Terri's Peep Hut ~~ Fiction Archive

Title: Turning Points

E-Mail: xgrrl26@yahoo.com

Archive: Dolphin Haven, Peep Hut anyone else, please ask :)

Disclaimer: I don't own any of them, darn it.

Feedback: Please! With some hockey tickets on top? Good, bad, and ugly welcome.

Summary: Logan and Marie's relationship is distilled to its turning points.

Comments: This little fooflet just kept sticking in my head until I wrote it. I think, especially in fics, Marie is usually the one doing most of the 'relationship' work between them and she often is seen as the one keeping the relationship together and on track, but I wanted to give Logan his due here ;) The guy really does pitch in during the movie, what with all that life save-age, and I think he'd keep on doing that afterward ;)

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He'd been on the road for fifteen days. At present, he was standing outside a British Columbia bar, having a good smoke after what had been an even better round of fights. He'd made money, lots of it, and as he calculated what to do with his purse, for the first time he found himself deviating from his usual list of funding priorities.

Traditionally, food (and in this category he included beer and cigars) was first, followed closely by gas, then automotive maintenance, then clothing, then luxury items - a category defined as anything not included in one of the previous ones. But now, he found himself thinking of the luxury items first - something to bring back to Marie, something to send to Marie right away, so she'd have it before he would get back, some money for her to put aside for the things she needed but that he might not think of. Then - gas, to get back to Westchester, and enough food for the trip. He'd struck out at Alkali Lake, so why not head back to New York? What was keeping him here, except the fight circuit? He didn't ask himself what was drawing him back to Westchester, and he didn't consider that he still could make some damn good money on the circuit if he stayed on a few more weeks. He only ground his cigar beneath his heel, then headed toward the bike.

They were headed back to the mansion from what was now a regular Saturday night outing. She sat in the passenger side; he drove. This Saturday outing had been spent in equal measures perusing city art galleries and watching the Rangers' expensive payroll prove that you can't buy heart - or, at least that's what Logan had said after they lost 5-1 to the visiting Flames.

"The Flames, for Christsakes."

"Mmmm." She was listening to him but not looking at him. Her eyes had been fixed on the side window and the scenery it framed as they sped by for quite some time.

"They're already mathematically fuckin' eliminated from the playoffs and it's only November. Christ. I sure as hell could build a better team with half that money."

"It's dissa-fuckin'-pointin', that's what it is. You move someplace, find a new team, and then they lose games they shoulda won. It's enough to make you wanna move to a new damn place."

"Where would you go?"

"Uh, nowhere. I mean, it's just a sayin'. I'm not goin' anywhere." His hands tightened on the wheel minutely, and his eyes left the road to make a quick, deliberate surveillance of her form.

"Well, if you did move based on where the best team was, where would you go?"

"Darlin', no one moves to Detroit on purpose, OK? No matter how good the hockey is." That got him a glance and a smile. "'Sides, I don't think Detroit has art galleries, huh?"

"I'm sure they probably do. And it's close to Canada, you know. Just a quick trip over the bridge, and - bam, you're in Windsor."

"Still not sold, huh?"

"You really thinkin' 'bout movin' to Detroit?" She gave a playful shrug. "You're better off stayin' put at Chuck's."

"Only because you're there."

"Yeah," he admitted with a bit of reluctance. "There's school and shit."

"There's school other places too."

Logan grunted, sniffed at her, and took his eyes from the road completely. "You serious 'bout movin' outta Westchester?"

"No, not really. I guess I've just been thinking about finally making that trip to Alaska, maybe over the holiday break. I don't really want to stick around for Christmas. Who knows, though. I might like it out there enough to stay a little while."

"Hmph." He settled his eyes back on the road. Marie shifted in her seat, facing him. They drove in silence with her staring at him, and him staring at the road, for several long minutes. As they rolled to a stop at a light, he spoke again. "When're you goin' on this trip?"

"After finals, I guess."

"That piece of shit jeep you bought ain't gonna make it cross-country."

"I was hoping you'd fix it up for me a little."

"Hmph." The light changed, and they moved on. Logan shoved himself back in the seat a little, fidgeted, and took his right hand from the wheel to rest it on the center console between them. "Oughta just take this truck."

"And leave you the jeep?"

He didn't answer, but he kept fidgeting. Marie's gaze turned sharp, and Logan could hear her heart rate spiking. Before he knew it, he felt a small, gloved hand grasp his free one.

He looked over at her, but she was already turned back toward the window. A pink flush bordered her jawline. He turned her hand in his and heard her heart stop for a second, then beat again, strong and fast, as he interlaced their fingers and gave her hand a squeeze. "Sell the jeep."

"It's cold as hell."

Logan favored her with a smirk. "Is it what you expected?"

"Yes, and no. I didn't think that things would be so - I don't know, remote. I thought it was like the rest of the country, where you can get everywhere by car, where there were roads connecting everything." Logan watched as the moonlight silvered her face when she turned toward him. "It wasn't what I expected, but I like it a lot more than I thought I would." She hadn't needed the words. Her huge grin would've conveyed those sentiments just fine on its own.

That unexpectedly made the grin bleed from her features. "Well, I've been thinking," she began. "And I think you belong in Westchester, with the team. I think that even if it's not - even if it's not a home for me, it is for you, and it's a good one." He didn't respond, so she crossed the brief distance between them and placed her hands on his arms. "You've given me this, all this, and a lot more besides. More than I had any right to ask for or expect. Westchester, it's a home for you."

"I go where you are," he countered softly, but with a gaze that was snowballing in intensity. "I'm askin' you - do you wanna stay here?"

She drew a deep breath in, held it, then blew it out. The smile, or at least a shadow of it, was back. "I think I'll go back to New York."

Logan anchored his large, powerful hands on her waist and drew her a little closer. "You didn't answer the question." Her eyes flitted downward, and she pursed her lips. "Or maybe you did."

"I think you should go back," she said simply, still looking down. "I think that Alaska's not going anywhere and we can come here whenever we like. I think you like being on the team, being one of the X-Men, and I think you should have that. I think it's not all about what I want anymore. I think it's you and me now." Slowly lifting her head, she met his eyes at last. "Right?"

He sighed, then scooted her into an embrace. "Right," he confirmed with a squeeze. "But I got the rest of my life to be an X-Man. I only got the rest of your life with you." She didn't comment, but he could feel her wavering. "We stay," he concluded.

"Harder," Logan commanded. "Harder!" Growls were by now commonplace in their bed, but he was beginning to veritably snarl the words.

"Go harder, Marie!" She was on top, and he dug his fingers into her hips for emphasis, but not enough to steal control of her movements.

"Logan!" Rocking against him faster, and more frantically, lodging him more deeply inside her with each thrust, she hurried to comply with his demands. "God!"

"Grrrrahhhh!" That was halfway between a snarl and a roar, and he gave up the battle to stop himself from arching to meet her thrusts.

"Mmmmm!" His surrender spurred her on - gloved fingers clenched on top of his hands and she impaled herself with an impact that made her gasp. Logan bared his teeth, eyes locked on her form. Her wildly bouncing breasts and straining muscles made his abdomen tighten and his glance up at her gritted teeth and pinched face took any real capacity to hold out any longer out of his hands.

"Logan!" She felt him spilling into her but didn't stop riding him, didn't even break her pace in the least. Somewhere in the second or two after he'd shaken himself deeply into her, she found her own release. "Aaaahhhhhh! Ahhh! Oh, *GOD*!"

"Mph........" Marie's hips finally stopped moving and she came back to herself, more than a bit unsure after her uninhibited, carnal display. She felt suddenly silly, spiked with a healthy dose of slutty. The way Logan's hand had wound up to roughly squeeze her breast coupled with the frank, appreciative expression painting his features, wasn't helping. "I, um, I - "

He let her slither off of him, but he caressed and pinched her lycra-clad rear end as she did. She knelt at his side after uncoupling, seemingly a bit lost as to what to say or do next. Sharp hazel eyes regarded her for a moment, and then he spoke. "Damn good one."

"Um, yeah....." Her eyes were everywhere but him, and he laid a hand on her thigh.
"That was - that was - I don't know what that was."

"Not exactly. I just - I don't know. I lost control."

"Yeah." He sat up a bit, using the hand still on her body to brace himself. "Marie - look at me." She complied, letting him see all the churning emotions going on inside her. "Makes me hard as hell to see you lose control. Nothin' wrong with that." He scooted toward her, coming within inches of her bare face. "You know by now that I love you. You know that deep in here." He tapped a finger against her breastbone for emphasis. "But I don't want it to be only that. I wanna be a good fuck for you, darlin'." Her eyes widened in surprise, but then settled; there was something warm, something burning behind them, and Logan thought she probably got his meaning but decided to expound upon it a bit just to be safe. "I don't mean to be an ass, but there's a part of all this that's pure animal, especially for me. I gotta go past what's conscious, what's controlled. I wanna take you to a place that's nothin' but physical, nothin' but animal. I wanna see you so damn hot for me that you couldn't help yourself if you tried. 'Cause that's how you make me. Get it?"

"Got it," she affirmed in a breathy whisper, as she reached out gloved fingers to brush against him intimately. "Let's go again."

Marie lay in bed, still a little exhausted mentally and emotionally, if not physically, thanks to repeated touches by Logan over the years, transferring bits and pieces of his powers until she had them permanently. It had made for a very easy pregnancy, and, even if it hadn't permitted them to touch without barriers as Marie had hoped, having this child was still the best thing in her whole life to date. Given that she loved Logan to distraction and gave little prayers of thanks for him everyday, that was saying a lot. Her head lolled to the side, and she spied Logan, tenderly rocking and cooing to their three-day-old son. For all his advanced senses, he didn't know she was watching, and she took a few moments to take him in, completely unguarded and unabashedly in love with the child.

One large hand was placed beneath their son's rear end, and the other beneath his tiny-but-still-too-large-for-his-body head. Logan was rubbing noses with him, and murmuring what were unmistakably words of affection. She remembered him doing much the same for her during the delivery - which included an episiotomy by claw; there was a definite downside to living beyond the reach of civilization - and she remembered how gentle he'd been with her the night they'd conceived. As he turned a beaming, loving smile on the tiny bundle in his arms, Marie felt flooded with a warmth, the depth of which she'd never felt before. She reflected a bit more on the scene before her, then she spoke what was in her heart. "You're always the one who's been holding us together, you know that?"

"Nah, darlin'," he replied, not taking his eyes from their son, "that's all you."

"It's really not. You - you're always the one saving me, you're always fixing me, helping me, guiding me, supporting me. It's pretty much all you, sugar."

Now, his eyes did flicker to hers. "That's not so," he gently argued. "You helped me out, all those years ago back in Laughlin City. You tried to save my life. You hitched a ride with me."

"You didn't kick me out. You hung on to me, and then you risked your life for me. More than once."

"You did the same, you risked a lot to pick me, and even more to stick with me. You're the one who's made all the progress in this relationship."

That really did surprise her, and he'd said it in a tone that was a slight departure from the teasingly argumentative patter they'd been having. "I didn't do anything, not really. You did all the hard work."

"Hmph." Logan crossed the room to sit on the edge of the bed, and handed the squirming baby to her. "Don't think so. I seem to remember that you were the first one to reach out and hold my hand, darlin'."

Her eyes narrowed and, momentarily, she focused her attention on the remembrance of their drive on one of those Saturday night outings. After she got it, she smiled. "I did," she admitted. "But you held my hand back. And you told me to sell the jeep. Besides, I only decided to hold your hand because you made yourself so darn irresistible by caring enough about me to go to all the trouble you did for me."

"Easiest things I ever did."

He'd said that to her often, but, as she regarded him for a moment, something inside her clicked. Finally, she understood what he meant when he said that, and she understood that it wasn't some off-the-cuff reassurance or lightly issued courtesy. "I get it." He gave her a raised eyebrow. "It was easy. It was easy because - well, because there was no other way. It was simple. I get that - I feel the same way. I couldn't go on without you, not after knowing what it was like to have you in my life."

He nodded. "Yep. Got it."

"I hope he gets that one day," Marie mused, stroking her son's cheek. "And I hope he finds someone to teach him those things."

"He will," Logan answered confidently. "If I could, hell, anybody could. Then again, I did get pretty damn lucky with you."

"Same here." She leaned forward for a quick and impulsive kiss, then began gently rocking their son to sleep.