Chapter 9: Moving

Sara sat in bed, holding Megan as the tiny baby girl sucked eagerly on her bottle, eyes closed.. "Does the newness ever wear off?" she whispered to Storm, who sat beside her bed holding Josh as he ate.

Storm laughed. "Not while they're that little," she said. "Now a year from now, that's a different story. You'll be wondering why you had children!"

Jean chuckled wryly as she came in, followed by Logan. "Time to get these little guys into bed," she said cheerfully, taking Josh from Storm as Logan approached the bed. Sara sat stiffly, uncomfortably, and actually flinched as his arm brushed hers as he took Megan from her. Jean didn't miss it, and without a word she got Storm and Logan out of the room as she sat in the vacated chair. "Sara, we have to talk," she said.

Sara twisted the folds on the blanket she was covered with, her eyes filling with tears. "Jean, I'm sorry, I try, but I can't," she wailed. "Every time I see him, my heart wants to kiss him, and hug him, and love him, but when I close my eyes I see the base, and the table…." She choked on her words. "And its not just him, it's all the guys. I can't relax around them and I don't know why! Jean, I stay here all the time because I can't bear to see any of them except Hank!"

Jean wrapped her arms around Sara. "I'm sorry, Sara. I've never been through anything even remotely close to what you've been through. Is there anything that you can think of might help?"

Sara looked apprehensive, and Jean said lightly, "Out with it."

"Well….I know you and Storm and Rogue and Betsy love helping out with the babies, and I'm really grateful, but I'd really like to get away from everyone for a while, just me and Josh and Meggie. Maybe being alone with them will help me sort out what's going on."

Jean sat back. She hadn't thought about that. "When Scott and I first got married we thought we needed some privacy," she said. "Charles fixed up the boathouse for us to live in. Do you think you could manage there?"

Sara shook her head despairingly. "It won't. I'm sorry, Jean. I just feel like I really have to get away from everyone."

Jean said. "All right…no, don't cry, Sara…we'll come up with something."

She broached the subject in the rec room that evening as Sara was in her room sleeping and the babies were sleeping. Oddly enough, it was Logan who came up with a solution.

"I seen a li'l house just outside o' town," he said. "It's been fer rent fer a long time; before all this happened I was thinkin' o' talkin' Sara inta rentin' it and we could live there fer a while till Josh and Meggie stop wakin' everybody up in the middle o' the night. It ain't too far from here, an' you girls could pop over there whenever ya wanna see the kids. Now maybe Sara could rent it fer herself an' have a place ta stay while she gets whatever Creed did outta her head."

Jean ran upstairs and tapped on the door lightly. "Sara? Still awake?"

Sara sat up and put her book aside. "Yeah, Jean," she said as her friend pushed open the door. "What's up?"

Jean sat on the end of the bed. "There's a little house for rent just outside of town. How do you feel about moving there until you get over this?"

Sara sat up in bed, eyes shining, looking a little more like her old self. "Yes, I'd like that!" she exclaimed.

"Then let's see what we can do tomorrow about getting it rented for you tomorrow, shall we?"

Sara was enchanted by the house, a pretty little rancher set back from the road by a bit of lawn. There was a wide backyard with a sandbox and a kid's swing set. There were three rooms inside, one master and two smaller rooms.

Uncomfortable around the guys, she and Storm took the twins out to the mall to get a bed, drapes, and other small items. By the time they got back, all of her things had been moved from her room at the mansion to the master bedroom in the cottage, and the twins' cribs had been put in the second room. The third room was full of their toys and things that had been given to them by members of the other teams.

Logan had spent the time overseeing the moving of her things. He had arranged her room the way he knew she would like it so she wouldn't have to move anything; he knew her. If she wasn't happy with anything she would try to move it herself, and it wasn't a good idea at this point, as she'd only had the twins three weeks ago.

He kept telling himself not to feel bad, but the truth was that he did feel bad. He loved her; and having just gotten her back, he didn't want to let her go. It hurt knowing she was going to be so far from him. It hurt that she didn't love him anymore…no, truth, he told himself, she did still love him, she just couldn't get past whatever it was that Sabretooth had done to her.

"Sabretooth," he growled under his breath as he watched Sara and Jean hanging curtains in the front window from his vantage point across the road, "Ya better hope you an' I never meet again, cause if we do ain't nothin' on this earth gonna keep me from killin' ya. Ya done crossed the line this time." And he jammed his hat down over his head and started up his truck, driving away with a heart full of pain.

Note to the Reader:

I thought about ending the story here, because I don't want to throw the story too far away from any current storyline the actual comics might be doing at this point. In the end of the previous book I broached the subject, and got some feedback on whether the story should end here or whether Sara and Logan should eventually get back together. So, because I got very varied opinions on what should happen, I wrote another chapter after this one; not much, just a few pages, and decided to insert this note as a warning. If you're one of those who prefer not to have a copyrighted character 'mixing it up' with someone else's original character, then stop reading right here. However, if you're the type who hate a sad ending (like me! This qualifies as a sad ending compared to the stuff I usually write) then by all means read on to the last chapter!