Author's Note: Thank you guys for all of the reviews. You don't know how much positive feedback on my work encourages me, not just with my fanfic, but also in other areas of my writing. I really love to hear what you guys think of my stuff, so keep it coming if you like what I'm doing. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
xXx
Ororo spent every weekday from noon-thirty until 1 o'clock in the meditation garden with the small group of students who joined her for her midday relaxation session. In addition to her meditation group, another small gathering of students liked to hang out in the garden, either to take a lunchtime nap or to do homework away from the chaos of the dining room. Because Logan's preferred method of releasing his stress was by kicking ass in the danger room, he'd always been leery of attending Ororo's garden sessions, afraid that his turbulence might upset her and the students' quest for inner peace.
However, since Ororo had told him of her pregnancy, he'd become even more protective of her than usual. All of his hopes and dreams now rested with his girlfriend and their unborn child, and Logan was determined that, as long as he drew breath, no harm would fall upon either Ororo or the new life developing within her. He felt that she was safe only whenever he was with her, and, for the past week, the only times that they had not been together were when their respective classes forced them to separate for a few hours.
If his constant presence at her side irked her, she showed it not even the slightest bit. Every now and then, like the time that he'd insisted upon her sitting in the control room of the Danger Room while he completed his simulation, just so that he'd know that she was close, she'd simply shake her head or roll her eyes and tell him that he was obsessing. "I know, Ororo, but I can't help it. I worry about you more than ever," he'd tell her, and then she'd take his hand and say, "I know" and everything would be all right again. It would be clear to him that she appreciated his concern, and that they shared the same dream for the future.
"We've been together for three months," Logan thought as he lay on his belly and watched Ororo and the students stretch their arms to the heavens in unison, "Three of the best months of my life." Summer in the Xavier mansion had flown by fast. It had been nice for the two of them. All of the students who had families to go back to for the two-and-a-half-month summer break had left the mansion, leaving only about three dozen students remaining. The mansion had been more quiet and peaceful than Logan had ever seen it, and with more privacy and no classes, he and Ororo had had time to allow their love to unfold, time to…"Well, time to make a baby, obviously," Logan told himself.
He could smell the perfume of fall in the air. What the autumn and the following winter would bring with them, Logan didn't know. Of course, he knew that pregnancy was not an easy process, and that things over the next nine months were not always going to be as tranquil as they were now, but he was determined that he would see Ororo through it, and help her as much as possible every step of the way. And then, in the spring…they'd have their baby, and everything, everything would finally be perfect for both of them.
Logan had become so absorbed in his daydreaming that he failed to notice that the 1 o'clock bell had rung, and all of the students but one had exited the garden. The only student who remained was a petite blonde-haired girl whom he recognized from Ororo's Introduction to Mutant History class. The one time that he'd sat in on that class, he'd noted that the little blonde seemed timid and sat in the back of the room. Even from his distance away from them, he could see that the girl was upset, and that Ororo, who had placed a hand upon her shoulder, was attempting to calm her down.
"She is going to be such a good mother," Logan thought, using his hands to push himself into a standing position and brushing the grass from the front of his shirt and jeans. Ororo said a few last words to her student before giving the girl a hug and sending her along. Logan wrapped an arm around Ororo's shoulder when he reached her, and she leaned into him.
"I'll walk you to your next class," he told her. She giggled.
"You make it sound like we're in high school," she said. The two walked slowly across the grass, neither one caring that they would be late for their classes.
"Logan, Ms. Monroe, wait!" they heard someone yelling their names from across the garden. Both turned to see Rogue running towards them, her long black hair flying behind her.
"What the…?" Logan asked no one in particular. When Rogue reached them, she doubled over, putting her hands on her knees and breathing heavily.
"Ran…all the way…from the front…of the house," she explained, trying to catch her breath.
"What's wrong, Rogue?" Ororo asked, a sudden sense of fear arising in her belly.
"Dr. McCoy is here," the girl replied. This statement alone was met with looks of puzzlement from both of the adults before her. They'd been under the impression that Hank was on business in France. Rogue continued, "And there's a guy with him…who claims to be Professor Xavier."
Logan and Ororo turned and looked at each other. Logan smelt a whole spectrum of emotions radiating from his girlfriend, everything from shock to…hope. Before he could say anything to her, she turned away from him and took off running across the lawn, towards the mansion.
"Hey…!" Logan called after her, and then took off behind her, "Ororo, don't run! You'll overexert yourself and…"
"Aww, jeez…" Rogue said in a whiny tone before half-heartedly jogging to follow the two of them.
xXx
"Hello, Ororo," his voice in her head stopped her dead in her tracks. She felt that presence once again, the one that she'd always associated with comfort and familiarity.
"Charles…" she thought, her head spinning and her stomach doing flip-flops.
"Yes, my dear, yes…come to the office, Ororo," he answered her, and she smiled. She'd forgotten, temporarily, that he could read her thoughts if he chose to.
"Ororo! Ororo!" Logan's voice echoed through the hallway as he ran to catch up to her.
"Logan," she said once he found her, "it's him. It's really him!" He looked at her in surprise, but she just smiled, took his hand, and led him down the hallway to her office.
Upon entering, both were surprised to see Hank sitting on Ororo's white leather sofa with a dark-haired man of about thirty years of age, who was twirling a cane and had been looking at the door expectantly. His eyes lit up as soon as the weather goddess entered the room.
"Ororo, my dear!" the man said in a voice that sounded as though it had been soaked in a vat of bourbon and then run over by an eighteen-wheeler. He got up from the sofa, using his cane to limp over to the couple.
"I apologize for taking so long to come back to you, dear," the man said, "but the body that you see before you had simply been lying lifeless in a hospital bed for years whenever I got to it. It's taken me this long to train the vocal chords to function and the limbs to move. As you can see, the process is still far from complete."
She held out her arms to him, placing both of her hands on each of his arms to steady him. Although the physical manifestation of the man in front of her was more than a surprise to Ororo, she knew that the mind belonged to Professor Charles Xavier. She could feel his energy, his power. She looked over to Logan, and it became clear to her that he felt it as well.
"Charles…" she whispered, drawing him into her arms for an awkward embrace, "Father." She pulled away from him to see his reaction. Never before had she called him that, but, in the past four months, Ororo had realized that that was the role which he had played in her life, and had regretted never acknowledging it properly.
"Oh, Ororo," Charles said, "I did miss you terribly. I can only imagine what the past few months must have been like for you. Still, I see that you've performed admirably with what you had, as always. You've kept this school alive, and kept it much as it always was. However, it's become apparent to me that, in other arenas of your life, things have changed drastically." At this, Charles looked from Ororo to Logan, who gazed back at him evenly.
"Chuck," he said, just as familiarly as always, "Hasn't been the same around here without you."
"Indeed," the professor replied jovially, "and I would love to hear all about it, but, if the two of you don't mind, perhaps you'd like to come and sit with Hank and I on the sofa. While it is quite an experience to have functional legs once again, they get a bit stiff every now and then, and I don't want to over-do it."
He limped awkwardly over to the sofa, and Logan and Ororo followed. She took a seat in between the professor and Hank, whom she also greeted with a friendly hug, and Logan contented himself to sit at the end of the sofa closest to the professor.
"Now, my dear, perhaps it'd just be easier for you to start at the beginning. Which, I suppose, in this instance would have been…my end," said Charles, chuckling at his own little joke. Ororo slipped one of her hands into the professors and glanced over at Logan, who nodded. She smiled, and then began to relate to her adoptive father all of the events of the past four months. When she was through, she looked down at her lap, and then brought her head back up to see Logan's face. He was looking over to Charles, attempting to gauge his reaction.
"Well, I'll be damned," the professor said, "I sensed a definite link between the two of you, but I never guessed…I'm going to be a grandfather."
