Noise dropped as they entered the dining room, it seemed like every eye was suddenly upon them, Marie just straightened her back and went forward into the main hall. Knives were laid down, forks halted mid way to mouth's open in shock. A rippling undercurrent of sound went through the entire place.
At the far end of the room were the small tables reserved for guests, they took one, near to the windows. The empty seats at the teachers table spoke volumes for everyone, they weren't a permanent feature here, they were passing through. Xavier's face betrayed nothing of his thoughts but Ororo and Jean had their faces set at Logan, as if he was the main culprit in Marie's situation. Seating themselves they waited for the children on duty to serve them their dinner.
It didn't take long before someone took it on themselves to come over, unusually it was Kitty, her hair swept up from her face she walked a little straighter than she'd remembered and it came back to her that she must have taken her place on the rosta for the pick up missions. Plastering a friendly face on her already shattered nerves she faced the first assault. Logan wasn't even watching, he was more interested in the food.
"Yes Kitty?" The girl/woman seemed to stumble for a second before suddenly straightening, her resolve found again she spoke in a clear even tone to them both.
"I'm glad you've come home," her eyes darted to Logan and quickly back to Marie's, "both of you." Logan didn't even acknowledge her comment, he just kept chewing. Marie didn't have the option of ignoring her so she tried her best.
"Thanks, ah didn't know if ah'd be welcome, especailly with what happened." Kitty glanced behind her at the table where her now fiancee was seated with the rest of the second team. When she was sure everyone was okay she pulled a chair over and sat in it, her face filled with a light she'd never seen before. Eating her dinner slowly she let Kitty's scent fill her nose, there was something wrong with it. Something off, something not right, it was when she reached out to snatch a piece of dry bread from the table that she recognised it. Her scent bloomed up under her nose, Logan's own face twitched as she reached over and she knew.
Kitty was pregnant.
No one knew yet of that she was sure, if they had been she wouldn't have been around the 'dangerous' pair. Kitty's voice was shallow in the dinner noise making Marie strain to hear her but she knew Logan was catching every word she was saying. She raised her voice a little higher so everyone else could catch her last remarks to them both. "Well I'll catch you later maybe, I've taken your old spot on the team but the archive is still needing attention..." the invite was right there and she smiled as she grasped it like the prodigal returning should do.
"Thanks ah've been wondering how safe ah was out there, especially not knowin' where Ol Buckethead is..." she smiled at her deliberate mistake as Kitty's eyes became confused. "Sorry, it's what 'he' calls him," she pointed to her skull and Kitty just nodded as she understood what Marie was trying to communicate to her.
"Oh...well I'll call ahead before I come up if that's okay with you?" Kitty got back up, the scent of her pregnancy being lost to her senses as people shifted around her.
"Sure, we'll be there. Got nowhere else to be Kit-Kat." Smiling she let her eyes follow the young woman away, dragging her eyes to Xavier before she looked at Logan. Xavier was smiling a dead man's smile, wide and fixed, he thought he had them and her hackles rose. Before she could act on her instincts Logan's hand shot out and took hold of her own on her cutlery.
"Not here, not now, " his whisper was an *order*; she knew the tone well after a winter of following them. Barely nodding she just put the smile back on and got back to her food.
They left to the same stares as they went in, Scott and Jean were talking as they passed and her name was mentioned. Jean almost looked at her but Scott's hand brought her face back to his, a restraining grip on her chin. Logan speaking through a growl to the table as they passed, "Thursday Boy Scout, you'd better be ready." It reminded her that she'd taken his measure and she could hurt him, she could get under his radar and make him lose focus. Logan had told her about his habit of replaying tapes, he had a shock in store for him when he did.
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The cabin on the lake looked peaceful when they finally got back to it but all she wanted to do was scream, she'd been a thing to look at in the dining room and her pride was taking a beating. She wanted to show them that she had *control* over her skin, she wanted to push her superiority into their faces. Show them what they pushed away, what Xavier was doing to her, what he was doing to them *all*. It made her blood sing and she went toward the water, it's surface mirroring the sky. She was about to turn back to the cabin when the towel hit her in the face.
"Calm down, relax; *then* get your ass back in here. You've got an hour." Smiling at his back as Logan left her to it she stripped her clothing, knowing he'd keep a watch for idiots. Naked she went into the cold embrace of the lake her mind filled with the mixture of her own needs and those of the personalities who were inside her head.
Swimming took her mind away from the stimulus around her, it took her away from her body so she could think clearly. She couldn't show them what she was, not yet, not until they were safe, not until they were advanced in their own plans. Logan knew she was frustrated at playing these games, she wanted to bring everything down *now*! But the voice in her head was telling her that it would take time, they needed to be sure about who and what they were dealing with. How far Xaviers fingers went, who and what he was working with and why, what he had planned for the people under his roof, including the children. The Logan in her head bristled at the thought of the children suffering because of him.
Wolverine had a bigger sway over her right now, her hormone levels were rising, she knew that her next few days would be difficult especailly if she had to interact with the rest of the household. Swimming would help but it wouldn't solve the itching in her knuckles.
An hour later she was out and wrapped up in front of the fire, Logan was brushing her hair out with gloves on. The door bell rang and Logan just hollered through, "Come in, it's open." Kitty and Peiter walked through the entrance to the lounge, Peiter guarding Kitty as she moved. Logan's eyes meeting the bigger mans as they stood in front of them both.
Moving out from under her Logan just looked through the bigger man and nodded at him to follow him. Peiter went with Logan through the back door as Kitty sat down across from Marie.
Kitty's eyes locked onto the fire her face a little older and a few lines were beginning at her eyes and mouth, prematurely ageing her. Silence reigned for a while as they both expected to hear fighting coming from the back. When the silence dragged on Marie opened her mouth to ask why she was there when Kitty just started to tell her.
"I remember the day you left, it's something I can't ever forget. I was just coming to get you up for some reason, I *had* to get you up, that was the reason I was in that hallway. That was the reason Logan grabbed hold of me, you see *I* didn't remember going into the hallway, all I remembered was having a *need* to get you up. Then when I felt someone touching me I panicked, I began to scream, when I saw it was Logan I just phased out."
Kitty's face turned to look at her own, the look in there was something she'd never seen in Kitty before, a anger in her eyes, a steel in her blood. Marie kept silent, her eyes taking in everything that she was seeing, her senses telling her that Kitty was furious, that there was something else on her mind she wanted to share with her but was unsure whether she should.
Marie wrapped her hand up in the huge robe she was wearing and reached out to Kitty's arm, she didn't flinch or back away from her and it did surprise her when Kitty smiled at her when she touched her.
"It is nice to see you back, you look well. Both of you but I don't think you should stay here, it's not safe for you, either of you." Marie's face watched as her team mate struggled to find the words she needed.
"I can't prove it, but I *know* I didn't go to that hallway under my own steam Rogue, I didn't mean to hurt him or disturb you both. I mean I knew you cared for him but I didn't think you were both like that, so when everyone was talking about it all. About how he'd been coming out of your room when he bumped into me....." She looked away into the fire before she finished the sentence. "I remembered."
"I remembered everything a month afterward, I was going to your room and Logan was coming from the other direction. He *hadn't* been coming out of your room, he'd been going there like *I* had. It was a lie, everything was a lie wasn't it?" Kitty was searching for the truth in her eyes, the desperation she was showing made her scent hike, sending her blood pressure rocketing.
"Yeah, it was. Logan didn't do it." Kitty closed her eyes and hugged herself, rocking slightly as she did it. Her whispers reaching her sensitive ears and making her wonder what else had been going on here while she'd been away.
"Kitty?" Her face lifted and Marie saw the tear tracks running down her face, Kitty shuffled herself forward onto the edge of the sofa.
"Would you hold me? I'll be careful I promise...." the naked need was something that she'd thought she'd never see from someone here. That she was reaching out to her, a relative stranger but Logan inside her head was urging her to let her in, to let her touch.
"Sure...But why Kitty?" As she let her inside the circle of her white terry towelling arms she felt the young woman shudder as she whispered her secret into her ear.
"I'm pregnant, thing is I don't remember having sex with Peiter, I mean we fool around sure but neither of us *remember* anything concrete." Kitty shifted so she could see into Marie's face her voice dropping even lower as if she thought the walls would hear her words. "I mean if he'd do what he did to you and Logan...." Kitty knew who the 'he' was, she just couldn't say the name. The one she'd trusted with her safety, her well being, her soul.
"What do you remember?" Kitty moved a little closer and lifted her head off her shoulder leaning her hair against Marie's own.
"Coming back from a mission, both of us in the rec room after hours, snuggled up. Next thing I remember I'm waking up next to Peiter and I'm *sore*, we've both kind of accepted it but it's been so hard to talk to anyone. No one even wants to admit that we're an item, never mind sleeping together. I only joined the team so I could be near him, doing recon and small pick ups." Kitty's arms locked around her shoulders as her voice broke up, her solidity crashing around her and firing Marie's blood even further.
She held her for a while as she cried it out, she didn't say anything to her, she didn't need to. Kitty would work it out for herself, they both would, but it was the thought of someone *using* her and Peiter's relationship that hurt her the most. Wolverine was being cynical, it was a trap to snare her, to make her feel sorry for them, to not take her revenge. But looking at the once proud victim in her grip made her re-assess what she thought she knew. She had to be careful here, especially if Xaiver was doing a little social engineering of his own. A mutant baby from two powerful mutants....her mind suddenly filled with scenario's straight from Logan's own paranoia.
When Logan and Peiter came back inside from their walk she had a plan in her head, fully formed and ready to work. Kitty was alseep on her shoulder and when Logan saw her eyes he just nodded and took Kitty's small form from her. Handing her back over to Peiter who just looked like he'd been handed the worlds wealth in one hand. Pulling her tight to him they left as quietly as they came. Logan wrapped himself around her, nuzzling her throat as she settled herself in his grip.
"You okay?" She shook her head, making him pull her around so he could see her face, "Talk."
"Ah won't be until ah find out what that bastard's upto." Logan smiled and kissed her quickly, letting her settle back into his warmth.
"We will darlin', we will. I promise ya."
She let herself keep that piece of comfort, Logan kept his word and he'd keep this one. If she needed to know what he'd talked to Peiter about he'd tell her, if not he'd never mention it. It had something to do with Kitty of that she knew without being told, Peiter had always kept his own council and for him to talk without prompting was something important.
Oh yeah she'd go digging and she'd unearth everything she could, every last dollar and cent, every finger in every pie, she'd find it all. Her eyes went to the fire and the ashes beneath it, aftershe'd finished here there wouldn't even be ashes for Logan to piss on.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Dinner proves to be too much for some peoples curiosity.....