Marie paused as she finished wiping down the table, her swollen belly took some effort to heft around now that she was virtually due. She knew that at thirty-six weeks she should be off her feet, not still bussing tables at a roadside diner but she wanted to take as much time off once baby had arrived as she could afford. Which meant working and saving as much as she could beforehand, and Christmas Eve was a good day for tips.

Her job at the grocery store had ended about two months after Logan left, the couple who owned the store didn't support unmarried mothers, or 'harlots', as she had been referred to. Thankfully she had kept her pregnancy hidden from them for as long as she could, and had already begun looking for another job. She walked right into the waitress job at the diner only two days later the hourly pay wasn't as good but once you added tips she was in a better financial position. That, combined with the fact that Logan had paid her rent in advance at the motel for six months before he had left, as well as leaving her a sizable lump of cash, meant she had been able to put all her wages into savings, and been able to buy those baby essentials she needed, without much of a financial hit. She would be able to take several months off once baby was born, in fact, if she managed her money well, she may not have to go back to work at all before Logan got back.

She refused to consider the possibility that he wasn't coming back, especially once she had discovered her pregnancy. She wished, daily, she had some way to contact him, to tell him about the baby but she didn't, and so she just had to wait.

"You okay, Marie?" Cindy, the other waitress working the busy holiday day, stopped beside her and asked.

"Yeah, just trying to put baby back in the standing up position," she joked, straightening back up.

"Why don't you let me do the tables, then you won't have to keep leaning over," Cindy replied, good naturedly. Cindy had three kids of her own so she had been a godsend for Marie with advice, and hand-me-down baby items.

"Ugh, don't you start too," Marie replied with a chuckle, "Tommy's already banned me from the kitchen, I'm not allowed to take out the trash, now you want to stop me wiping down tables, what am I, an invalid?"

"Nope, just a very soon to be, brand new mommy, and if you don't start taking it easy that's going to be sooner than you think," Cindy reminded her.

"Thanks for reminding me," Marie murmured, tucking her wash cloth away, as a sad smile crossed her face.

"Oh sweetie, baby will be here before you know it, and his daddy will be too," she hugged her gently, she had seen that look often enough since she and Marie had discussed Logan over dinner one quiet night, to know what it meant.

The doorbell chimed as another group of customers entered, stamping snow off their boots, and simultaneously kicking half of it across the floor. "You take the orders, I'll get the mop," Cindy sighed wearily, hurrying off before the snow melt and spread too far.

--

Marie's shift ended at closing, nine pm, and by then she was absolutely shattered, she couldn't wait to get back to her room and crawl into her bed. Tomorrow was Christmas Day and the diner would be closed, so she was going to give herself the gift of sleep and planned to spend the entire day in bed, asleep. First, she had to get rid of this last customer.

The guy was huge, about seven-foot-tall, with long blond hair, and full facial hair, scruffy but in an unkempt way. Not like Logan's controlled chaotic hair - and there she was thinking about him at wholly inappropriate times, again... back to the customer in question though. He was scary, Cindy had balked when she had seen him, refusing to even serve him, telling Tommy he gave her the creeps. Unfortunately, the giving of the creeps, wasn't enough for Tommy to be able to throw the guy out, so it had fallen on Marie to wait on him. All. After. Noon.

He had arrived at lunch, sat in the furthest, darkest booth, he'd ordered lunch, he'd had cup after cup of coffee, he'd had dinner, but so far, he hadn't moved. Even to go to the bathroom, which was surprising given all the coffee she'd been pouring for him. Approaching the table with the guys check, she set it down on the table, offering him a smile as she did so, even though truth be told he creeped her out too. She had decided it was his eyes, they were too dark, dark and piercing, like he was looking right into you, and not in a good way.

"Thank you for your custom sir, I hope all the food was to your liking, we're closing up now so I'm gonna have to ask you to head on out, do you want anything to-go?" she asked, in her fast learned, sweet and cheery, customer service tone.

"How about a side order of one pretty little brunette waitress?" the creep leered at her, very obviously and exaggeratedly looking her over. His voice was even creepier than his look she immediately decided.

Suppressing the shudder of revulsion that he triggered in her, she set herself firmly and replied, still sweetly, "I'm sorry to disappoint but waitresses aren't on the menu, and the only place I'm going is home, to my boyfriend, and bed, goodnight," she added, turning to walk back to the counter.

"But your boyfriend isn't at home, is he?" the stranger said with a dark chuckle. Marie froze, turning to look back at him as he stared at her, an unreadable expression on his face.

His eyes flickered over her shoulder a moment later, and his expression changed to one of annoyance as he pulled himself out of the booth. Dropping a wad of cash on the table he walked past her, and past Tommy, and out into the night without another word. The cheery little doorbell was an oddly ominous sound after that encounter.

"Well, at least he left you a good tip Marie," Tommy shrugged. "Merry Christmas," he added, as he handed both women their tips for the night and pay for the week. "Do you want me to walk you home?" Tommy asked Marie, as she bundled herself into a coat that was several sizes too big for her in order fit around her bump.

"No, it's okay, Cindy and I walk most of the way together anyway," Marie replied, shrugging off the little niggle of unease left behind by the customer. "See you next week," they both said, with a wave to Tommy as they left him to lock up.

Cindy ended up walking her all the way to her motel apartment, even stayed for a while, until both women were confident they hadn't been followed, and laughed off the creepy comment.

"Well, I'll see you at work next week, if aqua man decides to mutiny and jump ship early you let me know," Cindy said, hugging Marie goodbye and patting her belly for good measure.

"I will, you'll be the first person I call," Marie replied, offering her a warm smile and a wave, as Cindy set off down the block further to her own home.

Getting ready for bed, feeling a lot more at ease now that she had had the opportunity to calm down. Marie crawled under her covers and snapped off the bedside lamp.

Several hours later she was sleeping deeply, so deeply she missed the soft scratching of the lock being picked, the click of the barrel giving way, and the door to her apartment silently opening, then closing.

"Rise and shine sweetheart," a deep voice rumbled in her ear.

Marie shifted unconsciously as she began to wake, rolling slightly towards the sound that stirred her. Blinking sleepily, her eyes were immediately drawn to the figure standing over her. She started in shock as her brain woke up and recognized the creepy customer from the diner, and she screamed involuntarily as she attempted to get away.

His hand instantly clamped down over her face, it was so large it covered most of her face, not only stopping her from screaming but breathing too. He didn't have to do much to stop her from moving, her baby filled belly did a decent job of that all by itself. She could feel her heart racing as she panicked, she had to get away, she had to protect her baby, what did this guy want...

Before she could do anything, he shifted, moving his hand away from her face and she took the opportunity to scream again, as loud as she could, hoping to attract the attention of one of her neighbours. He slapped her hard, before gagging her tightly. As he tied her hands together, she began to sob, what was he going to do to her.

"Quit your snivelling, your nose gets blocked you'll suffocate, the boss won't be very happy about that," the stranger said, hauling her out of bed. Thank god he left her feet untied; she had a shot at running at least.

He sat her back down on the edge of the bed as he pushed her boots onto her socked feet, and he wrapped her coat around her, buttoning it up as best he could with her arms in the body portion rather than the sleeves.

"Come.” He ordered, and tugged her up toward the door, pausing at the threshold he added, "Try to run and I'll make sure that brat in your belly doesn't live, the boss only needs you, not your spawn, behave yourself and I'll let you keep it, for a while longer at least."

Involuntarily Marie froze, as he tugged her back out the door she stumbled, unable to coordinate her legs to move her forward. She began to sob again as she realised what danger she was really in, she tried to follow, she tried to behave, but she just couldn't get her body to play along.

With an animalistic growl, her captor gave up trying to get her to walk, and scooped her up off her feet, carrying her out the door and across the parking lot. He set her on her feet, keeping a firm grip on her arm, as he opened the back door of the sedan he had stopped beside, before shoving her in. She had the presence of mind to twist as she fell forward so she didn't land on her belly. He shoved her feet in the car too and slammed the door, thankfully he was distracted by a noise behind him, and didn’t notice that the door didn't catch when she kicked back out at it as it closed.

"Sabretooth, kidnapping girls is not socially acceptable behaviour, what do you want with her?" Marie heard a feminine voice break the midnight silence. Was that her captors name, Sabretooth? That was a weird name. Was this new person her saviour, or was this her captors’ partner in crime? Either way it provided a distraction.

Tearing the buttons off her coat as she forced her arms out to give herself some leverage, she pushed the car door fully open, sliding towards it she carefully but quickly pulled herself upright. As soon as her feet hit the ground she ran, it was one block to Cindy's apartment, could she get there before her captor caught up? Probably not but she was damn well going to try!

She hadn't even made it across the parking lot when she heard an enraged roar from behind her. She didn't pause to look back, just kept running as fast as her legs could carry her swollen belly.

A loud crack of lightning, out of nowhere, caused her to stumble and she fell to her knees. Catching herself with her bound hands, to halt her forward momentum before her belly hit the ground, she attempted to push herself back to her feet immediately. When a hand touched her a moment later, she tried to scream, through the gag, as she launched herself away from whoever had her now.

"It's okay sweetie, we've got you, you're safe now," a woman’s voice said softly, as she steadied her before she could fall again.

Turning to this new stranger cautiously, Marie spied a lump of steaming human flesh on the ground behind her, it looked oddly like her original captor. Gently the woman was untying the gag from around her face, and as soon as it was free Marie blurted, "Did you hit him with lightning?"

"Yes," the white-haired woman replied, with an amused smile.

"H- how?" Marie asked, confused.

"I am a mutant, like you are, my power is control of the weather and it's anomalies, it was the fastest most effective way to put him down for a while," the woman replied.

"A while? Shouldn't that kill him?" Marie asked.

"If not for the fact he too is a mutant, yes, unfortunately, he is a mutant who heals, so he will be back on his feet shortly, we need to get you away from here before then, until we can figure out why they want you at the least..."

"No! I can't leave, can't you just take him away with you? Or hand him over to the cops, or something?" Marie asked, worry evident in her voice.

The woman had moved on to untying her hands as she replied, "We can but that won't stop the man who sent him to get you from sending someone else, it would be safer for you, and for your baby, if we took you with us, so we can protect you."

"No offense, but I don't know you, and I can't just up and leave my life on a whim, I have a job, my baby's due in four weeks, my..." she began to argue.

"None of that is going to mean anything if Magneto gets his hands on you," the white haired stranger interrupted. "Let's go inside, and we can explain everything, you can make your decision from there, okay?"

It was then Marie noticed two other people in the distance, carrying the charred body into the woods. "Where are they taking him?" she asked.

"To our transportation, we'll take him back with us, average law enforcement won't be able to hold him, hopefully we can," the woman replied, "Now, let's get you inside to warm up shall we, you're freezing." With a friendly smile, the woman led her back to her apartment.

Kicking the heat up as soon as she entered, Marie dug around for her warmest clothes, she really was freezing. Once she was dressed, she headed back into the main room where the white-haired woman handed her a cup of coffee - she had made three other cups so it appeared she was expecting more people to join them, either that or she really loved coffee. Sure enough, two more people joined them moments later, knocking softly at the door. The white-haired woman let in another woman, a redhead, and a man wearing odd glasses... in the middle of the night...?

Once everyone was seated with a drink, the white-haired woman began with introductions, who they were, where they were from, revealing they were mutants and what their powers were.

"Wow," Marie commented, "I had no idea there were so many mutants, but what do you all want with me, my power I wouldn't have thought was anything special, or even useful..." She explained briefly what her power did when prompted, catching the confused glances of those around her, it seemed they couldn't understand the fuss either.

They explained more about who the creepy attempted kidnapper was, who he worked for, and the type of nefarious business those 'bad guys' got up to. Before moving on to explain where they lived, and how they could protect her.

"We also have onsite medical, which it looks like you are going to need sooner than you think," the redhead, Jean, commented with a reassuring smile, as Marie rubbed at her belly as her muscles tensed again tightly. It seemed her attempted midnight abduction was enough stress to tip her over the edge and provoke a reaction from her body.

After another hour Marie made up her mind, she would go, it was too dangerous to stay if these people were right but she wouldn't be leaving until morning, she had to quit her job, and leave forwarding details with the motel manager which she would do in the morning. For now, she was staying put and trying to calm her body down, she didn't want her baby born yet.

The group agreed the two women, Jean, and Ororo, would stay with her, just in case Sabretooth wasn't alone and someone else came looking for her. Scott, the guy with the weird glasses, that were for controlling the laser beams he shot out of his eyes, would go back to the groups jet plane and keep an eye on their prisoner.

Marie managed to sleep for the rest of the morning, waking at nine to the smell of breakfast cooking. The two women waited on her, keeping her calm and comfortable while they packed her apartment for her. When everything was cleared out Marie gave one last forlorn look back at the place that had been her home for so many months, before she headed for the office.

"Merry Christmas Joe," she called into the backroom, where Joe had his armchair and TV that he sat in front of between check ins.

"Merry Christmas Marie, what are you doing up and about, you should be resting sweetie, or is that little boy keeping you on your toes already," he chuckled. He was a nice old guy, and he liked Marie, spoiling her almost as if she was the daughter he never had.

"Just a bit but he's not the only one, something happened last night, someone broke into my apartment and tried to kidnap me, so I'm going to be moving away for a while, until it's safe for me and baby, just need to leave a forwarding address for Logan when he gets back," she filled him in sadly.

"Of course, where are you going to be heading to, I'll make sure it only gets to Logan too, don't you worry," Joe told her with a grin. He didn't know why exactly Logan had left her here alone, he was obviously in love with her, and she was in love with him too, but he knew about their agreement that he would return, so, maybe he was just working or something. Once the details were all settled, Marie handed Joe a little brightly wrapped box, along with another parting 'Merry Christmas', and made her way back outside.

She opted to quit her job in person so they made their way down to the diner, it was closed but Tommy was there, as always. He was disturbed to hear about what had happened, apologising for not working more proactively to get rid of the creep the day before.

"It wouldn't have made any difference Tommy, he already knew everything about me, it's not like he followed me home or anything, it's not your fault. I'll see you around sometime, and Merry Christmas, will you tell Cindy I said goodbye?" With Tommy's parting promise to do just that, Marie headed back outside to her waiting entourage.

When they led the way back to their mode of transport, Marie eyed the plane warily. "I thought women weren't supposed to fly when pregnant?" she asked worriedly.

"Generally up to thirty-six weeks is okay, you should be thirty-six weeks today from the dates you gave me, and you'll have your own personal doctor on board so everything should be fine, we'll be making special allowances to make sure you're comfortable, don't you worry," Jean responded, with a reassuring smile.

The flight went well, and quickly. However, the minor contractions that had started on the night of the attempted abduction didn't stop, and two days later Marie got to meet her chunky little boy. He was gorgeous, with a mess of dark hair, big blue eyes, and weighing in at a surprisingly hefty seven pounds, which Jean declared was far more than enough for a thirty-six week-er. The only downer on the whole occasion was that Logan wasn't there to meet him too, but she took lots of photos, so when he caught up to her he could see baby from his very first minute.

She had a new worry now where Logan was concerned - she still refused to consider the possibility that he might not come back, he had promised, so she would take him at his word - but would he want her, and baby, when he found out she was a mutant? Part of her felt bad for not mentioning that to him before, she could control her mutation so it didn't really seem like an issue at the time. The other part of her declared that it shouldn't matter, it didn't change who she was, but still... when he did catch up to her, it wasn't going to be something she could hide anymore.
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