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 Fourteen: Lives Less Ordinary
The months of spring seemed to melt into each other fairly uneventfully. The LeBeaus went about their daily routine of morning sickness for the first trimester until one day in late April Rogue woke up without the feeling that she needed to empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet. On the day that this occurred she knew that she was going to love every second of this pregnancy from this moment on. In fact, now that her stomach wasn't bothering her in the morning, she was starting to crave some rather odd food combinations. Being the master chef that he was, Remy made sure to accommodate for her every need.
True to his word, Beast cut Rogue's doctor visits to once a week once the first trimester past. He told them that since the first trimester was the most critical and the pregnancy had been uneventful so far, then everything should go as expected from here on in. But he didn't want to cut her visits completely, after all, with her powers there was always a chance of something going wrong. Rogue didn't mind the weekly examinations, they only took a small amount of time, and it gave her a reason to visit the Mansion, not that she or Gambit ever needed any excuses. Xavier and the others were always thrilled to have the LeBeaus over. Xavier loved sharing the progress of the school's transition from a small scale operation to one of greater proportions. More buildings were being constructed on his property separate from the Mansion to accommodate his dream. In fact, the two buildings currently in construction looked just like a school and a dormitory. The plan was that only the current X-men would be housed in the Mansion. New students would live in the dorms and attend the school, though some students who were local would have the option of living at home. A few potential students had already been referred to Xavier from various sources. The five students in question were all high school students who had begun to manifest their powers, and as a result were harassed at school. Each of their stories was so heart-wrenching that they had already started their classes with Xavier despite the fact the facilities were not operational yet. Since three of the five lived in the area, he only had to house two in an extra guest room until the dorms were finished. The students would receive regular high school curriculum instruction in an environment where their powers would not make them a target of ridicule. Since Xavier's goal was to give these new mutants a safe education, training them to be X-men was not on the list of things to do. The students would take classes in how to control and manage their powers, but would not receive any type of combat instruction, with the exception of some self-defense. For now Xavier handled all of the instruction, sometimes with the help of Beast, but he knew that as the size of the school grew he would need more help. All of the X-men had their own roles to play in this new project. Jubilee was ready to start as a teacher next fall since she was graduating this spring. Bobby, being a certified accountant made sure that everything was budgeted and that nothing exceeded the funds that they had{1}. Logan helped to supervise construction. Kurt had his own project. After the assassination of Congressman Williams he decided that the church and attached cemetery in the woods behind Xavier's property was poorly used for only sad occasions. He wanted there to be a place of peace, joy, and sanctuary close to the Mansion, so he acquired the rights to the church from the town and was able to convert the dilapidated church into a chapel for the X-men to use for all occasions, not just those of death. Since they had two pregnant X-men on their hands, Cyclops and Gambit were given the duties of caring for their wives. Xavier knew how important it was for the families to be together during these precious months.
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As April spilled into May and May quickly became June, Rogue and Gambit fell into a comfortable routine with their lives. They had weekly visits to Hank, hours upon hours preparing the nursery, and sometimes they even baby-sat for the Williams children. Gambit called it practice for the real thing yet to come. Rogue loved holding baby David and Gambit took joy in spoiling Carlie with trips to the local ice cream shop. Around mid-May Rogue was beginning to show and Bobby would comment on whether Rogue could surpass the very pregnant Jean-Grey any time soon. Jean was due in July and seemed practically ready to burst already. Rumors circulated around the X-men about who Jean's child would be. Most people discuss whether a baby would be a boy or a girl or how much it would weight, but nothing is ever that normal with the X-men. Jean already had one alternate reality daughter in Rachel and Cable was the son of her clone that Scott had married many years in the past. As a child Cable had to be sent to the future to save his life, only to return as a man older than his father. Cable came and went, but was a fixture at the Mansion from time to time, making it a little awkward for Jean. After all, he was her son DNA-wise, since his mother was her clone. Rachel also sometimes made an appearance at the Mansion, which made Jean wonder if the child she was carrying was indeed the young woman that she sometimes talked with over a cup of tea and a plate of cookies. Hank assured Jean that so much has happened to mess up various timelines, that the chance of the child she was carrying being Rachel was very slim. After all, Rachel's timeline no longer existed. In fact, he was positive this child was not Rachel. He told Jean that she should start concentrating on baby names for this new individual instead of worrying about whether her adult alternate reality daughter from the future could one day be babysitting the infant form of herself.
Jean wasn't the only one concerned with naming a baby. Both their neighbor Monica and Jean had offered to loan the LeBeaus some of the baby name books that they had acquired. Gambit and Rogue often spent many nights laughing and smiling at each other's name choices, but never really came to any solid conclusions. One such conversation happened while Gambit and Rogue were preparing an outdoor picnic on a warm June afternoon. They had been debating the foods to prepare for their backyard feast:
"All right Remy, but no gumbo, Ah don't think mah stomach could take the spices at the moment. So far Ah haven't had any morning sickness and Ah don't want to jinx it."
"Chere, you don't want my gumbo," he said with a hand held over his heart, "I don't t'ink my heart can take dat news!"
She swatted him with a dishcloth, "Don't ya start with me Swamp Rat! Even as Ah grow larger every second, Ah can still take ya!"
Gambit smirked and put a hand on his wife's currently small belly, "I'm sure that 'it' would want some of my special gumbo if I made some."
Rogue smiled at the thought of Gambit talking to their unborn child, "At the moment, Ah'm not so sure. But what Ah am sure if is that we can't keep calling our child 'it' foah the rest of his or her life. We need to think of some names."
With a lopsided grin he said, "Personally Remy Jr seems fittin' for a lil' boy or girl."
She laughed, "Oh ok sure, if we have a baby boy, Ah could concede to Remy Jr. under the conditions, Ah think it is most appropriate since, judging by all morning sickness Ah had early on, it would probably be just as mischievous as ya. However, Ah am not naming mah daughter Remy Jr. nor is she getting a name like Rogue. We need to think of a good name. Though come to think of it, Remy is kind of a cute name foah a baby girl too. But no, our child needs a name of his or her own."
Gambit knew how important it was for Rogue to have a perfect name for this child. She never came out and said it, but he just knew why; she had lost her own name at some point. Sure, she knew it when they first met, in fact she had been willing to tell him once in the past but he told her that names were not important as the person inside{2}. But as she assimilated more psyches over the years, she had started to lose herself, even something as simple as her own name. She didn't have to worry about losing herself due to her powers anymore, Beast said that it would go back to the usual gain a psyche, have it for 60 times as long as the touch, and then lose it again. Then again, he didn't want her absorbing people while she was pregnant, and that was a risk she was not willing to take.
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The next evening Logan, Remy, Bobby, and Scott had gathered for a "friendly" game of poker in the LeBeau's living room. Rogue and Jean were looking through some baby name books in the kitchen.
"I'm feeling lucky mes amis," Gambit said as he dealt the cards.
"When aren't you," asked Bobby as he made a face unintentionally, most likely at the poor hand he had just received.
In honor of the soon to be new fathers in the room, Logan passed some of his best Cubans around. Experienced smokers, Gambit and Wolverine couldn't help but laugh when Bobby and Scott started to gag and cough a bit.
Concerned about the coughing they heard from the other room, Rogue and Jean made their way into the living room.
"Remy Etienne LeBeau!" Rogue yelled disapprovingly, hands on hips, as she and Jean stood in the doorway.{3}
"Uh oh, full name, that can't be good," said Bobby as he finished off the last of the potato chips in the bowl.
Rogue motioned to the cigars the poker players were puffing on, "Ah suggest ya take that game outside right now! No buts! While Ah am carryin' yoah child Ah will not have that dirty thing in this house."
"She means you old man," Bobby snickered at Wolverine.
"That goes for all of ya, out OUT!"
Grumbling the guys picked up the card table and brought it out to the deck.
"Way to go Rogue," said Jean as she opened a window once the men were safely outside. "Looks like you are all ready for parenthood. You've already got the reprimanding down pat."
"Honestly Jean, sometimes Ah feel like those guys are children," Rogue sighed as she sprayed some air freshener. "Now I'll get the ice cream, you get the pickles, and we are going to sit here and enjoy being pregnant."
"Deal," said the red head as she made a dash for the refrigerator.
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While the two female X-men were preparing their pregnancy pleasure food, Bobby Drake walked through the kitchen to grab another bag of chips for the guys outside. He saw Rogue scooping out ice cream and Jean opening a jar of pickles and his immediate reaction was that of disgust: "EW!!! That's so gross! Are you really going to put those pickles on top of the ice cream?"
"Of course not Shugah, don't be ridiculous," said Rogue.
"We are going to put them on the side and dunk them in every once and a while," finished Jean as she placed the pickles on a plate next to the two bowls of ice cream.
"Oh come on now Popsicle, it doesn't look so bad," Logan said as he entered the kitchen and headed towards the fridge. He got a bottle of beer out and popped the top open with a claw. As he made his way back out of the kitchen he took a pickle, dipped it in one of the ice cream bowls, and ate it. "See, it's not that bad. I've had far worse in my life, bub, and those things were considered delicacies."
Rogue and Jean trying to stifle their giggles as Iceman clearly turned a shade of green. As he followed Logan out the door, bag of chips in hand, he was heard saying, "Just because you are going to live forever no matter what you eat due to your healing power does not mean that you have to shorten my life span by doing something gross like that!"
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Author's Note- This was a fun chapter to write since the atmosphere was much lighter than that of the last chapter. I wanted to cite certain events so that you could check them out if you wanted, plus I don't want Marvel to think that I'm stealing their ideas, so if I happen to use a specific, possible not well known event or quote, I will cite it if I own the comic and can find it. {1 & 3}- So says "The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: X-men 2004" {2}- Occurred in X-men 24
Star-of-Chaos- Thanks! I read a few of your stories recently, good stuff! :-)
T- Yeah it was good for her to be there for her friend, but what else would we expect from Rogue? :-)
Tammy- Yeah, I figured that not all families would abandon their loved ones, I mean not at the rate that the comics make it out to be sometimes. :-)
Kitsu Lebeau- Yeah, I wanted to make a point about how hard it was for some people to do the right thing and that superheroes aren't the only ones trying to change the world. As for the novels, the only other ones that I have are "The Jewels of Cyttorak" by Dean Wesley Smith and "X-men and Spiderman Time's Arrow Book: 3- The Future" by Tom DeFalco & Eluki Bes Shahar, there are two other books in the trilogy, but I have only read this one. I hope that this information helps! :-)
Ishandahalf- Yeah, I thought it would be fun to have mutant-friendly neighbors, it seemed like a nice contrast to the usually mutant-haters that we see. As for the foreshadowing, I never make any guarantees but I foresee no need to kill off Gambit or Rogue for the purpose of this story, mainly since the premise is their lives together over the years, but you'll have to wait to see what happens! PS: I LOVED your fics, I can't wait to see what you come up with in the future! :-)
RealityDreamer- No I haven't seen Troy yet, but I hope to see it soon. :-)