Marie finished class early one Tuesday and on returning to her and Logan's suite she dumped her books, and the bag of snacks she had taken to carrying around with her, on the table near the door. She knew Logan was in here, he had been for days, he was working on the second bedroom but whatever he was doing he wouldn't tell her, or let her see. Stealthily she crept towards the slightly open door, hoping to get a glimpse of whatever it was he was working on. She had just reached the door when a voice startled her from the other side of the room.

"What do you think you're doing?" Logan asked suddenly, as he stepped out of the bathroom. "Were you really trying to sneak past me?" he added with a grin, when Marie turned sheepishly toward him.

"Well if you wouldn't keep secrets from me I wouldn’t have to sneak," Marie replied defiantly, arms crossed, as she tried to look a little less guilty about getting caught.

"Surprise darlin, not a secret, I don’t keep secrets, but this surprise is ready so you can see it now," he said, as he took her hand and turned her back to the bedroom. Opening the door, he walked backward into the room so he could see her reaction.

"It's amazing!" Marie breathlessly exclaimed, as she took in the freshly redecorated room. The walls had been given a marbled, forest green, paint finish, which contrasted nicely with the mahogany trim found throughout the mansion. The overhead light had black netting draped around it tastefully to mute the harshness of the light, and a daylight roller blind had been installed in the window to dull the light coming in from outside. There were also thick, brick red, curtains pulled back from the window that was open, airing out the last of the new paint smell.

"I was a little worried it would end up too dark but it hasn't turned out half bad," Logan agreed, as he surveyed his work. "Now all it needs is furniture, how long until mama gets a free day and we can go do some shopping?" Logan asked, as he pulled her closer to him and pressed his lips to her forehead.

"I'm done for the day, only had the one class today, why don't I get changed and we can go somewhere for lunch, then go do some shopping," she suggested, as she led Logan out of the room, the smell of paint was starting to bother her and she knew it would be even worse for him.

She got changed quickly as Logan watched her from the bed, she decided to go comfy and pulled on a pair of black leggings, and a knee length skater dress. Her wardrobe was well and truly into 'maternity' territory now but she strangely didn't mind. What she did mind was her shoes, she had given up the heels she occasionally wore right back when she had first found out she was pregnant, and now had given up on shoes with laces, even though Logan offered to help her get them on, so now she was limited to simple flats. She looked at her fluffy slippers longingly but figured that was taking it just a bit too far.

"You ready?" she asked Logan, as she applied a bit of light make up. She didn't wear it as a day to day necessity but she knew, correctly applied, it made her look a little older, which cut down the number of dirty looks they got when they went out together, now that she was *very* obviously pregnant.

Once they had eaten at a hole in the wall Logan picked, they headed for the mall and the first baby store they spotted. An hour later they had a good supply of bedding, cloth nappies, and clothing. Marie took Helen's advice and bought a good supply of preemie baby clothes - though the twins were likely to be born 'at term', they were twins, so that would be earlier than normal and they would be smaller than the average baby.

She tried to refrain from squealing over the tiny little outfits and the even teenier little socks and booties, she knew Logan was waiting for her to do it and so she didn't, just to keep him on his toes. She almost broke when Logan picked out a tiny teddy bear onesie that had a hood with teeny little ears on it, though she insisted they buy one, and a second that was supposed to be a dog, or wolf, so she could squeal over them later with the girls.

They also bought bassinets, a couple of baby mobiles decorated with forest animals, and a portable baby monitor. A double pram, two top end car seats with all the bells and whistles, a boba wrap, and a couple of ring slings. Marie sighed when they eventually left the store without the furniture they had initially gone in looking for, Logan had looked at everything and had a problem with every. single. crib.

"So, where are the Thing's sleeping then?" she asked, as Logan loaded all the bags, that he insisted on carrying, into the backseat of the truck. The bigger purchases were brought out on a trolley by a staff member who helped Logan load everything into the flat bed, he actually growled at Marie when she attempted to help! Then growled again when she laughed at him, the shop assistant couldn't get gone fast enough.

"Do furniture stores do cribs?" Logan asked, before he pulled out his phone to search for local furniture stores. While he was doing that, Marie dug out a bag of mini peanut butter cups, and reclined her seat as she snacked on them. Logan told her buckle up a minute later, starting the truck as soon as her seat belt clicked, before he pulled out of the lot and headed away from the mall.

"Hey Logan," Marie said, as they drove down the road. "I'm hungry," she stated, despite the fact she still had half the bag of peanut butter cups in her hand.

Logan grinned tolerantly. "What's on the menu darlin?" he asked, following her finger into a burger joint drive-through a moment later.

Marie ate as they continued to drive, she didn't bother asking where they were going, Logan knew and that was enough for her. He was good at getting them where they needed to be, she thought fondly, as she remembered their trip across Canada. They pulled into the lot of a specialty furniture store before she finished eating but Logan didn't try to rush her, he just reclined his own seat beside her and swiped some of her fries as he waited.

By the time she was ready to go into the store, he was standing at her door ready to help her out of the truck, he lifted her out of the truck and they wrapped their arms around each other as they walked into the large showroom. Marie caught sight of some of the furniture as they walked inside and noted the wide range of styles of what appeared to be handmade and very solid pieces. They were greeted by a crisply dressed saleswoman as they entered, she smiled sweetly at them but Marie couldn't shake the feeling that as soon as she laid eyes on them she had immediately discounted them as a possible sale, though she continued to deal with them politely.

"Good afternoon, are you looking for anything specific today?" she twittered cheerily.

"Nursery furniture," Logan stated, "Can you point us in the right direction?"

"Certainly, our nursery section is down here," the sales woman replied, leading them towards the far corner of the store past the children's section towards even smaller furniture. "Feel free to browse, we have a few other pieces that aren't on the floor at the moment, they are photographed in our look book over there, if you have any questions let me know," the sales woman said sweetly, before she moved away to see to another customer.

Logan moved through the settings as he scanned each design for weaknesses, and possible dangers, testing sturdiness, and other features. "Well," he said, after he was satisfied with the quality, "See anything you like?"

"Yeah, a lot actually, not sure how I'm going to narrow it down," Marie admitted running a hand over a rustic-looking crib.

"How about we start like this, I like that one, you agree?" Marie nodded, "Alright, that's one. How about that one?" Marie shook her head in response. "Okay, that one?" Marie smiled and nodded again. They went through the same process repeatedly, until they had the fourteen options narrowed down to five, before Logan waved the saleswoman back over to them. He pointed out the cribs they were considering and asked what matching suite pieces each came with and if any of them had specific features. After a half hour they had selected a dark rustic crib, that converted into a toddler bed, and had a matching changing table that doubled as a dresser, a wardrobe, and even a rocking chair with a footstool.

The saleswoman began to look nervous when Logan ordered one of everything and an extra crib, without even asking the price, but she led them back to the front counter to ring the sale up and confirm a delivery date with the factory foreman. The bearded elderly man who came out from the factory floor must have been at least in his eighties and was charming, in a gruff, to-the-point way. He beamed widely at them and offered extra congratulations when he saw the order for two cribs. He was scanning through the factory's order book to work out when they could add the pieces needed into production while the saleswoman rang the sale up.

Marie's eyes just about bugged out of her head when the order came to just over five thousand dollars, she gasped in shock but Logan just pulled out his card to run it through without a word. The foreman, who turned out to be the owner, stopped the saleswoman and keyed in a discount for them before she could process the transaction, assuring her in the process that her commission wouldn't be affected. Once the transaction was processed the foreman confirmed that several of the pieces were already built and ready to deliver. Instead of doing two deliveries, Logan agreed they were happy to wait a week for the last piece to be completed and delivered all together, a date was set for delivery the following Thursday.

They got back to the mansion partway through dinner but Marie asked if they could eat in their suite that night, she was pretty tired after spending so much time on feet. Unsurprisingly, Logan made her sit down as soon as they got to the suite, he probably would have carried her to their room if he hadn't been carrying everything else he had brought up, leaving the larger items for later, and then cooked for the two of them.

All the baby stuff was left in a pile in the corner of the living room, as Logan didn't want to risk it soaking up any leftover paint smell, Marie considered sorting through what needed to be washed in advance but then decided to leave it. She had a week before the storage furniture arrived, so no rush. They cuddled on the couch as they ate dinner together before Marie fell asleep while Logan watched TV.

--

When the furniture arrived the next week Marie was stuck in the most boring history class she had ever sat through, the normal history teacher was off sick so instead of cancelling the class the Professor had called in a temp reliever; a little old man, probably old enough to have lived through the events he was teaching. Unfortunately, she couldn't get herself excused, so she had to sit quietly in class, while Logan and a couple of delivery men moved everything up to their suite.

When classes were finally finished she wished she was still capable of running up the stairs, but she wasn't, so she plodded up, or probably more accurately waddled up the stairs, shadowed by Jubilee and Kitty, who wanted as much to gush over anything to do with the babies as they wanted to make sure she didn't fall down the stairs. They were almost as bad as Logan who had, in all seriousness, asked her to take the elevator rather than the stairs from now on. When she had finally finished laughing she had plainly told him that, no, she would walk the damn stairs if she felt like it!

As they got to the suite they could hear a couple of people inside talking, and the odd grunt of exertion. Following the sounds into the nursery the three girls found Logan, Poitr, John, and Scott, rearranging the heavy furniture around the room. Logan either heard or scented them enter the room and asked, without looking, what she thought. With a hmm, and a quick circuit of the room, Marie asked for one of the cribs to be moved just a little further before declaring the placement perfect.

With that the boys took their leave, as the girl’s ooh'd and aah'd over the furniture, before begging Marie to be allowed to help finish making the room up. At twenty-seven weeks pregnant, with a massive baby bump to get in her way at every turn, Marie was more than happy for the help. Pulling out the pre-washed bedding ready for making up the cribs, Kitty made the beds, while Jubilee put all the clothes away where Marie directed her to, while she relaxed in the rocking chair and tried not to feel like a fifth wheel.

By the time everything was put away the room looked ready, now all she had to do was finish cooking her buns.
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