(Cerveza Fria, El Paso)
After returning to Cerveza Fria with a crying baby girl, the bar’s owner, Nestor, takes the lead and asks Angel to fetch some diapers and formula from down the street. Cassie is a little concerned that the baby is still crying, but Nestor tells her that the baby’s cold, hungry and scared. He has three children of his own and this is what babies do; they cry. It’s a hard thing, being born, he adds before offering the child to Cassie to hold. She puts her arms out and backs away, replying that she doesn’t do babies.
She turns and sees Wolverine standing on the balcony, alone and looking into the street below. He appears lost in his thoughts. Despite being the consummate tough guy, Logan is also pretty sensitive to things like this and the past day has been rough. He drinks from a beer bottle, as Nestor and Cassie watch him, not really knowing what to do. “Talk to him,” Nestor quietly urges.
Cassie edges onto the balcony. Logan is leaning over it, dressed in jeans and a vest with a small crate of beer at his feet. “So hey,” she says warily, “You gonna tell me what happened with Rojas?” Logan replies that she’s dead and asks if she thinks Rojas would have given her the baby if she was still alive. Cassie asks if he killed her, but Logan turns to her and tells her to go to hell. Cassie pauses before repeating her question. He responds by asking if she thinks he did. Cassie doesn’t respond.
Logan asks why she’s following him; why doesn’t she just leave him alone. She says she’s been asking herself the same question. She’s never seen a man like him before. She’s not sure really; she wanted to find out more, find out what kind of man he was. “Not much of a man at all,” Logan answers dejectedly. Cassie needs to know if he killed Rojas. Logan replies that he might as well have.
(flashback, the Rojas estate, New Mexico)
Wolverine returns across the river and finds Rojas in agony, sitting on the floor and clutching the back of the sofa. She was already in labor when he first found her and it must have started right after he left. That’s twenty of hours of labor Rojas has endured. He grabs some towels and hot water and tries to help her. Although the baby comes out, Rojas dies from her exertions.
(present)
As Angel arrives with the supplies in a brown paper bag, Cassie assures Logan that he couldn’t have known she was going into labor. It’s not his fault. He replies that Rojas was alone. There was no one to help her, not a guard left. They were either dead or they’d run. That was his fault. He pinches his eyes, as he recalls the event before repeating that he’s not much of a man at all.
Cassie begins to head back inside, but stops at the doorway. She turns and tells Logan that this isn’t about being a mutant or anything like that. Whatever war he’s fighting with himself, she doesn’t know how it started. She doesn’t know why he believes about himself whatever it is he believes. She also doesn’t understand why he named himself after a monster, instead of a man of honor. Whatever his reasons for returning to Rojas’s villa, he saved the life of an innocent. She has no time for animals. When he decides he’s a man, he knows where to find her. With that, she leaves him alone with his thoughts.
Once she’s gone, Logan makes his way inside, where Nestor is feeding the baby some formula. She is now dressed and enjoying her first drink. Nestor asks what they’re going to do with her and Logan replies that he can keep her; he doesn’t mind. Nestor says his wife might. He already has three of his own, and a fourth one he doesn’t need. Logan heads to the fridge for more beer and asks if he looks like someone who knows anything about babies? No, Nestor replies, but is giving her to the state his solution? Logan slams the fridge door shut. “Dammit!” he cries. He gently takes the child from Nestor and looks at her. “What’re we gonna do with you, huh?”
(The Rojas estate, New Mexico)
Logan returns to the house, only to find the place is being looted. Paintings, stereo equipment, a grandfather clock and carpets all find their way onto someone’s truck. He enters the building and asks a guy what’s going on. He replies that the witch that used to live there is dead, that’s what’s going on. His friend replies that she won’t need these things anymore, but they do.
He climbs the staircase, passing a couple of guys ripping even the toilet from the floor. Making his way into the bedroom, he finds a guy rifling through the drawers. Logan orders him to get out but the guy says he’s working this room and he should find one of his own. He faces Logan and pulls out a large knife, throwing his booty to the floor. Logan tells him that if comes at him with that sticker, he’s gonna be breathing through a new hole. You don’t scare me, he replies. Then you’re stupid, is Logan’s response.
The man lunges at him with the knife but Logan shoves his arm away while popping the claws on his right hand. He slices the man’s knife into several pieces and, along with it, several of the guy’s fingers. “Told you,” he says as the man clutches his hand to his stomach and leaves the room in pain. This is uncharacteristic, even for Wolverine, but he’s in no mood for games. He picks up a framed photograph and removes the picture from the frame. In it, he sees Rojas, another woman and an older man. A letter falls to the floor and he finds it is addressed to Rojas, but it has the senders address on the back. Maria Murillo, 4388 W. Oak, Evanston, Illinois 60201.
(El Paso)
Logan returns to Cerveza Fria and shows Nestor the letter, as Angel looks after the baby. Nestor tells him that the one on the right is Rojas. Yeah, Wolverine replies, about ten years ago. The guy in the middle is her father and the other one is her sister, Maria. “You got all that from a photograph?” asks Nestor, impressed. He says it’s written on the back. There was a letter wedged in the back of the frame from her sister in Illinois. If there’s a family for the kid, he adds, he’s looking at it. Nestor asks him what happens if the sister doesn’t want the baby. Logan has no idea.
(Evanston, later)
The town of Evanston is experiencing a bout of snow. Maria and her two children climb into their 4x4 and head off on the school run, which allows Wolverine to use one of his claws to prize open a window and climb inside their house. He takes a look around and sees Rojas in one of the photographs on the wall. He then finds a couple of degree certificates on the wall, possibly belonging to the two sisters. The car then returns and Maria gets out, picks up her paper and heads up her pathway while reading it. “Maria Murillo,” says a stranger’s voice. She is shocked, but Logan assures her that he didn’t mean to scare her. His name is Logan and he’d like to talk to her. “About what?” she asks. Your sister, he replies, he’s afraid she’s dead. Maria’s face drops upon hearing the news.
She invites him in for coffee and Logan seats himself at the kitchen table. She asks if he’s the law, to which he replies that he isn’t. She always thought it would be the law who told her she was dead. She always thought it would be the law that killed her; or her competition. Logan asks if she knows how her sister made her money. Yes, Maria replies and tells him that she used to send her cashiers checks. She doesn’t know if her sister wanted her to launder them or if she thought she needed it. You never spent it? Logan asks. Never, Maria replies.
She explains that there is a stack of them in her desk. She’d have returned them, but her sister would have taken that as an opening. She’d have tried to talk to her, to convince her. She could never take no for an answer. She pours the coffee and sits across from Logan. She asks who killed her and Logan informs her that she died giving birth. Maria doesn’t know what to say.
Logan tells her that she has a niece. She’s being cared for now, but it won’t last. She’s going to end up a ward of the state unless someone comes forward; unless some family comes forward. Maria closes her eyes, as Logan continues to tell her that he knows she has a husband and two kids. She has a life, but this is her sister’s child; her family. Whatever her sister was, the child is without stain and needs a family to love her. He says that maybe she could put those checks to good use; make something right out of everything her sister did wrong. Logan’s argument is very persuasive and Maria holds her forehead, thinking about her sister and Logan’s suggestion. She finally says that she has a family and needs to speak with them about it.
(El Paso, later)
The 4x4 and Logan’s bike are parked outside the Cerveza Fria. The Murillo family are gathered in the bar area as Logan brings Maria’s niece to them, flanked on either side by Nestor and Angel, who carries a bag of baby items. Maria smiles and asks if he gave her a name. No, Logan replies, they never knew what to call her. Maria cradles the baby in her arms and decides to call her Angelica. It was her mother’s name. Her husband also smiles and the two children take a look at their new baby sister. Soon, the family depart and the baby looks back at Logan, as she is carried to the car. Nestor tells him it was the right thing to do, what a man would do. Come on, he says, he’ll buy him a drink and toast Angelica’s health. Logan says next time and heads for his bike. Next time.
(Oregon, later)
There is a knock on the door and Cassie Lathrop peers through the spy hole to find Wolverine standing in the rain outside, soaked through to the skin. She opens the door and says she guesses he’d better come inside. They look at each other without another word and Cassie closes the door behind them.
