DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

dreamgirllivi: Just search after ROCTOR, there is one other author with Victor/Rogue.

soulsistersinaslan: I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it is Victor, who rapes and kills those women.

CHAPTER 11

The next morning, first thing Marie did was to wake her little guest, but to her astonishment Vincent sat in his blue pj's at the couch-table and was drawing a picture, his eyes falling close every few seconds. He was so tired that he hadn't heard her footsteps. "Good morning." She carefully sat down next to the toddler and eyed him with worry. "Did you sleep well?"

Vincent didn't want to make Marie sad, she tried so hard to make him feel comfortable. "Umm, yes." His eyes were cast down and he chewed on his bottom-lip.

The brunette sighed and lifted his chin with her index-finger, their gazes meeting. "Don't lie, Vinny. Why couldn't you sleep?" He didn't want to answer, it wasn't her fault. "Did you miss your dad?"

He kept chewing on his lip. "It was loud."

"Loud?"

He didn't smell anger or disappointment from his favorite teacher, so he looked up, confident to tell her the truth. "There are no cars driving at home."

Marie furrowed her brows until the meaning hit her. "Oh, sorry. Ah forgot your super hearing." She hugged him. "Ah'm sorry, honey." The first nights at her apartment had also kept her wake for long hours, the police-cars and traffic were terrible at first, but she got used to the noise at night quite fast.

Vincent slung his small arms around her and pressed his face against her middle. He liked Marie. She was so nice and smelled so fine. Suddenly he frowned and pushed back, meeting her eyes. "Do you have two hearts?"

"Huh?" Marie knew her expression must have been very funny. "What do you mean?"

"Do you have two hearts?" The toddler repeated and pointed at the young woman. "I hear two hearts."

"Oh." She began chewing on her lip, just as the boy did a few minutes before. How should she explain this to the child? "Well, one heartbeat is from me and the other one is from mah baby."

"Your baby?" Vincent looked at her like she was stupid. "It's inside you?"

Her hand stroked her middle absently. "Well, yes."

"How did it got inside?" Suddenly the boy was very awake and curious.

"Umm." She saw his expectant expression. "It's best you ask your dad this, once he's back, ok?" Yep, this was the best solution. This way the topic was closed and Victor had no reason to strangle her for telling something to his son, the boy shouldn't know in his opinion. "But keep this a secret." She begged inwardly. "Don't tell about the baby."

"Ok." Vincent wondered why he shouldn't tell and if his daddy knew, but he always wanted to have a secret to keep other than his mutation. Secrets were cool.

They sat there a while longer until Marie glanced onto her watch. "We're going to be late and miss our bus. Go to the bathroom. Ah'll be there in a sec." She hurried over to the backpack and fetched a second tee-shirt and pants from it. In the bathroom she swiftly pulled the shirt over his head, washed his face and chest with a washcloth and had his tee-shirt on him before he could blink twice. He watched her with curious eyes brush his hair and obeyed when she helped him slip into his new boxers and pants.

When Marie was done with the child, she smiled at the feral, who stared at his reflection perplexed. "You're done and ready for breakfast, honey."

The boy looked himself up and down in the mirror, nodding slowly. "Daddy takes longer…" 'But he files my nails.' He thought and pushed this information to the back of his mind – he never liked this part of his morning-routine.

"And then they say, women need an eternity in the bathroom…" Smirking Marie led him to the kitchen and placed a bowl, milk, spoon and cornflakes before the boy. "Start eating, Ah'll be there in a moment." The brunette rushed into her bedroom, fetched her clothes from her wardrobe and was within seconds in the bathroom, getting herself ready for the day.

When she returned, Vincent was smashing the flakes with his spoon. Marie sighed. "You don't like this, huh?"

Hesitating a little, the boy met her understanding gaze and nodded. "I like the brown ones. With the bear on the box." And put a spoon full of the squishy stuff into his mouth, making a face while swallowing.

Taking the bowl from under his nose, Marie walked over to the bathroom and flushed the disliked breakfast down the toilet. Vincent stared at her near tears – he was hungry and tired and now his baby-sitter was angry with him – but before he began to cry, Marie smiled at him with sympathy. "We'll fetch muffins and eat them at the bus."

X

They raced down the sidewalk, his small hand firmly in hers, and entered a diner out of breath. Marie rushed to the counter, before an old woman could reach it, and smiled at her boss, while Vincent stood next to her, hidden by the counter due to his small size. "Hi, Tina. Two chocolate muffins please. And could you hurry, mah bus is just around the corner."

Tina nodded and threw two muffins into a paper-bag, handing it to her waitress, while the money lay already on the counter.

"Thanks and bye." Marie said and sprinted away with a little boy on her hand.

Luckily there were many people getting off the bus and so they caught their ride and even got a seat. "We'll get up earlier tomorrow." The boy on her lap nodded, still catching his breath. "And we'll get some food you like this afternoon."

X

At the kindergarten they were the first ones and Vincent sat down onto his pillow for the 'morning circle meeting', waiting patiently for the other kids to arrive. Soon Heather walked in and found a sleeping feral on the floor, hugging his pillow. She approached Marie, who busied herself with the animal-cards they would use in the morning circle. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Heather." Marie smiled.

"How was the night with Vincent?" This question made the brunette look towards the little boy and a chuckle escaped her at his cute sight.

"I slept well, but the traffic kept Vinny awake and he only told me this morning." She placed the cards onto a table. "I'll buy earplugs."

"We better let him sleep a little longer." Heather suggested.

X

Kindergarten was as usual only that Marie was on her way home a whole hour earlier. She silently cursed Victor for his daily stop at the diner while his son was the only child waiting to be picked up. "Selfish asshole." The words had escaped her lips before she remembered the presence of the toddler, who gapped at her like she had grown a second head. "Umm, sorry." 'Does his dad never curse in front of him?'

They got off the bus and Vincent was already going in the direction of her apartment, but she stopped him with a smile. "We wanted to go shopping, remember?" 'He's bright; he knows exactly where mah apartment is.'

Vincent took the offered hand and followed her to a grocery-store on the other side of the street. As soon as they had a cart, the small boy began climbing on it and eventually - with a little help of Marie – sat in it proudly. "Seems like Ah'm your driver?" Marie joked and began to push the cart. "Where do want to go, sir?"

The toddler thought only a split of a second. "Sweets!"

Laughing Marie steered the boy thru the rows of shelves, putting milk, pasta and other items around his little body. "Here are the cereals. Which one do you like, Vinny?" The little feral staggered to his feet and fished with some difficulty the desired box from a rag, hugging it to his chest.

"This one."

"Fine. How about orange juice?" The boy beamed at her with a nod.

The sweets-decision took a half eternity, but Marie was glad that the boy didn't throw a tantrum, when she put five of his six bags back – well, she was bribing him with ice-cream…

At the check-out-counter, Vincent helped to put all items onto the conveyor and then took the paper bag with his cereals and insisted to carry those alone. At first, Marie was uncomfortable at the thought to don't hold the child by the hand – who knew if he wouldn't suddenly take off – but the boy was like a good trained dog walking by her side.

Before they got the promised ice-cream they made a quick stop at the drugstore, buying the earplugs in toddler size. Finally at home Marie began putting everything into the cupboards – or rather squeezed everything in – while Vincent finished his melding strawberry-ice cream. "What do you want for supper, Vinny? Fish sticks with mashed potatoes or pasta?"

"Fish." The boy answered and licked the pink ice-cream from his fingers.

With a disbelieving look Marie watched the toddler lick the sticky stuff from his shirt. "You are a little piggy, ain't you?" She picked him up and held him over the sink. While he washed his hands, she wiped his smeared mouth with her wet palm. "Ah have to wash tomorrow anyway." She said and was about to pull the dirty shirt over his head, when a wave of nausea hit her and she made it barely to the toilet.

Wrinkling his nose about the stench, Vincent waited in the doorway. He was really worried when Marie leaned back and was pale with sweat on her forehead. "Are you sick?"

She slowly shook her head and sat back against the cool tiles, giving her body a moment to calm down. The minutes ticked by and Vincent felt like crying until Marie got slowly back to her feet and flushed the toilet, before brushing her teeth – that taste was gross.

Vincent followed her to the kitchen worried sickly – adults were supposed to be healthy, always. "You don't have to make supper, Marie." He sat next to her at the table and watched her drink some bitter smelling juice. Medicine he was sure. Only medicine smelled so yucky.

The brunette smiled, moved by his words. "Don't worry, Vinny. Ah'm fine again." He didn't believe her, this was for sure. "Ah vomit every day. It's the baby."

"The baby makes you sick?"

"Kinda. But it will be better soon." She stood up and fetched a pan. "Let's make the fish before it swims away."

X

After a bed-time-story Marie plugged the earplugs into his ears and the little feral didn't like it one bit. He was tired and cranky and the plugs felt weird in his ears and soon thick tears were flowing down his cheeks and Marie was at her wits' ends. It took her half an hour and six short-stories till the boy had calm down and had fallen asleep. Now all she had to do was pushing the plugs into his ears without waking him. Easier said than done. Every time she had one in his ear, his small hand stroked over the foreign object and pulled it free again.

Sighing Marie looked around her small home for anything that might help. 'Patches! Ah could tape the stuff to his ears!' This wasn't the best solution, but the only one her tired mind came up with.

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter!