Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men:Evolution or it's characters. Just my OC, Molly Callum/Creature and any original characters/background characters that may pop up from time to time.
During the rest of the afternoon and evening, the door kept opening to women bringing gifts for Remy. Cured salted meats, fresh vegetables, a whole ham, and even soft sheep skin blankets. Molly left to help Felicity, then came back that evening. Molly had quietly cooked dinner, stewing in silence both figuratively and literally. They'd barely heard two words out of her in several hours. Remy was going to have to do something to make it up to her later.
After dinner, Remy took Molly out walking again while it was still light out.
"Cherie, say something please! You've been extra quiet," Remy said.
"What's there to say? You took every gift without a second thought. Those girls were all thin and pretty, not fat and dumpy looking like me.
You know, being here isn't doing my hair any good either. I must look horrible right now." Molly dissolved into tears. Not heavy crying, just regular old stressed out crying.
"Shh, Petite. I'm sorry. I was just being polite. I should've know you wouldn't have liked it. You don't look horrible and it seems you've forgotten what I said last night already. You don't hold a candle to the girls here. Your hair doesn't look that bad. I can't believe you're saying anything bad about yourself, because honestly, these past few days have tested _all_ my resolve. Do you know how much self-restraint it took today not to sneak a peek at you all wet wearing _just_ my shirt? Molly, I've never been more attracted to a woman than I am to you and if that doesn't at least quiet the thoughts you have about yourself, than short of marrying you so I can show you how I feel, Baby, Love, I don't know what to do." Remy was so exasperated.
"I'm sorry, Remy. I don't know why I'm so hard on myself when you're so good to me all the time. When I know how you feel.
And now I know how you _really_ feel, wow! I-I was driving you that crazy?" Molly blushed, wiping her eyes.
"Cherie, yes! You know, you could've used a few more boyfriends before me. Sometimes it's no wonder your body image is in the lurch if I'm the only one to ever date you. And your self-esteem. Just please stop putting yourself down so much. Doubting...worrying. It's pointless. We've proven our love to each other time and again. A little attention from others and how either of us looks isn't ever, ever going to get in the way of that." Remy held Mollys face.
"We've faced the worst things, you're right. I shouldn't let my self-doubts and hang ups ruin our relationship, should I? From here on out, no more. I will do my best to think more positive. For myself, for you, for everything," Molly smiled.
"There's my girl," Remy said, bending down close and kissing Molly.
"Maybe we shouldn't," Molly stopped, "If you're feeling...uh, edgy."
"Not like before. I'm good," Remy said.
They spent awhile kissing, then continued talking.
"I'm a little surprised we've been here a couple days already. I hope everyone's looking for us," Molly said.
"They _are_," Remy said, "You know the team cares about us. Forge and his family care about us," Remy said, even if Forge caring about Molly was hard to spit out, "Time travel is probably complicated, so it may take them a while to find us."
"How long of a while, I wonder," Molly said, "Months? years? Remy, what are we going to do if we're absolutely stuck here?"
"Make the best of it. Settle down and marry you, have a farm. Get used to living without modern conveniences. Maybe make a killing inventing jeans a few centuries early because these pants are incredibly uncomfortable," Remy winced. Molly laughed.
"Yeah, that look doesn't suit you very well," Molly admitted, "If we'd at least found ourselves in the forties, that would've been better than this."
"Yeah, I guess. I don't know about you, love, but I'm exhausted. I've been up since before dawn, so I want to turn in early and you might want to as well. You had a hard day," Remy put an arm around her waist, guiding her back to Felicity's house.
"Yeah, it was a long day," Molly said. They reached the house shortly.
Remy kissed Molly goodnight, a bit longer than usual. The door in front of them suddenly opened.
"Miss Molly, what is the meaning of all this?!" Felicity scolded. Molly blushed in embarrassment. Remy took it the practice of the goodnight kiss also had yet to be invented.
"Just saying goodnight to my beloved," Remy said poetically, "Au revoire ma'am. See you tomorrow, ma belle amour."
Molly looked doe-eyed at Remy's words before Felicity chewed her out as Remy walked away.
"There's saying goodnight and then there's acting like an uncouth, shameless shrew! Young lady, if my husband were alive, you would get a stern talking to."
"...Miss Felicity, I understand I'm a guest and you have rules, but I'm not a child. If you really don't like it, I can leave," Molly said.
Uh-oh. Remy stopped and turned around.
"Uh, honey, let's go talk things out a minute," Remy grabbed Molly and took her aside.
"That's not a good idea," Remy said, "You need a place to stay,"
"So I'll stay with Anna. I know we haven't been here long, but that lady's been working me to the bone like I'm her servant and she's still making backhanded remarks about me. All her girls are her slaves and she doesn't treat me any differently. I've had it," Molly said.
"You should've said something, I had no idea," Remy was surprised. She must've been exhausted trying to make dinner for Joseph and them in the evenings, but hadn't shown it. Probably trying to be brave and stick it out for Remy's sake and not complain.
"I didn't want to upset you. A little hard work never killed me before," Molly smiled, but now Remy saw how tired she looked.
"Come on, we'll go see Anna," Remy led her away from the house.
Several days went by. Anna had been obliged to have Molly stay after learning what went on. Things kept going on like usual and Remy had even started teaching Peter card games.
"Remy, get Molly and meet me at the house with the green door. Miss Clara is having her baby and there's no time to waste!" Joseph burst through the door, grabbing his bag of medical supplies, leaving.
"Oh boy," Remy said, going to get Molly. They quickly found the house, since there weren't a lot of them, knocking on the door.
Remy could hear the woman inside screaming already, so he had to brace himself. Surely this couldn't be that bad? How many people were needed to birth a baby anyway?
"Come on, we have to be brave about this," Molly said, probably sensing Remy's apprehension, "I'm sure we've faced worse." Molly took his hand and they went inside after a young blonde girl opened the door, letting them in.
"Good, you're here," Joseph briefly looked up, "Molly, hand me the instruments when I tell you to. Remy, you wipe Clara's forehead and let her squeeze your hand if she needs to." Remy's eyes widened. Squeeze his what? Well, Remy prepared himself to lose all feeling in his hand, if movies were anything to go by.
Remy took in the scene around him as he wiped Clara's forehead. The new father, he presumed, was pacing on the far part of the room. He was short and Hispanic looking. The blonde girl, probably Clara's younger sister, looking no older than 11 was just quietly standing near the window, watching. Joseph was sitting on a short stool at...the head of things...doing stuff. Molly stood next to him looking faint, sick and pale. Clara was seated on a chair with her legs propped up in the normal fashion, her feet hanging onto two chairs in front of her weighted down by some books.
"Molly?" Remy said, now that Clara had stopped screaming for the moment.
No reaction from Molly. Her eyes were glazed over from looking into the abyss.
"Molly!"
"What?!-I mean...What?"
"Step back, turn away from me so you're facing Joseph and not, uh, facing all the action," Remy said.
Molly, not always good at following verbal directions, did as she was told. Now considerably calmer, she could work a little better.
Clara screamed again and Remy felt the vice grip on his hand. He bit back a scream. No sense in them both screaming, right?
"There we are. I see toes," Joseph said, "Give us a couple big pushes, Clara."
Somehow, some way, Clara gripped Remys hand even harder. "Molly, hand me a cloth out of the bag," Joseph said. Remy averted his eyes as to whatever Joseph was cleaning up on the floor with his foot. Remy's stomach lurched, but he had to keep a cool head about it. Like, he'd been in more life threatening situations than he could count. A little childbirth wasn't going to kill him.
Clara's grip tightened again and she screamed bloody murder.
...Or not.
"There! The first one's out!" Joseph said, "Molly, get a blanket and the scissors out of my bag, please."
"The first one?" Remy and Molly said in unison.
"That's right," Joseph said, actually smiling, "Oh, didn't I tell you? Clara's having triplets!"
AN: Every woman has body image issues and Molly needs to get past hers, slowly but surely.
It never quite made sense to me to have Molly being upset about it all the time with Remy always saying how beautiful she is to him, but I guess I wanted to keep things a little realistic. A guy can think you're the hottest woman on earth, but it still takes years to build up body confidence because it has to come from you and you have to believe that you're beautiful, no matter how much a man loves you, you have to love yourself too, as corny as that may sound.