**Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters; please don't sue me I am a poor college student. I am not making any money off of this and I am just writing it for the benefit of my own entertainment as well as the entertainment of the other fans out there. Also, this is a story from my own imagination, any resemblance to real life events, or even those in fiction is completely coincidental. As an additional note, there are so many fan fiction stories out there on this site as well as others, so any similarity is coincidental or great minds just happen to think alike**
Note: I apologize for the spacing and random indents and anything of the sort. When the pages are loaded onto this site everything seems to get a bit messed up. I noticed that single lines get double spaced randomly. Sorry about that.
Through the Years
Chapter Seven: Good News and Bad News
One look at Henry 'Hank' McCoy would prove to the unsuspecting that he truly lives up to his codename, Beast. His strength and agility have proved time and time again to be great assets to the team. But what one wouldn't expect is that his other strength, and perhaps the most important strength, isn't one of the physical, but rather that of the mental kind. You see, this Beast has one of the greatest scientific minds on the planet. Working in a make-shift lab in a Valle Soleada guestroom he was hard at work analyzing factors and trying to prove theories that would be too complicated for the average person to comprehend. He was so enthralled with his work that he did even hear the knock at his door.
"Beast…..Beast…..Hank? Is everything alright in there Shugah?" Rogue's voice called out to him diverting his attention from the task at hand. Perhaps that's a good thing, if he had his way he'd never stop working on scientific matters and that could be unhealthy. A nice break would be good for his brain anyway; it would clear his mind, leaving room for important breakthroughs once he could return to his studies.
"Sorry Rogue, everything is fine just hard at work, but I can definitely use a break. Come on in." When Rogue and Gambit entered the room Beast couldn't help but notice the glow of sheer happiness coming from both of them. If he didn't know any better he'd say that they won the lottery.
"Hank," Rogue started as she and Gambit sat on the edge of the bed that has been pushed to the side of the room in order to make space for various lab apparatus. "Remy and Ah have something we want to tell ya. We're goin' to have a baby!!!"
"Oh my stars and garters!" Beast's eyes grew as wide as saucers. "Rogue, Gambit, I am so happy for you. I…I….I don't know what to say!"
"Well that be a first eh mon ami?" Gambit quipped.
Beast collected his thoughts and then asked "Are you sure?"
Well," Rogue said, "It was just one of those home pregnancy tests, say they are 99.9% accurate and all that, but Ah'd reckon Ah'm pretty sure. But that's what Ah wanted to ask ya. Could ya give me a more definitive test?
"I think that can be arranged, I more than likely have all the necessary tools here to create an accurate test, not to mention some of my supplies on the mini jet so carefully concealed in your back yard. I'd prefer it if we had some of the Shi'Ar technology that I have in my lab back at the mansion, but I can at least give you a yes or a no answer from here. Then maybe at a future date we can make a trip back to the mansion and I can give you more details about your pregnancy." Beast said, hardly allowed himself room to breath let alone for anyone to get a word in edgewise. Anything that involved scientific inquiry left him as happy as a clam.
"That'll be fine Hank," Rogue said with a smile. "Now, Ah'm going to change out of these dirty work clothes and take a nice, long shower." Rogue couldn't stop smiling as she made her way to the bathroom.
"Ok Chere, and I'm goin' t'make us a meal fit for a king t'celebrate," Gambit said making his way to the kitchen.
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Dinner was exquisite, as always when the Cajun made one of his famous dishes. A first glance at Gambit reveals someone charming, handsome, and a bit on the dangerous side, but one would never suspect that he was such a terrific cook. Every now and then, he would flip through channels, come across Emeril and say "BAM mon ami, one day, I show you how it's done!" Rogue often teased him telling him that if he thought he could out cook the television chef, then he should make his way to the studio and do so.
Just before dinner Beast handed Rogue a plastic cup and she knew what to do with it. After dinner Beast analyzed the sample, and they had the results they had been waiting for. Rogue was indeed pregnant! This was news that they couldn't wait to tell the others. That night the phone in the LeBeau household was buzzing with the happy news as Gambit and Rogue called all their friends.
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A few weeks later all of America was enthralled with a story on the evening news. For those in Valle Soleada it was the 6pm news and for those in New York it was the 10pm news. Apparently scientists had been working on technology that could be used to detect the X-gene with a simple body scan was being perfected. Currently only a blood test could detect the X-gene, and that could be time consuming, not to mention the fact that many people aren't going to willingly give their blood to a stranger. Many anti-mutant groups hoped to one day use the technology to weed out the "normal" looking mutants from mainstream society. However, it would be years before the technology was ready for something of that scale. The announcer made the point of saying that tests have not been done on people yet but trials were successfully complete on mice injected with the gene. To lighten the somber mood at the mansion Bobby quipped, "Mutant mice?! That's absurd! If they were going to do something like that they should have used turtles at least, I mean what were they thinking?" Even though he made the joke, everyone in the room could tell that the effort to make it was strained and that he was just as worried as everyone else about what this technology could do.
In the LeBeau house Gambit, Rogue, and Beast were sitting in the living room watching the same announcement. Gambit wanted to know why something like this was coming out now when human-mutant relations were at a stalemate. Things weren't perfect, but no serious altercations had happened lately. It was a strained peace, but peace none the less. Beast reassured a worried looking Rogue that the Shi'Ar technology that the X-men had was much more powerful and could already scan a person for the X-gene if programmed right. He stated that it would be many, many years before regular Earth science could come up with that kind of scanning power. The final point he made is that the technology the news anchors were talking about could only scan "ordinary" mutants, not Alpha mutants like most of the X-men. Although this helped ease some of Rogue's worries, she didn't like the idea that those without the most advanced powers could become vulnerable to these hatemongers in the relatively near future. After all, if it was only a matter of years before anti-mutant groups could detect the least powerful mutants, so how long would it be until they could detect powerful mutants like her and Gambit?
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The morning after the news announcement Rogue was getting ready for work as usual. Gambit was preparing breakfast, and Beast was finishing up a few experiments. He was going back to New York at the end of the week, and the LeBeau's couldn't wait to start converting the guestroom into a nursery. Rogue stood close to a full-length mirror in the bedroom and pulled her long wavy chestnut brown hair into a pony tail making the white stripe in her hair seem even more prominent. She noted that her hair hadn't been this long in years; she liked it that way. It had been like that when she and Remy first started all their flirting together so many years ago. Normally she liked to leave it loose, cascading over her shoulders and down her back, but it was easier working in the auto shop with hair that was pulled back and out of the way. Rogue took a few steps back and looked in the mirror again, a slim, curvaceous figure smiled back. She knew that pretty soon that slim figure would have a belly the size of a watermelon. That thought made her smile too mostly because it was funny in a way. It was something she couldn't picture, especially after all the years of wearing the skin tight X-men uniforms. What did Bobby Drake always say about it? "So snug and skin tight that it's amazing you don't pass out putting it on, let alone fighting in it. Forget Magneto, Mr. Sinister, and the others, more X-men are defeated by their uniforms than any villain!" Of course, he was teasing, they only looked uncomfortable. The uniforms were designed for movement, protection, and comfort. She almost missed putting that outfit on. Whenever she wore it, she knew she was going to save the world. "Saving the world," she thought, "Such a large task foah a former small-town southern gal, such a large task foah anyone foah that matter."
She was almost ready to go to the kitchen for breakfast, but something that morning made Rogue stop short. It was a familiar feeling, she didn't know exactly how to describe it, but it wasn't the first time she felt it. No, rather she had experienced this feeling many times throughout her life, and it could only lead to trouble. Only this time, something was different. "Remy! Hank! REMY!!!" she screamed before collapsing on the bed.
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Author's Note: I wanted to release this chapter 2 minutes after posting the wedding chapter! But I managed to make myself wait a more reasonable time frame. Besides, it gave me time to work on "Right Side of Wrong" a one-shot songfic that I came up with in my friend's car. When it actually came to the writing process, that story was tricky because it involved making Gambit married to Belladonna, EW! Oh well, it's always good to step outside your comfort zone as a writer once and a while. Now on to you guys….
Ishandahalf~ Now I am sure you can dig up more than just us two as Joseph-haters, and I am all for a tree house, somehow I think it will need a moat! :-P You kinda scared me a bit when you said "SO! loved it, AGAIN. when do i not? well, i might not if you cause something HORRIBLY horrible to happen, but you wouldn't do that, right?" But don't worry if bad things do happen, good things will eventually overcome them. After all, I am an optimist and I don't want to make Gambit and Rogue suffer too much because they always have a lot of drama. But a little drama is necessary for the story so bear with me. I promise in this story there will always be light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how dark. Now I better silence myself before I give away too much info :-P
Star-of-Chaos~ YAY! Another Joseph hater!!!!! :-P See that ishandahalf, I told you there were more! :-)
T~ Glad that you loved it! :-)
Tammy~ Don't worry, I'll be posting soon. I really want to see the reaction to the next bunch of chapters so I'll probably end up posting them faster than I should. But I don't want to overwhelm everyone with multiple chapters in a row, so I'll try to be good :-P
Rogue151~ Hehe, yeah everyone seems to like that line from Nightcrawler! :-P