Without conscious forethought, acting on the pure, panic-induced instinct to save his daughter, Logan released three, nine-inch, razor-sharp bone claws from his right hand and embedded them in the rusted gutter at the roof's edge, stopping their fall. He had Anna's arm tightly gripped in his left hand, but his weaker right arm was already starting to burn from the strain of holding them up.

Anna was screaming and squirming in his grasp. He tried to call to her, to tell her to hold on, but her yelling mixed with his stuttering made the message indecipherable. Then, his claws started to slip.

They say a mother can distinguish her baby's cry from any other child within days after birth, and Marie was no different. Anna's panicked shrieking tore through her soul like a knife, and she was running through the kitchen and out the door before she had consciously registered that something was wrong.

Following the crying sounds, and mimicking everyone else on the lawn, she looked up to see Logan and Anna hanging seven stories in the air. Her heart stopped for a second, and then started beating itself out of her chest. She was inside again and running up the stairs to the roof before anyone realized she had even been out there.

Marie wasn't the only one who'd heard the screams. Scott and Ororo came running from the front of the mansion where they'd been teaching soccer. They were expecting a battle, thinking someone was attacking the mansion. When they saw Logan and Anna suspended precariously from the edge of the roof, they were stunned.

Scott immediately went into full, fearless-leader mode "Storm, can you create a wind draft and blow them back on the roof?"

"It doesn't work like that. They could be blown off the roof instead of back onto it."

Scott went through the abilities of his team members. Only Jean's gifts might be of use, and she was no where to be seen. He called to her through their mental link, telling her to come as soon as possible, and then started evaluating the students' powers in case one of them might be able to help.

When Logan slipped an inch and Anna screamed harder, he knew they had to act now, but Jean was nowhere in sight.

The roof's door opened, and he thought that Jean must've gone directly there. Of course, when the figure emerged onto the shingles, he realized how wrong he was. It was a five and a half months pregnant Rogue starting to slowly scoot down the slope to her endangered family.

"Logan, hang on, sugah. I'm here."

Marie!?! Panic overtook him. With her pregnant belly, her center of gravity was thrown off. What if she came close to the edge and fell over?

"NNNOO! Mar-ee, ggo bbakk."

"No." Marie said in a tone that made it clear she'd allow no more arguments. Sitting down on the roof before him and planting her feet wide to give her leverage, she reached out both hands and commanded, "Hand Anna up to me."

He slowly raised his left hand up and over his head. The movement loosened his claws even more from the worn and rusted gutter, but he didn't fall. Anna was still crying, and Marie tried to calm her.

"Sugah, Mommy's right here. Come to Mommy. Shhh, stop wiggling. Give me your hand. It'll be ok... I've got her, Logan. Logan, let go. Logan, I can't pull her up if you don't let go."

It was one of the hardest things he'd ever have to do, letting go of Anna when her feet were still dangling over the side of the roof, but if there was anyone he trusted completely in the whole world it was Marie, and he finally forced himself to release his grip.

He watched with fear and then relief as Anna was pulled up to the relative safety of the roof. Marie started to scoot back up the incline to get Anna inside. "I'll be back for you in a second, sugah."

"Ddon' bbothrr," Logan said, unsheathing the claws on his left hand and embedding them in the wooden edge of the roof just as his other claws slipped from their hold in the storm drain. His right arm was numb by now from the effort of holding his and Anna's combined body weight. Still, he was able to move it just enough to give the claws a good hold so he could move his left arm again. Wiggling and shimmying, he finally pulled himself up far enough to get his knees on the roof's surface. After that, it was much easier to climb up to the door and back into the stairway where Marie and Anna were waiting.

Once he was finally on a safe surface, he allowed himself to collapse, sucking in air in an attempt to catch his breath.

"What happened? Why were you up there? How did you get on the edge like that?" Marie was asking.

"I fell, Mommy," Anna said, still shaking a little in her mother's arms. "Daddy saved me."

"But what were you doing up there in the first place?"

"Daddy was up there."

Marie turned to look at Logan, her face questioning. He shook his head. Still trying to catch his breath, he puffed, "Wwuz... think-nn."

"Rogue? Logan? You guys ok?" That was Scott's voice calling from the flight below.

"Ya, we're fine. Just had a scare." Marie answered. Then, looking at his bloody but already healing hands, she asked, "*Bone* claws?"

Logan shook his head. "Dunn-no."

"Should we go get Jean to look at them?" Marie asked, uncertain.

Logan shook his head. "Ttoo ttirrdd."

She nodded. He seemed to already be healing. They could wait until he'd gotten a chance to rest. She helped Logan back down the stairs to his chair, and they went back to their suite.

A knock on the door drew Marie's attention away from Elmo dancing around on the television. It was one of Anna's favorite videos, and it was keeping her distracted and relatively quiet while Logan napped in the other room.

When she opened the door, she found Jean, Helen, and Hank with huge grins on their faces.

"Rogue, we have some news," Jean said, almost euphorically. "Where's Logan?"

"He's resting."

"He's gonna want to wake up for this," Helen added. "It's big news, Rogue."

Their excitement was almost contagious, and she felt herself starting to smile as well, even though she didn't have a clue what she was smiling about. "Ok, um, take a seat. I'll go get him."

Logan rolled out of the bedroom a few minutes later, followed by Marie. His hair was even wilder than usual, and he was still blurry eyed from his nap.

"Wuzz up?"

"Logan, your progress in therapy has been amazing," Helen started, "and today with the roof incident. Well, you shouldn't have been able to do that."

"Hhadd tto."

"No, you don't understand. I mean you should be physically incapable of the strength and speed necessary to do that. I brought it up to Jean and Hank."

"We were reviewing your CT results when she entered," Henry added. "Upon further examination, we have determined that not only has your right hemisphere synapses increased in number, but your left hemisphere has started to regenerate."

Logan looked at him like he was speaking Portuguese, his sleep-fogged mind still not completely cleared. When Marie whooped and reached down, hugging him so tight his lungs started begging for oxygen, he got the impression that whatever Big Blue had said was good news.

"Logan, you're healing, sugah! You'll be gonna be good as new!"

Once the truth sunk in, Logan was surprised at his feelings. This was what they'd been hoping for. He should feel relief, thankfulness, happiness, something. The truth was that it didn't change anything. He had found out what was truly important to him while hanging from that roof earlier today. Even if he never got better, he still had Marie, Anna, and a new son on the way. They were all that mattered. He wanted to explain all of this to Marie, but his speech was still too slow. He could wait.

"LLuvv yooo... ddarrlnn," he said instead. That was enough for now.

The End.