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Title:
Moving Out With Marie
Author:
Terri
E-mail:
xgrrl26@yahoo.com
Disclaimer:
I don't own anyone. Boo.
Rating:
PG-13
Archive:
Ask, and I will happily supply
Feedback:
Please! Pretty please?
Summary:
Sequel to Cooking With Marie. Logan and Marie decide to leave the mansion.
Comments:
Part of this is to make it up to Logan and Marie that I never really let them
kill Mystique or Sabretooth in the Eighteen series - they always kept getting
away. Here, I thought - well, maybe Logan should just get to kill someone.
I also wanted to start exploring the idea of a "normal" life for them - what
would it be like if they just lived their lives like most other people?
This gets us headed in that direction.
-------------------------------------------------------- You know,
I hate life sometimes. Yeah, yeah, a lot of my life is good but shit
happens to make it suck sometimes. This last mission - everything was
going fine. I was looking out for Marie and kicking Brotherhood ass,
in exactly that order. I looked away just for a second, and boom -
that bitch from hell Mystique gets her slimy-ass paws on my wife. Marie
- she's brave, really brave, but Mystique freaks her out and she shut down,
just for a second. Well, it was long enough for Mystique to get a good
hold around her throat and start squeezing the life out of her.
Of course,
I saw red and charged for her. Mystique was still at the top of my
list of evil bastards to kill, for what she did to Marie before. I
tore into her with the claws and that made her let go right away. I
was worried that she hurt Marie, but I really, really wanted her dead, so
I just cut of the bitch's head - quicker and less painful than I wanted,
but hey, she's just as dead.
Thank God
she didn't hurt Marie too bad. Well, not physically. It's been
more than a whole day since the fight and Marie's still pretty freaked by
it. She's hardly said anything, even to me, and she's just stayed cooped
up in our room. It's not the first time she'd fought Mystique - there
have been two other times, but Mystique never got her hands on Marie either
one of those times. I made sure of that, damn sure. I think that's
what's got her so freaked, Mystique actually getting to her. Plus,
I know that she said some shit to Marie while she was strangling her.
I'm sure it wasn't pleasant.
"Hey, darlin',
you want to go down for breakfast?"
"No, I don't
think so. You - you go ahead, OK?" She still hasn't gotten out
of bed and breakfast is going to be over soon - it's almost ten.
"Nah.
Why don't I run down and grab us some food, huh? You haven't eaten
since yesterday."
"I'm not
hungry." She looks like she just wants to curl up under the covers
and hide all day, and it's not like I have any particular objections to that,
but I hate seeing her feel bad.
"You gotta
eat, baby." I've tried to be real gentle with her, real reassuring.
We usually have sex every night (and sometimes during the day too), but I
didn't make any moves last night, figured I should let her have her space.
We especially always do it after missions, but this one was different.
"I'm just
not hungry. You go ahead." Aside from sweeping her up close to
me and encouraging her to bury her head in my chest when she slept, I haven't
even been too touchy with her. It's hard to tell what she needs, what
she wants. I don't want to *not* touch her either, though, so I've
tried to stick with hugs and little kisses here and there.
"I'll tell
you what. I'll go get a bunch of food and bring it up. If you
feel like eating something, you can have some of mine. Sound good?"
She usually likes stealing my food better than eating off her own plate when
she gets down or emotional like this. She has some kind of thing about
wasting food.
"OK."
That's just a pitiful tone of voice right there. Maybe I shouldn't
go anywhere 'cause there's always food in the refrigerator, and I'm not so
hungry anymore. Maybe I should just lay down with her for a little
while.
"Hey, you're
OK, you know? Everything's OK. She's never going to hurt you
ever again. I killed her. She's dead." She's all covered
in blankets and all curled up on her side. I think it'd be all right
to just curl around her back and hold her to me.
"I know."
That doesn't sound at all convincing.
"Whatever
she said to you, honey, you can't take it to heart. She was just trying
to get at you, you know that."
"Yeah."
All right, that's about all of this I can take. She's breaking my heart
here.
"Marie, darlin',
why don't we try something, OK? Why don't you just tell me what you're
thinking, all right? Because I want to make it better for you, I really
do. And that's what I'm here for, remember?" That big sigh means
she's thinking it over. I don't want to push her too much, but it's
got to come out eventually, and I hate seeing her like this.
"Why didn't
you want to be together last night?"
"Huh?"
That's out of left field. I thought I was pretty clear on wanting to,
but -
"Is it because
you could still smell her on me or something?" Oh, shit. I can
feel wet on my arm. She's crying. "Is it because of - of something
about me?"
"No, no,
not at all. I just didn't want to, ah, do that, if you were upset about
the fight and everything. I wasn't sure it was the right thing.
I thought you'd want some space or something."
"OK."
"Marie -
"
"No, it's
OK. I understand. I do." She sounds like she means that,
but there's still something not quite - "I forget sometimes, you know?
I forget that we're married and that you love me. Sometimes it feels
like this big dream that's too good to be true. Way too good."
Dangerous edge to her voice there.
"We are
married and I do love you. It's real, honey." She's scaring me.
She hasn't stopped crying and now she's shaking a little too.
"You gave
up a lot for that, Logan. A lot."
"I can't
think of a single thing."
"The chance
for a good life, a normal life. The chance to touch someone, to be with
someone, you know, normally. The chance for someone who you can really
love and build a life with, a normal life. She said - never mind."
"What?"
The only reason I'm even listening to all this crap is to let her get it out.
Then I'm going to spend an hour or two making sure she knows it's bullshit.
Total bullshit.
"Nothing."
"Come on."
"She said
I'd never learn to control it, that I was always some freak that no one will
ever really - that no one will ever really want."
"Aw, baby,
what the hell did she know about that?"
"She said
she knew because her mutation is in the skin too. Logan, my parents
thought the same thing, they thought I was a freak and I just"
"Shhh."
Crying too much to talk now. I'm going to have to come up with a way
to bring that bitch back from the dead and kill her some more. In a
long, drawn out, excruciatingly painful way. "You get those thoughts
out of your head right now. None of that's true. Not one bit.
And her - she's just trying to hurt you, Marie. Baby, you should know
that. You should know that."
"I'm s-s-sorry."
"No, no,
it's OK. It's OK." Sometimes I suck at the comfort thing.
The words just don't come out right.
"I know
- I know h-how much you try - how h-hard you try w-with me and how m-much
effort you've had to p-put into - "
"No, baby.
That's all wrong. Being with you - well that's the only easy thing I've
ever done. Easy as rolling off a log. You make it easy."
"I'm so
m-messed up.I hate that she can st-still get to me so much and I hate that
I'm so weak." Crying a little less now. That's good.
"Look, uh,
honey?" I'm not sure this is going to come out right, but I think I
actually am getting marginally better at this kind of thing, so here we go.
"Can we just agree on some things?"
"Like what?"
"Like uh,
one - we are married and we're gonna stay that way and I do love you.
A lot." That's the most important thing, so I should probably get that
out first.
"OK."
"And two
- you're just fine. You're not - you're not any of those bad things
you said." I don't really want to try to repeat them - I don't think
I can even make bad words about Marie come out of my mouth.
"Logan."
"You're not.
You're strong and brave and not at all messed up. Not in any way.
You're, um, very well put together." A-ha. That was almost a
laugh. I felt it. "Three - what you said about me giving things
up, that's all wrong. That's, like, the most wrong thing right there.
Because I honest-to-God can't think of a thing. Except, you know, things
I'm glad I gave up, like being a selfish bastard, and being alone all the
time, and never having anyone around that I liked, and never having anyone
who gave a shit about me in my life. I, uh, guess I gave those things
up, but, you know, good riddance." Another little laugh. Stronger
this time. "And look at all the stuff I got. A beautiful, sexy
wife that I can't wait to get next to every night. Someone who understands
and puts up with a lot of my shit. Someone I can take care of and who
makes me really, really happy all the time. That's a good trade, any
day."
"Logan, what
if - what if I didn't want to do this anymore?" Holy hell - I thought
she was feeling better and now all of a sudden, she don't want to be married
to me anymore? What the - "You know, be on the team, fight with people
all the time. What if I didn't want to do it anymore? What if
I wanted to build a life, a normal life with you?" Oh, sweet Jesus.
Oh, thank God. Whew.
"That's
fine."
"It's fine?"
Her wiggling around to look at me *really* shouldn't make those particular
parts of my body stand at attention, but we *didn't* have sex last night,
and there's only so long I can go without it. I mean, forty hours without
Marie-sex is the record, and I have no desire to try to break it.
"Yeah.
It's fine." I don't want her in danger. If I had my way, she'd
have never joined in the first place. I only go along to protect her.
And, you know, to one day kill Mystique for what she did to Marie.
Which I did. I don't give a shit about all this "save the world" crap.
"What would
we do instead? Do you think we could have a normal life?"
"Sure, why
not?"
"How do
we do that?"
"Oh, shit,
honey, I don't know. Move out. Live our lives. Do what
people do."
"Could we
move to Canada?"
"Hell, yeah."
That sounds like a really good idea. We could find a little town to
live in, I could travel around to fight, and we could probably make a real
nice life. No snot-nosed mutant brats to live with, no baldie telling
me what I should and shouldn't do, and Scooter, relationship monitor, in another
country. Oh, yeah, that sounds real good.
"Really?
We could?" I sure as hell hope she hasn't been staying here all this
time for me, or because she didn't think we could do anything else.
I'm ready to go. Now. And there's plenty of other things to do.
"Yeah.
Let's pick a spot north of the border, and we'll go. As soon as you
want." That brightened her up, 100%. She's even smiling now.
I hate to see her cry, but I have to admit she looks so beautiful with red,
puffy cheeks and bright eyes. She really does.
"OK.
OK. Let's start looking today. But - uh, can we, um, you know,
be together, now?"
"Anytime,
OK? You don't - you can just pretty much assume any time is a real
good time for that." Even bigger smile there. I'm smiling too.
Well, of course I am. I'm about to get some Marie-loving. Life doesn't
get any better than that.
We picked
a spot up near Reindeer Lake, north of Yellowknife, but not too far north.
Few hours of driving will get us back to civilization. I had some money
saved up, so did she, and we bought a nice little house on the lake.
It's rustic and pretty quiet - nearest neighbor is probably thirty kilometers
or so. We're just gonna get settled in, live off of our savings for
a little while, and think about what to do. Neither one of us is really
suited to a real job. Chuck set her up with some kind of consulting
deal - creating educational programs for schools - and she can do that over
the computer pretty easily. We have a mobile phone and some high tech
gadgets that'll let us keep in touch with the world if we want to be.
The trip
up was nice. I haven't been out on the road in so long - almost didn't
remember how much I liked it. And Marie - for some reason, she hasn't
been taking the travel too bad. She actually kind of likes it, I think.
I thought for sure - leaving home, lots of new, strange people around all
the time - it would be rough on her. But two things happened.
One - she really likes driving. Being on the open road, navigating
the Cherokee through traffic, whatever. I never noticed that before
- probably because we never went much of anywhere and if we did, it wasn't
long enough of a drive that I needed any help with the driving. But
she took to it like a duck in water.
The second
thing was Tim Horton's - to me, it's just like the Canadian version of Dunkin'
Donuts or something - nothing special going on there. But to her it's
like the best restaurant ever. She made us stop practically every time
we saw one, and I can tell you there are a helluva lot of Tim Hortons between
where we crossed over near the Falls and Yellowknife. Every time, she
got a maple donut and coffee - sometimes other stuff too, but every time,
those two things at least. It just entertained her so much to stop
there, she got such a kick out of it. Made the trip better, that's
for sure.
The house
is nice. Me and her bought it sight unseen, working with an old friend
of mine - one of the few I got - who's into real estate. It's small
- just two bedrooms and one tiny bathroom - but Marie liked that it's got
a fireplace. She's weird in that she likes to be warm but surrounded
by cold. I guess it kind of makes sense in that she usually wears lots
of clothes. That way, she can be warm without getting too hot if it's
cold enough outside.
She's already
started decorating the house. Just putting up a few pictures she brought
with her, and throwing a blanket here or there. We don't have much in
the way of furnishings - really just an old futon we brought from the mansion
and some dishes and utensils, that's all. We have plenty of trees on
the property, and I brought my tools, so I can make some furniture, I guess.
I've gotten spoiled - I ain't gonna like sleeping on that futon for too long.
Well, we're going to go down to Yellowknife for some stuff in a few days.
I don't
think she's sorry we left. It was the right time. She's - she's
either been on the road or in her parent's house or at Chuck's her whole
life, and it's time for her to have a place of her own. Well, *our*
own, I guess. We put the deed in both our names - Mr. and Mrs. Logan
Laughlin - so it's technically our house. I think it'll be good for
her to have something to call her own. You know, besides me.
"Hey, Logan?"
"Yeah, honey?"
"We really
did it, didn't we? We really moved out." She smiling at that,
and I'm glad she still thinks it was a good decision.
"Sure did."
"I kind
of miss the mansion, but kind of not, you know?"
"Yeah."
She had friends there, and I know it's hard on her to leave them.
"I was thinking,
actually. I kind of came up with a little plan. Want to hear
it?"
"Sure."
I wonder if she's worried about money or something or what we're going to
do with our lives or -
"I thought
we'd spend the next few days here, then, after we go to Yellowknife, just
kind of hole up for the winter. I have the urge to, uh, nest."
"Nest?"
"You know."
Well, she's worried or nervous about something, that's for sure. She's
pacing a little and looking down at the floor. "Make a nice, comfortable
place to stay for the both of us, and, uh, for, you know, anyone else that
might be coming along."
"You didn't
invite Jubilee up here or something, did you, honey?" 'Cause that's
just not a good idea. Me in close quarters with her would just -
"No, no.
I was thinking, you know, more like family."
"What, like
your mom?" I didn't think she'd be particularly keen on having her
mom over.
"No, no,
just, um, we'll need something to keep us busy in the winter and I know we've
been really careful up to this point, but I've thought of a couple ways we
could, um, try, if you wanted." Now she's nervous *and* embarrassed.
She's blushing up a storm.
"Try what?"
"Ah, you
know, try taking measures that would, you know, add to our little family."
Lots and lots of feet-shuffling there. I wonder what the hell is going
on with her.
"Marie,
I'm still not - "
"Baby, Logan.
We could try to make a baby."
"Umph!"
Whoa. I think my feet just went right out from under me there.
I fell flat on my ass on the floor.
"Logan?
Are you all right?" Baby - she said make a baby, right? I didn't
hear that wrong, did I? "Look, I didn't mean that, OK? If - if
you're not ready - I just thought that we - mmph!" She shouldn't have
made that surprised noise 'cause there's no way she couldn't know that talking
about us having babies wouldn't make me kiss her pretty hard. Protection
or no. "Logan! Be careful!"
"It's OK,
honey. I'm fine." I backed away before the pull really started.
"Babies, huh?"
"Baby.
Singular. As in one baby." She's still a little worried about
me, I can tell, but she can see I'm OK.
"C'mere."
Having her in my lap would be much better than having her kneeling down beside
me. "You mean just one at a time, right? We're having more than
one, total, right? We're gonna have a lot, right?"
"Uh, let's
have one first and see how it goes, OK?"
"What brought
this on?" She can answer that question while I'm kissing her hair.
No problem.
"I don't
know. I just thought - well, there's no more threat from Mystique, we're
kind of on our own now, really starting our own lives. We won't be fighting,
won't be on the team. It seemed like a good time."
"Mmm-hmmm."
Not done kissing yet. Haven't covered the whole head.
"And, plus,
I feel..I don't know.maternal urges or something. I've been thinking
about it for a while and you know, I want to. I always wanted to be
a mom and with you as the dad, I think the kid will be OK, you know?
You can balance whatever bad parenting stuff I carry over from my parents
out."
"You're gonna
be a great mom. Best ever." Moving on to the shoulder area.
Never get tired of holding her and kissing her like this. Besides,
she's gonna be the mom of my babies and that calls for lots of kissing.
"Thanks,
sugar. You know, I didn't mean we had to get started on that right
this minute."
OK, break
from kissing. Just a little break. It might be important to tell
her some stuff. "Hey. The baby plan sounds good to me."
"So I gathered."
She looks a little miffed that I stopped kissing her. Vixen.
"You're gonna
be a great mom, and I wouldn't want anyone else to have my babies. Lay
down." Let's get to the good part of this plan right now.
"What?"
"Lay down
on the floor." That flat little tummy of hers isn't going to be so flat
for long. I can't resist the urge to rub it and kiss it a little.
"Mmmm.." Future home to my babies right here. Hers and mine.
Ours.
"That's nice,
sugar." That's her bedroom voice. Just gotta tell her one more
thing before we commence with phase one of the baby plan.
"I love
you."
"Me too
- you're going to be a great daddy, Logan. Our kids are going to love
you as much as I do." She really, really means that, and I know we
should probably have some talk on that subject, but something there caught
my attention.
"Kids?
As in plural?"
"Maybe."
She is a little vixen. Just look at that look she's giving me.
"Why don't
you let me try to convince you, darlin'?" Yeah, I love life.
Life is pretty good. Pretty damn good.
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