They sat together on the rock beside the pond, it was still a little chilly being only mid-February in New York. That was the sole reason they were sitting so close, at least that was what they would tell anyone who chanced to come by.
Logan was playing with a handful of Marie's hair, he loved her hair, so soft and silky, and there was one particular spot where her scent was the strongest which he loved burying his nose in. Right now, though, he was worried, he just didn't know why - Marie was worried, distracted, and every time he asked what was wrong, she would just shrug him off with the excuse she was thinking. Marie was sitting between his legs, leaning back on his chest, still 'thinking'. Sometimes he caught himself wishing he had a mutation like hers, so he could suck her thoughts out of her head, just to see what she was thinking. He didn't though, so he would have to sit here worrying until she finally spilled her guts.
"Hey Logan," she suddenly commented into the crisp late-winter air, the words accompanied by a puff of steam as her breath clouded in the air. He acknowledged he was listening and waited. "When we're married, what next, what do you want our life to look like?" she asked softly.
Logan smiled. "Once we're married... well, I'm gonna have to get a job, necessary evil and all that, I would want you to go to college, if that's what you want of course, but to study what you want, then one day, we'll buy our own house, and I'll make you fat with my babies, lots of babies, if you want that of course, I want a family, a big family, lots of little girls who look just like their beautiful mommy," he replied, getting lost in thought.
"What- what if we play with that timing a little, do we have to do everything in that order?" she asked softly.
Logan could scent her tearing up and his worry came back. "Well, that would be the easiest course of action but life is all about adaptation, what things were you thinking specifically?" he asked in response.
Shifting suddenly, Marie's hair slipped through his fingers as she turned to face him, a serious uncertainty in her countenance. "I think I'm pregnant," she finally admitted after taking a deep breath.
"Oh," Logan replied, watching her watch him carefully, he wasn’t sure what she was looking for, if she was trying to figure out what he thought if that... well, even he hadn’t quite figured that out! "Have you done a pregnancy test?"
"No, not yet, I was scared it might come back positive," she admitted, averting her eyes worriedly.
"None of that," Logan assured her, "It might not be the best timing but babies are great, never be scared of a baby, unless it's not mine, then you'd have some explaining to do," he chuckled when Marie giggled, just as much in relief as at his humour.
"It's definitely yours, I'm thinking it was a birthday baby, you remember that condom that broke," she reminded him.
"Oh yeah, well, nothing much that could be done about that I guess," Logan replied with a shrug. "I don't know about you, but I'd like some certainty at least, should we go ask the doc for a test?" he suggested.
"God no!" Marie exclaimed, "Then everyone would know, can't we just go to a pharmacy and get one, that way we only have to tell anyone if it is actually positive," she pointed out.
"Fair point," Logan acquiesced, shifting to stand to his feet before lifting Marie to hers, "Let's go... get dinner, shall we," he winked at her as he took her hand, and they wandered back toward the mansion.
They went straight to the garage, debating whose vehicle to take. Marie wanted to take Logan's motorcycle, his sixteenth birthday present from his dad that the two of them had spent the next year rebuilding from the ground up. Logan in turn refused to even consider the idea, if she was pregnant it was 'too dangerous' he declared. They ended up taking Marie's car. It had been repainted since her birthday, it turned out her parents had bought her the white specifically so it could easily be repainted whatever colour she chose, she had gone for a metallic midnight purple.
Logan drove, as Marie didn't yet have her license, and they headed to the nearest shopping block, their favourite Chinese takeaway was in the same block of shops as a CVS, they'd have pregnancy tests surely.
"Want me to come with you?" Logan asked, when Marie said she was going to pop into the pharmacy.
"No, you order dinner, you know what I like," she smiled at him reassuringly before she wandered toward the other store. Logan was waiting for their order when she came back, the happy smile on her face a contrast to the tears in her eyes, as she sat down beside him, a discrete brown paper bag in her hand.
"You okay?" he asked.
Marie nodded. "There was a woman in the store, she saw me buying pregnancy tests, and probably looking a little freaked, she came up and gave me hug, and told me she got pregnant when she was sixteen too - she said it wasn't the end of the world, being a mommy's hard work but every time she looked at her daughter she knew it was all worth it, she even showed me a picture of her, she's such a sweetie, she's nine now..." Marie faded off, as she began to sob, with a happy smile on her face. Logan pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly. "We can do this, can't we?" Marie asked a moment later.
"Damn right we can do this Marie," Logan replied as he held her, "Even if we have to do this alone, we can do it."
As they left, hand in hand, with their meal several minutes later, Logan saw Marie wave to a woman just getting in her car, who flashed a beaming smile in response. With a grin, Logan squeezed Marie's hand reassuringly, before opening her door for her.
--
As soon as they got back home, they rushed upstairs to Marie's room, the brown pharmacy bag tucked, hidden, into the bag with their food. In Marie's room, Logan set out the food while Marie took the pregnancy tests into the bathroom. She had bought five, all different brands, just in case some were better than others, and carefully read through the instructions of each before setting the necessary chemical reactions in progress. Slipping back into the bedroom, she left the tests to sit for their required three to five minutes.
They ate slowly, chatting happily and joking around like normal, neither quite ready to be faced with undeniable reality just yet.
Eventually Logan bit the bullet. “You want me to check and tell you the result?" he asked, as he stood, ready to enter the bathroom.
"Let's do this together," Marie stated standing as well. Taking her hand, Logan led her into the bathroom, glancing at the line-up of little plastic sticks in the counter. "Here goes nothing," Marie murmured, picking up the first test.
All five were positive.
--
Two days later the pair were in Logan's room, sat on his bed, waiting for Victor to finish with his after-school class. As soon as the suite door opened Marie went pale.
"It's okay, you wait here, I'll go start, if he flips out at least it's me he's yelling at," Logan said gently, he didn't think his dad was going to lose it but just in case...
"What are you two up to hiding in there?" Victor asked teasingly, when Logan came out of his room. He knew they weren't up to anything, in that room at least, he has suspicion they'd started trying to 'sneak around' though.
"We were waiting for you, we need to talk," Logan said plainly.
"Uh oh, this doesn't sound good," Victor replied, taking a seat on the couch as he watched his son fidget nervously. "Spit it out kid, it's only going to get harder the longer you stall."
"Dad... I fucked up," Logan said, "Marie- Marie's pregnant."
Victor stared at him blankly for a minute before standing and walking across the room to the wall calendar, leaving a confused Logan standing in the living room watching him closely. "Sorry kid, you're about a month too early for April Fools," Victor confirmed, before turning back to him.
"I'm serious dad, we did five pregnancy tests, and we went to a doctor who did a doppler and we heard the baby's heartbeat," Logan confirmed, still tense as he waited for his father's reaction.
With a sigh, Victor took his seat on the couch again. "Come on out Marie," he called, watching as the girl timidly approached, standing next to Logan who squeezed her hand reassuringly. "You two really did fuck up, you know that, right?-" they both nodded- "But what's done is done, now you have to deal with the consequences, I take it by the fact you've been to a doctor already but still told me means you're planning on keeping it?" he asked.
"Yes," both replied simultaneously.
"You know that's not going to be easy, especially not while you both finish school, and college-" they nodded again- "But I'm here and ready help when you need it." He'd barely got the words out of his mouth before Marie threw herself at him, hugging him tightly as she began to sob. As he hugged her back, he glanced over at Logan who hung his head nervously.
"I'm sorry dad," Logan commented, when Victor finally let Marie go and stood in front of him.
"I'm disappointed, at your irresponsibility getting into this situation," Victor stated, even though he knew Logan already knew that he felt it was important to say, “But I'm proud of you, for manning up and taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions." With a relieved grin Logan hugged him too. "But god damn you two, I'm not ready to be a grandfather, I've only just got used the whole dad thing, now you want to chuck another generation at me," he commented good naturedly, drawing a laugh from all of them.
Now that the teens were able to relax, knowing they still had some support, they all sat to continue their conversation. Victor tugging Marie over to sit beside him when she looked like she still needed a little parental encouragement - there was no way she was going to get that from her own parents, and he knew she knew that.
"So, aside from keeping the baby, have you started planning ahead?" Victor asked, trying to gauge just where their thinking was at. He was impressed when Logan nodded almost immediately.
"I've talked to Mr Johnson, at the garage I did that shop placement at, he was impressed with my work then and said if I wanted to do an apprenticeship to get back to him. He's offered me part time work on the weekends until I've finished high school, which I'm hoping to be able to finish up early, then he's going to give me a fulltime two year apprenticeship, it's low pay but all the study fees are covered, and then in two years I'll be qualified and go up to the next pay bracket," Logan explained.
"And where are you going to live while you do this?" Victor asked.
"Hopefully we can stay here, can you stop the Professor from kicking me out for knocking his niece up?" Logan asked with a grimace.
Victor chuckled. "I think I can manage that, what about you Marie?"
"I'm gonna finish high school, if Uncle Charles will let me sta..."
"He'll let you both stay, you don't have to worry about that," Victor reassured them both. "What about after high school?"
"I don't know, Logan wants me to go to college, I guess if I can get a scholarship I could..." Marie began again.
"Even if you don't get a scholarship you can still go to college Marie, if that's what you want," Victor replied.
"Yeah, sure," Marie replied dismissively, "I think it's safe to assume my parents are going to disown me over this, without their money there's no way I can afford college, and I don’t want a student loan," she added resignedly.
"Your parents aren't the only ones with money Marie, if college is what you want you don't have to worry about the money side," Victor repeated, Logan was grinning though at the same time he looked uncertain.
"Dad's loaded," Logan clarified at Marie's questioning look, "But I don't want to take charity," he added, accounting for the uncertainty.
"It's not charity Logan, it's family looking out for each other, you're my only son, everything that's mine is equally yours, you're likely never getting an inheritance from me don't forget, you don't have to do everything the hard way," Victor replied. He could understand his son's thought process but really, he'd amassed a sizable fortune over the last hundred and twenty years, he didn't need it all.
"Well, I guess I'll think about it then," Marie interrupted, before the men could start arguing. "I'd like to be a teacher I suppose, but I don't know about leaving baby for so long to study," she added, with a soft smile.
"We'll make it work," Logan assured her, with a smile of his own.
"The next thing of course is getting myself disowned by my parents officially, i-e actually telling them... you think I can just send them a letter and never talk to them again?" Marie asked, only partly serious.
"No," Victor and Logan replied in amusement.
"I'll get Charles to set up a meeting for all of us, you don't have to do this alone Marie, we've got your back, you've been as good as family for a while now, sweetheart, anything I'd do for Logan I'll do for you, and for baby," Victor told her, hugging her and placing a kiss on the crown of her head when she hugged him back.
"Thanks dad," she smiled up at him a moment later, happy tears in her eyes.
"Anytime kid," Victor chuckled in response. "And speaking of baby, when can we expect to meet the little tike?"
"The doctor said I'm almost twelve weeks now, due around the beginning of September," Marie replied, a happy smile on her face.
Logan watched as Victor's brow furrowed in thought. "So, you must have gotten pregnant sometime around your birthday?" Victor said, the question clear in his statement.
"Probably the weekend, that party her parents threw for her...” Logan replied with a shrug.
"So that's where you two disappeared to," Victor chuckled again. "I do have to know though, was it a failure of education, or a failure of protection?"
"Protection," Logan replied, "Condom broke, didn't think much of it at the time," he shrugged, it didn't really matter, it was done now, and despite the difficulty it would mean in the short-term, Logan was really starting to look forward to the challenge.
"And how long have you been hiding your 'activity'?" Victor asked, it can't have been long surely...
Marie shrugged as she clarified, "About five months now."
"Five months!" Victor replied shocked, "How the hell did you hide it so long?" Both teens blushed in response, shifting uncomfortably, though neither answered.
"I'm just happy we don't have to hide it anymore," Marie admitted, smiling at Logan as she slipped off the glove from her left hand, the band around her finger catching the light as she did.
Victor looked between the two of them but before he could open his mouth to speak Logan assured him, "I asked her in December, long before we found out about baby, technically, before baby was even conceived."
"Alright then," Victor replied, "Just don't rush into anything... anything else," he added, nodding toward Marie's still flat belly. "You two think you're in love, maybe you are, but if you are, that means you'll be together no matter what, so don't rush, you're both still young, at the same time, enjoy the time you have together," he directed at Logan. None of them needed to voice what he was alluding to, how one day Marie wouldn't be here anymore, and Logan would have to go on without her. "I'll talk to Charles in the morning and set up a meeting with your parents for whenever they're able to come out next, in the meantime, keep everything on the down low for a bit longer so no whispers get back to them in advance, okay?" The teens agreed that was a good plan, and they finally moved on to a new task, watching a hockey game until Marie’s phone chimed just before curfew.
"Night Marie," Victor said, hugging her again, before she slipped out to her own room.
"So, you are alright with Marie, right?" Logan asked him, once they were alone.
"I am, I don't think you could have picked a better girl, I just wish you'd waited a little longer before making that move," Victor replied, hugging his son as they both chuckled, before retiring for the night themselves.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000