The Old Boat House by Shadowlady
Summary: A companion piece to 'We really shouldn't be doing this'. Feedback is as always welcomed.
Categories: AU Characters: None
Genres: Drabble
Tags: None
Warnings: None
Challenges:
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: Yes Word count: 1076 Read: 2334 Published: 12/11/2007 Updated: 12/11/2007

1. The Old Boat House by Shadowlady

The Old Boat House by Shadowlady
I sit by the lake and watch the man I’ve married as he tends to repairs of a run down old building. I’ve known James Logan for ten years, married for six, and once a week, we come here. By here I mean this old, run down, closed up boat house that he refuses to separate himself from.

I once asked him about it. In my naivety I asked him about moving away, about moving to the city to work. The look in his eyes, by God if I never see it again I won’t miss it. He’d never looked at me with such cold hatred, such distaste and I nearly ran from him.

That of course is a bad idea. Running from a feral mutant is never a good thing because he enjoys a good hunt as much as his father did. Probably why his parents got married and had him. Neither was overly sane…still I try not to pass judgment. After all, look at me. I’m the daughter of the great-grandson of a man Wolverine had very little patience with.

I won’t say that James’ dad hated my great-grandfather; he just had no use for uptight pansy-asses. His words not mine. I see I’ve confused you. Let me start back a number of years ago.

My maiden name was Drake. Yes I’m related to Robert Drake, my grandfather was born to him several lifetimes ago. He was an unexpected arrival, the result of a one night stand that should never have blossomed into more but it did. See, Grandpa Drake was with James’ mother’s best friend at the time. They were young; barely twenty when all hell broke loose and they had to fight to survive. Anyway, Grandpa got caught with Grandmomma…by my late mother-in-law actually.

I’m still not sure of the events that took place, from what I can understand. Grandpa Drake and Kitty Pryde split up shortly afterwards, and he in a fit of drunkenness slept with Grandmomma Lee. She was six months pregnant when an old enemy came back to haunt them.

The mission details are all in the file in the mansion, how the entire team had gone to get her back from the Brotherhood. It was Wolverine that saved her; it was his blood that was spilt when the enemy caught him. And to make a long story short, two months later, my grandfather Logan Drake was born.

If you think I’m leaving details out, well you’re right. Some details are better left unspoken, unheard by those of us who weren’t there. James told me once that his parents loved each other too much, that there was so much between them that mortals would never, could never understand. In many ways they were the same, both wild, untamed souls that longed for the life that they could build without the trappings of modern society.

Uh oh something must have gone wrong from the way James is cursing. Still I won’t move, I’m gonna sit right here and wait for him to come back to me. I know better than to stick my nose in.

Age difference? Oh yes, there is a big one. I’m twenty eight years old, and James, well James is a lot older. He was born two years before my grandfather was.

How can that be you ask? Simple, Rogue and Logan were lovers, kept hidden from everyone in the mansion for so long that they didn’t know how to tell anyone. When she was with Grandpa Drake, she was sixteen, and desperate to be a teenager. They knew that their time would be forever, what did it matter if she spent a few months with someone else.

When Rogue was eighteen her and Wolverine split, they headed for parts unknown. Two years later, she came home alone and with a small baby. No one knows what happened; only that Wolverine showed up a few months later looking in bad shape. They moved out here to this place, moved to this run down building and this is where my husband grew up.

He was already a grown man when his folks died. It’s funny if you think about it, immortals dying? No one would ever believe it. But they did. There was a mission, there was a kid in danger and they’d gone to save him. When the smoke cleared and the rubble was moved, all anyone ever found was two sets of tags, a few bits of jewelry, and the tangled mess of a metallic skeleton.

Even in death they were inseparable and I’ve watched my husband as he deals with their deaths. I pray ever day that the child growing beneath my heart will be an absolution, an easing of fear for my husband. James has lived so long, seen so much…including the deaths of three generations of his pseudo ‘family’ that he needs to have something that is his. I want him to love this child, I want him to hold him in his arms and know that his parents loved him, that I love him. I want him to know the love his parents had, and I’m gonna do whatever I have to to make sure he gets it.

“What are you doing?”

Beth snapped her diary shut and looked up to watch her husband walking toward her, elegance and grace within each stride.

“Just drabbling.” She smiled at him. “What about you? How’s the boat house?”

“It’ll stand a while longer.” James turned to stare at the building. Yes the paint was peeling, and the windows needed a wash, but the foundation was strong. As strong as the love his parents felt, the love that kept them tied to this place, to him. He glanced upwards into the one clean window and smiled, he knew his father stood there watching him, knew that Wolverine and Rogue had never left him. Even now, after a hundred and sixty years they still watched over their son, over those who needed them. It was something that he knew would always be.

Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, James sighed, “The old boat house will be standing long after the mansion has fallen, Beth. Dad rebuilt it to stand the test of time. Just like his love for us.”
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