Logan watched Marie closely at breakfast, a confused and mildly concerned frown marring his brow. Something was off with her; he had noticed it on the weekend but had yet to be able to pinpoint exactly what it was. Whatever it was, was changing her scent too, not in a bad way, in fact the change made him feel... comfortable, happy, and made the Wolverine purr in silent contentment.
But as he watched her at breakfast, he began to notice other subtle changes. She was holding herself differently, moving slower, and, though she had a full plate of food in front of her as she conversed with her friends happily, she was barely picking at it, focusing mainly on the glass of ice tea she'd fixed herself.
That was another change, the tea, for the last couple of weeks she'd been chugging that stuff. She didn't try and beg a beer off him while they were watching games anymore, in fact, she'd glared at him and answered with a sarcastic 'very funny Logan,' when he'd offered her one only a few days before. The spicy tea, ginger if he had to guess, had become a permanent fixture, she'd even taken to carrying a water bottle loaded with the stuff around with her during the day.
He was distracted from his Rogue musings when Jean and Ororo, sat down at the opposite side of the table, discussing the latest mansion gossip in hushed tones. When he turned his attention back to Marie, she and her friends were all on their way out of the room, off to start their school day. Rogue caught his eye and offered him a wave and a smile as she left, which he returned with a grin and a nod, watching as she walked out of sight, before returning his attention to his now cold breakfast.
"Is everything alright with Rogue?" Jean asked suddenly, the question directed at him, rather than her conversation partner.
"As far as I know," Logan replied, nonchalantly.
"You seem to be watching her awfully closely for someone who thinks she's alright," Ororo added, with a mildly concerned smile.
"Nothing wrong, I don't think," Logan said, "Just something different, can't put my finger on it though." He shrugged, and continued to eat his cold eggs half-heartedly.
"I think you should talk to her," Jean spoke again, "One of the girls called me to the downstairs bathroom yesterday, after lunch, saying someone was throwing up, it was Rogue. I didn't think much about it at the time but then last night at dinner I noticed her clothes were looking at little... baggy..."
When Jean paused Logan turned his attention fully toward her. "What are you getting at Red?" he asked, mildly annoyed.
"Well, she's the most common age for an eating disorder, and her mutation makes her more self-conscious... weight loss, throwing up after meals... I really think you should talk to her, see if you can get her to open up, I tried yesterday but she just brushed me off and claimed she must have a mild stomach bug... she trusts you Logan, and she's more likely to tell you the truth because she knows you know when she's lying."
"Maybe she wasn't lying," Logan commented, though, on further consideration, Rogue hadn't smelled sick at any point that he'd caught. "I'll talk to her though, just in case," he added, he was going to have to anyway, one way or another he needed to figure out what was going on with her, it was driving him nuts.
--
He didn't see Marie again until about nine pm that night, she'd had classes all day. Then he had had to head into the city to pick up some things for Chuck, before being occupied for the rest for the afternoon, and well into the evening, with his 'extra-curricular' defence classes, which Marie hadn't shown for; her friends claiming she had a migraine and permission from Jean to sit the class out. Given that, he was surprised to eventually track her down to the couch in the teachers lounge. Beer at the ready for him, snacks laid out for both of them, and remote in hand, settling in to watch that nights hockey game.
"Where have you been?" she asked, munching on what appeared to be beef jerky, her ever-present bottle of tea swapped for ginger ale.
"I was looking for you, figured you'd be in your room sleeping off your migraine," he commented, sitting down on the couch beside her. She looked at him funny for a moment before burrowing against his side as he draped his arm across her shoulder.
The game started then, interrupting further attempt at conversation, though through the first period Logan increasingly found his attention drawn back to the girl in his arms. As the teams left the ice at the end of the first period, he muted the droning commentary before turning to her.
"Are you sure you're feeling all right Marie?" he asked.
"I'm fine, I just didn't feel up to all that exercise today, I've been a little extra queasy is all, it'll pass, the ginger ale works better than the tea I've discovered," she replied, as if her comments were perfectly normal and made sense.
"Queasy?" Logan queried, "You sick? You don't smell sick..."
She shot that same odd look at him again before clarifying, "Not 'sick' sick, just changes, we did already talk about this, remember?"
It was Logan's turn to shoot her an odd and confused look. "... Uh, no, I don't remember. What did we discuss, and when?"
"It was only two weeks ago Logan, come on, I know your memory's not the best but even you should be able to remember that," Marie snapped, suddenly sounding, and scenting, mad, as she landed him with an incredulous look.
Logan looked confused. "You're going to have to jog my memory kid, I'm drawing a blank here," he answered honestly.
Marie pushed herself away from him and stood up, looking angry as she turned on him, mouth open as if she was about ready to chew him out. His perplexed expression must have filtered through to her then as she suddenly stopped, anger disappearing to be replaced by confusion.
"You remember when I got sick a few weeks back, right?" she asked.
"The stomach bug that went through half the student population," Logan replied, nodding in uncomfortable remembrance.
"And that I kept feeling sick even after all the others got better?" she added.
"Yeah," he responded.
"Then we were at the house a couple of weekends ago and you walked in with a pharmacy bag... pregnancy test, little pink plus sign... discussing morning sickness, mood swings, cravings, etcetera," she continued.
Logan froze for a moment. "P-pregnancy test... you're pregnant!?" he hissed, jumping to his feet, clamping down on the urge to shout at her. Strangely enough the idea of Marie being pregnant wasn't as surprising as his brain was telling him it should be. "Who to!?" he demanded.
Marie just stared at him in open mouthed shock for a few minutes, until they were both interrupted by a voice and approaching footsteps behind them.
"Damn, missed first period," Scott lamented, as he strode into the room, pausing at the sight of Logan and Rogue, standing toe to toe, looking unusually agitated. "Uh, am I interrupting?" he asked confused, as he took an empty seat well away from the pair.
Logan seemed to snap out of his thoughts then and replied gruffly, "Nope," as he sat heavily back down in the couch. Marie remained where she was for a few moments before sitting stiffly back down beside him.
Second period started but Scott noted, watching the pair from the corner of his eye, that it took a few minutes, and some eventual prompting from Logan, before Rogue relaxed into her normal game time position, cuddled up to Logan. She still looked distracted, hardly paying attention to the game, brow furrowed as if deep in thought.
To Logan's annoyance, Scott stayed for the rest of the game, which meant he didn't have the opportunity to press Marie for more information on her revelation. He wasn't sure why exactly but the idea that he couldn't remember a very important 'Marie' discussion, was bothering him immeasurably more than the fact that she'd just told him sixteen-year-old Marie was pregnant.
Once the game was finished Rogue stood hurriedly, gathering up the left-over snacks and empty beer bottles. "I'll see you later Logan," she said, the hint of a question in her tone. Logan just grunted and nodded in his typical caveman fashion.
"Everything okay?" Scott asked, once Rogue was out of earshot.
"Don't know, someone kind of interrupted," Logan replied irritably, before standing up and walking out of the room too.
He heard Marie heading upstairs as he headed for the kitchen. Stepping through the patio doors he made his way to the bench where he usually sat to enjoy a cigar on crisp clear nights like this. Tonight, he wasn't going to be doing that though, his mind was still a confusing jumble of thoughts.
So, it took him a few minutes to realise, Wolverine had been unusually quiet.
Wolverine had essentially claimed Marie as his mate, they both knew that, hell, he was pretty sure even Marie knew it, though he'd worked damn hard to see that no one else had figured that out. Logan was all that had stopped Wolverine from making that claim physical, insisting she was too young, not to mention, currently illegal. So why was Wolverine not furious that his unclaimed mate was pregnant... unless...
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