Marie watched the young mothers with their babies, they'd been brought here after a raid on a lab, the young children filling the air with gurgles and squeals of delight.
Wrapped up as she was she didn't dare go near the young babies, even though several of the girls had approached her with their children. Wanting to thank her for saving them, for giving them a chance at life, for giving them somewhere safe to live at least for a little while.
Sighing she shifted herself again in her chair, the book she was supposed to be studying resting in her lap. Watcing as Katherine walked through organising the younger mothers to take their children to the kitchen.
Feeding tended to be lessons on childcare with Ororo, it was the best way for them to bond naturally apparantly but the sight of so many bare breasts had left some of the male population with a preoccupation with watching.
Logan had caught a group of boys staring at one mother who'd been feeding her tiny baby after it needed an extra feed. He'd slapped the boys hard enough to make their ears ring and growled at the rest to get to the gym if they had time on their hands and energy to burn. She'd been helping a small class of kids with a biology report outside when she'd seen the outflow of students. Logan had followed soon after with the young mother, his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulder. His eye on the small form still latched to her uncovered breast, no look of lust on his features, just longing.
She'd caught his eye as he'd raised his gaze, when he saw her there he just locked onto her, the distance to far for her to read him correctly. But as he let his arm slip away from the girls shoulders she could see he was tense, what had caused it she didn't know but he'd avoided her since then. Taking himself off with making sure the rest of the boys here realised that the sight of a feeding mother wasn't something to stare at.
Sighing she tried to concentrate on her term paper, the lessons she did via the computer weren't that hard, just that she needed to have a clear head to put her thoughts in order and at the moment it was the last thing she had.
"Aww fuck it!" She threw the book to the floor and tried to push the hair that had fallen into her eyes back behind her ears. When she looked back up Katherine was there, her face smiling at her frustration, her grey-green eyes calming her temper with their lightness.
"What's up?" Katherine's voice always managed to worm its way into the places you didn't want to reveal. Her soft tone and easy nature made her easy to talk to, she never judged anyone, just allowed them to be themselves. Even Ororo talked to her when she found things too much to cope with.
Blowing out her cheeks Marie felt her frustration surface it seemed so stupid when she actually gave it voice. Her face must have given her away because Katherine just held her hand out to Marie and smiled at her. "Come on, you need a drink." Marie hoped they weren't heading for the kitchen where the girls were but they did a left instead of going right. Heading for the smaller kitchen, better known as 'Katherine's Kitchen' because she was always in it doing something or talking to someone. Hell even Logan ended up in there, his beer stash was safe in there, you didn't go in there unless you were invited. Somehow it had become an unwritten rule of the school, Katherine was the mother substitute of the younger kids. Her own powers seemed to be empathic, she picked up on stress and pain, wheedling it out of the subject and helping them to solve it themselves with a few nudges in the right direction. Xavier brought her here when her own family kicked her out, having lost her husband and son to FOH rioters. Now Marie couldn't see the place without her calm presence.
The kitchen smelled of apple crumble, several were resting in the countertop cooling gently. Switching on her kettle and making the teapot ready she let Marie find her own place in the small kitchen. When she was in here she always took the stool nearest the window, not knowing it was Logan's favourite too when he was in here. Katherine smiled and filled the teapot filling the room with fragrant steam, two mugs were put on the table along with a brandy bottle. Pouring out two measures into the mugs before filling them with light coloured tea, a splash of milk colouring it a warm teak. Pushing the mug over toward her Katherine waited for her to speak.
It was things like this that made her so loved, she never pushed you, never made you feel like you should be talking. Not like Ororo or Logan, Katherine was everyone's equal, no one was more important than the person she was with at the moment. Drinking the tea Marie felt her chest warm with the brandy, the taste soothing her frayed nerves. Watching as Katherine just tidied her area, sprinkling sugar on the cooling crumbles, wiping down the sink, doing the little jobs that seemed to make life here go so much easier.
Finally when she'd gotten through half the mug Marie felt like speaking her mind, whether it was the brandy or the company she didn't know.
"Do you think he cares about them?" Katherine's face smiled as she turned to look at her, plucking her own mug up she sat down across from her giving her all her attention.
"We talking about Logan?" Marie nodded, her skin flushing a little as she drank the remainder of her tea.
"Yes he cares about them, like he does everyone else here. You should know that better than anyone else here Marie."
Katherine knew her name, her real one, it had come out naturally to her, as if Rogue was just something to hide behind outside in the world. But here, in the kitchen with Katherine, there was only ever reality.
Nodding to herself she offered out her mug to be refilled, which it was this time without the brandy chaser. When it was filled she brought the mug to her lips, blowing on it's surface before sipping the hot contents.
"Yeah but Ah haven't seen him to ask him." Katherine's smile deepened and she leaned back in her chair, a sparkle in her gaze and knowing look on her face.
"Well, you know where to find him, go ask him why." Marie's head snapped up to find Katherine's smiling eyes boring into her own, her voice filled with rich warmth. "One of you has got to make the first move and you know damn well it won't be him." There was something in the way she said it, alluding to something, telling her without telling her.
Marie grabbed at it and pulled, "He's been to talk to you hasn't he? About me?" Katherine just smiled and drank her tea, refilling her mug when she'd emptied it, adding some brandy to it before pushing it toward her.
"Can't tell you that love, you know the rules of my kitchen, what's said in here, stays in here." She winked and turned her back as she got out of her chair, "I'd take that with you, he likes it when it's still hot."
As soon as the words hit her Marie smiled, Katherine had told her enough to get her moving. It was her choice to take the tea or not, to get the answers she needed from him. Taking up the other mug Marie left without saying anything, her mind already working on what she wanted to say to him when she found him. Behind her Katherine smiled to herself, hopefully in a few months there might be another baby to look after. And this one would be the apple of the world, pulling down her ingredients, Katherine got on with the baking. Biscuits and cookies didn't make themselves and Ororo had an urge for coconut recently.
She found him, stood outside of the patio doors, eyes on the boys as they ran the track, his gaze weighing up who was slacking and who was really giving it everything they had. The smell of the tea reached him first and the words were out of his mouth before he knew it. "I'm not goin to tell her Kath...." He'd turned and noticed that it wasn't Katherine, his skin flushing a little and he tried to recover his composure. But it didn't work, he knew where she'd been by the mugs in her hand and that meant that she might already know what he'd been avoiding.
"Ya not goin to tell me what?" Marie offered the mug to him and he took it from her, taking a deep hit of the scent and smiling as he recognised the brandy inside it. He looked through the steam at her face, noticing the darkness that was hiding under her eyes, the feint lines that had appeared at the sides of her mouth. She was stressed and a little ill, she *needed* to hear what he had to say. He took a drink and moved himself to her side so he could see the runners and still talk to her. Pulling her next to his side and feeling her relax into him, her scent mingling with the tea in his hand.
"I'm sorry for not bein round much, there's been a lot to look into," Logan looked down at her, seeing her raise her own mug to drink. "The lab...there were others." Marie's eyes drove to his own and he felt his heart stutter as she tried to move away from him but he grabbed her and kept her still, kept her close to him.
"But ya promised ya'd take a team with ya...."
"Marie..."
"You *PROMISED* Logan!" She was near shouting now and the kids on the track were slowing down to listen to the words that were carrying toward them.
He told her that he wouldn't go alone to any lab, just in case he was caught again.
"Marie...please listen to me." The way he spoke made her stop her tirade, the way he held her arm tight as his fingers tried to soothe the hurt he'd given her.
"We couldn't bring them here...they were too....it was too...." The words wouldn't come, they stuck in his throat and the pain that was flowing from his gaze made her words die in her mouth.
"Please...." Marie knew what he needed from her, she gave him her mug as she stripped her glove off. Bringing her hand to his face as she touched him lightly, concentrating on only taking a little of his mind like she had with John.
Images of bodies, splayed open to the world, children dead or dying on gurney's, test tubes, steel cages filled with bodies, crammed in living with dead, remnants of bodies in hands and mouths. Too much done, too much to save, release the only answer, death the only panacea.
"Oh God!" She saw, she felt the pain and hurt he had, the children he'd had to kill, to save them from more pain. He'd gassed them all, carbon dioxide, quick and painless, then he'd burned the entire place down, planted charges to bury what was left.
Now she knew why he was so attentive to the girls, so careful, so touchy feely with them. He needed to know he'd done enough, that he'd saved enough to make up for those he couldn't.
Marie wove herself around him, arms splaying across his back as he whispered into her hair, knowing she would hear him. "I didn't want to tell you, couldn't tell you what was there. If they found out...."
The girls had asked where the rest of them were, the others from the other lab, they'd been friends and sisters, brothers too. How could he tell them that they were dead, that they'd died in such a place as that and that he was repsonsible for killing them?
Now she understood why he'd been avoiding her, she'd have found out about where he'd been, what he'd done and he expected her to hate him. He needed to hear what she felt, to know how she felt about him, all of him. Bringing herself away from his chest she let him see her eyes, calming her breath as she spoke the most important words she'd ever say to him.
"Ah understand Logan, Ah know why ya didn't tell any of us or took anyone with ya. But sugah Ah *love* ya and as hard as ya might think it was to go there, ya shouldn't have gone *alone*."
There was so much being said without words, through touch, through scent, through stance and pressure as they stood together. There was silence when their lips brushed against each others, just a small caress, fleeting, but a landmark event. A turning point where everything shifted into a better place, resting in his grip Marie took the mug from his hand, drinking her warm tea and looking out at the boys who were now lounging around. Logan's voice booming out over the field "GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR GENTLEMEN! FIFTY MORE!"
The collective sighs were heard above their own chuckles, motherhood is a hard job, and sometimes you have to do what isn't popular but it's whats best for those you love. And from her small kitchen Katherine could be heard singing a song as she made cookies for the runners, life may not be fair but it had a purpose, it was upto you to find it. There were helpers along the way but the final choice was always your own.
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Story Notes:
Marie asks some questions of herself and gets some answers she never thought she'd get.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Katherine is a O/C of mine, she can be found in Nine Months on the Sister site XMMFF.
Chapter End Notes:
Hope you liked it, let me know what you think. Hugs Jo.