Disclaimer: Marvel owns, I don't. I wouldn't advise sueing since I never have money; I ain't even got a job, imagine that. Unrecognizable characters belong to one of the following people: myself, Takamo, or another friend (she knows who she is and her name changes entirely too much to keep it straight).
Chapter Twelve: A Wedding to Remember
"Tara, why are you giving him the cold shoulder? I thought you wanted to marry him."
Tara ignored Logan's repeated questions. It wasn't really any of his business why she wasn't talking to Landon; he didn't even like the guy all that much. "I thought you were going to be quiet and not speak to me during this whole thing?" she asked, listening to the sound of Nanaki's singing from the makeshift stage that had been set up. At the moment, she was singing some song that wasn't known to Tara but that was alright, too.
Logan shook his head. "I'd really like to know if I should start making plans to have him killed," he said, tightening his hold on her hand when she would have walked away, "You two seemed to be doing just fine when you were outside catching pnemonuia, along with the other idiots of your generation."
"Apocalypse is paying for our honeymoon, but Landon has to work during it. He didn't even tell me! I'm his new wife, previously his fiancee, and his girlfriend even before that! I have a right to know," she fumed before one of Logan's hands covered her mouth, holding it shut.
"You're sounding like Jean."
Oh no, I'm turning into Jean.
"Now, why does it bother you so much that he'd planning to work while you're in...wherever the hell you two are going. Do you think he's not going to pay as much attention to you if he's working?"
Tara nodded then removed his hand from her mouth before adjusting her hand back into his. "I just don't want him to spend the entire time doing things that are illegal and then getting arrested and before you know it, I'm married to a guy in prison!" she said then hurriedly lowered her voice when several people glanced at them.
"Where are you two planning to go, anyway?" he asked, looking at something over her shoulder and slightly to the left. There was a distracted edge to his voice but she didn't have to look to know he was watching Jean and Scott dance; he'd been doing it for most of the night.
"Mexico. You'll find someone, Logan," she said, leaning up to wrap her arms around his neck. She gave him a hug then felt someone hovering bbehind her and slightly to the left. A quick, side glance showed that it was Landon.
"Mind if I dance with my wife, Logan?" The words weren't really a request but more a stated command, though Logan pretended to ignore it. Instead of causing an unneccessary problem, he stepped back and turned her toward Landon.
"She's all yours. Remember the present I gave you before, though..."
Landon nodded and waited a minute before taking Logan's place. He moved her arms so that they were resting around his neck rather than hanging at her sides like limp spaghetti; he placed his arms around her waist and pulled her against him. She continued to focus over his shoulder in an attempt to ignore him. His punishment for their conversation outside.
"Are you just going to ignore me, Tara?" he asked, rubbing a few strands of her hair between his fingers. He waited but when she didn't answer, pulled on her hair to make her look up. "I hope you're not planning to ignore me through our entire reception..."
"You deserve it," she replied, frowning over his shoulder and pulling her head away.
Landon sighed. "I won't do it if you're that uncomfortable with it. I only took the offer because I knew you wanted to visit Mexico and it seemed like a good deal; plus the deal didn't even involve anything illegal," he told her, trying to tune out the sound of Nanaki's voice.
The previous song had vanished to be replaced by Happy Together by a group that's name eluded him at the time.
"I do want to go to Mexico, but it was supposed to be just us without you working for that damn Apocalypse who can't even spell his own name. I mean, how do you think he learned to spell it? A-P-O-C-A-L-P-S... that's not how you spell Apocalypse!" Tara began to fum and spell out different words under her breathe until she realized that her mouth was pressed against the shoulder of a blue tuxedo that belonged to Landon. She never got to finish fumming and spelling different words that were nowhere close to Apocalypse.
"Why don't we take off early? I doubt anyone will even miss us and it'll give us more time to..." He leaned down and whispered into her ear, saying the words too quiet for anyone to hear but a glance over his shoulder showed that her friends understood it.
Natasha gave her a thumbs up and Angel simply shook her head disapprovingly, turning to the side so she could speak with Julius.
Whatever you're thinking isn't true, Angel Blade-Lebeau!
Uh-huh. And you think I ended up eight months pregnant from just listening to some guy sweet talk? Yeah, right. Stop being naive, Tara Keller.
I hate his last name. It's so stupid... Can I keep my own last name?
Tara sighed and rested her head against Landon's shoulder, allowing him to lead the majority of their dance. Nanaki seemed to be wasting a lot of time on one song, though since it continued over and over again, chorus mostly.
Their wedding had been planned for August except there'd been complications with the church, hospitializations of different wedding participants, fights that had broken out between different groups, and Angel's attempts to help with the wedding. The only help she'd provided had been in the department of helping with the food, though most of the self-created entrees had been thrown out except Logan's squirrel stew hadn't been harmed.
There was something like a shriek of rage from the stage, followed by Nanaki's microphone hitting the ground, and complete and utter silence throughout the church's fellowship hall. Everyone had turned to stare at the stage where Nanaki was glaring, intently at a tall, blonde figure that seemed to be incredibly hairy who stood just to the left of Angel and Julius.
Not him. Anyone but him, Tara thought then sighed when she caught a glimpse of his face. She tightened her arms around Landon's neck and pushed slightly so he'd turn around. It didn't work so she had to push harder, slamming her elbow into the back of his neck with more force than she meant. Nanaki's about to have a breakdown...
Landon turned and cringed. "Wanna make a break for Mexico before this turns into a scene from Fight Club?" he asked, bending his mouth close to her ear but keeping an eye on the scene that was forming at the edge of the false stage. He looked worried when he realized that Nanaki had gotten off the stage and was yelling at her uncle; their words were now inaudible from this distance.
"I don't want to leave the others with this especially..." she mumbled the last part without looking way from the stage and her friends who had gathered at one side of the stage. She hesitated a minute then dropped her arms to her side. "Let's go. I'd rather pretend that our wedding went off without a hitch except the rain, Logan's threatening your life, the whole Mexico arguement, and I'd rather miss out on Nanaki and her uncle attempting to kill each other..."
He nodded and started toward the door, keeping a firm grip on her hand as they made their way through the crowd and toward the back exit door of the church. They'd barely reached the door when Logan blocked the way, leaning against the side of the door and just staying there.
"You two weren't planning walk out before all the fun now, were you?" he drawled, chomping on the end of a cigarette in an exaggarated fashion. He motioned toward the inside of the fellowship. "Don't you want to stay and see how your reception turns out?"
"Not really. Nanaki's about to kill Sabertooth; aren't you the least bit concerned?" Tara demanded, more as a way to make him more than anything else. She felt Landon tighten his hold on her wrist, slightly. "You're a good father, Logan."
"A really good one," Landon agreed, grinning, broadly at him.
Logan shook his head. "It's not going to work. Go back to your reception..."
"Logan..."
"No whining, kid. You either," he added, directing the words toward Landon's half open mouth. He nodded with his head toward the crowd of people gathered together without even halting in the chomping of his cigar. "Go enjoy your wedding ceremony."
"Why are you doing this to us?" Tara demanded, glowering at Logan. She crossed her arms over her chest then stalked off, leaving Landon standing there. There was a bunch of mumbling then she went back to whining, although this time to a different person. "Please, Mort... I don't want to stay and Logan's making us. Please, Mort. Pleeeeease, Mort. Mort? Mort...?"
"Shh, I'm watching my wife. I love it when she beats people up especially him."
Tara growled. "...but it's my wedding! Why does she get to beat people up at MY wedding, Mort?" she demanded then waited a good ten minutes without recieving an answer. "Fine, I'll just go find a better way to spend my time rather than at this stupid reception that Jean insisted on throwing and that was just ruined by Sabretooth; thanks for the support, Mort!"
"Welcome."
"This is bullshit!"
"Love you, too, Tara."
X-Mansion:
November 24 , 7:30 p.m. (A month and a half after the wedding)
"This is so good, Rogue. How did you make it? I think I need to get the recipe so Tara and I don't starve... there's hardly any food in our house except a couple canned goods and a loaf of bread." Landon picked up the fried chicken on his plate and took another bite, ignoring the glare he'd just gotten from his wife of a month and a half. He quickly distracted himself with asking Remy to pass him something from the other end of the table.
"I'm not making fried chicken because you already compain about almost everything I've ever gotten for dinner, even take-out food," Tara fumed, biting into a biscuit then taking an oversized drink from her glass.
Angel stirred her food around with one fork then adjusted her free hand against her stomache. She didn't want anyone to worry but there's been pains in her stomache for the last half hour or more, though it was starting to get worse. The only one who kept looking at her stangely was Jean, though the others glanced over every now and then.
"Are you feeling okay, Demon?" Julius asked for the twelth time, giving her a truely concerned look, "You're not eating everything in sight for once."
She shook her head, slowly and dropped her fork. "Actually, no. I think I might be having a labor pains... or have been having them," she said, resting her hand against her basketball poking out stomache. She rubbed her hand in a brief circle then started to stand, doubling over after a moment. "Okay, maybe we should go to the hospital..."
Julius blinked then shrugged. "Let me finish eating and then I'll take you, alright?" he said, shoveling more food into his mouth and chewing it for longer than was neccessary.
There was silence down the length of the table, lined with former X-Men, their children or others who had been adopted in, and a good half of the brotherhood members, minus Sabretooth and Mystique. No one even moved or blinked, moved the fork between their plate and mouth, or even finished their conversation.
"Why's everyone staring at me?" he asked after a quick glance up and swallowing of his food. His eyes moved around the table then dropped on Remy who had a charged card, Scott whose hand was on his visor, and Logan had the blades of one hand out and was standing. "There's still two weeks until her due date. Right, I'll take my pregnant girlfriend to the hospital. Sheesh, you people are so touchy..."
"Julius, I think Animal has decided to come early." Angel forced her voice to sound even whinier than normal; the task wasn't as hard for her as it would be for others. "Would you move your ass, chere?" she demanded, hand still against her stomache.
"Shut up a minute. It's gonna take a bit to get to the hospital... Where's your bag? You know, the one we packed for when this happened...?"
She glared. "Our apartment, stupid, or did you think I'd be prepared just in case Amy wanted to pop out and celebrate Thanksgiving with us? Sorry to disappoint you!"
"You're not very nice for being preganant."
"And you're not very helpful for a soon-to-be father!"
8:45 p.m.
TRI-ACADEMY HOSPITAL
"Why are you just standing out here?"
Julius stopped in mid-pace then offered Remy the blankest, I'm-stupid look he could before voicing his response. "I didn't know I was supposed to do something else other than pace the waiting room and wait for some doctor to come out," he said, frowning at them all before pacing again.
Remy shook his head. "Let me give you a tip, mon ami, either go help mon ange deliver de chile or...y'can have a talk with Mr. Cards and Mr. Metal Blade Thingys," he offered, charging a card and placing it close to Julius' face. "Get de picture, mon ami?"
"Do I have to?"
There was silence for a moment then a group shout of, "YES!"
Why did I have to get involved with a family of psychos? Stupid, stupid, stupid, Julius. You were stupid.
"Are you the father?" a doctor asked, coming out of one room and looking around the halls. His dark blue eyes focused on Julius then he hurried over, mumbling several things to himself. "Are you the father or not?"
"No. I mean, yes.... if the kid's mine, I am."
"Riiight. You'll do; put this and the gloves on then meet me inside," the doctor said then took off back into the room, shoving a bundle of clothes into his arms. He didn't even look back but instead walked straight through the doors and toward the very obvious sound of Angel cursing.
He changed into the medical garbs and pulled on his gloves then walked into the room, cringing at the sound of Angel's voice. Most of her words weren't understandable but ther ewas more than one language, including French words that were pronounced wrong and correctly pronounced Spanish words.
"Angel, honey, stop yelling at the nice nurses and doctor," he admonished her, coming up to her side and offering one of his hands to her. He regretted it the moment he felt how much pressure she applied and the fact that several of the nurses' hands had bruised up on the side. "Ow, too much pressure, Angel!"
"When you have a kid and only get the minimal amount of drugs, you can complain about too much pressure, Kanteon!" Angel almost shrieked at him, gripping his hand tigther. She swore several more times in wrongfully pronounced French.
"We need your help down here," the doctor said, motioning with one hand. He didn't even look up but just motioned and spoke.
I've never done this before. What am I supposed to do? he wondered as he walked toward the doctor who had motioned him over. He didn't really want to see this entire ordeal even if it meant four things: he'd be a father, Angel's mood swings would cease, he wouldn't have to worry about her throwing random fits, and he could stop feeling like the entire pregnancy had been his fault.
One look at where the doctor showed him and the sight of a pinkish-red head, and Julius fainted, falling back against the hard flooring and missing the birth of his daughter.
November 25, 1:25 a.m.
Angel smiled. "Amethyst Miranda Kanteon. I think it's about time your daddy woke up, don't you?" she asked, rubbing her daughter's small hand. She studied the baby, openly, taking in the fact that she had a mop of black hair, even at a few hours old. She wasn't sure of the eyes but the nurse had said something was weird about it.
Please don't let my little girl have something wrong with her, she thought, looking over at Julius. He was laid out on his back, still knocked out and had been since shortly before their daughter had been born. It was almost cute, almost.
"We'll just have to wake Daddy up our own, won't we, sweetie?" She leaned over and picked up the first avaliable item, a hand buzzer that wasn't connected to the bed. She adjusted her daughter to the other side of the bed then threw the buzzer at him with all the strength she could manage. It hit his chest and bounced onto the floor.
Julius didn't even stir.
"Julius!"
No response.
"JULIUS AUGUSTUS KANTEON!!"
He stirred then opened his eyes, looking in her direction. "What, Angel? I see that you finally allowed me to sleep but it was short lived and when did the roof get white?" he asked, blinking several times then noticing the change in the room. "Wait a minute.... where's the baby?"
Angel rolled her eyes. "I sold her to the circus that took Kurt when he was little. It seemed in her best interest that she wasn't raised among the insanity that we were all raised in," she said, matter-of-factly.
"You WHAT?!"
His loud voice woke their daughter who quickly turned into a wailing, squirming bundle against her arm. The child had a set of lungs that could almost rival Banshee; her tiny face turned slightly redder in color as she wailed.
"Thanks, Julius, and I'd just gotten her to sleep," she sighed, shifting Amethyst up to rest against her chest and rubbing her back in slow circles. She hummed quietly for a moment then smiled when her daughter calmed, greatly but didn't fall back asleep. "Voice down. I'm glad you were so helpful during this, Julius. I'll remember that in case we, for whatever idiotic reason, decide to have another one..."
"Can I hold her?" Julius asked, ignoring her sarcasm as he stared at his daughter.
Angel nodded and passed her into his arms, smiling slightly at the sight of the small infant in his arms. "The nurse wanted to take her to the nursery, but I thought you should see her. Isn't she beautiful, Julius?" she asked with a smile that showed she wasn't fully awake.
Julius had to admit the kid was cute. One of her eyes was bluish colored while the other matched the gray of his own; her left eye was bound to stay gray while the right would probably turn to the green of Angel's. There was a mop of black hair covering her head, straight and without a single curl to it. At the moment, she was wrapped in nothing but blankets, though he could tell that there wasn't a thing unusual about her except for her different colored eyes.
"Do you think she'll be a mutant, Julius?" The question was so unexpected and quietthat he didn't answer right away. He counted different things, fingers and toes mostly, and studied her, trying to judge from a first look. "...Jean once said that most children of parents who are both mutants turn out normal. Is that true?"
He didn't know but decided to lie for her benefit.
"Yeah, it's true. There's nothing wrong with our daughter, Angel," he said after returning the baby to her arms. He studied the two for a moment then developed a quizzical expression. "What does her birth certificate say...?"
"..Amethyst Miranda Kanteon..."
"You named her that, without consulting me?!"
"What did you think Amy was short for?"
"I thought her name was going to be Amy..."
"Nope, Amethyst Miranda Kanteon."
Julius sighed. "Can it be changed?" he asked with a frown, thinking of his poor little girl having to go through life with the name Amethyst.
"Nope. It's written in ink."
"Damn!"
"Don't curse around my baby."
"My baby, too, Angel."
"Then don't curse around Amy."
"Damn, hell, OW! Stop throwing things at me..."