It took four months to get a hearing before the new congressional committee. Logan was going to be the last 'survivor' to testify. Each were presented anonymously so no one knew he specifically would be here, the family had been snuck into the state the day before, and were staying in a private residence, the hotel that was set aside for the witness was housing a decoy in case the military tried poking around. After eleven days of harrowing testimony, none as wholly gruesome as Logan's own tale, now today was his turn.
He paced the bedroom of the upscale apartment they had been assigned, Marie and the kids were sleeping soundly, finally. Everyone had slept poorly last night, which had resulted in another night spent piled together in the one bed to keep the nightmares at bay. It was going to be a long day but Logan was already up, too wired to sleep. He had been told the extent of the evidence that was available to support his testimony, though he hadn't viewed any of it himself, he knew there would be video recordings of some of the procedures that had been carried out on him. It was making him sick just thinking about it, his worst nightmares were about to be played, in full high definition, for the world to see.
This crazy plan had better work.
"You should be sleeping," Marie whispered, as her arms slid around his waist. He didn't need to tell her he couldn't. After several minutes of just holding him, Marie gently began to massage his back, and shoulders, he was so tense she was surprise he could stand, let alone walk around.
"I don't want you there Marie, I don't want you to see it," Logan murmured, as he felt his body slowly begin to relax under her soft hands.
"Logan, I'm going to see it, one way or the other, either I'm going to be watching it here, on the tv, alone, or I'm going to be watching it seated at your side. Which would you prefer?" she replied, her question largely rhetorical, they both knew where he really wanted her.
"What are we doing with the kids, dad wants to be at the hearing as additional security but someone needs to stay with the kids, your mom wants them in the hearing, in front of the cameras... I don't know if I want them exposed to that, what do you think?" Logan asked uncertainly, he didn't want his children used as pawns by the media and politicians. At the same time, he didn't want to leave them alone, they were just as likely to watch the coverage on television as Marie was, and he didn't want them to be alone if they happened to catch it.
"As much as I don't want them exposed to the public scrutiny... I think it is best they are with us, we're a family, in the good times and the bad, we need to stick together, for the kids’ sake,” Marie answered. As much as she despised her mother’s plan to play on public sympathy for crying children, she couldn't disagree that it would be a strong persuader.
"I just worry that it puts us all in the same place, if they tried to come after me, after us, they've got us all there, the whole family, sitting ducks," Logan commented.
"Hardly," Marie chuckled, "They'd have to get through congressional security, the secret service, the X-Men, your dad, me, and not to mention you, a mutant they spent four years making indestructible, they would be stupid to even try, if by some miracle they did manage to get to the kids, we both know the kids would give them as much hell as they could to slow them down until daddy could get to them."
Logan chuckled too, particularly as he imagined Lucy and Levi making life hell for any potential kidnappers; since the X-Men had first approached him with the request to testify he had been teaching the kids defensive techniques, building it into a game for them so they didn't even realise they were being trained. "I suppose," he eventually conceded, "Just be vigilant, I want to say I'm going to be able to protect you all but... I'm not firing on all cylinders right now, and that worries me almost as much as the possibility of infiltration, I'm distracted, and that's not good."
"That's okay, it's our turn to look out for you for a change, that's what family is for," Marie stated as she wrapped her arms around him again. They stood that way until the kids began to stir, and eventually came looking for breakfast.
--
The public and press galleries were packed when they arrived at the hearing venue, the whole family came. The final witness had been called and they were ushered straight from the car into the hearing room, a ploy to make sure a certain person couldn't slip away before his reckoning came. They were hustled inside, surrounded by private security, the X-Men. Logan carried Levi, so he didn't get lost in the crush of people gathered around the door, while Lucy clung to the hands of both of her parents.
With the gallery packed, Marie and the children had seats set aside on the floor, directly behind Logan's seat, front and centre before the committee. He spotted Stryker immediately but was careful to give no sign of recognition, he didn't want to tip his hand too early, he did however note Stryker's growing fury, as he watched his prize project take the stand.
Throughout the long, boring hearing, the children behaved themselves surprisingly well. Marie had brought a little backpack loaded with colouring books, small toys, and a few snacks, but though Levi availed himself of them a few times, he mostly sat and listened. Logan could scent Marie and Lucy's tears at several points, and he when he was able, he reached back to hold a hand, usually Lucy's, in an effort to comfort them. When it came time for the recovered video recordings from the lab, to be played for the committee, he turned away from the screen, he couldn't watch, it was bad enough seeing it in his nightmares every night.
As the footage played, he sat, eyes closed, a child on each knee, and Marie at his side. He knew Marie was watching, the way her hand squeezed his would have been enough of a giveaway but he could also feel her tears seeping through his shirt, where she rested her cheek on his shoulder. Lucy peeked from time to time, though Logan told her not to, gasping in shock when she watched as, during the metal procedure, Logan drowned in the roiling, steaming, vat of liquid. He heard his own roar, through the video, minutes later, he vaguely recalled an attempt to escape during the procedure, it didn't last long though, and both Lucy and Marie hugged him tightly as they watched him get mercilessly gunned down by more than a dozen soldiers who had been guarding the procedure.
Once the video was played, everyone, both in the gallery, and the committee, sat in shocked silence for long minutes. Logan tried to ignore the sound of whirring, clicking cameras as Marie turned to him and wrapped her arms around him, as she sobbed into his shoulder. Lucy wasn't in a much better state but poor little Levi didn't have a clue what was going on, so he just sat quietly, enjoying his hug, and subconsciously keeping an eye out for trouble.
It wasn't until Stryker spoke, suggesting a recess that Logan moved. He had to stop Stryker leaving, and this was the perfect opportunity to call him out.
"No, I'd like to continue," Logan responded, as he turned his seat around again, Lucy and Levi still seated on his knees. "What you all just saw, was horrific, it can't be described any other way, it was horrific enough to watch, it was absolute agony to live through. Not just physical torture, every day, for more the four years, was spent in fear, fear for my family, where were they? Were they suffering too? They may have been 'safe' on the outside but they spent every day, for more than four years, knowing I was out there somewhere, that someone had me, not knowing what they might be doing to me but knowing whatever it was it wasn't good...
"In that four years, which you got barely a taste of here, I missed my daughters kindergarten graduation, I missed her start grade school, I missed helping with her homework, and reading her bedtime stories, her first pet, her learning to ride a bicycle, and a horse, learning to swim, birthday's... I missed wedding anniversaries, my wife's birthday's, I missed my wife graduating from college just months after I was taken, I couldn't comfort her when she cried herself to sleep, every night, for more than four years... I missed her second pregnancy, I missed my son's birth, his birthdays, his milestones, his first tooth, his first Christmas, his first birthday, and all of those in between...
"Almost five years of my life, five years of memories and milestones, gone, destroyed, all because of you, Sir... if you think I'm going to let you slip away now and not face the consequences of your actions you can think again," Logan commented, with a dark yet smug grin, as the screen began to display security footage, and snapshots of Stryker, at the lab, in full uniform, and very clear.
As the facts of the intricate network of labs were detailed, a full dossier circulated, not only to the committee but to the hungry media as well, the room held its collective breath. It wasn't long before pandemonium broke out, cries from the public gallery demanding retribution. With his part done, Logan sat back and let Eric take over the dialogue, listing the crimes committed against the mutants who had appeared as witnesses over the last fortnight, and making a compelling case for the Registration Act to finally, fully, be quashed. Cheers went up in support of his speech, even those who had held an opposing view before the hearing began were, at the very least, silent, clearly reconsidering their viewpoints.
It wasn't long before the hearing was concluded. Unusually the public gallery was emptied first, while the delegates and committee members remained seated. Moments later federal law enforcement entered, a warrant for Stryker's arrest in hand. He didn't bother to resist and in front of the cameras, in front of the committee, in front of his primary victims, was taken into custody. The crowd that had gathered out front could be heard clearly, hurling obscenities at him as he was loaded into a waiting vehicle and carted off.
"Do you think he's actually going to make it to jail?" Marie asked softly.
"He better hope so," was Logan's response. The dark glint in both his, and Victor's, eyes telling her all she needed to know about what would happen if he didn't.
--
Later that night, finally able to relax after the media hubbub had died down, the whole extended family, and a few of their closer friends, were having a late dinner at a local restaurant.
The chatter predictably revolved mostly around the hearings, the committee decision was due to be released the following week but the group was interrupted by Eric Lehnssherr's assistant rushing in, with a tablet showing a live broadcast from the President's Office. The crowd watched in silence as the President himself canned the Registration Act, signing an Executive Order declaring mutants to be no different to any other citizen in the eyes of the law, a cheer went up at the conclusion of the broadcast.
"Congratulations Logan, you are a modern-day civil rights hero," Raven said, raising her glass in toast. It didn't mean much coming from her but at least she might finally lay off telling Marie she could do better for a husband, Logan thought to himself, as the rest of the table took up Raven's toast.
"So, what are your plans now hero?" Jubilee asked, she had missed her best friend over the last several long months, and her honorary niece and nephew's absence had been a hard fact to accept; no matter what, those two could always brighten her day.
Logan glanced over at Marie, who smiled brightly at him, Lucy and Levi's giggles clued the rest of the table in that something was up. "Well, we haven't decided for certain," Logan started, "But we're going to be in need of a mutant friendly doctor in about twenty-eight weeks, so..."
"Are you pregnant again!?" Jubilee asked suddenly.
"Me? No, never been pregnant in my life," Logan replied, Lucy and Levi giggling again before Levi finally burst.
"Mommy's having a baby, two babies!" he announced excitedly. It took a moment for his statement to sink in before a fresh wave of congratulations went around.
"Well, if you wish to return to the school, your suite is still available, as is your teaching position Marie, and Logan, you would be a valuable asset to our staff, or security team, or, while I hope there is not so much call for the X-Men going forward, you would be a welcome addition to the team, that invitation is still open," Charles stated.
"We wouldn't be able to live in the mansion," Logan replied, "At least I wouldn't, not long term, would it be possible to build a cabin somewhere on the grounds, somewhere we could have our own space?" he asked.
"That would indeed be possible, did you have a location in mind?" Charles replied, jumping at any chance to have the family back, home.
"As a matter of fact, I do," Logan replied, "There's this secluded little clearing, near the pond, I think that would work nicely, what about you?" he turned to Marie with a grin.
Victor chuckled before asking innocently, "Why that clearing?"
"Sentimental reasons," Marie replied, with a soft smile and a light blush. She knew exactly which clearing he was talking about.
--
The cabin in the clearing beat the twins to completion by two weeks.
The twins beat the doctor by fourteen and twelve minutes.
Logan beat Marie to hold the twins in his arms by five minutes.
Lucy beat Levi to meet the new babies by one point three seconds.
The next morning, after the twins were born, as the early morning sun filtered down into their little clearing, Logan watched his family sleep. Re-reading the text message he had just received, he felt a weight he hadn't known he was carrying lift from his shoulders, content that they were finally safe.
A week earlier, Stryker had been sentenced to one hundred and forty-seven years in prison. As of five minutes ago, Stryker was confirmed murdered, in prison, by his fellow inmates; the word came from Victor, who had seen the body himself before he had passed the message on to Logan.
That chapter of their life was finally closed, and as Lila and Luka stirred sleepily, yawning and stretching as much as their tight wraps would let them in their bassinets, Logan was eager to begin this new chapter, a continuation of the best part of his life.
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