Marie woke with a start just as the six am alarm went off. She had been woken in the night by one of the twins grizzling but Logan had whispered to her to go back to sleep, and got up to settle them himself. Now though she was glad for the wake up, she had been stuck in a dream that was just beginning to transition into a broken memory fuelled nightmare. She reached across the bed towards Logan, suddenly aware of how cold the bed was, only to find herself alone.
Sitting bolt upright she looked around in a panic, noting the turned back covers in both bassinets she looked out the bedroom door, expecting to see Logan up with one or both of the boys. Everything was quiet. Silently sliding out of bed she glanced curiously around the room, wondering where Logan had got to. She decided to check the nursery before heading for the next most likely location outside their suite. There she found Logan in the rocking chair, both boys laid out on his chest, a head resting on each of his shoulders, his feet propped up on the footrest. All three, fast asleep.
Sneaking silent back to the bedroom to grab her phone, she returned a moment later to take a photo. She wasn't surprised that Logan heard the exaggerated shutter sound the phone made; she would have to find a way to turn that off. He cracked one eye open in sleepy alertness, before grinning at her.
"Enjoying the view?" he asked, as he slowly stretched as well as he could with his arms full.
"You betcha," she replied, kissing him chastely on the lips before she placed a soft kiss on each little fuzzy head. "Were they up all night?" she asked concerned.
"No, Aidan woke about three, I just about had him back to sleep when he woke Liam up, I figured I'd bring them both in here so they didn't wake you, then they fell asleep and I didn't want to disturb them again. I didn't count on falling asleep though," he admitted, looking just a little perturbed.
Marie told him it was feeding time now anyway, she was going to go to the little girls room and then she would be ready. By the time she got back to the bedroom Logan was waiting for her, two hungry boys laid out on the bed doing their morning stretches, their tiny mouths opening in wide gummy yawns. Once she had fed them Logan changed them again, though she insisted on helping this time - she couldn't believe the babies were more than a day old and she still hadn't changed a diaper - before she put the boys back to bed. When they were asleep she went back to find Logan, he was in the kitchen cooking them both breakfast when she walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around him.
Harking back to Logan’s late night declarations, Marie felt the overwhelming urge to respond in kind. "I love you too Logan, so, so much, more than I can ever put into words. I'm sorry you're having to go through this too, I know it's not easy for you either. Thank you for being my rock, I- I couldn't do this without you," she whispered, as a tear slipped down her cheek.
Logan turned around and pulled her tighter against him. "You don't have to thank me darlin, we might not be able to get married yet but we're in this together for better or worse baby, in the sunshine and the rain, I'm here for you, always." He kissed the top of her head as they held each other, before a soft knock was heard at their suite door. Logan moved to get it but Marie insisted she would, and left him to finish breakfast. She was surprised to see the drawn face of Scott waiting at the threshold when she opened the door.
"Hey, is everything okay?" she asked concerned. It wasn't like Scott to worry so openly.
"I was going to ask the same of you guys," he replied, "I know Jean ran some tests for you yesterday, and then she stopped by here with the results, by the time she got back to our room she was in tears but she wouldn't tell me what was wrong, just kept saying it was confidential... is everything alright?" he asked.
"Uh, well ... yes, and no," Marie replied cryptically, it was probably important that everyone be briefed on the new situation, it may put the school in danger to a degree after all, but she didn't want to have to explain it to everyone individually. "It was good of Jean not to say anything, I'm sorry she was so upset, everyone does need to know though, could you get everyone together, at about ten so we can explain the situation, just the Professor, you, Ororo, and Jean, oh, and Jubilee and Kitty too. That way I..." she paused and took a shuddering breath.
"We," Logan corrected, coming up behind her, "Only need to explain once," he finished her sentence for her.
Scott looked perturbed. "That bad?" he commented absently, though he had obviously already figured it wasn't great news. He agreed to have everyone who needed to be there in the Professor's office at ten and bid them good morning, before leaving them to their breakfast.
They cuddled on the couch as they ate from the one plate Logan dished up, Marie was certain he only served breakfast like that so he could disguise the fact he was feeding her about three quarters of the dish' contents. It seemed he was still intent on fattening her up, though she was pleased to note that as of that morning she was only about twenty-five pound heavier than her early pregnancy weight. She was sure most of that weight was in her boobs which felt huge.
Neither of them made any effort to move once they were finished eating, they just enjoyed the closeness of having the other safe and sound in their arms. It was Logan who eventually broke the silence.
"If you need to talk about what happened I'm here to listen, whatever you need to say, whenever you need to say it, don't hold back just because you think I don't want to hear it, because you're going to need to talk about it, at some point, maybe not now but one day, and whenever you're ready I'm here for you," he told her softly, his cheek resting on the crown of her head as he spoke.
More silent tears slid down her cheeks. She wanted to tell him, she wanted to tell him everything she remembered, but she knew he would be angry. He would blame himself and feel guilty, and she didn't want to do that to him.
"I can't promise I won't be mad at him, and I can't promise I won't wish I could have done something to protect you, but darlin, I'm feeling that already because you're mine baby, and I'm supposed to protect and care for what's mine," he added in a gentle comforting tone, almost as if he had heard her fears.
After several moments of silence Marie spoke quietly. “I told you how I figured out Mystique wasn't you, and how I ran as soon as the car stopped ... Sabretooth came after me, he had been waiting with another car, because they knew the school cars all had trackers ... when he tackled me I turned my skin on, and I locked it on, so if anything happened I thought no one would be able to touch me. I remember being in a vehicle but I didn't even get my eyes open before they tranq’d me again... The next thing I remember I was on concrete, I could feel handcuffs on my wrists, I heard Sabretooth, he ... he was talking to someone else, I think it was Mystique, and he said that I smelled 'like the runt' and he didn't like it, she told him he could do what he liked to ‘fix that’ so long as he didn't 'break me', then she said something about making sure I didn't wake up, and then I think I was tranq’d again...
"For a while I just, floated, sometimes things filtered through I could feel hands on me, grabbing, squeezing, pulling, but distant, like they were far away. I don't know if it was the first time but I felt him inside me, pushing in, it hurt but it didn't, it's hard to explain ... the time I woke up completely, he was behind me, I- I felt him come, inside me, his hands on my hips, his claws were digging into me. He realised I was draining him and pulled out, I tried to move away from him but he had the handcuffs, and my arms were twisted behind me, I couldn't move much but I tried, I really did, I almost dislocated my shoulder before I managed to twist around...
"I kicked him hard in the balls, more than once... I saw the tranquilizers, on a table nearby, I thought if I could get to them before he did I could try using them on him, it might give me enough time to get the cuffs off, maybe even get out of the room, assuming I could get the door open. He grabbed the back of my calf and dug his claws in, I guess so I couldn't run, maybe so I couldn't kick him again... He got to the table before I could, I tried to wrestle the needle away, I knew I wouldn't be able to turn it back on him but maybe I could deflect it, away from me. But he... he pinned me to the ground, held me by my throat and squeezed until everything started to go black. I thought he was going to kill me until he said it was a shame he couldn't, said 'the runt' could do with a new lesson...
"He handcuffed me to a pipe, while he got another condom, made me watch as he put it on... then he said 'if I was lucky, I wouldn't remember what was going to happen next'. He tranq’d me again then but I must have had enough of his healing still for it to not be so effective... once he was done, he tranq’d me again. I don't remember anything else until a woke up on the boat and Magneto and Sabretooth were arguing about what he had done, Magneto was telling him I might be too injured to be useful, and if the plan failed because of that it would all be Sabretooth’s fault...
“I think I must have already started to block it out by then, I thought at the time he was talked about the cuts on my leg, and my hip, and around my neck. I should have known; I should have known what happened when I got back... I know you healed me but there was blood, in my panties, I just... I don’t know what I assumed. Maybe I was still just blocking it out, too in denial..." she finally trailed off, talked out for now as she sat, almost in Logan's lap, her face pressed against his t-shirt clad chest, as his strong arms anchored her to him.
"He knew," Logan said after a while. "He knew about me, and he hurt you to get at me," he continued, the guilt that was eating at him was growing the more he thought about the horrible situation.
"No," Marie said firmly, "He would have done it anyway, the fact that it would hurt you too was just an added bonus for him, he's a horrible person Logan, it's hard to believe the two of you are related he's literally that terrible a person, but that's not on you Logan, it's not your fault. Promise me, promise me you won't do that to yourself, to us, because I couldn't handle it if you blamed yourself."
Logan held her as he tried to tamp down the feelings so he could honestly promise her, pushing all the guilt into a tiny ball of burning hot rage and heaping it all on Sabretooth’s still living corpse. "I promise darlin, I promise I will only blame him, and if I ever see him again, I don't care how fast he heals I'll do my damnedest to find a way to kill him, I will never let him get his hands on you again, and I will never let him get near our boys- our boys you hear me, mine and yours, and I want to file the birth certificate to say that, I know its technically illegal but he'd be insane to try and argue it if he ever found out, are you okay with that?"
Marie nodded eagerly, smiling through her tears. They were going to be okay, she knew it, and if they never saw Sabretooth again for as long as they lived it would be too soon.
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