The End of Days
“You sure you want to come with us? It’s not too late to change your mind.”
They’ve arrived at the marina just after sunrise, and Logan can see the Sunseeker now, sleek and welcoming, gleaming orange and purple in the soft morning light. It’s to be their home for the foreseeable future – and likely their last ever home – as he and Charles have talked about many a long night during their stay in that dusty old silo in Mexico.
He watches Laura as she turns to the back seat, eyes darting over a sleeping Charles before she looks up at him and shakes her head. “Someone’s got to take care of him.”
Logan snorts. “That’s my job, kid. Not yours.”
She smiles at him, and it’s still a new enough thing – that she exists, that she’s essentially his daughter, and that he loves her more than he ever thought possible – it steals his breath away just a little. “Then it’s my job to take care of you.”
He lets out a sigh, and tentatively reaches to take her hand. “Laura…you should be with others your own age. Living the life that’s been denied you since you were born. Charles and I are old. Dying. All it’s gonna be is a long, slow wait for the inevitable.”
It’s not that he truly wants her to go, but Logan won’t keep her around for his own selfish reasons. He’s a man used to being alone, surviving for more years than he remembers living with nothing but his own company. Plus he has Charles still, for as long as the tough old bastard can hold out; he doesn’t want Laura to hang around and waste valuable time stuck with them in their bizarre limbo.
They’re interrupted before she can answer; Charles shifting and then slowly waking from being asleep for the past five hours of their long drive. Laura grins, and then climbs into the back with him, helping him adjust his legs and the mound of blankets until he’s sitting upright in the seat.
“Are we here then?” Charles asks, patting Laura’s head affectionately with only a slight tremble in his hand. “Shall we get out of this thing and stretch our legs a bit, as it were?”
He groans, and Laura snickers a little, and then they’re all piling out of the truck, with Logan lifting Charles carefully into his wheelchair. Between the three of them they manage to carry the few bags of possessions they own in just a single trip, and they’re on the deck of the Sunseeker and ready to set sail no more than half an hour later.
“Last chance, kid,” he says, allowing the sense of ease to steal over him as the sun glimmers over the horizon. “Are we headed North? Or someplace warm?”
From her spot on Charles’ lap, Laura looks up at him and smiles. “Somewhere warm. I want to see dolphins.”
“Dolphins,” Charles says, and then he’s turning to smile up at Logan too. “That’s a great idea.”
He leaves them just a few minutes later to get the boat underway, huddled together under a single blanket, their voices drifting in the wind. It’s a happier end than he ever really expected for himself; to have the two people he loves most in the world still with him, after so many deaths. After everything...
‘Will you tell me about the X-Men, Charles?’
‘What is it you want to know, my dear?’
‘Everything. Start at the beginning.’
‘I see. Well then we have to go all the way back, to when I was just a young chap, and I met the most extraordinary girl named Raven…’