For the next week the team hung around in Alaska, helping Marie settle the new-born twins into a routine, filling her fridge and freezer with even more precooked meals, and giving her space and time to begin the grieving process, while supporting her young children.
What happened next shocked everyone.
The twins were asleep in the nursery, Suki was having a bad day and was very unsettled, so Marie had taken her off to the master bedroom for a cuddle and a nap. The rest of the buildings occupants were reading, some cooking, others were tidying the house more for something to do than because it actually needed any more cleaning, when the front door suddenly flew open. Instantly alert, the team of superheroes, rushed into the foyer, expecting to see anything but what greeted them.
"Logan!?" Ororo gasped, as she stepped out of the kitchen a split second before anyone else.
"Hmph, thought you could get rid of me that easy, huh?" Logan grunted, gingerly peeling off the jacket he was wearing. It was now over two weeks since the mission that 'lost' him, the fact that he was still in pain, still healing, was enough to tell his teammates just how badly injured he had been. Behind him stood two young girls, they too looked like they had seen better days, one had her arm in a sling, the other was limping heavily on a bush-made leg brace, both were sporting a good supply of cuts, scrapes, and bruises.
"Check them out Jean, I did the best I could with what I had, that leg's already started to knit but it's not right, you're probably going to have to re-break it," Logan said, adding in details of the pairs other injuries, even as he moved further into the house, following his nose, no doubt heading for Marie. The group watched in stunned silence as he stalked past them, and silently slipped through the bedroom door.
As Jean dazedly directed the pair of rescued mutants into the kitchen, so she could check over their injuries, Scott wordlessly followed after Logan. Sticking his head in the open doorway for a moment, just in time to spy Logan gently nudge Marie awake from where he had knelt down beside the bed.
"Hey darlin," Logan murmured, as Marie's eyelids fluttered open.
"Logan?" Marie murmured softly, a sleepy smile turning up her lips. "God I miss you Logan, I miss you so much," she whispered, as she sighed sleepily.
"I've missed you too darlin, I promise I'll never leave you again," Logan replied gently, he was smothering a grin, obviously having realised she wasn't quite awake yet. "I'm sorry for worrying you darlin, I'll do my best to see that never happens again," he assured her, as he gently smoothed her hair back from her face.
Marie blinked, then blinked again, as she felt his fingers brush against her skin and hair. Tentatively she reached a hand out towards him, running her fingers across his cheek, over his bushier than usual facial hair, and across his lips, pausing in her movement when he gently kissed her fingertips.
"... Logan ... it's you? It's really you?" she whimpered, as tears began to leak again from her red puffy eyes.
"It's me darlin, the tales of my demise are, fortunately, premature, I'm still here, I'm still with you," Logan replied, the last part of his statement muffled further when Marie launched herself out of bed, wrapping herself around him as she began to simultaneously weep with joy, as she kissed him everywhere she could reach, while trying to hug him in two.
"Dada?" a sleepy voice asked a moment later, drawing Logan's attention back to the bed, where a sleepy looking Suki was rubbing her eyes and yawning.
Picking himself up from where he and Marie had landed on the floor, Logan carried Marie with him to the bed, where he sat, and scooped Suki up into their hug. "Hey little one, have you been behaving yourself for mommy?" he murmured to the little girl, as she wrapped her arms around his neck, and yawned her way through a hug.
"Uh huh, mama cry, I gived her cuddles," the little girl advised her daddy, as she tangled her fingers into his hair.
"You're a very good girl for doing that, I know mommy liked that," Logan answered her, placing a kiss on his daughters cheek, even as she giggled out a 'tickles' as she pushed his face, clad in its scruffy beard, away from her face. "Tickles does it, tickles? Well you better start giggling like you mean it then," Logan replied, tugging her closer as he tickled her some more with his beard until she was giggling uncontrollably.
A moment later Logan froze, as the high pitched cry of a small baby sounded. Marie wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes but Logan's smile suddenly grew even bigger, as he picked both of his girls up, and without a word carried them into the nursery next door. Setting Suki down on the rocking chair, and Marie beside the nearest crib, Logan paused to stare in awe at his son's. He had only seen them before by video call, and eagerly moved to scoop up he who was grizzling, cradling the tiny child to his chest.
"They're perfect darlin," Logan murmured, after several moments pause to admire the perfection of the tiny infants.
Marie moved back to his side to hug him again, resting her head on his shoulder as she stared up lovingly at Logan. She was still terrified this was all a dream, and if she took her eyes off him, or let him go, he would disappear, leaving her all alone again.
It was a good hour, before the pair moved back into the living room. Logan had rocked Niko back to a sound sleep, and put him back down in his crib, Yuma was still snoring steadily, and Suki had fallen asleep, curled up in the rocking chair, wrapped in a fluffy blanket. They left their children to sleep while they, or specifically Logan, went to explain to everyone, just how they had managed to escape.
"Where to start..." Logan murmured, as Marie set a bottle of his favourite beer in his hand, before sinking onto the couch beside him to cuddle against his side. Smiling softly, he placed a kiss on her head before he launched into his tale. "I guess from the point I went back is probably all that's needed... the base was empty, I knew something was up when all the guards just vanished, I knew I had to hurry, got to the lowest level, found the girls-" he nodded to the pair who had been set up on air mattresses on the living room floor to rest- "I got the cells open then I heard the detonators click, forced them back into the smallest cell, covered them as best I could as the whole base imploded around us... when I came to, I don't know how long I was out for, I'd bled everywhere, and I could barely move. At first I thought Katy was gone, thought I'd lost her, turned out she was just sleeping on the job," his comment earned a grin and a soft chuckle from the girl with the broken arm.
"I managed to make us manoeuvring room but I knew we were running out of oxygen quickly, it was a goddamn miracle that saved us... digging through, and crawling through the rubble I came across a large piece of air ducting, at first I thought it was just a broken off piece, it would be enough to leave the girls in to shelter while I kept trying to dig out... we must have been about twenty or thirty feet down, about two or three stories under a mountain of rubble... turned out that air duct was more or less intact, we managed to climb it, it wound it's way around the compound, connecting to all the smaller internal air vents, and eventually came up above ground about a hundred feet from the main base entrance. By the time we got out, you guys were gone and the military had moved in. I picked off a pair of patrolling guards, took their guns, and uniforms so the girls had some clothes, and then we got the hell out of dodge.
"It was slow going, Katy was having trouble with her arm, and I couldn't stop to try and set Melissa's leg, had to carry her. When we eventually stopped I tried to contact Chuck, comms were fried, tried telepathy but it turns out Mel's power is like anti-telepathy, which is probably why it took us so long to find that base, Mel's power was inadvertently shielding it, it also meant Chuck couldn't see us, and I couldn't get a message to him. From there we've been trying to lay low, had to steal clothes, food, a couple of cars, though I zigzagged them across the northern half of the continent before dumping them so no one should have been able to track them... We were closer to here than New York, and I figured it wouldn't be too long before you lot gave up trying to find me and pulled out the will, I had to get back here so Marie would know I was okay... And that's pretty much all there is to it," Logan finished, hugging Marie tighter to him, even as he ignored the jabbing pain in his ribs the action caused.
Jean noticed his imperceptible flinch, as did Marie, the doctor had gotten good at picking up Logan's attempts to hide pain over the years. "Right, well, I've examined the girls, and done as much for them as I can right now, so it's your turn, I need to see what's going on with those ribs- no, don't you brush me off Logan, I saw that flinch, come on, suck it up, be a man, it'll be over before you know it," Jean said, interrupting him before he could scoff that he was fine.
"Go, Logan," Marie added, with a stubborn cocking of her brow. When he hesitated she pressed against the tender spot on his side, until he hissed in pain, growling as he pulled himself to his feet.
"Fine, but only because you asked so nicely," Logan replied sarcastically, though he didn't let go of Marie's hand, so she ended up going with him.
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