"I'm pretty sure it's not going to fit, guys." Ororo danced nervously from foot to foot, watching the doorway. Both wooden doors had been thrown wide open and they were no closer to meeting their goal.
"It will fit," somewhere behind the frame of the door, Logan grunted under the weight of his burden.
"Seriously, boys, I think Roro's right-" Rogue tried to lend her support. She was positioned a safe distance away on the leather couch, holding Vangie on her lap. The baby watched the show in front of her with wide eyes, one thumb firmly positioned between her lips.
"Pivot!" Remy called from the head. "Pivot!"
"How the hell are we supposed to do that?" Scott was at the end of his rope. "The damn thing's stuck."
"Language!" Jean scolded her husband from Ororo's side.
Scott ignored her. "Back it up a little." He instructed.
"No!" Remy swore in French. "It's almost through! One more push!"
"That's going to rip the needles off the whole damn thing." Logan became just barely visible over the back of the giant fir tree. "We still gotta hang ornaments on this thing, Gumbo."
"Well, do you have any better ideas?" Remy's temper fired up.
"You're the one who picked such a huge tree!" Scott's glasses were knocked askew as Remy tried to swing the tree inside.
"Excuse me for wanting something special for my chere's first Christmas!"
"Boys, come on now." Ororo stepped into defuse the situation. "Let's just think about this."
"We can use all the love floating around in here to shove it through the door," Rogue muttered sarcastically.
The situation tottered precariously towards reaching its boiling point when the sound of tires on gravel interrupted the fray.
"Thank God," Jean breathed a sigh of relief. "Maybe they can help."
The three women rushed to the window in time to see a bemused looking Wade and Kioni stepping out of their car.
"Merry Christmas!" Kioni greeted, waving at her friends through the glass.
"I can see you guys are all in high spirits." Wade tucked his hands in his pockets and smirked at Logan and the prospective Christmas tree.
"Can it, smartass." Logan growled.
"Nice to see you too, wolfman. Missed me?"
"Damn it Wade! Will you please help?" Scott peeked out from under the tree.
"Not if you're going to be rude." Wade feigned exasperation.
"Mpenzi…" Kioni implored Wade in her native tongue.
"All right, babe." He acquiesced. "It is Christmas." Almost lazily he extended a foot and pushed. The tree, and all three men holding it, went toppling through the doorway with a muffled crash.
Logan, Remy and Scott all looked up from the wood floor, sprawled over pine needles.
"Well, guess it's in!" Rogue announced brightly as she bounced Vangie on her hip.
Two hours later the tree was up in the corner and blinking brightly under the weight of baubles from all over. Scott and Jean had provided ornaments fashioned in the shapes of the Empire State Building, Rockefeller and the Statue of Liberty. Rogue, Remy and Evangeline brought miniature Mardi Gras masks, baby booties and a small glass crawfish. Wade and Kioni took pleasure in hanging their ornaments from Kenya, a horde of safari animals from the time the couple spent with Kioni's family. Ororo and Logan, being the host family for the year, provided the lights, the bed space and the food.
The group was stationed around the massive dining room table, awaiting the arrival of Ro and Logan's parents.
"You said on the phone you had news." Ororo paused between bites of lasagna to address Remy.
"We set a date." Rogue answered happily in his stead. "April 7th!"
"Vangie's going to be the flower girl." Remy chimed in happily.
"It'll just be a small thing. Immediate family."
"And you guys," Remy added.
"They qualify as family, sugar."
"Just clarifying, chere," he spooned more baby food into his daughter's waiting mouth.
"We'll put it on the calendar." Jean already had her phone out and was tapping the date in. "Tell your boss ahead of time, baby," she reminded Scott.
"Will do." Scott seemed more focused on dinner than what Jean was saying at the moment. "She's been a scheduling Nazi ever since she got that new job as an event planner." He whispered to Ororo when Jean turned to talk to Rogue about table settings. "She's even trying to schedule when we get pregnant. She wants an autumn baby."
Ororo laughed quietly. "Sounds like Jeannie."
"Sounds like you two better get on it soon." Logan leaned in to join the conversation.
"We've been practicing." Scott and Logan smirked at each other. Ororo rolled her eyes and turned to Kioni.
"Wade met your family, then?" Kioni had texted Ororo pictures steadily over the past few months, chronicling her adventures globetrotting with Wade.
"He did," Kioni smiled. Her already brown skin had turned copper from the African sun and her dark curls were streaked with a similar hue. "They loved him, especially my niece and nephews."
"Yeah?" Ororo laughed. Across the table Wade was entertaining Vangie by making strange faces and noises at her. The chubby baby brunette was in peals of laughter while her slightly amused parents looked on. Ororo had a sneaking suspicion that the hot guy from 6D might one day morph into a pretty decent dad. Jean had sidled up to Scott and the two were now feeding each other lasagna, still firmly locked in the honeymoon period after nearly a year.
"You said you guys had news too," Kioni smiled fondly at her boyfriend from across the table as she talked to her former roommate.
"We're going to wait till Ro's parents get here." Logan said. Kioni nodded and turned her attention back to the rest of their friends.
Underneath the table Logan reached for his wife's hand, guiding it to the small but unmistakable swell of her stomach. Ororo clung to him tightly, her thoughts on the bedroom upstairs that was slowly but surely morphing into a nursery for the first new member of the Howlett family.
"We should make a toast," Scott announced, holding up his glass of apple cider. "To a Merry Christmas."
"To the fabulous year we had," Jean added.
"To new additions," Remy put in.
"To us," Ororo finished simply.
The 6 friends clicked glasses over the table, laughing happily.
Thank you to all who read and to all who reviewed! It was a fun ride and I hope you enjoyed it!