The next morning Logan was woken by a knocking from the main suite door. Gently he extricated himself from the tangle of limbs belonging to Rogue, and both kids, who had climbed into bed with them not long after they returned. Apparently missing out on goodnight kisses and daddy's bedtime stories - he was mildly smug that he was now preferred bedtime storyteller - meant extended hugs were required. He hadn't had the heart to carry both kids back to bed when they fell back to sleep.
He pulled the door open just as Scott was raising his hand to knock again. "Give me a minute Scooter, it's not easy extracting yourself from the pit of grabby hands without waking the cereal goblins," he commented. "What can I do for you at... five am!?" he commented after glaring at the clock for a moment.
Scott rolled his eyes, a movement that had to be greatly exaggerated, so one could tell from the movement of his brow that that was what he was doing. "We have another lab to hit, apparently they're prepping to move so we need to hit it in the next couple of hours, how long do you need before you can be downstairs for a briefing?"
"I'll let Rogue know I'm heading out and I'll be right down," he answered, closing the door again without waiting for a response.
Scott scowled apprehensively at the solid wood in front of him. It was convenient to have Rogue comfortable to watch the young ferals so Logan could help them on missions, he knew it wasn't likely anyone else would want to, especially after Rogue herself got cut up pretty badly by one of them. But he couldn't help his concern that Logan was putting too much pressure on her. She seemed to always have one or both of the kids with her, she had stopped assisting with teaching, and hadn't turned up to a single training session since James was rescued.
She was only seventeen, not old enough to have a three-year-old child, let alone a seven-year-old, yet she was almost co-parenting the kids with Logan, who, though he seemed to deal with them okay, really didn't seem to have a clue what he was doing himself.
As he wandered down the hall deep in thought he resolved to talk to Rogue about his concerns. Now wasn't the time for a full conversation but, he would just wait here, at the top of the stairs, and when she came up, he would have a quick chat with her. He'd just make sure she knew others were on hand to give her a break, and that she didn't have to be the only one to cover Logan's childcare issues. She didn't have to feel obligated to help him out.
--
Logan stalked back into the bedroom, and discovered James was now standing on the bed staring out the door, almost like he was standing guard. Rogue and Ava were still snuggled under the covers, both awake but just watching quietly.
"Who's dere dada?" James asked, relaxing as Logan entered the room.
"It's just Scott little man, listen, dad's got to go help the team fight more bad guys, so you have to stay with Rogue while I'm gone okay?" he said, as he lay the little boy back down in bed and pulled the covers up over him. The boy grinned and nodded as Logan ruffled his hair.
"Any idea how long?" Rogue asked, as he leaned over the bed, dropping a kiss on Ava's forehead before he planted another quickly on Rogue's lips.
"No idea, apparently it's being moved soon so it needs to be hit this morning, hopefully that means it'll be quick. I'll be back before you know it," he assured her. "You two behave yourselves, and all of you go back to sleep for a while it's way too early to be getting up."
He threw one last look back toward his little family as they rearranged themselves under the covers until they were all comfortable again. James waved goodbye, while Ava blew him a kiss, Marie just smiled sweetly and mouthed 'be safe', before he turned and strode from the room.
--
As he was plotting his thoughts, planning how to say what he wanted, he was surprised when Logan walked up behind him. "Everything alright Summer's?" he asked, regarding him oddly as he hit the elevator call button, the fastest way to the lower levels.
Scott looked confused. "Uh, we're not in that much of a hurry, you don't have to leave the kids unattended, we can wait for Rogue to get here." There was no telling what trouble unsupervised feral toddlers could get up to.
"Rogue's already with them," Logan answered with a confused cock of his brow, stepping into the elevator car as the doors opened. "You coming?" he asked, a split second later, holding the door as he waited for Scott to follow him in.
"Sorry, thinking," Scott replied, shaking his head and stepping into the car as Logan punched the button for the sub level.
"Yeah, too early in the morning for that shit," Logan grunted, "Tell me someone's already started the coffee!"
Scott chuckled. "If we're lucky there might even be some left by the time we get down there," he replied.
As it turned out there was coffee, and plenty of it, as the team of five went over the briefing. The Professor wasn't present, currently in Washington D.C. for some pompous fundraiser, so it was just Cyclops, Phoenix, Storm, Wolverine, and Kitty, who had taken on the pseudonym Shadowcat, at the briefing. This wasn't Shadowcat's first official mission but she wasn't going to be 'in the field' this time. She would be remaining on the jet to manage communications, monitor the surrounding area, evade detection, and emergency evac the team if needed.
Logan still wasn't sure how he felt about the girl being included on the mission, it felt wrong putting an only just turned eighteen-year-old in that position, though he had to admit she was good at what she did. It also reminded him that Rogue was technically an X-Man and, if not for the fact that someone needed to stay behind and look after the kids - so far she was the only volunteer to do that - she probably would have been included on this mission. He would have to talk with her at some point about that. He knew, she knew, that he didn't want her on the team but he thought he might have a fight on his hands getting her to agree to officially step down; she could easily be as stubborn as he was when she wanted to be.
As he suited up, in yet another new reinforced leather suit, he pushed all other thoughts aside, focusing solely on the mission. It had to be a success, and it had to be a quick success, because he wanted to get home asap. What he wouldn't give right now to still be in bed, wrapped up in Marie, and Ava, and James, he briefly thought as he strapped himself into his seat on the jet, that would sure beat flying; of course, in his book, almost everything beat flying...
--
Three hours later the jet touched back down on the hanger. The mission was a success, only two mutants had been on site, both were rescued though they were not in good shape. Jean hypothesized that the reason it was taking so long to move what was left of the base was because the two mutants had not been in any condition to be moved before now. Logan just hoped that didn't mean there had been more mutants that had already been moved to a new location.
They had been in luck when Wolverine had intercepted a heavily armed party, trying to sneak out a back exit to a helicopter pad. The squad had been attempting to evacuate a higher-ranking military official, who Shadowcat advised was one of the overseers of the program. After eliminating the guard squad, Wolverine had pulled the Colonel aside for a little one-on-one chat. The man had been immensely helpful, once Wolverine had promised he wouldn't kill him, if he just gave them the information they wanted.
Unfortunately for the Colonel, Wolverine hadn't been entirely truthful. He didn't kill him, as he promised, but there was no way he had survived the explosion that reduced the base to pile of dust in a crater after they left.
As he stood under the hot spray of the shower, in the sub level locker room, Logan shoved all thoughts of the mission from his mind, instead turning his attention back to what was waiting for him upstairs. He was trying to decide if the kids would still be cuddled up in bed with Rogue, or if she would have given up trying to keep them down and be fixing them breakfast, when Scott walked in. He was still in his uniform, having gone straight to the med lab with the rescued mutants before he began to wind down out of mission mode. Logan wasn't really paying all that much attention to the younger man so he didn't notice, until he stepped out of the shower, that Scott was still standing rooted to the spot, deep in thought.
"Earth to Summer's," he said jokingly, as he towelled off. "It's not that early and you've already had coffee, do I want to know what's really eating at you?" Logan asked.
He was surprised after a moment when Scott suddenly blurted out, "I'm worried about Rogue." That instantly got Logan's attention.
He whirled on the guy, jeans in hand but forgotten as he asked, "What? Why? She seems okay to me, what are you talking about?"
Scott was scowling as he took his chance to voice his concerns directly to Logan, it didn't mean he couldn't also talk to Rogue later. Maybe Logan might just surprise him and be understanding, maybe even back him up.
"I think she's too involved with your kids. I get that she wants to help you out but she's neglecting herself and her own responsibilities in the process, she hasn't been taking part in her training sessions, and has stopped her teaching, I have no idea where she's at with her college courses, she barely spends any time with her friends, and always has at least one kid with her. She's only seventeen, it's too much responsibility to be dumping on her shoulders expecting her to play mom to kids that are old enough to be her siblings," he said, trying not to let his apprehension at Logan's possible reaction show.
To his surprise Logan sighed, visibly relaxing, before, with a tolerant if somewhat strained grin, he turned to continue dressing as he responded. "I do talk to her you know, she's been talking with 'Ro about getting back on the roster for teaching the history classes, and I've been making sure she's keeping up with her college work, she assured me her schedule is light at the moment. I don't know if she's planning on getting back into the training, personally I don't have a problem with her taking part in that but I didn't, and I won't, encourage her to be on the team, if you want to try and talk her into that go for it but you can expect me to be trying to talk her out of it.
"As for the rest, she sees her friends most days, and spends time with them, admittedly she's not going to parties and all that shit but apparently she was never onto that anyway. She's a lot more mature than you give her credit for, even if she is only seventeen, and I know you know that, you wouldn't have even considered her for the team otherwise. Also, I don't appreciate the insinuation I'm forcing responsibilities onto her, first off, I would never do that to her, to anyone, second, at least her 'playing mom' to my kids won't possibly get her killed like raiding labs could," he finished. Though he sounded irritated it wasn't the full-on anger Scott had expected.
"Well sure, playing mom won't get her shot but one of your kids has already taken a good hack at her, if you hadn't been there to heal her that would have killed her," Scott replied, feeling just a little bad for reminding him of Ava's first night at the mansion.
"That was low Summer's," Logan growled, now he sounded mad. "That was an accident and you know it, Ava knows Rogue's scent now it won't happen again, and I was there to fix it. If Rogue had been shot, or worse, on the raid that got James there wouldn't have been a damn thing you could have done to fix her," he reminded the younger man, as he slammed his locker shut. He dumped his towel in the laundry hamper as he stormed out of the room, throwing a cryptic parting comment over his shoulder.
"Some battles can't be won Summer's."
--
He was still annoyed by Scott's comments by the time he got upstairs, not least of all because in all actuality he had had many of the same thoughts himself over the last few weeks. It made him doubt again his proposal to Rogue the day before, though he couldn't take it back now. As he walked stealthily into the silent suite a soft smile and a feeling of contentment settled over him at the sight of the three bodies cuddled up in the bed. James saw him as soon as he stepped into the room, obviously having heard the door open and wanting to be assured who the intruder was, but he quickly lay back down and cuddled back up with Rogue when he saw it was just daddy.
Yeah, fuck what Scott thought, fuck what all of them thought, there was no way he was giving this up, not for anything.
He slid back into bed, moving a pouting James out of the way so he could cuddle up directly with Rogue. She stirred before smiling up at him. "That was quick," she said sleepily, "Everything okay?"
"It is now darlin, it is now," he replied, as he rolled onto his back more so James could throw himself over his chest, Ava climbed over everyone so she could move from Rogue's side to his.
They dozed in bed for another half hour before James announced he needed to pee-pee, Ava giggling before acting all offended that he announced that to the room, and warning him he better not wet the bed. He seemed confused about which bathroom he was supposed to use so Logan declared it was time for everyone to get up and get breakfast, before taking James back to his own shared bathroom, then helping him dress for the day.
By the time he, and a clothed James, were back in the suites little dining area, Rogue was in the kitchen cooking waffles. Ava wandered out of her bedroom a while later with a shirt stuck on her head and calling for help, tripping over the coffee table in the process, which made James laugh so hard he fell off his chair. All was chaos for a few minutes while Logan helped Ava up, before rubbing her knees better and fetching her a new shirt - her claws had shot out instinctively when she fell, and ripped through the fabric. While Rogue consoled James, who was berating gravity and hard floors, even though the bump he'd given himself was already healed, before she rescued what she could of the current batch of slightly overdone waffles.
As they finally, eventually, ate breakfast Logan couldn’t help his attention getting continually drawn back to the sparkling stones on Rogue's left hand. She had taken her gloves off to eat, the kids knew not to try to touch her skin now, especially after having seen what it had done to Logan, and were very careful not to touch her skin after Logan had sat them down privately and explained, that it made Rogue sad when people got hurt by touching her skin, and they didn't want to make Rogue sad did they?
The trio of shimmering diamonds glittered away brightly, as she moved under the overhead LED lights. It was a nice ring, and a shame it would spend most of its time hidden from view, but he would always know it was there. A reminder that Rogue had agreed to be his, she chose him, and by choosing him had chosen the kids too, and Scott could go fuck himself if he had a problem with that.
He cleared the table when the kids ran off to play but he noticed Rogue stayed seated, a thoughtful look on her face as she observed the two children. "Penny for your thoughts?" Logan asked softly, as he sat back down next to her a minute later.
She beamed up at him brilliantly before replying, "Nah, for you they're free," before she shifted to lean against him as he wrapped his arms around her. "I was just thinking, Ava's seven, she really should be in school, the Institute doesn't offer classes for her age level though, and we can't exactly send her off to a normal elementary school... I think we're going to have to home school her, James too I guess," she posed.
"Hm, I think we should talk to the Professor; he should know what we need to do to get that going at least," Logan suggested, "I honestly wouldn't have a clue where to start on something like that." He leaned forward and dropped a kiss on her covered shoulder, as they watched the kids play for a while.