Logan woke several hours later, just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. He could feel the gentle rolls and pops from the baby where Marie's belly was pressed against his side, and gently moved himself away from her and down the bed. He unbuttoned the flannel shirt she was wearing to just above her belly and watched the tiny movements as their baby shifted and kicked. He started to place soft kisses at every spot where the baby moved, when the movements slowed down he placed his head against her belly and listened to the soft heart beats he could hear inside Marie. Her own breathing was in the background and it took him a moment to realise she was no longer asleep.
"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," he commented, as he moved to look up at her, her brilliant smile met his eyes as he did.
"I don’t mind in the slightest," Marie replied, as she ran her fingers through his hair, her other hand joined his resting against her rounding belly.
Logan placed one last kiss against her stomach before he moved back up the bed to lay beside her, resting his forehead against hers as he smiled down at her. "You're amazing," he told her suddenly, for no particular reason.
"You're pretty fantastic yourself," Marie replied with a grin. "Oh, I forgot to give this back," she remembered suddenly, reaching up to the chain around her neck, she slipped it off over her head and on over Logan's.
"I hadn't asked for it back," Logan commented teasingly.
"I know, but it's yours, it's you, I have this now anyway," she wiggled her left hand in front of his face.
Logan reached down for the tag and was surprised when his fingers brushed against something smooth and warm, but not metal. He picked it up and lifted it to where he could see the smooth black stone, flecked with blues and greens that had been added to the chain. "What's this?" he asked curiously.
Marie blushed. "It's called black opal, it symbolizes strength of character, and a good future, it's also supposed to have healing power which I thought was fitting... mostly it just reminded me of the night we drove to Whitehorse under the Northern Lights... of you," she told him.
"It's nice, I like it, it's also expensive though, where did you get it?" Logan asked with a smile, laying the stone back down against his chest next to the dull metal tag.
"I bought it online, from Australia, then had a jeweller here add the findings so I could hang it from the chain," Marie said. "I didn't think you'd mind, you sent me so much money I couldn't have spent it all even if I tried, even after buying a whole maternity wardrobe there should be more than enough money left to get all the baby stuff we'll need, and--"
Logan cut her off. "No, that money's yours, for you to spend on you and what you want, don’t worry about stuff for the baby, I've got that covered."
Marie paused for a moment, her brow creasing. "Logan... you remember back at, was it Rocky Mountain, or somewhere, when you told me not to let my pride get in the way of accepting help, that one day I'd be in a position to help someone else out?-" Logan nodded, remembering that particular discussion with fondness- "Well, how am I going to do that if you're just paying for everything for me?" she asked.
It was Logan's turn to pause in thought, as he tried to formulate his thoughts in a way she would hopefully understand. "What's mine is yours Marie, simple as that, I'm not going to stop you from doing your own thing but I'm going to make sure you have everything you need to do whatever that is."
"So why can't I spend the money in my account on my baby?" she challenged.
"Because it's *our* baby darlin, kid's getting paid for from *our* joint account," Logan stated firmly.
"We have a joint account?" Marie asked surprised.
"We do," Logan answered, "Fixed that up while I was up north, added you to the deed of the cabin, your trucks in your name, mines in my name, motorcycle's mine too by the way. I never want you to feel like you need to ask me for anything you want, that's why I want you to have your own money, what you do with that is up to you but it doesn't need to be spent on... on family stuff," Logan grinned at that comment, "Never thought I'd ever say that, family, I've got a family." He placed a hand on Marie's belly as he said it, momentarily distracted from their conversation.
Marie wrapped her arms around him and cuddled close to him, placing a kiss on his chest before resting her ear against his heart. "Alright, I'll agree to that," she said, "But I get to pick the decorating."
Logan chuckled. "Within reason," he acquiesced, "But Jubilee doesn't help, no goddamn yellow."
"She does love that colour," Marie agreed with a giggle, "... I guess we are going to need to know what we're having then, would be just my luck to go pink then a boy pops out!" Logan laughed at the thought, before Marie went back to discussing serious topics. "So, if I decided to go to college, you'd be okay with that?" she asked. Logan nodded solemnly. "And if I got a job, you'd be okay with that too," she continued.
"If that's what you want, we can make that work," Logan replied.
"What if- what if I wanted to be a stay at home mom, and home-school, and stuff?" she added.
"Then we would make that work too," Logan told her.
"So, what do you want me to do?" she asked then.
"Whatever makes you happy darlin," he answered.
Marie scowled. "No one can be happy twenty-four seven Logan, and you can have an opinion too you know, if I ask what you want, I really do want to know what - in a perfect world - you would prefer, doesn't mean I'll agree with you but we should at least be able to be honest with each other about what we want!" she snapped, mildly exasperated.
"That is a fair point," Logan agreed after a moments consideration, "It goes both ways though... if it was up to me, I'd want you to be a fulltime mama, kids grow up quick from what I've noticed, and I wouldn't want either of us to miss a minute of that, I like the idea of home-schooling too, teach my kid some useful shit," he reasoned.
Marie giggled at the 'useful shit' phrase, making a comment about fertilizer, before admitting, "I never liked my mom being at work so much, I'd need to talk to her after school and have to wait hours for her to get home, and then I'd forget what I wanted to talk to her about, or she'd have had a bad day and my problems suddenly seemed petty and pathetic so I didn't bother mentioning them... I don’t want my kids to have the same memories, I would like to stay home, I just feel like, I wouldn't be contributing enough."
"Not even darlin, being a parent's the hardest job there is, and the most worthwhile, you get to a grow a little person into a grown-up person, you teach them most of what they end up knowing, you love them non-stop, you feed them, and clothe them, and clean them, and hug them, you're up at all hours of the day and night with them, whenever they need you, absolutely nothing can top that in the contribution stakes, money means nothing next to a child's growth, besides, I'll be right there beside you contributing the exact same don’t you worry."
"But, won't one of us need a job? How else are we going to raise a family without a job?" Marie asked, as she tried to get an idea of how their future was going to look.
"I told you before, I've got plenty of money, I probably won't fight, often, but we can always start a business from home or something, if we need to, which I won't, not for money at least," Logan commented.
"You really think you're going to be bored with a child around?" Marie asked incredulously.
"Hell no, and even less so when number two, and number three, and number six, and number ten, and--"
"Is that your grand plan is it," Marie interrupted him with a giggle, "Keep me barefoot and pregnant for the rest of forever, huh."
"When you find something you're good at and enjoy why mess with a perfect system, right?" Logan joked, "Turns out we're both good at, and really enjoy, making babies," he chuckled as he arched an eyebrow suggestively.
"That is very true," Marie admitted before placing a kiss on his lips. "It's been a while, we should probably get in some practice for the second one," she added coyly.
"Darlin, it hasn't even been twenty-four hours but I like how you think," he replied, as they set to work 'practicing'.
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