Up until ten minutes ago, Marie hadn’t thought that her day could have gotten any worse. Logan didn’t remember her. Logan. The man that she had loved since she was seventeen. The man that she had been married to for the past five years... didn’t remember her. The life that they had built together no longer meant anything to him. It was as though she had never existed.
Compared to what had happened after, it all seemed pretty inconsequential.
After she had run sobbing from the med lab, Marie had gone straight to the woods behind the mansion. The place was pure Logan and she had needed to be close to him then. If only to pretend that she hadn’t actually ripped his wedding ring from his finger and told him that she no longer needed him. It had been a lie, but Marie had been too hurt to care. Her nerves were on end and she had lashed out at Logan. Hearing that he’d had a wife before the government had felt the need to play God with his body had thrown Marie for a loop. Of all the things she had thought Logan would remember about his past, she had never considered there being another woman.
Marie shook her head, forcing herself back to the present.
A present where Logan had been taken by the Brotherhood and one of her sons had four deep gouges in his right arm.
“Momma, make it stop hurting!” Hunter sobbed, burying his face against her breasts. The boy was seated sideways on her lap so that Jean had better access to his injured arm.
“Ah know it hurts, sugah, but Dr. Jeanie’s doin’ everythin’ she can to make it stop,” Marie murmured as she ran her fingers through his dark hair. “Ya just gotta sit tight a little longer an’ everythin’ will be all right.”
Still, Hunter continued to whimper, his tears dying down as he succumbed to the sedative Jean had given him. In Hank’s arms across the room, Chase was crying quietly as well. He kept a firm grip on the big man’s fur, snuffling and whimpering as he watched Jean clear up the blood on his twin’s arm.
“Have Ah ever told ya how yer Daddy an’ Ah picker yer names?” Marie asked in an attempt to distract the boys from what was going on.
Hunter shook his head slightly, burrowing his way deeper into her arms. “Nope.”
Marie grinned and pressed a kiss to the top of Hunter’s head. “Well then, Ah guess Ah’ll hafta tell ya then, won’t I. Now ya both know how much yer Daddy likes his beer, right?”
“Daddy says he likes it as much as you like choc’at ice cream,” Chase piped up.
“That’s right, Chase. Ah love chocolate ice cream a whole lot,” Marie told them.
“More than you like us?” Hunter mumbled sleepily.
“Never more than ya, sugah. Ah couldn’t love anythin’ more than Ah love the two o’ ya an’ yer Daddy. The same goes fer yer Daddy. He loves ya very much,” Marie told them, all trace of joking gone from her voice. As soon as he was sure that she had her boys convinced of what she was telling them, Marie continued on with her story. “Now when Ah first got pregnant with ya, yer Daddy an’ Ah thought there was only gonna be one o’ ya. We had no idea there was gonna be two o’ ya till ya were already startin’ t’ make mah tummy look fat.”
That part earned a giggle from both boys.
“Well right ‘round then, yer Daddy an’ Ah started arguin’ ‘bout what we were gonna name ya. Ah wanted t’ name ya Jason and Michael, but yer Daddy was dead set on namin’ ya Chase an’ Hunter. No one could talk him outta it. So yer Auntie Jubes came up with a compromise,” Marie paused momentarily, bobbing her head from side to side. “Actually, it was more like a bet. Ah’d give up chocolate ice cream an’ yer Daddy’d give up beer. Whichever one o’ us gave in first, lost an’ got t’ chose what yer names were gonna be.... It didn’t even take one day fer me t’ give in an’ eat some ice cream. Granted, Ah tried t’ hide it, but yer Daddy could smell the chocolate an’ knew he’d won.”
“That why our middle names are Jason and Michael?” Chase, the more conscious of the pair, asked.
Marie nodded her head. “That’s right, sugah. Yer Daddy was feelin’ generous an’ let me pick yer middle names without any complainin’.”
Chase grinned and held his arms out to Marie. She nodded her head slightly and Hank brought the little boy over to the table she was sitting on. Holding her right arm out to him, Marie smiled at Chase as he crawled over to her. She wrapped her arm around him as soon as he was close enough and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.
“Where’s Daddy?” Chase asked as he snuggled up against her.
Marie took a deep breath, trying to figure out the best way to tell him what had happened to Logan. She not only had to explain it in a way that he would be able to understand, but she also had to keep him from getting scared more than he already was.
“Well, Chase, yer Daddy went after the bad man who hurt Hunter,” was the explanation Marie settled on.
It seemed to satisfy Chase who nodded his head. He looked over at his brother who was sound asleep in a drug-induced slumber before settling against her chest. “I hope Daddy comes back soon.”
“So do Ah, sugah. So do Ah,” Marie whispered, keeping her eyes trained on a spot on the wall just over Jean’s shoulder as she fought not to cry.
Right now she had to be strong for her children. Once she got them back up to their room it was a completely different story.
Marie was going after Magneto then and he was going to pay for taking Logan away from her.
~*~*~*~*~
Logan felt like shit.
It felt as though he had pulled every muscle in his body. Twice. To make matters worse he was once again in a location that he couldn’t recognize.
The situation became even worse when he smelt the bastard that had hurt his son. Opening his eyes, Logan caught sight of the hairy monster standing in a corner on the other side of the room. In an instant, Logan was on his feet and charging at the other man, claws extended.
Logan was just about to lunge at the beast when he felt his movements stilled once again by the unseen force.
“What the fuck is going on!” Logan bellowed as he fought against whatever was holding him.
“You are over reacting to what was merely an accident,” said a cultured voice behind him.
The person soon came into his sight and Logan growled. “Give me one good reason why I should trust you?”
“I should think that taking you away from Charles and his group of do-gooders was enough of a reason,” the older man drawled, a smirk playing on his lips. “However, I see that I may have been mistaken.”
“I think I may have to agree with you on that, bub,” Logan snarled.
“Really, Logan, there is no need for such savagery,” he stated calmly. “This can all be settled quiet calmly.”
“Calm, my ass. Let me at that bastard! He hurt my son!” Logan raged, fighting to push himself the rest of the way towards the man-beast.
“You are over-reacting, Logan. Victor has no cause to hurt his own nephew. It was merely an accident.”
Logan was floored by that knowledge and gave up all pretenses of a struggle.
“I seem to have caught your attention. This also confirms my suspicion that you have recently suffered severe head trauma that resulted in memory loss,” the older man said, more or less to himself. “In that case, I believe introductions are in order. My name is Erik Lennsher and, as I have already stated, this is my associate, Victor.”
“Nice to meet you, Erik, now let me at the fucker that hurt my son!” Logan growled, becoming very pissed off about the fact that he couldn’t move.
“What happened to the boy was an accident,” Erik tried to assure him. “Victor meant no harm to him. He was aiming for Rogue when the boy appeared out of nowhere. It was merely a superficial wound. The genes that he inherited from you will have it healed up in no time.”
“Doesn’t make me wanna kill him any less,” Logan grumbled. “Blood is blood and Vic over there hurt mine.”
“And I assure you that Victor feels terrible about it. The boy is his nephew and he had no intentions of hurting him,” Erik told him. “All that he wanted was to locate you before Charles and his children poisoned your mind against us.”
“What the fuck is all this nephew bullshit? Blondie and I sure as hell don’t look related,” Logan pointed out, flexing his muscles to see if the force holding him had slackened any bit.
“He shares your blood, though. Your healing factor is the same,” Erik said, coming much closer to Logan than the restrained man felt comfortable with. Something was gonna happen and Logan was pissed off that he didn’t know what it was.
“That means shit.”
Erik sighed and rolled his eyes slightly. “Must you be so vulgar, Logan. The English language is a wonder of words and phrases used the world over which you are presently neglecting.”
“Yeah, I’m real upset about that too,” Logan said mockingly. “Now how ‘bout you let me go and tell me why the fuck I’m here?”