As she regarded the jacket as best she could without a mirror, she felt an odd shape in one pocket as she ran her hand over the butter-soft leather. Reaching into the pocket she pulled out a set of keys, on a keychain that featured a little snarling Wolverine. She was about to comment on how cute the mini mustelid was when she suddenly realised she was holding a set of car keys, a set of GMC keys.
"Wait... the truck!?" she looked at Logan astonished, "It... it's mine!?"
"Yep," Logan nodded, "I'll even throw in some driving lessons."
"Oh my god!" Marie said again, running to him and throwing her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
After a moment he dropped her back onto her feet. "There's more," he whispered as he released her, stifling his laugh at how comically wide her eyes got before she started patting the jacket looking for what else had been hidden in the pockets. It didn't take her long to find the narrow black box in the opposite internal pocket.
She froze when she opened the box, inside was a little ceramic white rose on a white gold stem, wrapped in a piece of white embossed paper and secured with a silver metal band. She tentatively picked up the rose, and gently slid the band off the paper. As it fell away, she realised it was a ring, and not just any ring, a seriously flashy engagement ring. She could hardly breathe, and couldn't move, as her brain began slowly connecting the dots. She could barely see Logan through the tears in her eyes when she looked to him for assurance, all he did was nod toward what she was holding, encouraging her to continue to unwrap the present. Gently unfurling the piece of paper, she laughed as she saw Logan's scrawl asking 'Marry me?'. She couldn't have spoken if she had tried but she nodded her head furiously, as a tear ran down her cheek.
Logan gently picked up the ring, stripped off her glove, and slid the ring onto her fourth finger, he brushed a quick kiss on the back of her bare hand before sliding the glove back onto her hand hiding the ring from view. For a moment Marie hugged him, before tucking the rose and scroll back into the box, and returning it to her pocket.
"I'm going to go take a closer look at my truck," she announced after a moment, not letting go of Logan's hand as she moved out of the room, tugging him after her.
Noting the confused faces of those around the room, who had apparently missed the revelation of the ring, Logan took the opportunity to get as far away from Charles, but probably more importantly Scott, before they realised what had just happened. A shout for music went up behind them as they made their way out the front door, the party continuing unabated, despite the absence of the guest of honour.
After about ten minutes of Marie hiding outside, under the guise of checking out her present, Jubilee and Kitty wandered out to find them.
"Kids are screaming for cake, you have to come back in, you can drool over your truck later, you lucky bitch," Jubilee ribbed, as she grabbed Marie's gloved hand and tugged her towards the door. She froze a split second later, running her finger over the solid mass under the glove. "What is that?" she asked, staring at Marie in disbelief.
Marie slid her glove off, and flashed the diamond encrusted band for both girls to see. "Do not tell anyone, yet," she stated, pulling the glove back on once both girls had had a decent look.
"So..." Kitty looked a little uncomfortable, "Is that from the baby's dad?" she queried nervously, flashing a look at Logan, it could have only come from him.
"Yes," Marie and Logan replied simultaneously, answering both the asked, and unasked questions. Logan continued, wrapping a reassuring arm around Marie, "For now that stays between the four of us, tomorrow Marie and I will sort everything with Chuck, one way or the other."
"You're not going to get in, like, legal trouble, are you?" Kitty asked, sounding concerned. She felt like she knew Logan well enough, from all the chatting the pair had done with Rogue, to know he was an alright guy, even ignoring the fact he had been willing to die to save Rogue when she was kidnapped. Kitty and Jubes were the only ones who knew that Rogue and Logan had been together for a reasonable length of time, before the X-Men found them.
"Nah," Logan shrugged her concerns off, "All perfectly legal in Canada, and now in New York too." He picked up the sound of approaching footsteps, and nudged the girls toward the house. "Come on, someone else is coming looking now, that must be a good cake."
Scott stepped out the front door just as all three girls burst out laughing, as they began the trek back to the party. He flashed a strained smile at the girls as they passed before glaring at Logan, reaching out towards him to try and stop him from following them inside.
"What the hell are you thinking giving her a car?" Scott demanded.
"I was thinking she needed a car, so I gave her one, curious what your problem is with that," Logan replied, brushing the other man off.
"You can't favour her Logan, she needs to learn that to get ahead in life she needs to make an effort, that everything isn't just going to get handed to her, you're not doing her any favours with stunts like this," Scott snapped at him, after noting the girls were well out of earshot by now.
"Scooter, she lived hand-to-mouth on the road for eight months, she knows life hands you a shitty deal sometimes, no matter how much of an effort you make. If I can do anything to make her life a little easier, I will, and there isn't anything you can do to stop me," Logan replied forcefully, before turning his back on the younger man and walking away.
He walked into the rec room just as the gathered crowd started an overly loud, off key rendition of the generic standard 'Happy Birthday' song, as a huge cake was carried into the room. The cake itself looked like the result of an explosion in a candy factory, or like a group of sugar-high toddlers had had a food fight with the brightly coloured goodies they couldn't eat. Faced with the garish display Marie laughed brightly and commented that, when she had told her friends she didn't have a favourite candy she had not expected them to try and feed them all to her.
An hour later, the younger children had all been shooed off to bed, and the older teens and adults were enjoying themselves a little more maturely. There were kids dancing to the obscenely loud music at one end of the hall, while various other games were being played. A poker game, utilising M&M's as chips was underway, with no small amount of cheating going on. A foosball tournament was temporarily paused while the challengers argued about whether or not it was cheating to ice the ball. While Logan and Scott gave impromptu pool lessons, though Logan had so far only been 'tutoring' Rogue; she had beat everyone who went up against her.
Eventually Marie handed over the cue for someone else to have a turn and went to get herself a drink, she was exhausted, and trying to figure out a way to sneak out without anyone noticing.
"Come on," Logan murmured, coming up behind her and directing her out of the room while everyone was distracted, he could see the tiredness in her eyes. They walked up the stairs hand-in-hand. Logan hadn't bothered to catch up with the Professor about whether his room was still available, instead just heading straight to Marie's room.
Marie didn't even question when Logan pulled her into the room after him, locking the door behind them. With a yawn she moved over to the bed, collapsing onto it still dressed, and mumbling goodnight.
Logan chuckled. "Get ready for bed darlin," he said, pulling her up again.
She fumbled through a drawer, grumbling for no reason, before turning to look at him over her shoulder. "Black or green?" she asked seductively.
"Mm, hard choice..." Logan replied with a chuckle. "Green," he added, after a moment of exaggerated consideration, as he stripped off his shirts. He sat on the bed to pull off his boots, and watched as Marie stripped off before pulling on a slinky silk nightie, that barely covered her ass.
She gave him a quick peck on the lips, before she moved into the bathroom and continued her pre-bed routine. He followed her into the bathroom, leaning casually against the doorframe just watching her, she was a sight for sore eyes after five months in near solitude.
"What?" she queried, blushing shyly as she watched him watch her in the mirror.
"Nothing," he replied, as he moved up behind her, wrapping his arms around her, both hands splayed across her occupied abdomen. He gently kissed her neck before he released her to finish her routine.
Once she had brushed her teeth and relieved her cramped bladder, Marie crawled into bed next to Logan. Thankfully her belly wasn't so big as to inconvenience her sleeping position too much yet, and she tucked herself against him, resting her head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her.
"So," she said after a while, "That went well on the face of it, if I didn't know better, I'd think they hadn't noticed."
"They noticed," Logan rumbled back soothingly, "I told them not to say anything until tomorrow, let you enjoy your party, Chuck wants to see you bright and early in the morning though, hopefully overnight will be enough time for the hot heads to cool down a bit, I'm not holding my breath though."
"Well, that's tomorrows problem," Marie replied, shifting to place a trail of kisses up the side of his neck.
"Sleep Marie," Logan interrupted her, with a content smile, "There'll be plenty of time for that later."
"But I've missed you," she replied, not ceasing her attention.
"I've missed you too but you need sleep, I'll wake you up early tomorrow, promise," Logan responded, returning her kiss before they both settled down to sleep.
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