Merry Christmas everyone (little late…) and a very happy New Year! (heh heh…little early.) Please enjoy the remainder of your holidays as best you can. Gee, aren't I the little ball of optimism?
Aww, do I *HAVE* to do this? What's this; you say I could get SUED if I don't? OK…I give in…I DO *NOT* own the x-men. Happy?
Chapter 7
Christmas had come and gone in a flurry of brightly wrapped paper and ribbon. Rogue had helped Sarah pick out things that everyone would like, and like them they did. It was uncanny how well these people knew each other, how attached they were to every last member. Kitty had *loved* the pink scarf, the Professor wouldn't stop reading the book on psychology, Kurt had given her a *hug* for the three fingered gloves that she had asked Jean to help her make. The reactions were similar from the whole group: each person loved his/her gift. Marrow had received gifts from others as well, including a heavy metal CD, which Logan had grimaced at the sight of. No-one could really blame him, and were planning on giving Bobby a hard time of it when Marrow wasn't around.
Today, for the first time since the morlock massacre, she was FEELING. She could feel the warmth in the mansion, and she knew that at last, she had found the Christmas comfort that had been so lacking in oftentimes for her before.
But I can't forget. Not now. Can never forget them.
There was a knock at the door
" 'S open."
The whole motley crew rushed in, Kitty and Kurt immediately jumping on the bed. Her nerves gave a warning grind, before her brain reminded her that it was Christmas.
"Merry Christmas, Marrow!" the gang chorused.
Scott stood a little back from everyone, clearly not happy with this idea. She had yet to prove her loyalty in his eyes. She made a point of ignoring him while looking up at the rest with gratitude in her eyes.
"Thanks…"
This seemed to be enough for the remainder of the gang, who nodded, split their faces in wide grins, and filed out. Scott remained behind for a few seconds, before saying gruffly,
"Merry Christmas," making it obvious whether he wanted to or not that his heart wasn't in it.
"Yeah," she replied to his fast-vanishing back before the door creaked shut.
It was then that she made up her mind. She needed to go home, if only for an hour. God, how she missed it there, the smell of the sewers, the thrill of 'borrowing ' a garbage sweeper train to get errands done.
They won't miss me. she thought with absolute certainty. I'll leave a note, just in case one of 'em gets in here and realizes that I'm not here.
Scrawling a note on a receipt that lay abandoned on her dresser, she pulled on the old clothes that she had arrived in, the ones that she had insisted that professor Xavier not throw away. "Emotional value," she had stated bluntly.
Slipping through the hallways and into the main entrance, she had almost made it to the front door, when…
"Hey kid. Where you goin'?" he said, not a question, just a statement that he knew she was out of bed when she shouldn't be.
"Out."
"Don't ya be gettin' short with me, darlin'. It's up ta me ta decide whether or not yer grounded fer life."
"To the sewers," she remarked in an offhand tone, enjoying the effect that these words were having on him. The mighty Wolverine was getting a twitch by his mouth, thinking hard.
"The…sewers?"
"Yeah, it's where I lived before here, REMEMBER?"
"How long were ya with the morlocks?"
"From when I was orphaned until the massacre."
For the first time, Marrow saw Logan show some feeling.
"Off ya go…but be back before breakfast…or Chuck'll have my bones in his bread. Very metallic bread, that."
Marrow flashed a grin behind her, before sprinting off into the dark between the trees.
"Goodnight Logan," said Charles Xavier, wheeling out of the kitchen carrying a glass of water.
