Disclaimer's: I don't own them, so don't sue me.
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"What?" Logan said.
"She's pregnant," Jean said. He looked ready to faint. So had Scott. He'd get over it.
"Like, a baby?" Logan said stupidly.
"Yes," Beast said, "Like a baby."
Logan sat down on Rogue's bad with a thump. At least he was still conscious. Scott had fallen to the ground in a dead faint.
Rogue didn't say anything. She just looked simply amazed.
"I'm going to have a kid," Logan said.
"Yes," Rogue said, "We're going to have a kid." She was smiling at his reaction. So was Jean.
Logan nodded calmly. Too calmly...
All of a sudden, he jumped up, "I'm going to have a kid! God, what if I'm a bad Father? What if I break the baby?"
"Kids are kinda hard to break, sugar," Rogue said. She and Jean exchanged a 'Aren't men the funniest things?' look.
As Logan paced the room, Beast said, "Rogue, you need to listen carefully. The reason that I thought this was impossible, even though you can touch people is: The baby is inside of you, where your powers are stored. The baby should be dead," Rogue and Logan's heads snapped around, "Oh, don't look so worried. The baby should be, but it isn't and I think I know why. It must have some of Logan's unchartered regenerative powers. That, combined with the fact that your powers are docile right now has enabled you to have a baby. The odds of that combination are about 10,000 to 1."
"So, what are you saying?" Rogue asked "This is probably our only chance?"
Beast sighed and said, "Probably. Any other attempt would end in a swift miscarriage."
Rogue and Jean exchanged a look. Jean understood how devastating this had to be for Rogue.
Beast continued, "You need to try to help maintain this delicate balance. You must leave that bracelet on and you must not obtain any serious injuries. Therefore, I don't think you should do any fighting, Danger Room, battlefield, etcetera."
"Don't worry," Jean said, "I'm sure the Team will be just fine without you. We have Nikki. She makes up for you not being there. Worrying won't help, either."
"Right," Beast said, "You have to stay relaxed and clam as much as possible. We don't know how steady the baby's balance is, but chances are, it's pretty precarious."
Logan spoke, "Then it's a lost cause."
"No," Beast said, "She just needs to--"
Logan cut in, "She needs to stay calm and can't fight. The end of the world is coming, Beast. There's no way she can avoid it. This isn't something we can keep from effecting her. Rogue has even stated that the tension around here could be cut with a knife. That isn't something we can help, either. It's a lost cause."
Rogue could feel her eyes well up with tears. Why was he being so hopeless? Jean put her hand on Rogue's shoulder. There was always hope, wasn't there?
Logan turned to Rogue. He could see the tears in her eyes, but maybe that was just the mirror of his own, "Darlin', I'm sorry, but this is a lost cause. Maybe, just maybe, we can get through this alive, but with the baby intact? I don't think it'll happen. I don't want you to get your hopes up."
Jean said, "Logan, you said there isn't a chance, but even if there isn't, shouldn't you at least try to be hopeful? You're upsetting her and that won't help, either."
Logan looked away, "I don't want you to get hurt, Rogue."
"Then stop hurting me," Rogue whispered.
Logan walked out of the room and out the door. He needed to think about this some more.
Jean sat down on the bed next to Rogue and out her arm around her shoulder, "Don't cry. Don't lose the baby before you have to. Have hope."
"There is no more hope," Rogue whispered, "My hope just walked out the door."
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Jean helped Rogue go back to her room and lay down, "Try to sleep. You might feel better when you wake up."
She went back to the Infirmary to help Beast clean up and ran into the Professor.
"What's going on, Jean?" The Professor asked, "I know you were trying to see what was wrong with Rogue and now I sense that she's in great mental distress. She's thrown up walls around her mind and I don't want to break through them. Is she sick?"
Jean told Professor the whole story. The Professor sighed, "And to think there isn't a good chance for the baby to make it. Fate has an awful way of rearing its' head when you least want it to. No wonder Logan's so upset."
"Where is Logan?" Jean asked.
"Out in the woods," The Professor said, "Where else does he go when he has nowhere else to go?"
Jean sighed, "He has no hope. He's trying to be realistic, I guess. He doesn't want Rogue to get her hopes up."
"He doesn't want to get his hopes up, either," The Professor said, "He doesn't want to break down and cry whenever she starts crying. He wants to be the strong one."
"There's strong and then there's wrong," Jean said, "He needs to be able to cry with her. She needs him. She needs hope."
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Rogue didn't sleep. Jean said she'd come get her for supper, so she spent the time praying. She hadn't really prayed since she left Remy in Antarctica, but she figured she should start now.
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Jean, Beast and The Professor told the others what was going on. The response was shocked.
"You mean, there's no way she can have this baby and there's no chance of trying again?" Jubilee asked, "Man, that's cruel."
"What I don't get," Nikki said, "Is why she has to lose this one. Can't we send her somewhere out of the line of fire?"
"We don't know where the end will strike first," Gambit said, "We'd be sending her out into danger."
"Oh."
"Is there someplace here that she'd be safe in?" Scott asked the Professor, "Maybe if we out her in the Danger Room, she could activate it if the danger came her way. I mean, if we didn't stop it from entering the house."
They heard the door slam, "Why are you even trying?" Wolverine said as he walked past the room. His eyes were red and swollen, "When I think we're out of options, you know the situation's bad." He walked down the hall leaving shocked and saddened X-Men in his wake.
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A knock came on Rogue's door in the middle of what seemed like her 274 Hail Mary, "Come in." she called. She figured it was Jean coming to tell her that supper was ready so she stood as...
Wolverine walked through the door.
"Go away," she said, "I don't want to talk right now."
"Neither do I," he said, "But I think we'd better." He sat down on the bed, "Where's your Southern hospitality?"
"I left it in Georgia," Rogue said.
"I left my manners wherever in Canada they had me when they experimented on me," Logan said, "So I guess we're even, if we were going to fight, but we aren't. I don't want you to hurt the baby."
Rogue stared at him, "It'll just die anyway," she said bitterly, "So why try to protect it?"
"Because we want this baby," Logan said simply, "It doesn't matter if it makes it or not, it's still ours. I never said we shouldn't try, I just don't want you to hurt yourself by getting your hopes up."
"I have no hope," Rogue said hollowly.
"Then that's why were you praying to Saint Jude, huh?" Wolverine asked, "Isn't he the Saint of Hopeless Causes?"
Rogue blushed, "Figured it couldn't hurt."
"Then I guess you still have hope," Logan said, looking her in the eye, "That's good."
"I didn't have hope until you walked through the door," Rogue said, "You are my hope."
"Why?"
"You were the only one who could make me feel better when I thought Remy was dead. You never gave up on me," Rogue said, "You were always the one who yelled to keep fighting when Scott and Storm wanted to retreat. You never gave up on something that you thought could happen. That's why I lost hope. When you lose hope, everything's gone."
Logan looked at her and said, "I'm your hope?"
"You're my hope," Rogue said.
"Then I hope I don't let you down," Logan replied. He lightly kissed her forehead.
"You came back when I thought you were gone," Rogue said, "You could never let me down. I get the feeling you'll always come back."
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Well, what do you think? Did it suck? I hope not. I want this to be a dramatic story with a heart-wrenching ending. Am I doing a good job so far? Keep reading, please!