When Rogue began to leave the bedroom, she noted James stop at the doorway, watching after her nervously.

"Come on," she encouraged him, holding out her hand for him to take. She was only a few yards down the hallway but he still looked worriedly back and forth, before finally darting to her and wrapping his arms around her leg as he looked up at her pleadingly. Picking up on his discomfort Rogue leaned down and opened her arms, he immediately reached up, wrapping his arms around her neck so she could easily pick him up.

He wrapped his legs around her waist as she settled him on her hip, even though he was a little on the heavy side for that. One of his arms wrapped around hers, while his other hand gripped her shirt as he watched wide eyed as they made their way down the hallway and down the stairs. As they went Rogue watched him visibly scenting the area, the poor boy was probably incredibly overwhelmed with all the different scents wafting around.

When they got to the kitchen James' attention immediately went to the rooms only two other occupants. Jean and Ororo were sitting at the table by the window discussing the previous night’s mission over coffee and pancakes, their conversation paused as Rogue entered and greeted the two women. James shyly mimicked her greeting before she introduced him.

His stomach grumbled then, despite the amount of snack food he had eaten overnight and early that morning, he was still starving. He pointed to Jean's pancakes before turning to Rogue and asking, 'please?'.

Rogue smiled at him. "Pancakes it is then, you want to help me cook some?" she said, as she moved with him over to the stove. She sat him down on the countertop while she found a pan and a bottle of premade pancake batter.

Leaving the pan to heat Rogue mixed the batter up ready to pour, setting it down beside the stove as she gathered a spatula and a couple of plates. James watched her curiously as she poured the batter into the hot pan, his eyes widening as he watched the batter bubble as it cooked before she flipped the pancake. As Rogue turned slightly to reach for one if the plates, Jean called out a warning and Rogue turned around just in time to see James reach into the hot pan to grab the pancake.

Rogue scooped him up, away from the stove he had crawled along the counter to get to but not before he hissed in pain as his hand brushed against the hot surface. She immediately moved him to the sink and placed his hand under the cold-water faucet as Jean rushed over. James was looking at her oddly, as Rogue peeled open his hand under the cold water. Her intention had been to see what damage he had done to himself but she and Jean watched, surprised, as the angry red burn quickly faded away to leave behind only pale pink, perfectly healed skin.

"So… he's feral, and he heals," Jean said, "Deja vu, it is like Logan all over again, I need you to bring him to the lab as soon as he's had his breakfast," she told Rogue, her mind mulling over a range of possibilities.

"Sure," Rogue replied, as she shut off the water before moving back to the stove to rescue the crispy pancake. "No James, it's too hot, let it cool down," she warned the eager toddler, who was again trying to make a grab for the pancake.

Moving him to the table to sit next to Ororo, Rogue set a glass of milk down in front of him, hoping that would occupy him long enough for his breakfast to cool. She set down a plate with several pancakes on it a few minutes later, liberally smothered in syrup. James immediately grabbed the first pancake and stuffed most of it in his mouth, dripping syrup everywhere in the process. Ororo laughed as Rogue sighed as she collected silverware, she didn't bother admonishing the boy, instead she cut the pancakes into smaller pieces and let him continue to eat with his hands. He'd barely mastered please and thank you; she thought a fork might be a little beyond him at this point.

An hour later his tummy was full again, and she had cleaned as much syrup off him as she could, before they made their way down to the med lab. Again, James insisted on being carried, still needing that connection to be comfortable. It almost wasn’t enough when the elevator doors opened to the lower levels and she sensed James anxiety kick up a notch. His grip on her increased and he whimpered when she stepped into the lab, he obviously had bad memories of places like this.

She soothed him as best she could as he clung to her, her soft voice catching Jean's attention from the other room. The sight of Jean walking in in a white coat was too much for the toddler though, and he burst into tears as soon as he saw her. It took ten minutes, and Jean removing her coat to calm him down enough to sit on Rogue's lap while Jean checked him over. He balked at the needle when she approached to draw blood, until Rogue wrapped her hand around his and moved his arm into the correct position while murmuring platitudes to him.

"See! That wasn’t so bad now was it?" she said brightly, as the needle hole instantly closed when the needle was withdrawn. James just grunted and buried his face back in her chest, try to hide from the scary room.

"I've got one last test that I need a sample for... you think you can get him to open his mouth for me?" Jean said, pulling out several swabs.

"You need saliva? What test is that for?" Rogue asked curiously, as she racked her brain for the easiest way to get the boy on her lap out of hiding.

"I want to do a DNA test, this little guy is just too much like Logan for it to be a coincidence, I'm thinking they're related," Jean admitted sadly.

Rogue was silent as she nodded, the thought had occurred to her too, though the Logan in her head had remained resolutely silent on the issue. Gently she encouraged James to turn around and explained he needed to open his mouth. He clamped his mouth shut firmly and shook his head.

"It's okay little man it's not going to hurt, see," Rogue said, as she opened her mouth and let Jean swab her so he could see what they wanted to do.

Tentatively, keeping a close eye on Rogue, James opened his mouth, mimicking Rogue's earlier action. Jean quickly took two swabs, that should be enough for her tests, before beaming at him.

"All done!" Jean said cheerily, "And you have been such a good, brave little boy, that you can have a candy," Jean told him, holding out a bowl of assorted goodies she kept on hand for treating the mansions younger residents.

James wouldn't take one so Rogue did, selecting a piece of fudge, she unwrapped it, and took a small bite before offering the rest to James. He waited until Rogue had swallowed her bite, before stuffing the rest of the fudge into his own mouth.

"So, any recommendations doctor?" Rogue asked, as James noisily chewed on the large piece of fudge.

"Healthy food, exercise, and plenty of sleep. He seems in good health, which isn't surprising given what we know of his mutation, I would imagine like Logan that means he has a pretty fast metabolism so make sure he is eating enough. He's a little on the light side weight wise so I'd start him on five meals a day rather than three, with a snack before bed. Keep on with what you're doing with slowly introducing him to new things, try not to push him too fast, and I guess you noticed he needs a lot of physical reassurance, make sure you're always covered so he doesn’t accidentally touch your skin. For now, that's everything. You can go now little guy, see you at lunch time," Jean bid them both farewell.

James couldn't wait to be gone, and for the first time in an hour Rogue felt him finally relax as they stepped out of the elevator back onto the mansions ground floor. Rogue stopped by the kitchen and grabbed a bag of food for more snacks before carrying James outside, if he was anything like Logan that would be his preferred spot, and after what they'd just put him through in the med lab, he deserved some time out.

When James saw the outside, he grinned happily and squirmed, trying to get down to the ground. With a laugh Rogue put his bare feet on the path and as soon as he was down, he was off, running here, there, and everywhere, though he stopped regularly to check he was still nearby to Rogue. She sat down at one of the picnic tables on the lawn as she set out the food she had brought, sure enough it wasn’t long before James was back and politely asking for more food.

They spent the rest of the morning playing outside. James knew some things, like what balls were for and how to use swings and slides. It made Rogue think that the little boy had not been in a lab his whole life, like maybe he had been a normal child once, with parents and toys, and someone to cuddle him and read him bedtime stories.

Scott found them outside when he eventually returned, and handed over several bags to Rogue. There was a substantial supply of clothes, several pairs of shoes, a bag of toys, another with books, and a fluffy teddy bear. Scott also told her a toddler bed would be delivered later that afternoon and he would set it up in her room, if she was still happy to have the little boy share her room for a while, while he settled in.

Rogue was more than happy with that plan, though she had a feeling the bed was kind of pointless, she doubted James would sleep on his own, though maybe he would once he was settled. Scott left her to it as she pulled out a change of clothes for the little boy. She got him changed, out of her now grass and syrup stained shirt, and into a pair of overalls and a kid size shirt right in the middle of the field, no one was around so it didn't really matter that he was naked again for a minute. He sat quietly while she put shoes on him but after a few minutes he sat down on the ground and pulled them off again, handing them back to her and running off to play again. It seemed shoes were off the approved apparel list.

The lunch bell rang, signalling a break in classes, and Rogue watched as students slowly began to trickle out of the cafeteria with their lunch as often happened on nice sunny days. She was considering taking James inside to get him some food when she saw her two best friends wandering across the lawn toward her, each carrying an extra tray of food.

James watched the two 'strangers' approach her table, when they got too close for his liking he ran back to Rogue and stood in front of her. The Logan in her head chuckled as he watched the little boy, he'd become more and more comfortable with the child all morning, ever since he had called Rogue 'mama' that morning.

'What's so funny?' Rogue asked him.

'He's guarding you,' Logan replied amused. Sure enough, the little boy growled as Kitty and Jubilee got closer.

"It’s alright James, their friends, they can come sit with us for lunch, you want to say hi?" Rogue soothed and prompted him. He stopped growling, looking back and forward between Rogue and the two girls, before waving a quick hello and climbing up on the bench seat beside Rogue.

"He's so cute!" Jubilee said, as she took a seat opposite James, and pushed the extra tray of food she had brought across the table towards him.

Kitty was more subdued, handing Rogue the extra tray she had brought as she sat down. Rogue, noting her silence, asked if she was okay. "I've been working on un-encrypting the files you guys got from the lab last night, it's not nice stuff, I haven't found anything on James yet but just the idea of a baby living in some place like that... it's not right, it's not fair," Kitty replied softly.

Rogue smiled reassuringly. "That's why we got him out, and we'll make it up to him, look he's already figuring out how silverware works," she joked, pointing to the little boy who was mimicking her actions with his fork, brow furrowed in concentration as he picked up food and shovelled it into his mouth. The girls laughed, the mood lightening some as they talked, including James in their conversation from time to time as the little boy got more comfortable with them. He even waved, and used their names, when he said goodbye to them as they headed back inside at the end of the lunch hour.

Packing up all the bags of James' things Rogue told him it was time to go back inside. She couldn't carry him this time with her arms full so he walked along beside her, holding onto the hem of her shorts in lieu of her hand. They took the elevator, James balking only momentarily, before Rogue showed him which button to press. When the door opened on their floor James immediately perked up, she could tell he recognized the hall, and sure enough he ran down the hall, straight to her room, and opened the door.

As he refamiliarized himself with the room, even voluntarily entering the bathroom to use the toilet, Rogue began to mentally rearrange her room, to figure out where she was putting James' things. A clatter from the bathroom interrupted her musings, and she walked in to find James sitting on the counter washing his hands, with plenty of bubbles of course.

"Oopsie," he said, when he saw her, pointing to the plastic cup and soap dispenser he had knocked off the bench.

Once the bathroom was put back together Rogue plopped James back on the bed, she had seen his yawn as she carried him into the bedroom, and figured it was probably nap time. She wasn’t sure how you got a three-year-old to have a nap, so she decided to demonstrate. Grabbing one of the books Scott had bought, Rogue climbed into bed, tucking James in next to her and began to read softly to him. He cuddled up to her, tucking himself under her arm so she was half hugging him as she read, and was fast asleep not even five minutes later.

Rogue was woken from her nap several hours later by a knock at her door. It was Scott and a delivery man with several large boxes. James sat up in bed rubbing his eyes and yawning sleepily, as he watched the men warily as they moved the boxes into the room. The delivery man left with his tip, and a wave to James, who waved back, before Scott announced he would have the bed built in an hour. Rogue figured that was the end of their nap and James was probably hungry again.

"James, do you want to stay here and help Scott or do you want to come with me?" she asked the little boy, who promptly jumped off the bed and ran to her side. "I guess he's coming with me, I won't be long, do you want anything while I'm in the kitchen?" Rogue asked Scott, as she gently ran her fingers through the little boy’s thick, unruly hair.

"Coffee!" Scott begged, as she left the room.

Holding James' hand Rogue led him down the stairs, the stairs took twice as long with a three-year-old in tow but she figured that was just how it was when your legs were that short. It was important though to get him to walk the routes around the school, so he could find his way back to his den, Logan told her.

James obviously remembered, from breakfast, the way to the kitchen and ran off in that direction when they reached the ground floor, pausing to wait for Rogue before he entered.

She made Scott's coffee, and a hot chocolate, which was mostly fluffy milk, for James as consolation for the coffee machine giving him a fright with its loud noises. Leaving him to drink his drink at the table she began to fix a couple of sandwiches to take back to their room, along with a bag of potato chips which James seemed to like.

Back in their room, the bed had barely progressed, the parts were all out of the boxes now, and there was a pile of bolts to one side, Scott was staring at the diagram on the piece of paper in front of him looking confused. Rogue set James up at the desk with a sandwich and his bag of chips, before moving to Scott and handing him his coffee.

Scott had obviously had a very busy day, Rogue decided as she moved over to the parts and quickly moved them all into the right positions, as shown on the diagram. Scott looked momentarily sheepish, before he thanked her with a chuckle, and they began to fit the bolts to tie the whole thing together. When they were done putting the bed together, they had to shuffle Rogue's bed over a bit and move her couch to fit the bed into its own space. The room was a little cramped now but it would do. Jean came up them with a basket of freshly laundered bedding so Rogue could make up the bed.

"What do you think James?" she asked once she was done. "Do you like your bed?"

James climbed onto the bed and jumped on it a few times before crawling under the covers. "Yup," he announced, from under the blankets a short time later.

Scott and Jean left her to finish putting her room back into some sort of order. She folded the extra toddler bedding and added it to her linen shelf in her closet, then folded all of James’ new clothes and put them away in the drawers under his bed. She opened the boxes of toys, which attracted James' attention, and put all the toys away in a basket that had been sitting on her shelf for months doing nothing. James was very careful to be tidy as he played, as soon as he finished with one toy, he put it in the basket before he got a second out. It seemed like an odd way for a toddler to play with toys, as far as Rogue could remember, but it was definitely convenient in the now cramped room.

Later that night, once James was tucked into his own bed fast asleep, Rogue finally felt herself relax. Today had been a steep learning curve, and a really busy day but she felt fantastic, and content. Best of all Logan would be home soon, she smiled happily as she drifted off to sleep.
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