The X-Men: New Additions - Part 15

Author:  Stacy Ricco

 
    Alex landed the mini-jet a few miles from the cabin. Dense woods surrounded the cabin and the closest she could land the jet was three miles away. She could see the other jet sitting on the other side of the clearing. It was buried in the snow and it didn't look like it had been used recently. She hopped out of the jet and began to make the trek through the woods. Fresh fallen snow covered the ground and would make the walk through the woods a little difficult. The weak winter sun was just slipping below the horizon and darkness would soon descend upon the land.
She started walking through the deep snow. The forest was quiet and Alex enjoyed the silence as she walked through the trees. A calm feeling washed over her and for the first time in the past week or two she was able to think clearly. She was looking forward to getting things straightened out with Logan. She missed having him around and especially missed having him next to her at night.
After the first mile she was exhausted. It took a lot of effort to walk through the three feet of snow and her body was producing heat, due to her forgetting to grab a jacket on her way out of the mansion. The sweat from the effort of walking through the snow covered her face. She decided that walking just wasn't doing it. She sighed and then launched herself up into the air. She covered the remaining two miles in little time and came upon the cabin.
The warm glow of gaslight came through the few windows and smoke emanated from the chimney. The cabin looked warm and inviting. Alex didn't know if she should knock on the door or just go in. Perhaps to make things a little smoother she would be polite and knock on the door. She climbed the steps and knocked a few times on the door.
The door opened and Logan stood in the doorway. He had on a plaid flannel shirt and a pair of jeans. Smoke curled up from a cigar in his mouth. A look of surprise crossed his face when he saw that it was Alex at the door. They stood there for a few minutes just looking at each other.
"Well are you going to invite me in or are you going to let me freeze out here?"
He stepped out of the doorway and motioned for Alex to come in.
She walked into the cabin without saying a word. Logan shut the door behind her and then sat in one of the chairs by the fireplace. Alex sat down in the chair across from him.
"Surprised to see ya here darlin'."
"I had to come Logan. You know as well as I do that we really need to talk about this. Fighting and arguing aren't going to get us anywhere."
Logan nodded.
"Logan look, I know I should have told you as soon as I found out, but I had a hard time accepting it. It was the last thing in the universe I would have expected. This is probably the most difficult thing I've ever had to deal with. I'm not ready to be a parent. And to stem any more arguments you are the father of these babies. You are the only person I've slept with."
"I know. It hasn't been easy for me to deal with either. Wait! Did you say babies? As in more than one?"
Alex nodded slowly. "Hank did an ultrasound before I left to come here and he discovered that I'm pregnant with twins."
Logan's jaw dropped and his mouth opened. He really wasn't prepared to be the father of a child, much less two children. He closed his mouth and sighed. "Alex, I'm sorry about implying that these babies aren't mine. It was a cruel thing to say, especially when you've always been honest with me."
"Apology accepted."
"What do you think we should do?"
"About what Logan? About the babies? I'm going to have them. And then I think we should raise them together."
"I agree. What do you want to do about us?"
"I don't know Logan. I hate it when we argue and I hate when you're not next to me at night. Before I met you, I thought it was a weakness to care about someone so much and be dependent on him or her. Now, I don't know what to think. The only thing that I do know is that I miss you when you're not around and I enjoy having you next to me at night."
Logan just nodded and slowly stood up. He walked over to the chair she was sitting in. He held out a hand to her. Alex took the offered hand and stood up. Logan gently cupped her cheek with his hand and tenderly kissed her.
"I'm sorry darlin'," he whispered and then kissed her again.
Alex leaned against him and smiled when she felt his arms envelope her.
"Logan?"
"Yes?"
"Are we going to tell the others? I mean it's going to be obvious not too far down the road."
"We probably should considering that they will be curious to why you won't be on active duty for an extended period of time."
"I guess you're right. Logan?"
"Yes?"
"There's something else I think I should tell you."
"What is it?"
"Where I come from I am the daughter of Charles Xavier. Your suspicions were right when you overheard me say my full name in the Danger Room."
"I was wondering about that. Hank never got back to me with the results of the test he ran."
"He told me and he told the Professor. The Professor and I talked about it and I didn't think that the X-Men needed to know. I don't want to drag everything out in to the open. I thought I would tell you now, so we don't get into an argument about it later."
"Thank you for being honest."
Alex leaned against him and enjoyed the warmth of his embrace.

Hours later the two of them lay in bed curled up together. The clock on the mantle chimed midnight.
"Merry Christmas Logan."
"Merry Christmas darlin'."
Alex smiled and snuggled closer to Logan and shortly fell asleep.

    Alex woke two hours before sunrise the next morning. She woke Logan and they quickly ate a small breakfast and started to make the trek back to the jets. Alex really wasn't in the mood to walk through all that snow. She gave herself a few seconds and then was hovering over Logan. She looked at him and he nodded. She grabbed his hands and in a short time they were at the jets.
Logan led the way back, but Alex was in a good mood and was feeling playful. She hit the thrusters and went speeding past Logan. She did a few rolls, dives and loops and was just having some fun. They landed the jets in the hangar bay when they finally reached the mansion.
"Show off," Logan said as they started walking out of the hangar bay.
Alex just flashed him a wide grin.

They entered the kitchen to find Jean and Rogue cooking large amounts of scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon and home fries.
"Merry Christmas you two."
"Merry Christmas Alex and to you too Logan."
"Need any help?"
"Shur sugah. You and Alex can set the dining room table."
"Anything you say Rogue," Logan said walking over to the cabinets where the dishes were stored. He pulled out a stack of plates and placed them on the counter. Alex grabbed the stack of plates from the counter.
Logan looked at her.
"What?"
"You shouldn't be lifting things."
"Logan these are only a few plates."
"Sugah why shouldn't be lifting things?" Rogue asked, curious why Logan would be restricting Alex's movements and activities.
"The same reason why you and Jean can't," Logan replied nonchalantly.
"Alex?" Rogue asked the woman her eyes wide with surprise.
Alex looked at Rogue and nodded. "Logan and I are having twins."
"Oh sugah that's wonderful!" Rogue said giving Alex a hug.
"Congratulations to the two of you."
"Thanks Jean," Logan replied.
"Does everyone else know?" Rogue asked.
"Nope. Only you two, the Professor, Storm and Hank know," Alex answered.
"When are you going to tell the others?"
"I don't know. Logan?"
"Maybe at dinner tonight."
"Scott's just going to love this," Jean said with a grin on her face.
Everyone chuckled a bit and they got back to work getting breakfast ready. In a short period of time Alex and Logan had the table set and helped to finish up cooking the rest of the food. Well Logan helped to cook the remaining food. Jean called everyone down to breakfast over the intercom and it wasn't long before everyone was seated at the table.
"Merry Christmas everyone," Charles said as he held up his glass of orange juice.
Everyone else echoed "Merry Christmas".
Breakfast was finished in a relatively short period of time. Scott, Logan, Bobby and Hank cleaned up the mess from breakfast while Jean and Rogue started the turkeys and hams for dinner. An hour later they all met in the rec room.
Everyone, except for Marrow, picked names from a hat earlier in the month and did secret Santas. Marrow didn't want to take any part in the holiday festivities. They all gathered around the tree and Scott started to hand out the presents. They all waited until everyone had their gift to unwrap theirs. Alex opened hers and found a beautiful moonstone ring. It was a silver ring and it had a moonstone flanked by silver roses. She knew whom her secret Santa was. She looked at Storm and when their eyes met Alex smiled. Storm nodded.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
She watched Logan unwrap his gift. She got lucky and picked his name. He unwrapped it and a smile spread across his face. He opened the lid on the box and pulled out one cigar. He sniffed it. His eyes met hers and she smiled.
"Cuban," she said.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Alex watched as Scott picked up a box from under the tree. The box was filled with quite a few wrapped gifts. Each member of the team had bought a gift, wrapped it and placed it in the box. Rogue and Jean said they were going to what they called a "Yankee Swap" or "White Elephant". What they were, Alex had no clue.
"Okay it's time for the Yankee Swap. I'll explain the rules and then we can get started," Scott said sitting the box down on a chair.
"We will all draw numbers from a hat. Then the person with number one will pick a gift from the box and open it. The person with number two will then pick a gift from the box and unwrap it. That person has the option to keep the gift they picked, or they can swap gifts with the first person. The person with number three will then pick gift and unwrap it. They can keep it or swap with number one or number two. We will do this until everyone has gone. The first person then can pick a gift from any of the other people. Everyone understand?"
They all nodded. Scott had a hat with small pieces of paper in it. He slowly went around the room until everyone had picked a piece of paper.
"Woo hoo! Number one for me!" Beast exclaimed.
"Number two for me," Bobby said sullenly.
Alex had picked number sixteen so she sat back and watched the proceedings.
"Alright Hank you're first."
"Thank you Scott," Hank said as he stood up and walked over to the box. He looked around in the box for a few minutes.
"Just pick something Blue-boy!" Bobby yelled.
"Patience is a virtue Popsicle."
Hank eventually drew out a gift and began to unwrap it. It was the Diablo2 computer game. Hank showed everyone and sat back down. Bobby's eyes lit up at the sight of the computer game.
It was now Bobby's turn. He got up and went over and just picked a random gift out of the box. He tore it open in two seconds and held it up. It was a bottle of wine. Bobby promptly walked over to Hank and handed him the bottle of wine. Hank handed Bobby the computer game in return. Bobby sat down with a huge smile on his face.
Scott was the next person to go. He selected a gift and began to unwrap it. It turned out to be a small basket of bath beads and scented soaps. Scott thought for a second and then walked over to where Bobby sat. The smile quickly faded from Bobby's face. Scott handed the basket to Bobby and Bobby reluctantly handed over the computer. There were giggles throughout the room, except there was a groan coming from Jean.
Jean was next up. She selected her gift after a few seconds of looking around in the box. She unwrapped the gift and held it up with a bright smile across her face. It was a box of Godiva Chocolates. Jean went back to her chair and sat down. There were a few people eyeing the box of chocolates.
Logan was next to go. He quickly selected a gift and unwrapped it. It was a gift certificate for dinner for two and two tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Logan just shrugged and sat down.
Next to go was Gambit. He went and picked the smallest gift in the box. He unwrapped the gift and stared at it. A huge grin spread over his face.
"What is it?" Rogue shouted out.
"Dis seems t' be a pass t' get out of early morning sessions for two weeks. Gambit really needed dis one," he said with a huge grin plastered on his face.
Rogue stood up and walked over to the box. She carefully selected a gift and removed the wrapping. She held up a cashmere sweater. She looked at it for a minute and then walked over to Jean and held out the sweater. Jean sighed and gave up the box of chocolates. Rogue sported a wide grin.
Charles directed his chair over to where the box was sitting. He selected a gift and opened it. He looked at it for a few seconds.
"What is it Chuck?"
"It's a gift certificate to the mall, Logan."
Charles moved over to where Hank was sitting. Hank held out the bottle of wine and took the gift certificate from the Professor.
Storm walked up to the box and selected a gift. She opened it up to revel a gift certificate to Victoria's Secret. She considered keeping it, but walked over to Jean. She handed the gift certificate to Jean as Jean handed over the cashmere sweater. They smiled at each other.
The next person to walk over to the box was Sam. He quickly selected a gift and began to open it.
"Ugh!"
"What is it?" Jean asked.
"Women's perfume," Sam said as he scanned the gifts that the others were holding. He stopped when his gaze fell upon Scott.
"Please do Sam," Jean said noticing that Sam was looking at Scott.
"Jean!" Scott exclaimed.
"Sorry oh fearless leader. Hand it over."
Scott sighed and swapped gifts with Sam. Jean eyed the bottle of perfume that Scott now held in his hands.
"Hey I might get new lingerie and perfume out of this," Jean said with a smile. Everyone laughed a little.
Maggot had the next number and went up to the box. He selected a random gift and opened it. It was certificate for dinner for two. He looked around the room. His eyes stopped on Gambit, who was still grinning cause he picked the pass for the early morning sessions. Maggot quietly walked over to Gambit and held out the dinner for two certificate. The grin vanished from Gambit's face and he reluctantly turned over the session pass to Maggot. Maggot gave the dinner certificate to Gambit and quietly sat down. Rogue howled with laughter.
"Not funny chere," Gambit said, which caused her to laugh harder.
"Looks like you'll be getting up early with the rest of us bub," Logan said grinning. Gambit just sighed.
Warren walked over to the box and made his selection. He quickly unwrapped the gift and then looked around the room.
"What is it?" Betsy asked.
"Movie tickets," Warren said as he walked over to where Rogue was sitting.
"Sugah taking food from a pregnant woman isn't smart."
"Such is life," Warren said handing her the movie tickets. Rogue hmphed and gave him the box of chocolates.
Betsy was up next and she opened a hand knitted sweater and a book of poetry. She sat down and didn't even bother to look around at the gifts the other people were holding.
Cecilia walked up and selected a gift. She ended up receiving two passes for a weekend at a health spa. She smiled and went back to her seat.
Bishop quietly walked over and made his selection. He opened the gift and went back to his seat.
"What did you get Bish?" Bobby asked.
"Gift certificate to Amazon.com."
"Cool. Want to trade?"
"No. I don't need bath beads."
"Well it was worth a try."
Alex was the last person to go. She went up and selected the last gift in the box. She opened it up and it was a gift certificate. She considered keeping it, but there was something better. She walked over to Maggot and handed him the gift certificate. He reluctantly handed over the pass for the morning sessions.
"Alex what do ya want that for? You don't need it?" Rogue asked.
"Oh yes I do," she said and grinned evilly.
"Okay Hank now you can swap with someone if you want to," Scott said to the large furry blue man.
"Thanks Scott. I think I will indulge myself," he said standing up. The X-Men who really wanted to keep their gift were trying to hide their gift out of Hank's line of vision. Hank walked around a few times looking at each person's gift.
"This is torture!" Bobby exclaimed.
Hank just grinned and made another round. He eventually stopped in front of Warren. Warren handed him the box of chocolates and Hank gave up the gift certificate to the mall.
Alex now had to make her move. Ever since see saw Gambit get the pass to get out of the early morning Danger Room sessions, a plan was forming in her head. She saw her target get up and leave the room.
"I'll be right back," she muttered to Logan and got up and followed her prey.
They sat around talking for quite a long time. Jean, Rogue and Storm left occasionally to check on dinner. Alex returned a short time later with a grin on her face.
"What is it?"
"Nothing Logan. Everyone will probably find out in a short time."
"Oh."
They brought the piano out from the Professor's office and Alex played while they all sang Christmas carols. After that, they spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Alex helped to set the table for dinner, since she really couldn't help in the kitchen. Dinner was served and they all made their way into the dining room. They enjoyed the delicious food that was prepared by Rogue, Jean and Storm.
"We're having an early morning session tomorrow. I just wanted to let you all know, since we're all here."
"Thanks Scott," Bobby grumbled.
"Not Gambit. I'm going t' be catchin' up on my beauty sleep."
"Would you care to explain why?" Scott asked.
"Cause Gambit have dis'," he said holding up the pass to get out of the early morning sessions.
"How'd you get that?" Rogue asked looking at him suspiciously.
"Gambit make a trade wit' Alex," he said flashing Rogue a grin.
"What kind of trade?"
"Gambit do her chores for a month and Gambit get t' sleep in for two weeks."
Everyone at the table started laughing.
"I don't need it so I figured I could get something for it."
"Alex I need to talk to you tomorrow morning before the session. Is that okay?"
"Sure Scott. However, I won't be able to participate in the session."
"Why not?"
"I'm on inactive duty."
The rest of the X-Men had gone quiet and were listening to the exchange going on between Alex and Scott.
"Why are you on inactive duty? What is wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," Alex said.
"Then why are you on inactive duty?"
Alex looked at Logan. He nodded slightly. Alex looked at him as if to say "Do you want to do it?"
"She can't be on active duty until after the babies are born," Logan said looking right at Scott.
"WHAT?"
"You heard me Slim. Alex is pregnant with twins."
The rest of the X-Men congratulated Logan and Alex.
"Which brings us to something that I have to say," the Professor said before the conversation about Alex's pregnancy got out of hand. The room went silent and all eyes were on the Professor.
"With Gambit and Rogue expecting a child, and now Alex and Logan expecting twins, I thought it was time we start making some changes to accommodate the arrival of family members. I have hired some people to do some work on the third floor of the mansion. They will take the women's wing on the third floor and convert it into two small apartments. Rogue and Gambit are welcome to have one as well as Alex and Logan. It only seemed fair since Jean and Scott have the boathouse."
"Thank you Professor," Gambit, Rogue, Alex and Logan all said at the same time.
"You're welcome."
"I would like to propose a toast," Hank said lifting his glass.
Everyone grabbed their glasses and looked at Hank.
"I propose a toast to the wonderful ladies who prepared this ambrosial feast."
"To the ladies" was echoed throughout the room.
"I don't think you guys will be thanking me when you see what you have to clean up." Hank, Scott and Bobby just looked at Jean. "Don't worry. You should be done before midnight."