A/N: Thank you to those who reviewed! Sorry for the delay between chapters!
Ororo sat at her desk, deep breathing, watching the clock and counting down the seconds.
3… The kids were still running around outside. She could hear their delighted squeals.
2… They'd take a while to calm down now that they were all riled up. She hoped they'd listen to her.
1… The bell rang, heralding in the first day of the school year. Swallowing her nervousness, Miss Munroe stood up and headed for the door.
Little kids were running around outside, gleaming in their new clothing, haircuts and backpacks. A few smiled at her as they went by, warming her. She stood in front of her door, raised her hand and yelled.
"Miss Munroe's fourth grade class over here!" a host of lost looking little children ran over to her, jackets trailing behind them.
They lined up without being told, old pros at the school system. Ororo looked at all the beaming little faces (some brown, some tan, some pink from the cold, and all rosy cheeked) and felt something inside of her stir. The nervousness gave way to something like euphoria; this was where she belonged, this was what she wanted to do.
It took ten minutes to get the children inside her classroom and settled down. They laughed and giggled, still in summer mode. After she got them in their assigned desks, she passed around cardstock and crayons. The instructions were simple: you could decorate the name tag any way you wanted it, but your name had to be in big bold letters. She enjoyed watching them work across her desk as she designed her own. Before her eyes aliens and hearts took shape, flowers grew, stars shot across the sky and animals roared.
The morning passed similarly, a blur of ice breakers and get-to-know-you activities. Though she knew it wasn't exactly right, a few children were shaping up to be Ororo's favorites by lunchtime. A little girl with dimples and two braided pigtails named Jubilee was a chatterbox but eager to help and a little boy with black hair named Kurt was quiet by comparison but smart as a whip. By the time they all filed out to the parking lot at 3 p.m. Ororo was feeling much more confident about teaching. Her walls were already covered on one side by first-day-of-school art and her digital camera had head shots of all her students for a poster she planned on making.
By 4:30 in the afternoon she peeled herself way from her desk, waved good bye to Cecilia and Warren, poked her head in the music room to say farewell to Allison and piled into the car Logan had let her borrow for work. He said that his bike was just fine for getting to the garage and insisted that she had built the car anyway, so it was hers to use whenever. Ro figured she owed him for that, particularly because New York was already frigid and it wasn't even October yet.
The cold chased her into the door of Jean and Scott's apartment complex. Logan didn't get off until after 6; she had a few hours before she needed to meet him at his place. Stomping the cold out of her feet, she threw the door open, prepared to gush about her day.
Scott, Jean and Remy were seated on the couch and watching old reruns of America's Next Top Model. Or, more accurately, Jean was watching and Remy was whistling appreciatively when a girl struck his fancy. Scott seemed to be focusing on a stack of papers in front of him.
"Bonjour, Stormy!" Remy greeted, popping a boneless chicken wing in his mouth.
Jean, ever the hostess, had heated up what appeared to be an entire freezer's worth of Tyson snacks. Knowing she would regret it later at dinner, Ro selected some bagel bites and fell into the seat near her oldest friend.
"How was your first day?" Ro's bottom had barely hit the cushion when Jean burst out her question.
Ororo happily recounted the day's events, her enthusiasm apparent.
"Glad to see you like it," Scott had put aside his figures from work to give Ro his full attention. "I always thought you'd make a good teacher." Ororo smiled at his compliment.
Scott Summers was nothing if not polite and sincere. It hadn't been hard to warm up to him, despite his straight-laced personality. To the uniformed eye, Scott looked a little boy scoutish. His brown hair was always perfectly side parted, his clothing wrinkle free and tasteful, his red-tinted glasses (his only outward quirk) perfectly balanced on his face. He got along fabulously with the less conventional Remy. Devilishly charming, Remy Lebeau managed to make even the wrinkled jeans and sweater he was wearing look appealing. Remy could coax Scott into getting into trouble with a few well-placed words and Scott had a trick of talking Remy down from whatever stupid thing he decided to do. The arrangement worked.
"How's your work been, Scott?" Ororo asked, popping the tab of her Sprite.
"Boring." He admitted. "But it pays well. I get good vacation days and excellent insurance."
"You always were the responsible one, Scooter." Remy teased, using the nickname Scott absolutely detested.
"As opposed to you, who's ready to up and move to New Orleans no matter what your girlfriend thinks." Scott fired back with no real venom.
"Thought you'd be proud, me getting a career and all that." Remy shoved another wing into his mouth.
"What about Rogue?" Jean argued. Ro could tell they had been on the subject before she even arrived.
"Marie and I have a thing worked out."
"Which is.,.?" Ororo prompted.
"None of your business." Remy said flatly. "I'm sure my petite will be spilling the beans to you as soon as I'm not in earshot anyway."
Jean and Ororo chose not to argue, knowing he was right. However, weeks went by with little to no word from Marie. She was busy with school, hauling through her senior year and taking the max amount of credit hours. She divulged that she planned on taking courses over winter break as well. Jean and Ro assumed that this was she and Remy's plan: that she would graduate early and go to New Orleans with him. So when Rogue sat them down a week before Halloween, they were not expecting her news.
"I'm pregnant," Rogue told them point blank.
The news hit them like a bomb, sucking all of the sound from the room. Jean had paused, halfway to her mouth with a pumpkin-shaped Reese's cup and Ro stood in shock, fake cobwebs dangling uselessly from her hands.
"What?" Ororo finally found the oral dexterity to ask.
"I. Am. Pregnant." Rough reiterated more slowly.
"With a baby?" Jean screeched.
"Obviously," Rogue looked irritated by her friends' reactions.
"What? When did you find out?" all thoughts of decorating were gone as Ro sat Rogue down at her desk. She and Jean gathered around her, prepared for the interrogation.
"I found out a few weeks ago. I was trying to decide what to do," she added when Jean and Ro looked hurt at her withholding information for so long. "I haven't told Remy yet. Or Logan."
The seriousness of the situation hit them all as Rogue began to sob.
"It'll be ok," Jean was on her knees immediately, cradling the younger woman. "We can work this out."
Ro voiced her opinion. "This is unexpected sure, but Remy will be thrilled. We have to start by telling him." Jean nodded in agreement. But Rogue protested.
"I can't. This is a total wrench in his plans. If I can't finish school this semester, everything will go to hell! And I can't be pregnant in New Orleans!" at their looks of confusion, Rogue continued, "It's too far away from family!" she buried her head in her hands, sobbing through her ebony hair.
Jean and Ororo exchanged long, measured looks.
"Marie," Ororo joined Jean on the ground near Rogue, "You have to start by telling Remy."
"What if he doesn't want to keep the baby?" Marie whimpered from behind her hands.
Ororo thought privately that she would kill him if he even suggested something like that, but it was Jean who answered.
"It's not really up to him. It's up to you. But you have to start by telling him."
"And Logan," Ro added.
"We'll take it one step at a time. But this is a good thing," Jean insisted. "You'll see. It's scary now, but you've always said you wanted kids."
"But not now!" Rogue exclaimed.
"Life has a funny way of happening in its own time," Ororo said. "So this is unexpected for you, but it was meant to happen this way."
"Exactly." Jean smiled as Rogue's sobs subsided. "If you keep that in perspective, it will all work out. And we're here for you."
"And Logan and Scott and Remy." Ororo added. "Just like always."
"Just like always," Jean echoed.
Rogue wiped her eyes and gave them a group hug. By the time they left that night for dinner, Rogue was tentatively thinking of baby names, and Jean was planning a date for a baby shower. Ororo dragged her to the drugstore for prenatal vitamins and by the time the day was done, Rogue had agreed to tell Remy when she got home.
Ororo waited in anticipation for Rogue's promised call with a nervous stomach. When Logan asked her what was wrong while they lay in bed watching television.
"Nothing's wrong," she lied, acutely aware that she had never lied about something like this to Logan before. But it was up to Rogue to tell him.
"Hmmm, I guess you'll tell me when you're ready," her boyfriend was not fooled for a moment.
He reached over and pulled her to him. They cuddled until Logan fell asleep, but Ororo laid awake all night, waiting for a call or a text.
It never came.
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