Marie woke up in the middle of the night feeling as though she had wet her bed. She slowly got up and stripped the sheet off of her bed, then laid some towels on the mattress before putting on another sheet and laying back down. She laid on her side and tried to fall back to sleep, but a painful cramping in her back began gnawing at her.
She shuddered as she felt the pain grip her belly, "Doctor Jennings!"
A couple of minutes later, the doctor came into Marie's room with disheveled hair as she tied her robe and blinked her eyes repeatedly, "What time is it?"
Marie rocked a little as she sat up, "I'm pretty sure my water broke."
Dr. Jennings eyes popped open as she ran a hand through her hair, "Ok...alright, hang on a second, lemme go get my bags."
The doctor disappeared for a few minutes before returning with two big bags of medical supplies and a very nervous looking Jubilee.
"What do I do?" squeaked Jubes.
The doctor laughed softly, "Just talk to her, keep her calm."
After Dr. Jennings checked her, she smiled, "You're at a solid three now, so you've got a ways to go. I'll go get you some water. I need you to stay nice and hydrated."
Dr. Jennings went to the professor's room and knocked. He looked exhausted. It took him nearly 24 hours to find Logan, and now he was desperately attempting to rest, but that would have to wait, "Professor, Rogue has gone into labor...could you use the laptop to see if you can contact Hank or Storm on their communicators? I think Marie is worried about Logan and she would have a much less stressful labor if she knew he was alright."
The professor nodded quickly, "Certainly."
Dr. Jennings returned to the room with water as Marie was coming down off of another contraction. Jubilee extracted her hand from Rogue's vice grip and gave her a pained smile, "Great chica...you're doing great."
Jubilee looked at Dr. Jennings and cringed as she tried to shake the pain from her hand.
They were four hours into their seven hour journey when they all heard the familiar beep from an X man communicator. Hank picked up, "Professor. We have Logan, we're on our way back. Is everything alright?"
When Logan heard the professor say, "Rogue's just gone into labor", he felt the desire to faint for the first time in his known life.
He pulled it together and reached forward to grab the communicator, "Chuck..put Rogue on."
"Alright, one moment. She's in with Jubilee and Dr. Jennings." Logan heard some rustling, a knock and then a door creak open. He shut his eyes and smiled as he heard Marie groan in the background before the professor started talking, "Rogue...I have someone on the line who wants to talk to you."
He heard her pant lightly, "Who is it? Is it Logan? Logan?"
He struggled not to let the overwhelming emotions that were churning in his chest pour into his voice, "Marie...goddamn baby...I never thought I would heard your voice again-" He paused as his voice cracked slightly. He took a deep breath and continued, "How you doin', kid?"
"Oh god Logan...I'm so happy you're ok...where are you?" she asked as she cringed from he pain of another contraction.
He ran a hand through his hair as he began looking for highway signs, "I'm on my way baby. I'll be there before you know it. You hurtin' bad?"
She clenched her jaw and breathed out, "Not too bad..."
He immediately knew she was lying, "Alright kid, I'll be there soon." Then, he said something he never thought he would allow anyone else to hear him say, "I love you, Marie."
He could hear the tears in her voice, "I love you too Logan."
With that, the professor was back on the line, "You better hurry Logan...she's progressing rather quickly."
The whole household was up, loitering in the living room, kitchen and loft area that overlooked the large log cabin windows. They all heard Marie cursing through contractions. She was almost 7 hours into her labor and things were getting intense.
The professor took the youngest students to the game room in the basement of the cabin to try to shield their ears from Marie's assault on the English language, but even there, they fell victim to a randomly yelled f-bomb.
Sweat had caused Marie's white bangs to stick to her forehead as she closed her eyes and tried to "blow away" another contraction. That shit wasn't working. She wanted drugs...alcohol...anything that could numb the god awful pain that was wracking her body.
When things first started, she had a little mini-break between contractions, but now, those bitches were right on top of each other. Jubilee kept reminding her to breath...when all Rogue wanted to do was remind her to go fuck herself. Was there anyone in the cabin that didn't get on her nerves?
Rogue gripped onto the sheets hard and cried out Logan's name.
He heard her as soon as they pulled up. For as much as Storm got on his nerves, she drove like a bat out of hell to get him back to his Marie.
He jumped out of the car before it was at a complete stop and ran into the cabin. Piotr, Bobby and Kitty stood in the living room and immediately pointed down the hall to the only closed door. He took a deep breath before turning the handle and stepping in.
Rogue was on the bed, writhing in pain and Dr. Jennings looked as if she was trying to calm her. Marie hadn't noticed his presence yet so he moved to her bed side as Jubilee gladly let go of her friend's hand and moved to the other end of the room.
When Logan took her hand, she turned over and looked at him, "L-l-logan..."
He kissed her on the forehead and smoother her hair out of her face as he nodded, "I know, kid."
Dr. Jennings patted Marie on the back, "Rogue, I know you're tired, but it's time for you to push, ok?"
Logan helped turn her over as he sat on the bed and helped support her weight as she sat up. He kissed her ear and whispered, "You're made of tough shit, kid. You can do this."
Marie gave him a pained smile as Dr. Jennings spoke, "Push with the next contraction."
Marie did as instructed and bore down with all her might, falling silent as she shook from the sheer power of her exertion. She let out a loud breath and collapsed back against Logan.
Dr. Jennings nodded, "Good Marie...the head is almost out. Come on, give me another big one."
Logan tried not to shudder as he rubbed Marie's arms. After another half hour of pushing, Dr. Jennings cradled their little boy in her arms and suctioned out his nose and mouth. He began screaming loudly as his tiny arms and legs flailed about. Marie cried and eagerly reached for the baby as Logan worked to process the situation. Dr. Jennings wrapped the baby in a waiting terry cloth towel and handed him off to her as she continued working on Marie.
Logan looked down at her as she cradled their son. She was drenched in sweat, exhausted and her hair was a complete mess...but he had never seen anything more beautiful. He cautiously reached down to touch his son's dark brown cap of hair and almost gasped at how soft he was.
The next day, as Marie slept, Logan stared down at the infant that laid on the bed next to her. He hadn't held his son yet. The kid looked so tiny and delicate. What business does a broad shouldered mutant with an adamantium skeleton have picking up an eight pound infant?
The baby yawned and covered its face with its hands briefly before sighing and wiggling out of the little make shift wrap Marie had put him in since all they had for him was a packet of diapers and onesies the professor had bought for her on the way up to the cabin. Storm and Jubilee were in town buying necessities for the baby and supplies for the students.
Logan glanced back at the sleeping Marie, then carefully reached down to scoop his son up off the mattress. He remembered someone saying something about holding his head, so he curled his fingers beneath the baby's soft scalp, then slid his hand under his back and bottom.
"So tiny...", he whispered as he gingerly lifted the infant up. He took a deep breath and cradled the baby to his chest. He did it.
He sat down in the arm chair across the room and looked down at the tiny little life he held in his arms, "I was thinking about giving you a name like Philip or Allen...but you don't look like a Philip or Allen. I think you look more like a Jacob...or Ethan. Yeah. Ethan." The baby shifted gently against his chest, "We'll see if your mom likes it."
Hope your teeth aren't rotting from all the sugar! Mushy mushy fluffy fluffy!