"Logan!" Jubilee's voice blared into his brain, as he absentmindedly lifted the phone to his ear at... three am. "Marie's in labour, and Jean says baby's in a hurry so you might want to light a fire under your ass to get yourself here! ... Logan, did you hear me?" she asked a moment lately.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you," Logan mumbled sleepily, "The baby's... shit! The baby's coming! I'll be there soon!" He finished the rest of his sentence in a shout as he pulled on his jeans. Racing out of the room as he pulled his shirt on, he rushed into Emily's room and scooped her carefully out of bed. Grabbing both their jackets, and his keys on the way out the door, he was loading Emily into the car before she had even finished sleepily enquiring as to what was happening.
"Your brother's on his way," Logan explained, "You're going to have a sleepover with Ollie and Nick, I'll come get you when he's ready to meet you, okay?" Emily murmured her understanding before promptly slipping back into sleep.
When he pulled up out the front of the mansion, Scott was waiting, waving him inside and telling him to hurry. Leaving Scott to sort Emily out Logan dove into the waiting elevator to head to the sub level, following the sound of Marie's pained cries to the right room.
It wasn't long before the med bay fell silent, right before a piercing wail split the air, drawing a smile from both parents as Jean tidied up the baby ready for presentation. At Marie's insistence she handed the swaddled infant to Logan first.
Several minutes passed, as Jean silently worked with Marie before Logan softly, sadly, spoke. "Jean... something's... not right," he said, glancing up as all three women's attention immediately fell on him, before shifting to the baby. "I can hear it, something's not right with his heart," Logan clarified.
"An MRI will be the fastest way to see what's happening inside," Jean responded, after a moments pause for thought. "I'll set that up, Logan, you'll need to wait in the hall to not throw the imaging off, down by the elevator," she instructed, as she took baby back into her arms.
With a gruff nod Logan headed out, loathe to leave Daniel, and Marie, but the sooner Jean got started, the sooner he could come back. By the time he was called back to the room, Scott was there waiting with him, having been called down telepathically by Jean to try and keep Logan calm.
"What's the news?" Logan asked immediately, catching sight of Marie's tear stained face as he entered. Without a thought he moved to her side, taking her hand in his, and offering it a gentle, comforting squeeze.
"Daniel has a small malformation, a hole, in the lining of the muscle wall of his heart, it is impairing his heart function... if it's left as it is his heart will eventually stop-" Jean paused momentarily as Marie began to sob again- "It can be fixed though, I can operate now, close the hole, that will restore full function to his heart, he will need surgery again probably around two years, five, and thirteen, so the repair grows with him but other than that there should be no long term adverse effects," she advised. "What are your instructions?"
"Do the surgery," Logan replied, without hesitation. Everyone turned to Marie, for her agreement.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Marie sobbed, "It's all my fault, I did this to him--"
"Marie, none of that matters, tell Jean to do the surgery, let her fix this," Logan pressed, knowing Jean needed to get Marie's consent before she could begin the surgery.
She began nodding, before she managed to croak out her agreement. "Yes, do the surgery," Marie managed to whisper before she collapsed into tears again, barely registering when Logan wrapped his arms around her and cradled her against his chest. Around them, Jean bustled around the room, calling Hank down to assist her with the surgery, while Jubilee played nurse and helped get everything they needed set up.
For a very tense four hours, Logan sat with Marie, waiting for the surgery to be complete. Marie was exhausted but could only manage to sleep fitfully between bouts of sobbing. Ororo eventually brought the waiting crowd breakfast, though no one could force themselves to eat. Finally, Jean and Hank both emerged from the operating room, wheeling a clear plastic incubator between them, arrayed with various medical necessities to monitor baby's life signs and provide him extra oxygen.
Daniel looked even tinier and more fragile, laid out on the white sheet. He had a splint on each arm and leg to stop him flailing around and injuring himself, or dislodging any of the various wires and tubes crisscrossing his body. An angry red line, interrupted by little black staples, marked where his tiny body had been opened up and rearranged. Even Logan felt his heart skip a beat at the sight, and Marie began another fit of sobs and profuse apologies.
"Well?" Logan asked, prompting for an update, once he had calmed Marie again.
"He's going to be fine; he's going to have a scar but that's all he should have long term to show for this," Jean advised. "I'll keep him here, in intensive care for a week, just to be sure, and to monitor him, if that's all fine then he'll be free to head home."
--
Logan caught himself again, not for the first time over the last week, peacefully watching the steady rise and fall of the tiny baby's chest. Jean had cleared Daniel to be discharged, and Logan was supposed to be dressing him readying him to leave but he just couldn't bear to wake him. Footsteps in the hall caught his attention, moments before Marie and Emily walked into the room.
"Daddy, is Daniel ready to go now?" Emily asked excitedly, releasing Marie's hand and rushing up to the crib to stare in awe at her baby brother.
"Just about," Logan replied, scooping the stirring infant out of the crib and placing him on the soft towel he had laid out at the ready on the examination bed. Emily watched closely as Logan removed his soiled diaper.
"What's that?" she asked in disgust, pointing at the shrivelled umbilical cord.
"That's the umbilical cord, that's how he got food while he was inside mommy," Logan explained.
"Why's it gross?" she asked, still clearly not impressed.
"Well, he doesn't need it anymore so it's drying up, and then it will fall off and he'll have a belly button, like you've got," Logan told her, watching in amusement as Emily pulled up her t-shirt, to see her own tummy button, before comparing that to her baby brothers belly.
"Why's he got two?" she queried suddenly. At Logan's confused glance she pointed, to baby's groin.
"Uh..." Logan paused, unsure how to respond, even as he heard Marie trying not to laugh.
"That's not an umbilical cord sweetie," Marie eventually spoke, clearly amused at Logan's sudden loss of speech function; not many people could claim to have left him at a loss for words but Emily had just done that. "That's a penis, boys have that for going pee pee," Marie explained nonchalantly.
"Why? What's wrong with how girls pee pee?" Emily asked, a confused frown on her face.
"Nothing's wrong with it, boys just have different parts," Marie replied.
"So... does mommy has a girl pee pee like me, right? And daddy has a boy pee pee thingy, like Danny?" Emily asked, slowly building up her understanding.
"Yes," Marie replied.
"Can I see?" Emily asked suddenly, causing Marie to laugh again as Logan just about choked on his own tongue as he immediately replied in the negative. "Why?" Emily asked immediately.
"Because your private parts are private, that means you don't show them to people," Logan replied.
"But you're looking at Danny's," Emily pointed out.
"That's different, Daniel is a baby, he can't look after himself yet, he can't take himself to the toilet, or clean his privates so he needs mommy and daddy to do that for him for now," Logan explained.
"Oh, did you used to clean my privates too?" Emily asked.
"Yep, when you were a baby, before your mommy taught you how to use the toilet you used to wear a diaper too," Logan added, as he finished securing Daniel's fresh diaper in place before moving on to dressing him.
Emily seemed to lose interest in that topic, much to Logan's relief, and turned her attention to the next thing that caught her eye. "Danny's scratch is dry," she commented, pointing to the incision on his chest.
"It is, do you remember where the cream is to put on it?" Logan asked, watching as the little girl scrambled across the room, and came back with the little tube of cream to watch intently as Logan moisturized the incision area. Jean had said it would promote healing and reduce the scarring some. "Can you put that in the diaper bag," Logan instructed, pointing to the bag that was sitting at the ready to follow Daniel around for the next year.
He added the wound dressing Jean had left for him, before buttoning Daniel's clothes in place. "You want to give him one last hug for today?" Logan offered to Marie, who readily accepted, she and Emily hugged and soothed Daniel for a while, before Logan suggested they head upstairs to get him a bottle before they left. Marie fed him, and carefully burped him, before handing him back to Logan as he began to nod off to sleep again. Gently, Logan buckled him into his tiny capsule before he, Emily, and Daniel headed for the car, and home.
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