“Remind ya of home? Ah mean Canada…” Marie asked in almost a whisper.
She instantly worried when Logan didn’t answer right off the bat. She wasn’t worrying in vain because her inner Logan was telling her that she had good reason to worry. Her inner Logan was beginning to have his own flashbacks but, he obviously wouldn’t allow her to see them. Marie started to stroke the back of his hand with her fingers to bring him out of his haze. She could barely see that lost look on his face again.
Logan thought that smelling Marie’s hair would calm him down amply so that he wouldn’t experience another vision. He was wrong… This time as he rode through the trees, and Marie asked him about home, it triggered the memory of the night he and another older boy were running through the trees to escape the law and their tracking animals. He looked down and he saw bone claws. He was in pajamas and boys sized dark red robe. Then he felt someone rubbing on his hand and it brought him back to his current reality.
“Sort of, the smells are quite a bit different but, the trees and the river do,” he bent his head down to give her the low answer, at least the only one he could think of to please her.
“You had anothah one didn’t ya?”
“Yeah.”
“When we get back we should talk ‘bout it, sugah,” he heard her say but, at the time he wanted to tell her no because he wasn’t sure he was ready to handle all the emotions and interpretations of the flashbacks and strange longer visions he’d had.
When they went through the Primeval World of Dinosaurs Logan was relieved that no new events happened. Once they got off of the train at Main Street U. S. A., Logan walked with his arm around Marie’s right shoulder and her left arm was under his blazer, around his waist. They walked across the pavilion and there they got the bad news that dinner had run on a little longer than they thought. The lights were out and the gates were closed, California Adventure closed that night at 11:00 P.M.
“We’re too late darlin’. They closed at eleven. It’s a little after eleven thirty now,” he said looking at his watch. “Whaddya want to do now?”
“Ah could go back ta tha room but, ah wanna be out with you in this be-you-taful naht and not think ‘bout snow.”
“Should we go to that Downtown Disney you mentioned?”
“Sounds great, sugah. You can watch me shake mah rump since ah know ya don’t lahk ta dance.”
“Amen and pass the Molson,” he said as let her guide their path to the Downtown Disney area.
Y Arriba! Y Arriba!
Downtown Disney
11:55 P.M.
Logan handed over the twenty dollars for the cover charge for them both. Then they climbed the staircase to the club upstairs. It would only be open until two in the morning anyway. The building was a two story hacienda style Mexican restaurant on the ground floor and a dance club on the upper landing.
“Let’s see if you can keep up,” Marie teased as they she headed for the dance floor.
The D.J. had the place hoping. He knew that Marie wouldn’t expect him to go get out there with her, start the whole bump and grind against her but this was a new day for him. He’d told her that he loved her, made love for the first time with her, and gotten engaged in one day. The ‘Old Wolverine,’ was learning new tricks. He started to get his groove on. He kept up with her on the dance floor, whatever moves the dances called for.
Marie was totally shocked. She had never seen Logan dance as well as he was. She needed to know his secret. True, he was no professional dancer but, he was giving it an honest shot. When she asked him his secret, he just whispered that he was copying everything she did. So much for thinking that he had some kind of talent for dancing! Maybe, she wondered if she could get him to dance at their wedding… Now that would be a sight. Maybe she could hire a male professional dancer to teach them. Nah, Logan wouldn’t let another guy touch her now, and weren’t most dancers totally hot guys anyway? And really, the same for her when it came to getting Logan a female professional, she couldn’t stand to watch someone getting all touchy feely all over her man.
An hour later and the songs slowed down for the people to rest or drink up. They started to play a song by, Marc Anthony called, You Sang To Me. Logan had his arms wrapped around his girl, his cheek on her crown. Her hair smelled of Marie, vanilla, and magnolias because of her perfume and her hair care products. The scent was forever burned into his sensory memory. He hoped that memory never short circuited because with his long term memory mostly gone, he would lose memories of Marie, and that would be devastating to him. After Jean died the second time, and he had come back to the school, Logan had been working with Hank to rebuild stronger pathways to his long term memory. He did regain some capacity to have some long term memory back. What he hadn’t connected yet, was that with that memory work that they’d done was what was causing his flashbacks, visions, and nightmares. It just happened that being at Disneyland Park happened to be one hell of a major trigger hot zone.
Logan leaned in close to her ear and began to sing along with the lyrics while Marie’s arms locked around his waist.
I just wanted you to comfort me
When I called you late last night you see
I was falling into love
Yes I was crashing into love
Of all the words you said to me
About life, the truth, and being free.
Yeah you sang to me
Oh how you sang to me
As he lowly sang the words to Marie, the meaning really hit him deep in the chest. Maybe the reason he picked up that sad, lonely, starving girl on the road that day in Laughlin City was because he was looking for someone to comfort him, most likely from the pain he felt. The pain of the routine of his days wore on him like stone wheels grinding flour for a miller. Charles later said he’d done the same thing for 15 years and he wasn’t sure if he’d ever expected a different result to come, until that day when Rogue appeared. He’d lost his temper, finally had grown tired of the one night stands, and the fights in obscure dive bars. Logan believed he had even cut back a great deal on the alcohol as well. She led him to be free but, it wasn’t a conditional freedom. He could still be the man that he was but that was going backwards.
Girl I live for how you make me feel
So I question all this being real
‘Cause I’m not afraid to love.
For the first time I’m not afraid to love.
This day seems made for you and me
And you showed me what life needs to be
Yeah you sang to me
Oh you sang to me
When he’d woken up sleepy headed that Christmas morning, he felt like last night hadn’t been real. When he reached for her, he felt crushed, it hadn’t been real, until she spoke to him and gave him orders. That was the moment he felt real and alive, for the first time in a very long time he wasn’t afraid to love and once again, she had freed him from the bondage of negativity in his life. She sang to him with her body, telling him that life needed to be about love and family, that making connections with others was a good thing, even though they had lost Scott and Jean. They had even lost Xavier but, by some miracle of teleportation, he had returned to them. Logan had held some small hope that the same could be true for Scott and Jean but, that was not to be born. Some part of him still wished they could have been with them tonight, to share in the joy they were all feeling.
Y Arriba! Y Arriba!
Downtown Disney
Anaheim, CA.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
12:00 A.M.
All around the dance floor there were people at small tables drinking and trying to hear conversation over the loud music. Most pretended to hear what their partners, dates, lovers, or friends were saying. Then there was a packed dance floor around Logan and Marie as the song continued, several couples swaying, kissing, and bonding. On the ceiling, was a giant mural of the universe; shapes of planets and stars in silver.
All the while
You were in front of me
I never realized
I just can’t believe
I didn’t see it
In your eyes
I didn’t see it
I can’t believe it
Oh but I feel it
When you sing to me
As Logan danced, the song packed another punch to his heart from his brain, as if it had been trying to wake it up in order to see what it had been denying itself. In all the time he had looked in her eyes, he couldn’t believe that he had missed the signs that she wanted him. How could he have missed them? She spent time with him, found ways to touch or stroke him in her way, and very rarely kissed him. Their dates were always proper, as if she had been back in Meridian, and her parents watching through the window. A sweet chaste kiss at her door when he took her home to her room, and then a good night.
How I long to hear you sing
Beneath the clear blue skies
And I promise you this time
I’ll see it in your eyes
I didn’t see it
I can’t believe it
Oh but I feel it
When you sing to me
Just to think you live inside of me
I had no idea how this could be
He promised himself that he wouldn’t ever stop looking at Marie for signs that he had once ignored from now on. Logan wondered if she had always been there inside him, just unknown until that day when he met her in Laughlin City. He had no idea that finally telling Marie that he loved her could have opened a flood gate of joy and he knew that now that they had shared their love for one another that they were going to last. Because he’d be damned if he would let their relationship falter from neglect; he planned to work on it every day, every chance he got, and every day brought a plethora of chances.
Now I’m crazy for your love
Can’t believe I’m crazy for your love
The words you said just sang to me
And you showed me where I wanna be
You sang to me
Oh you sang to me
Logan never would have believed that if someone had told him over five years ago that when he met a starving hitchhiker in Canada, that he’d be marrying her someday. He would have told them that they were, ‘fuckin’ nuts, bub,’ and moved on. He never wanted to be parted from her again; she was where he belonged.
How I long to hear you sing
Beneath the clear blue skies
And I promise you this time
I’ll see it in your eyes
I didn’t see it
I can’t believe it
Oh but I feel it
When you sing to me
Just to think you live inside of me
I had no idea how this could be
Marie listened to Logan softly singing in her ear and his voice did things to her that she knew he would never know truly how they made her feel. The lyrics became more personal at the end of the song to her because in this case, Logan actually did live inside of her, in her mind, and forever in her heart. There were tears in Marie’s eyes as the song finished, and Logan finished singing to dip Marie. He rolled her back up and wrapped her in his arms in a huge bear hug.
“I never wanna let you go Marie, never again.”
“Same here, sugah.”
Logan’s hands held her face and he wiped the trails of her tears away with the pads of his thumbs. He kissed her with a tender kiss that could only make a heart cry out for more of them. They finally let go of each other as the tempo of the music picked up. They stayed for one more song and to finish off their drinks. Then he let her take his hand and she led him out into the night. The night was just perfect and Downtown Disney had closed up to customers hours ago but, there were still people out looking through windows and planning to go through the shops they looked at the next day. Their walk back seemed slow but they went faster than they had thought.
Grand Californian Hotel
Anaheim, CA.
12:45 A.M.
Logan opened the door and Marie sauntered in slowly before he followed suit. She went over to the window and closed the curtains for privacy, not that anyone would be looking in at that hour or that high up at them but, it seemed to help the room warm up a little. He took off his blazer and laid it over the back of a chair at a desk.
“Logan, don’t forgit ta fill out the breakfast menu card and hang it outsahd our door. Ya have thirteen minutes and ten seconds ta get it out there so that breakfast is delivered on tahm in the mornin’.
“Whaddya want for breakfast,” Logan said looking at the menu.
“Ah don’t know. Just order two-a everythin’ and we’ll decide what ta eat latah.”
Logan growled in frustration, checked off a bunch of stuff on the menu card, doubled it, and then hung it on the doorknob outside. Then he watched as Marie flopped down on the edge of the bed to slip her shoes off but, she couldn’t. He could tell by the way she looked, that she was tired. He felt a moderate bout of tiredness himself. His body ached as well, only be denied the rest it needed to repair. Logan crossed the room and took her left hand in his. He saw her shoulders slump from her tiredness as well.
“Need some help with the dress, darlin’?” He offered to help.
Quietly, she stood and he smiled as she turned her back to him. He leaned in and placed a sweet kiss on the back of her neck. He pulled down the zipper on the back of the burgundy party dress and slipped the material down her body. She caught him off guard when she turned, tugged on his gray dress shirt out of his navy slacks, and pulled it over his head. Bare-chested, Logan went down on his knees to slip off her shoes and toss them towards the closet. He placed a kiss on each of her thighs and stood. Marie surprised him again as she went for his zipper but he could see her heart wasn’t in it.
“Look Marie, I know we’re both so tired we can barely stand, how ‘bout we go to bed and pick up later?”
“Fahn bah meh, even though ah’d lahk ta fool ‘round with ya so bad you and ah both wouldn’t be able ta stand for a week, ah’m zonked. Besahds, you owe meh a foot massage latah too, so rest up.”
“That’s right, I do,” he said, giving her the ‘brow’ arch, “By the way, I thought ya might wanna know, Yellow’s pregnant. Night darlin’, sweet dreams.”
“Good naht sugah, same ta you, wait… What? What was that ya just said?”
“Jubilation Le Beau is pregnant.”
“How? How do ya know? She and Remy haven’t said a word.”
“You passed Sex Ed Marie, so, you know how… I could smell it. And didn’t you notice she wasn’t drinking any alcohol?”
“Oh, well, yeah. What does being pregnant smell like?”
“A strong current of certain kinds of hormones.”
“Hmm, maybe ah can ask huh on tha way home.”
“Good night, Marie,” he said trying to close the subject because he was exhausted.
“Good night, Logan.”
Logan and Marie finished getting undressed on their own, crawled in to bed, and wore nothing to bed. She spooned up behind his left shoulder and started to fall asleep quickly. He couldn’t believe how good her naked body felt bent up against his backside. Wolverine tried to make him reconsider going to bed right away but, the human won on exhaustion. He held on to Marie’s left arm across his waist and fell asleep soon after. During the course of the night, the couple rolled, and he ended up spooned behind her.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Awwww... This is for Tricky Business. Here's one of your presents!
Enjoy the sweetness!
Enjoy the sweetness!
Chapter End Notes:
I hope you liked it. Now, back to bed to get a little more than 3 hours sleep.
Please review and thanks in advance for reading and reviewing!
Please review and thanks in advance for reading and reviewing!