Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
Pulling up the drive of the Xavier School for Gifted Children was a truck that looked to have seen better days, covered in mud and dust from the back roads. Tied down in the back was some old camper with bumper stickers slapped on the sides marking the travels it had seen, from Montana to Albert to the Yukon and finally Alaska. Parking out front of the doors, two road weary souls climbed out for a much needed stretch with their joints cracking between their growls and groans.
Meeting another in front of the truck, they embraced for a kiss having found their way home after the weeks way. Lingering there as they looked about, nothing had changed since the day they had pulled out to hit the road on an long overdue end to a journey started years before. It shouldn't have surprised her, but somehow Marie felt something should have to mark the change that she had felt herself since that night out on the dock. Running a thumb over her engagement ring, she looked up to her fiancé for that sense of wonder and awe he always held as he admired her every day since they had fallen in love.
"We're back..." Marie whispered, listening to the familiar ambiance that filled her with a sense of welcome and belonging.
"Just in time ta stare down the start o' the new school year." Logan chuckled, kissing her atop her head and on her cheek as he held her.
"Wow...you're right. You ready Headmaster Howlett..." Marie teased.
"As long as you're by my side, I'm ready for anything babe." Logan whispered, hugging her tightly.
"Always and forever, together towards the day I become Missus Marie Howlett." Marie purred.
"I like the sound of that." Logan growled throatily, walking with her off to the doors of the school.
"It's does have a nice ring to it." Marie confessed, reaching for the knob when instead the door flew open.
Keys in hand and a hurried look on her face, Jubilee froze seeing them there, a scream that would have given Theresa a run erupting as she tackled the pair. Marie found herself giddy, having not seen her friend since the day she had left with Pete to celebrate their honeymoon with only a week later Logan pulling up in the camper to whisk her away to Alaska.
"Holy shit, look at you two!" Jubilee giggled, taking in the pair.
Dressed in jeans and flannel, Marie sported cowgirl boots and enough midriff to stun the most sure of men to dumbstruck silence with her shirt tied up tight. Logan was much the same, sporting his Stetson and the promise of enough of his chest showing from the teasing few buttons left undone. They had both fitted right in at the Calgary Stampede having stopped in just in time for the final few days but making a promise to come back in the new year.
"I could say the same about you hun, where's your coveralls?" Marie laughed, her friend dressed as if she were running off down to the Roadhouse.
"Actually was just about to head to town, I...you wanna come with?" Jubilee asked, hugging Marie.
Feeling Logan give a kiss to her cheek and a nudge at the small of her back, Marie felt she was being urged along and accepted. Turning to her man, something in his eyes spoke of a bit of mischief that left her wondering if he didn't have some surprise planned.
"Go on Darlin', I'll get us unpacked. Just make sure you two both get back fer dinner." Logan said, leading the pair back out.
Walking with Jubilee to the garage while throwing looks back at her man unloading the camper, Marie wondered just what they were taking when she saw the bounce and skip to her friends step. Remembering another of the gifts to the newlyweds, she joined in racing to the back of the garage to unfurl the canvas that protected the Thunderbird.
"Can I?" Marie asked, reaching for the dangled keys.
"I don't know Roguey, you any good at driving stick?" Jubilee giggled, waggling her eyebrows and throwing a look back to Logan.
"I'll have you know Logan taught me how to drive 'manual' with the best of them, perv." Marie laughed, snatching the keys and jumping in.
"Manual huh, well if you go grinding any gears I'll whoop ya." Jubilee teased, flopping into the shotgun seat and buckling up.
Pulling out of the drive with hoots and hollers and blasts of the horn, the two raced off into town with Jubilee calling out all the speed traps along the way.
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The whole drive she had texts piling up, wondering just what sort of pouting or blackmail Abby had worked to get a phone. Pictures were sent of the month the girls had spent off at Illyana's parents, Layla and Bobby chaperoning and enjoying the hospitality of Alexandra and Nikolai. Sending some back of her own travels, the signs that had marked their way through the wilderness heading ever further North, she promised them both to tell them all about it once she got home.
It was funny how much more important that word had become, wandering with Logan looking for that bar they had met at only to find it burnt to the ground and grown over as the forest reclaimed it. She savoured every moment with him, thrilled in their time alone and celebrated the freedom of it all. But she knew it would come to an end someday, a day they'd come back to be with their friends finally finding their way home.
"Okay got what I need, lets go get another cuppa coffee as that last one tasted like another!" Jubilee cheered, rushing out of the pharmacy with a bag in hand.
"Another coffee, hell girl you sure you ain't wired enough?" Marie laughed, turning the key to listen to the finely tuned engine of the Thunderbird roar.
"Nope, coffee! Java! Mocha latte choco syrup!" Jubilee protested, pointing off down the main drag to where some coffee house had popped up.
"I think I'm about ta commit a war crime or something gettin' you that hyper Jubes." Marie laughed, pulling out into traffic.
"Pete calls it foreplay, thank you very much." Jubilee sniffed, breaking out into a huge smile.
"TMI, seriously. Pete's like a brother, I don't need to picture that." Marie whined, finding a parking space.
Finding their way into the line, Marie ordered herself an espresso as Jubilee harried some poor girl pretending to be a barista with her relatively tame order. Thinking of a night out on the town months ago, Marie felt sorry for the girl if Kitty ever made her way to the establishment. Finding a table out on the patio, they enjoyed the company the had both missed in the weeks between seeing another.
"How was Paris?" Marie asked, letting her coffee cool.
"I...don't remember it too much, you'd have to ask Pete. Pretty much for me it went, gallery, posing for his street paintings, dinner with Betsy and uh...a lot of TMI." Jubilee giggled, sipping her concoction.
"Rome?" Marie asked thinking of all the places she'd been told about.
"Seriously cool, I think I want to go there for our anniversary. All the monuments and everything was just, wow. Not to mention Itallian is seriously hot, fuck French. Pete picked some up from some designer friend of Betsy...that, woof. Yeah, TMI." Jubilee swooned, laying back in her chair fanning herself.
Laughing at the images painted in her mind, Marie sipped her espresso and wondered at what it must have been to sit out in the city doing just as her friend and her were doing then.
"How was Alaska?" Jubilee inquired turning the tables.
"Beautiful, wild, free. Open, gorgeous, it left me breathless..." Marie whispered recalling her time along with Logan and those wild encounters he had shared with her.
"I think I musta stuttered, I asked how was Alaska, not Logan. Swoon much?" Jubilee laughed, kicking her under the table.
"Stuff it Lee." Marie laughed, returning the kick.
"Oh crap, gotta potty! Save my coffee!" Jubilee cried, rushing off to the bathroom.
Staring at it, she remembered the last time they had to keep her coffee from being trashed and wondered how everyone else was doing. Theresa was off with her father at their ancestral home of Cassidy Keep, a bit weird thinking her friend's family owed a real castle. Layla was living in town and working at the Roadhouse as a waitress with Elizabeth May, Abby moved into the school to share a room with Illyana. Kitty and Bobby were taking one last adventure before heading into their last year of school, the two gone surfing in Hawaii so she heard.
Life had a way of just rolling on, day in and day out, but they all shared the friendship that had been forged anew and stronger with her return to the school. They'd see each other again when they could, but they all had their lives to life. Answering a few more texts, this time from Illyana who seemed to have earned herself a phone too, her coffee was long finished by the time she noticed the absence of company she expected to come skipping back to the table.
Looking to the ladies washroom she saw a line forming, growing worried as she rushed to the door. The manager appeared to be knocking at the door asking as kindly as could be if all was well, no answer coming as he reached for his keys.
"Just a sec, let me try...I'm her friend." Marie whispered, thankful when the man stepped back.
Giving an apologetic look to the women behind her, the manager had the foresight to open up the mens to them after making sure it was unoccupied. Knocking at the door, Marie waited listening and worrying.
"Jubilee?" Marie asked, lightly knocking again.
The occupied sign flipped to vacant, opening the door and locking it behind her as she stepped in. Jubilee sat on the toilet with her business finished, but as Marie looked at her she noticed the bit of plastic she held that had her breath hitch in surprise. On the counter the pharmacy bag laid with a box torn open and instructions unfurled, kneeling down before her friend to see tears staining her cheeks.
"Jubilee?" Marie asked softly, taking her friend's hands in her own.
Holding up the pregnancy test, the results spoke the truth that Jubilee couldn't bring herself to voice. Pulling her into her arms Marie hugged her dearly and kissed her on her cheek and shoulder at the revelation.
"That's why you were drinking all that coffee and water?" Marie asked thinking of the full litre that had been drank the drive down.
Jubilee just nodded, renewing her strength into the embrace and resting her chin on Marie's own shoulder. Running her fingers through Jubilee's hair, Marie rubbed her back soothingly with a free hand hushing her as she started to cry. Yet the sputtering sobs weren't pained, instead filled with joy and happiness.
"I'm gonna be a Mommy Roguey, Pete's gonna be a Daddy..." Jubilee whispered.
"You know what this also means?" Marie teased, pulling back to look at Jubilee and the bliss she bore.
"What?" Jubilee asked surrendering to her curiosity.
"I won the pool, honeymoon!" Marie laughed, pulling her into a hug.
"Better split it or you don't get to be Auntie Roguey..." Jubilee giggled, burying her face in her hair.
"How about I just start up a college fund." Marie offered.
"Boring." Jubilee groaned, turning to the door as another knock was heard.
Realizing they had overstayed their welcome, Marie helped to gather up the test kit and head on out avoiding the questioning looks most threw their way. Though there were announcements to be made, first and foremost among them was the one to the Father first. Driving back to the school, Jubilee phoned ahead only to find out that he and Logan had headed on down to the Roadhouse for a drink instead. Altering course, Marie hoped another Auntie was around for the news having missed her fellow southern belle after so many weeks away.
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It didn't surprise Logan when the phone call came asking after the whereabouts of a certain Pete Rasputin, currently two beers and a round of pool into their reunion celebrations. Though Logan knew another reason to celebrate was soon to be announced, the nose knows as he had often said having him urge his love off to go with their friend. The worst of it all now was trying to keep a straight face and not spill the beans, hearing the Thunderbird pulling up sounding as tuned as ever.
"Ladies just pulled up, feel like a round o' Doubles?" Logan offered, recalling the last time they had played pool as a foursome.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea my friend." Pete chuckled, taking his shot and sinking the eightball wining the game.
"Lucky fer me yer lil Darlin' ain't the pool shark you turned out ta be, there they are." Logan said, nodding off to the doors.
"Sweet pea! Awww, hon why you been crying?" Beth asked, taking up Jubilee in a loving hug.
Pete was stalking off to her without another word, Logan lingering at the pool table to have another sip of his beer and throw a wink to his love. Seeing the mischief and merriment in her emerald eyes had him know she was in on it too, his heart aching in the most sublime pangs of pain as it struggled with his absolute endearment and amour for her. Together they watched Pete take his wife's face in his gently hands to wonder at her tear stained cheeks for her to take his own hands in hers.
"Pete, hon. We're gonna be a family, you're gonna be a Daddy." Jubilee sputtered, the tears coming in full force again.
"You're..." Pete asked in wonder as his voice failed him.
"I'm carrying our baby, I'm pregnant Pete." Jubilee assured, drawing a breath trying to keep from bawling.
"Well Holy Shit! Round on the house, Pete knocked up our Sweet Pea boys and girls!" Beth hollered, the patrons of the bar erupting in cheers.
Finding his way through the crowd, Logan took Marie into his arms and worked her off to the booth they favoured, Pete joining with his love curled up against him. A round of beers were brought with a virgin Caesar for the expectant mother, Beth settling in with them leaving her own man to handle the bar.
"Well hell, I just don't know what to go toastin', Mister Logan and Marie come on back from their little trip and now I find out there's gonna be a little Rasputin runnin' around soon enough" Beth said holding her beer up.
"How about we toast all the tomorrows ahead of us, and hope for the best." Marie offered.
"I'll drink to that." Logan nodded, raising his beer.
"As will I." Pete said, holding his glass up.
"Hell ya!" Jubilee cheered, raising her glass as she held a hand over her belly.
Clinking bottles and glasses together, they took a sip in celebration of the future ahead of them filled with births and beginnings, at least one wedding still owed to a couple who were most deserving of another such a union.
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Author's Note : Much as I never knew where What Friends are For would lead with that first chapter, I'll let this story find a way to tell itself that we can all enjoy it. More to come soon, enjoy and thank you for reading.