Marie's mother hung her head in shame. "We never meant for her to leave, things were said without consideration, Marie's daddy was a proud man, he refused to admit he had made a mistake when she left, saying it was her choice and if that's what she wanted that's what she would get. He refused to try and look for her, and I was too afraid to report her missing in case people... got the wrong idea, I didn't know places like this existed or I would have contacted you sooner. My husband never told me Marie tried to contact us, I didn't find the letter until I was cleaning out his den after his passing..." she paused to sniffle, as she dabbed lightly at her tears.

“He wrote her a letter in reply, though he never sent it, that damn pride getting in the way again, I think she needs to read it but it seemed too impersonal to just post, especially in this situation... I've missed her terribly, never stopped worrying about her, wondering where she was, if she was safe..." she gave up trying to speak through the cloying emotion that was welling inside her. Charles handed her more tissues as he gave her a moment to compose herself.

"I understand," he told her gently, "While I make contact with Rogue, I can have one of the teachers show you to a guestroom, we would be happy to host you for a time while we attempt to reunify your family."

"Oh thank you, thank you so much Mr Xavier, I can't thank you enough. Please- please don’t tell her about her father yet, if she'll talk to me I would like to tell her myself, break the news gently," Tricia said, regretfully.

"Of course," Charles reassured her, as the office door opened and Scott entered. "Mr Summers will show you to an available guest suite, I will notify you when I have been able to make contact, in the meantime, dinner will be served at seven, just follow the sounds of hungry children to find the dining room."

Once he was alone in his office, he picked up his phone and dialled the speed dial for Logan's cell phone, it rang once before the call disconnected. Frowning in confusion he dialled again, however this time all he got was a recorded message saying the number he was attempting to reach was switched off. Frowning deeper he made his way to the elevator, pausing for a group of boisterous boys making their way, at a million miles an hour, from the stairs to the nearest exit, before he continued down to the lower levels. He wanted to check all was well with the pair he was attempting to contact, if so, he would attempt to contact them again later.

He was pleasantly surprised when he mentally scanned the area the young family was located. There were several extra mental signatures, including the calm uncluttered mind of the family’s newest member. He briefly attempted to make contact with Logan.

-"I thought that might have been you,"- Logan thought to him, when he felt the gentle brush against his mind. –“Didn't want to wake the baby, I'll call you back later tonight, once everyone's asleep."-

-"My apologies for the intrusion, no rush for a return call, I can call again tomorrow if that would suit you?"- Charles replied.

-"That would be great, any time after nine would be fine,"- Logan answered. A strong feeling of contentment washed through the connection between them, as Logan gently nudged an image of the brand-new baby, fast asleep next to her slumbering mother, in his direction.

-"She is lovely, congratulations again, and congratulations on the safe delivery,"- Charles told him. He hoped his news about Marie's mother wanting to make contact wouldn't upset the family's peaceful introduction period. -"I'll leave you to your bonding, until tomorrow,"- he farewelled the other man, gently easing himself away.

He picked up the excited thoughts of the two little boys, being entertained by 'gendma', as he left. They were already enamoured with their little sister.

--

The next morning at breakfast Marie's mother approached him, querying whether he had had any luck making contact. Carefully avoiding mentioning the recent birth of the couple’s newest baby, he advised he had made brief contact but hadn't been able to talk to either in depth but he had instruction to calling them again at midday.

After that topic was dealt with, he and Tricia engaged in further conversation about the school and more about what they did, not only to educate mutant teenagers but to help them learn to control their powers. The other teaching staff joined them, Scott handled the introductions, having taken the opportunity to introduce himself the afternoon before. All the teachers gushed over how proud Tricia must be of her daughter, and what a lovely student Rogue had been.

Tricia was glad her daughter had found such an accepting place to embrace her after her impromptu departure from her childhood home. She was also amazed at the number of mutants around her, she didn't even realise so many existed, yet all around her children of all ages were ... well, being children, with amazing feats of power.

They chatted about Marie some more and how she learned to control all the aspects of her mutation. Tricia was filled in in more detail about Marie's kidnapping and rescue, life at the school, and how many missed having her around. Her personality was still the shining beacon of light it had always been, her mother was proud to note. Nothing ever got her daughter down, not for long at least.

Tricia was surprised too at the glowing reports relating to Logan, her alleged son in law. He appeared to be as well liked as Marie was. She had done her math the night before, on the limited information she had been given, and determined this man had to have been bedding her daughter at not even seventeen years old. While she accepted that was legal, in most places, it still concerned her that her daughter may have been coerced into a relationship with a much, *much*, older man. That really didn't seem to fit with the description she was being given of the man in question however.

She tried to push her thoughts and worries aside, and be patient. She had waited so long to be this close; it wouldn't kill her to wait a little longer. After breakfast she excused herself and went to explore the rest of the school. She observed from afar some of the morning classes, visited the veritable ghost town that was the rec room during the school day, and eventually settled down with a good book in the school's vast library.

As midday came around, she found she was so nervous she couldn't eat. She tried to stop herself from barging into Mr Xavier's office and demanding an update but half past the hour found her pacing outside the door. After a few more minutes she knocked.

The door was opened by Mr Summers, Scott, one of the teachers, who ushered her in and to a seat.

"I apologize for keeping you waiting, at this stage however I don’t have much to update you on other than, I was able to speak to Logan and advise him you were wishing to make contact with Rogue, he is going to speak with her and they will get back to us with an answer in due course, I was instructed to advise, that yesterday, your as-yet-unnamed granddaughter was born, and as such Rogue is still recovering from the birth, Logan advised that if he thought the news would be too much for her to handle at this time he would hold off on speaking to her so not to be concerned if it takes them a few days to--" Charles's comments were cut off, by the ringing of the office phone.

Scott answered the phone, if it wasn't Logan or Rogue, he would be able to get rid of the caller quicker than if the Professor answered it. His grin a moment later told Charles all he needed to know about who the caller was, even before he moved to hand the phone over.

Taking the call Charles turned on the speakerphone. "Logan, I'm here with Rogue's mother, and you are on speaker, that was faster than I expected, what news do we have?" he asked.

"Marie's right here so I'll let her speak for herself," Logan replied, his tone light, indicating the news was hopeful at least.

"Momma, are you there?" a teary female voice spoke, after a brief rustling of the phone being handed over.

"I'm here baby," was all Tricia could get out, passed the lump on her throat.

"Oh momma, I didn't think I would ever see you again, I wrote and no one replied, I thought... but that doesn’t matter now! I've missed you so much, please momma come on up and meet your grandbabies, and Logan, you’ve got to meet him too, and..." the bodies huddled around the phone heard as the phone at the other end of the line dropped, with a muffled plop. Logan could be heard in the background, reassuring Marie and trying to calm her down, as she sobbed with pure joy, after a moment Marie came back on the line. "Sorry about that, I just can't believe this is happening! Please momma, say you'll come visit?" she asked happily.

"Baby I'll be there as soon as I can organize everything, I wouldn't miss this opportunity for the world!" Her mother beamed through her own tears of joy; she had her baby back. Now she just had to figure out how to get to Yukon.

"All right," Logan's voice came over the line again, though muffled enough so they knew he wasn't talking to them. "You leave me and Chuck to sort out the details, she'll be here before you know it, so calm yourself down and get some sleep, you hear me, don't make me called Helen in here, she'll go harder on you that I will."

They heard Marie giggle happily before she murmured goodnight, the padding of feet on bare wood filtered down the line before a door was heard softly closing.

"Alright Chuck, if you can sort the ride we've got the accommodation sorted, so long as you don't mind staying at our place Patricia?" Logan said, as he came back on the line, "If it takes any longer than that to get you up here I think Marie might just burst."

"If that's no trouble for you, I wouldn't mind staying, I wouldn't want Marie traveling just yet anyway," Tricia replied excitedly, never mind her daughter, she thought, she might just burst herself!

"I can indeed handle the flight Logan, though would your offer of accommodation be able to extend to one more room?" Charles asked, as Jean popped her head into the room. Tricia was projecting quite loudly and Jean had no doubt picked up on it.

"Let me guess, the Summers' want to tag along too?" Logan chuckled, "Sure, thing, it's going to be a full house but we can swing it. Should I expect you all in about four hours?"

"Make it five, some of us haven't packed yet," Scott replied.

The plans were quickly settled, and Logan laughingly ended the call, to go try and corral his young wife back to bed. Her nervous excitement had her up and about again, too wired to sleep. Jean was filled in on what had taken place and left Scott to pack for them, while she set about gathering up the baby gifts that had been gotten for the new baby, in the months since Jubilee and Kitty had been up to visit. She also packed up some baby specific medical instruments because she was a doctor damn it, and that's what doctors did.
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