his gaze became serious. "But nothin' stupid or the name of a city or state. A nice normal one."

"Why Ah?"

"You're her mom." He countered and began to dress his little daughter into the romper suit.

"And ya're her dad."

"Tell you what, Kid. You'll suggest names and I say no."

"Uhu." Rogue huffed, but began to contemplate. "Chantal is slutty, Leonie is cute for a baby, but not for a grown woman… All Jennifers Ah knew were bitches and all Rachels were mindless followers…"

"Kid, did you listen?! You should suggest names, you like, not the one you dislike." Logan shot her a sideways glare as he struggled with the legs of the romper suit.

Rogue sighed heavily. "How about Clarissa?"

Wolverine glowered at her somewhat horror-stricken. "No."

"Laura?"

"Laura… I like that one." But as soon as he had finished, the tiny baby began to cry like there was no tomorrow. "'K, she doesn't like Laura." Logan picked his now completely dressed daughter up and began to rock her. First she calmed to some extent, but then her sobs became louder and more erratic and the young father looked up with genuine concern to the doctor. "What's wrong with 'er, Red?!"

Jean only glanced at her watch and smiled. "Think she'll be hungry."

"Oh." Logan could beat himself up for that dumb comment and the fact he didn't think of that.

"Ro is up in the kitchen heating a bottle. She'll be back soon." The redhead informed him, but Logan shook his head.

"Nah, gonna try something else first." His eyes narrowed on the professor and Scott and he growled viciously, though hardly audible over his daughter's desperate cries. Xavier got the hint and steered his wheelchair to the furthest spot of the room and gestured Scott to follow him.

Logan's gaze fixed on the young brunette before him and he carefully bent down, holding the newborn towards her mother, who in turn looked quite startled and scared. She let her arms drop to her sides, so he had no chance to lay the child into her arms. "Ya heard Miss Munroe will return soon."

"Maybe…" He sighed heavily and his soft eyes pleaded with the girl. "Marie, please take 'er. Hold 'er. Only one time… is all I want, Kid." They stared long into the eyes of the other and finally Rogue nodded. "Ok, but ya'll take her, when Ah want ya to."

"Yep."

Marie felt awkward as she held her arms up and waited for Logan to lie the crying child against her chest. Carefully he placed the tiny head into the crook of her arm and then stepped back, giving her more space. Marie sat there like stunned, unable to do anything than stare down at the little creature. A good minute passed by till the brunette lifted tentatively her free hand to the tiny stomach rubbing small circles on it. The child's sobs calmed somewhat and Marie's hand continued its caress while her eyes centered on the tiny face.

She took in the little lips and the chubby cheeks, unconsciously moving her hand to the small face, tracing her index finger over her forehead, down her temple and then her cheeks. Two large blue eyes blinked back at the brunette and she smiled down at her daughter, stroking her downy brown-white hair.

"She has your nose and hair." Rang Logan's voice from next to her on the table.

She hadn't noticed that he had sat down next to her. "She's heavier than she looks." Marie whispered softly and let her hand travel back over her cheeks, chest and finally to her belly, scrutinizing the girl in awe. "Ya know the romper suit is too big."

"Nah, she's too small." Logan responded and sneaked his hands to her large shirt and pulled on the fabric, but only received a yelp and a "Whatchaya doing?!".

He breathed in deeply. "It's not her fault we messed up… She doesn't deserve to pay for our stupidity, Kid." His hazel eyes pleaded with her again and she slowly looked back at the angelic face of their child and she finally nodded. With a giant blush and a little help of Logan holding up her shirt, she freed one of her breasts from her bra's cup and held her daughter closer to her nipple.

The baby swallowed hungrily the warm milk, her tiny fists clenched at her mother's skin. "It tickles." Marie watched her child feed with a smile and ran her fingertips over the miniature hand of her daughter. "Ah can't believe she were in me a few hours ago."

Logan stroked absently Rogue's back with one hand and the baby's head with his other. "Would be better for 'er if she'd have stayed in your womb a month longer."

"She wanted out. Maybe didn't want to risk that her daddy would be away again in a month."

"I'm gonna stick around now, Kid." He pressed a kiss to her temple.