Chapter 1:
Hank opened the door to the bedroom and held it open as Amanda walked in, carrying her suitcases. "As wonderful as Hawaii was, Hank, I have to say it's great to be home," She put the bags she was carrying down and planted a kiss on his lips, smiling. He kissed her back, with equal fervor, and then they turned to look into the room.
Their friends had been busy while they were gone. Hank grinned as he took in their new room. Thy had done to his and Amanda's adjoining rooms what they had done to Jean and Scott's rooms when they got married; brought all of Amanda's furniture into Hank's room, excepting the bed. Amanda would be sharing Hank's from now on.
She grinned at Hank. "It was nice of everyone to do this while we were gone; I wasn't really looking forward to lugging all my stuff in here."
They started to unpack. Amanda pulled their laundry baskets from the corner, dumped all the dirty laundry into it, and set them aside as they unpacked the rest of their things.
There was a soft knock at the door, and Amanda turned. Jean and Betsy stood in the door, holding their laundry baskets. "We're about to go do the laundry," Jean grinned. "Are you coming? We want to hear all about your honeymoon!"
As Amanda spluttered, Betsy grinned. "Hey, we heard all about Jubilee's and Jean's. Welcome to the mansion."
Amanda laughed. "We do have a lot," she said to Hank.
Hank grinned. "If that was your way of asking me to finish here, then yes, I shall do so before the girls die of impatience." He kissed her briefly but warmly on her cheek, and then she gathered the laundry basket and left with the other two women.
"So hey, here's the honeymoon girl!" Jubilee sang out as she dumped her laundry in the washer and measured out the detergent. "How was it, Amanda? Come on, tell us every disgustingly sappy, romantic detail." She flung herself into a chair as Amanda put her basket on the table and grabbed its mate from the corner.
"I'm not sure I should tell you," she said demurely, sorting the white clothes into the second basket. "Shouldn't the details of one's honeymoon be private?"
"Should, but isn't," said the younger girl cheerfully, taking a drink from her soda and grabbing a pretzel. "So come on, tell!"
Amanda hedged and fudged, driving the younger girl crazy, until she finished sorting the laundry, then went to the fridge in the corner, selected a bottle of water, and then sat down. "It was wonderful," she said at last. "Waikiki was so pretty. Sun, sand, warm breezes, and oh, all that water! So clear I could actually see the fish swimming in it. We got there last Saturday evening, and went to our room. Got unpacked, and then I couldn't resist; I wanted to go swimming on the beach in the dark, so Hank came with me. No one was around, and we had total privacy. So we went swimming, and then went up to the room. We had room service bring in dinner, and we watched TV until we went to bed. When we woke up, we…"
"Hold it," Jubilee said, bringing her feet down off the table to the floor with a thump. "You're leaving out the most important parts! I bet you guys had sex on the beach, right? What was it like?"
"Jubilee!" Amanda pretended to look shocked. "Like I would be so imprudent as to reveal the intimate details to you!"
The other women laughed as Jubilee begged and Amanda resisted. Finally, Amanda giggled too, and said, "All right, all right! Yes, we made love on the beach. It was really weird, being out there on the sand and having the water washing around us while we lay there, but it felt good."
"And what was the sex like?" Jubilee was almost hopping up and down in her chair.
"Shameless, aren't you," Amanda teased the younger girl, but sighed. "Hank is….I really can't describe him. I've never made love to anyone quite like him… and no one's ever made love to me like that, either. My first husband was fast…too fast…and Bruce, well…" she sighed. "He was just rough. I didn't like that. Hank is slow and gentle, probably because he's so…built…and he's so afraid of hurting me." She saw Jubilee's expression, and grinned. "Well, he's quite large, physically. And believe me, all of him matches. There's nothing small about my husband." She sighed, and sat back. "I can't believe he's my husband. It's so wonderful to be able to call him that."
"It is, isn't it." Jean, Jubilee, and Amanda exchanged glances and smiles.
"So what did you guys do after you had sex on the beach?"
Amanda smiled. "We had prime rib for dinner, and a glass of champagne. Then we went to bed. I had gotten this little white lace teddy and matching sheer robe for my trousseau; he definitely liked it. It didn't stay on me long." She grinned. "And we made love again twice that night; and then in the bath the next morning…ohh, they had just the best hot tubs there, they were so big I could almost swim in them…and the little swirls of water were wonderful, they tickled, but it was kind of nice…" she grinned delightedly. "And then we went sightseeing. Hank wanted to take photos and look around in the volcanic caves; and I wanted to take samples of the flora and fauna around some of the more exotic hot springs and vents around the volcanoes…" She stopped, because Jean and Betsy were shaking their heads. "What?"
"You two are two of a kind," Jean shook her head harder, though her smile was warm. "Couldn't you two just forget about the 'scientific ramifications' of the island and just enjoy the honeymoon?"
"We enjoyed it fine," Amanda said. "And Hank's dedication is one of the things I love about him." She got up to put her clothes in the washer as Betsy got up to load the dryer. Under cover of the noise, Betsy said, "You'd have a lot better idea of his dedication if you and he started a family."
Amanda sighed as they went back to the table. "I will admit I had kind of thought about having kids. I mean, I'm thirty-two. If I don't have them soon I may not have them ever. And I always did want children."
"So does he," Jean said unexpectedly. "Back in the old days, when there was only the five of us, Hank, Bobby, Scott, Warren, and I were sitting there talking about where we wanted to be in ten years. Hank said he wished he could find a good woman, settle down, and get married, and then he said he'd love to have kids. Three of them."
"Really?" Amanda said, eyebrows raised. "He said he'd leave kids up to me…or not. 'Whatever I wanted', he said; he'd be fine with whatever I chose."
"Hank's worried," Jubilee said unexpectedly. "He didn't say anything to me, but I've caught him several times looking at your bioscans. Hank's worried because you're so small, and he's so large, you might have a problem carrying any child fathered by him if it had his gene for large frames."
"Is that it?' Amanda frowned. "I actually hadn't thought about it. The child will be a mutant; since Hank is one, but his original form wasn't big, blue, and furry; it was just an extra-large physique. I did talk to my doctor about it when I went for my physical just before we left; he said I shouldn't have any problems as long as I take it easy."
"Have you talked about it with him?" Jean asked.
Amanda shook her head. "Not yet. I was planning on it, but I wasn't sure he wanted them."
"What about you?" Ororo spoke for the first time. "What would you want to do?"
Amanda sat back in her chair, turning her water around in her hands. "I do want kinds, " she said after a long pause for thought. "I want to have at least two. Just thinking about the good times I had with my sister…And I know I wouldn't have a shortage of babysitters." She smiled at the wry look Jean gave her. "Al right, I think I will talk to him about it."
"Today?" Rogue jumped on her.
"Soon," Amanda said with a smile. The conversation returned to the honeymoon.
* * *
"Hey, here comes the dead man walking!" Warren and Bobby both chorused as Hank came down the stairs to the kitchen.
Scott turned away from the stove where he was seasoning the roast. "Ignore them, Hank," he said. "They just don't know what they're missing."
"Indeed," Hank sat down in the kitchen chair Logan pulled out for him. "So how have things been in our absence?"
"Our! Listen to that, he's talking like an old married man already!" Bobby snickered.
He didn't get any further than that, because Logan was looking up at him with an evil smile over a handful of raw eggs. "Care ta open ya mouth again, Popsicle?"
Bobby looked at the handful of eggs, at Logan's smile, and more importantly at the gold wedding band around Logan's finger. "Uh, nope," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. Logan lowered the handful of eggs with a last look and went on peeling the hard-boiled ones he had just taken from the pot over the stove.
Scott said into the silence, 'So how was the honeymoon, Hank?"
Hank smiled as a faraway look came into his eyes. Bobby started to snicker again, caught Logan's eye, and assumed a poker face as he waited to hear Hank's answer. "It was wonderful, "Hank said, oblivious to the banter going on between Logan and Bobby. "Amanda is everything I ever dreamed of finding in a woman. I wonder how Bruce could take what she offered and throw it back into her face like that."
"He just wasn' capable o' 'preciatin' what he got," Remy spoke from across the table where he was sitting with a beer in his hand. "Least you are, Hank. So what was she like?"
Hank gave him a look of unimpeachable dignity. "I would not offend my wife by recounting the private details of our personal time," he said, but his eyes twinkled. "Suffice it to say that she is a very….enthusiastic… bed partner."
Scott smiled. "Jean says Amanda says you're built," he said with a briefly-unfocused look in his eyes that usually meant he was communicating telepathically with Jean. "And…oh, Hank, they're trying to turn your life around on its ears, because I hear the word 'children' being bandied about down there."
"I would not mind," Hank said, unruffled, getting up and going over to the refrigerator for a beer. "Amanda touched on the subject briefly during our sojourn in Hawaii, and I told her it was up to her. Personally, I am hoping she will say yes; I have always wanted children…but she has been through so much in the last year, and it will take her some time to fully recover from such an ordeal. And she is already in her thirties; I believe I read somewhere that pregnancies for women in their mid thirties come with complications. I would not want to endanger her life for any child I might want. It must be her choice." He turned to Logan. "Jubilee is twenty-five; has she said anything about desiring offspring?"
"Yeah, we figure we'll give it a shot in a few more years or so," Logan said easily, carefully not looking at Bobby's startled look. "Not just yet. I could live forever, fer all we know; an' Jubes still has a bit o' time left. Her biological clock ain't tickin' loud enough fer her ta hear it yet." He grinned at Scott's back. "Since we're discussin' it, how 'bout Jean?"
"It will happen eventually," Scott said. "Jean and I are already trying. After all, Rachel was born a year from now, according to Nate; so if we're going to make sure there will be a Mother Askani, we're going to have to time it so our daughter will be born in exactly the time she's supposed to be born." He slid the roasting pan in the oven and took out a huge bag of potatoes to wash and boil. "It's kind of weird, I guess, but then, since when have we been a normal couple?"
Logan stared at Scott for a moment before returning to his eggs. He muttered something under his breath about time paradoxes, but Scott didn't hear it, and Hank wasn't really curious enough to find out. Instead, he picked up the TV remote and clicked it on to the news channels. As discussion resumed around the kitchen table, he almost missed the next news item.
"Several acres of rainforest are burning in Brazil today," said the reporter. "Authorities are unsure of how the fire got started, but it appears that a scientific expedition had accidentally begun the fire with a stray ember from a campfire they had built. This has caused the Brazilian government some distress, as the acres that are burning are reputed to have yielded up some important biological specimens in the recent past…"
Hank sad urgently, "Logan, Scott. Please have the girls come up. I believe Amanda will want to see this."
Scott's eyes went briefly unfocused again as he reached out to Jean telepathically.
* * *
Jean broke off in mid-sentence, staring into thin air. Seconds later, Jubilee did the same thing. "Amanda, come on," Jean took Amanda's arm and hauled her upwards. "Hank says there's something on TV you should see. Come on." She, Jubilee, and Amanda hurried upstairs, followed by the rest of the girls.
Amanda froze as she saw the TV screen. All that green, and in the middle of it, bright, burning orange and angry yellow-red flames, accompanied by black smoke. "Oh my," she said, shocked. "Who started the forest fire?"
"Amanda," Hank said, 'This is Brazil. And they don't know how it started."
"Brazil?" And suddenly Amanda understood. "Bruce," she whispered, sinking into the chair Jean held out for her. "And the FOH. My God, what have I done? Why did I give him the location of the algae pond?" She stared at the screen, eyes wide, hand over her mouth. "It's my fault," she breathed. "I gave him the location to the place where I had discovered the virus. He wanted me to tell him where it was so he could keep the mutant terrorists, as he called you guys, from 'polluting' the rest of the world with the mutant virus. Oh, God, why did I give it to him?"
"There will probably be another discovery of them somewhere," Warren suggested, but Amanda shook her head.
"The flora and fauna of the tepui is completely unique due to evolutionary divergence," she said, "And I just handed over the location as easily as if it were a common thing. Oh, God, how could I have been so stupid?!" she turned and ran from the kitchen.
Hank ran after her, following her upstairs to their room. Running at top speed, she got there before he did, and by the time he pushed the door open and stepped in, she was sobbing face-down on their bed. "Amanda," he said gently, pushing a lock of silver hair back from her flushed face, "It wasn't your fault. Don't worry."
"But it was!" Amanda sat up in bed, wringing her hands. "Don't you see? I should never have given Bruce and Jason the location of the virus."
Hank sat behind her on the bed, taking out the long braid of silver hair at the nape of her neck and beginning to re-braid it. "It was not your fault, beloved," he said firmly. "You were coerced…no, you were tortured…into giving them the information. No one could have held on to such information in the face of such extreme physical agony. You are not to blame for it. You could not help it." He put the strands of hair down, silencing her next protests with a firm kiss. "I do not blame you for it, and no one else in the mansion will blame you for it either. Don't think about it, beloved." And he proceeded to take her mind off the problem in the only way he knew how.
* * *
Amanda lay back some time later, feeling the warmth of the man beside her and feeling the flush of heat fading slowly from her skin after their physical exertion. She was about to drift off to sleep when a sudden thought almost made her sit bolt upright. She and Hank hadn't thought to use protection. In the heat of the moment, she hadn't even thought about it.
Hank sighed, next to her, and his hand shifted to lie on her chest. She sat for a moment, wondering if she should get up and take a pill, regardless of how sick it made her feel, then shrugged and lay back down. Just once wouldn't hurt. She turned until her body was tucked against his, spoon-fashion, and went to sleep.