From The Other World

Call Mystique Mom

Disclaimer: Do not own the X-Men or River's parents.

  River felt fine, but a headache was forming behind her eyes as she stared up at Logan, his brows furrowed and hair gelled up into two spikes as he leaned over her. She lay on a white medical board slash bed, the X-Men's medic rooms reminding her way too much of the mutant concentration camps. Jean Grey, as red-haired and green-eyed as ever, unharmed by the Sentinels, checked a clipboard. No one else was in the room.

  "She is fine physically." Jean announced, tossing her hair over her shoulder with one smooth motion and leaving the room. River reached up to feel for the cold metal of her collar and instead touched her neck. Logan looked at her strangely before plucking something from a nearby tool-filled tray. Her collar was intact but the usual red lights warning of its activation was gone. It was disabled, and she could only feel relief. That collar had brought her nothing but pain and misery.

  "Come." Logan grunted, opening the door for her to pass through. Her senses could smell all the antiseptic of the room, and she gladly almost ran out of the X-Men's supposedly-secret-but-not-really basements and into the fresh air of the front lawn. Her headache disspated like the wind as she breathed in the fresh air. Logan caught up to her, holding the collar and smelling of anticipation. She glanced briefly at him.

  "What are you-" her sentence was interrupted when metal claws extended from Logan's hands, and he sliced the collar in half. Then he threw the pieces down, and stomped on them for good measure.

  "-doing." some sparks flickered weakly from the severed ends as Logan retracted his claws.

  "You aren't actually supposed to be here." he muttered, not meeting her eyes. He smelled like a forest, wet and musky.

  She lowered her amber eyes. "Yeah."

  "How did you get here?"

 "Don't know."

  Logan now gave off a aroma of annoyance. He could sense she was telling the truth. "Do I call you Dad?" she blurted suddenly. Curse her runaway mouth.

  Logan's mouth quirked up at the corners. "If you call Mystique mom." although he hadn't done anything with Mystique in this timeline, he would love to see the look on her face.

  River actually grinned. Her skin looked bluer by the minute. She was regaining colour taken away by her time in the camps, and it warmed Logan's heart. "Deal, Dad."

  Logan smiled back. "Sure thing, kid."

Just imagine a shorter Mystique with claws and normal amber eyes.