The X-Men: New Additions - Part 21

Author:  Stacy Ricco

 
    The X-Men all sat around a few tables at Harry's later that evening. It had been a long day. They hadn't been out on some earth saving mission, or stopped a powerful criminal mutant. They had spent the entire day trying to avoid April Fool's jokes. Bobby, Jubilee and Hank had spent the entire day trying to out do each other. No one in the mansion was spared. Even Logan and the Professor found themselves at the receiving end of a few practical jokes.
"Ah didn' think today would evah end."
"Me too. At least now I know next year to make myself scarce," Alex said leaning back in her chair. "Or take part in it." Alex grinned.
Rogue rolled her eyes.
"Anybody want anythin'?"
"A Sprite please Logan."
"Sure Alex. Anyone else?"
No one else answered. Logan made his way up to the bar.
   
"What will it be Logan?"
"The usual and a Sprite, Harry."
Harry nodded. A few minutes later he placed a shot glass of whiskey, a beer and a glass of Sprite on the bar in front of Logan.
"She came back I see," Harry said nodding in the direction of Alex.
"Yeah."
"You two patch things up?"
Logan just shrugged.
"Women!"
Logan nodded. He picked up the drinks and headed toward the table.

"But Alex!" Rogue said placing a hand on Alex's forearm.
"I'm not kidding. You should have seen it."
Rogue looked at Alex in disbelief.
"I'm serious. Would I kid you?"
"Ah guess not."
Alex laughed and then watched Logan sit a glass of Sprite in front of her. "Thank…" Alex started to say but was cut off in mid-sentence when Rogue's hand suddenly tightened on her forearm. Alex's eyes went wide as the grip tightened and she could feel a few bones breaking. Alex leaned over close to Rogue's ear. "Rogue you're my friend and all, but you better have a good reason why you just broke a few of my bones."
"Ah think Ah may be in labor," Rogue whispered back.
"WHAT!" Alex exclaimed and everyone at the table stopped talking and looked at her. "You better not be pulling my leg!"
"Ah'm not!" Rogue exclaimed as her grip on Alex's arm tightened again.
"Rogue?"
"Huh?" Rogue said between clenched teeth.
"The arm?"
"Oh sorry."
"I think we better get back to the mansion," Alex announced to the table. "Rogue's in labor."
Gambit, who had been in the middle of drinking some alcohol, sprayed everyone at the table with his drink. "What? Chere why didn' ya tell Gambit?"
"Because Ah thought Ah had a stomach ache!"
"Eewwwww disgusting!" Jubilee, who happened to get sprayed the most, said wiping her face off with a napkin.
"Okay. Let's not panic. Women have babies everyday. Let's just get back to the mansion and get Rogue down to the medlab."
"Great thinking Hank. You heard the man. Let's get going," Scott said trying to get everyone moving in the direction of the door.
"NO!"
"No? Chere why you be sayin' no? Do ya wan' t' have dis baby 'ere in Harry's?"
"Cause Ah ain't havin' dis baby!"
"Why not?" Gambit practically yelled at her.
"Cause Ah ain't havin' dis baby until you and Ah are married, swamprat!"
Gambit gulped. "But Rogue we can do dat after de baby comes."
"Ah want t' be married before my baby comes!"
"But Rogue…"
"No marriage, no baby!"
"Rogue listen. Logan and I will go and find a priest while Hank and the others take you back to the mansion. Okay?"
Rogue just looked at Alex.
"Okay?"
Rogue nodded. Scott started them moving toward the door. Scott stopped Alex and Logan once they outside of the bar.
"Please try to get back the mansion as soon as possible."
"Ya got it Slim. Come on Ace."
Alex hopped into the passenger's seat and rested her broken arm on her lap. She tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. She really didn't want Logan noticing that her arm was broken. The ride to the closest Catholic Church was silent. Both Alex and Logan had a million thoughts running through their minds. Rogue's labor had reminded them that they soon would be facing Alex's labor and everything that went with it. A few minutes later Logan parked the jeep in front of the church. They both got out and went around the back to the rectory. Logan pounded on the door. No one answered. Logan pounded on the door again.
A few moments passed and the door slowly opened. A small bald man stood in the doorway and looked suspiciously at Logan and Alex.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes you can. Two of my friends need ya."
"Can't this wait until morning?"
"No," Logan said as he started for the man.
"Logan. No." Alex put her arm up in front of Logan in an effort to stop him. Of course it had to be her broken arm. She winced as it came in contact with Logan's chest and hoped Logan didn't see her wince. "Sir, please. It's of utmost urgency that you come with us."
The priest just stood there looking at Alex and Logan.
"Perhaps we could make it worth your while with a sizable donation to the church afterwards?"
The priest looked at Alex and nodded. He motioned for them to enter. Alex and Logan entered the door and stood in the foyer.
"Please come in and sit while I go get dressed."
"No thank you. We'll wait here."
"As you wish," he said and then disappeared into the depths of the house.
Logan looked questioningly at Alex.
"I don't even want to explain."
Logan just shrugged and they waited for the priest to reappear.
Five minutes later the priest returned. Without saying a word, the three of them left the rectory and walked out to the Jeep. Logan crawled in the back and the priest got into the passenger's seat. Alex looked at the jeep.
<How am I going to pull this one off?> she thought as she looked at the stick shift. Leave it to Logan to have a standard transmission.
"Somethin' wrong Ace?"
"Nope." Alex figured she would just deal with the pain rather than getting into an argument with Logan right now. After all, it wasn't that far to the mansion and there wasn't too many stoplights or stop signs.
They pulled up to the front door of the mansion and Alex was very glad to stop driving. They escorted the priest down to the medlab.
"Ah'm not having this baby!" they heard Rogue yell as they entered the medlab.
"But chere!"
"Don't "but chere" me swamprat. Ya got me inta this mess and we're going to do what Ah say!"
"Yes Rogue."
"Don' worry. Found ya a priest darlin'."
"Thanks Logan."
"What do you want me to do?" the priest asked looking at Alex.
"You're going to marry these two right now."
"Do they have all the paperwork?"
"Look Father, right now she just needs to hear the ceremony. We can worry about the paperwork later, okay?"
"Sure."
"Oh and Father, I wouldn't stand too close to her right now."
The priest looked at Alex with wide eyes.
"Actually that reminds me of something…Hey Hank!"
"Yes Alex?"
"Don't you think you ought to put a collar on Rogue?"
"Oh my stars and garters! In all the commotion I didn't think of that. Thank you for reminding me."
Alex chuckled.
The priest cautiously approached the foot of the bed. Gambit stood at the head of the bed close to Rogue.
"Dearly beloved. We are…"
"Could we skip this part? Sorry but Ah don't have the patience right now."
"Sure."
"ARGH!" Rogue screamed as another contraction started.
"Do you," the priest said and then looked at Gambit.
"Remy."
"Do you, Remy, take…." he looked at Rogue.
"Great. What a fine way for everyone ta find out mah real name!"
Everyone chuckled, except for Gambit, who was standing the closest to Rogue.
"Savannah."
"Do you, Remy, take Savannah to be your lawful wedded wife to have and to hold until death do you part?"
"I do."
"Ya hesitated! Why'd ya hesitate swamprat?" Rogue said and she grabbed Remy by the collar and pulled him down.
"I didn't Rogue. I swear!"
Rogue looked at him for a moment and then released him.
"This is the strangest wedding I've ever been to," Jubilee commented from where she was standing next to Logan.
"Me too kiddo."
Rogue shot the both of them a look.
"I'll just keep quiet from now on."
"Good idea kid."
"Do you, Savannah, take Remy to be your lawful wedded husband to have to hold until death do you part?"
"Ah do."
"Then I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."
"Do ya t'ink 'dats safe?"
"Remy!"
"Gambit was joking chere." He leaned down and gave her a tender kiss. "I love you Rogue."
"Ah love ya too Remy."
"I think I'm gonna cry," Jubilee said sniffling.
"Me too," said Jean.
"ARGH!"
"Rogue please let me put this on you," Hank said showing her the dampening collar.
She nodded.
Hank put the collar around her neck.
"ARGH!" Rogue screamed as another contraction started.
"Okay let's all get out of here. Let's give Rogue, Gambit and Hank some breathing room. Besides these things take a while."
"Perhaps Jean is correct," Storm said looking over at Rogue and Gambit.
Most of the people started to leave the medlab. Jean stopped and waited for Storm to catch up to her.
"Well that's two taken care of. So what do we do about them?" Jean asked nodding in the direction of Alex and Logan, who were still standing in the medlab talking to each other.
"Interesting question. I do not know."

"I'm going to stay here. I'll be up later."
"Are ya sure? Ya look tired darlin'," Logan said taking holding both her hands in his.
Alex winced and nodded.
"What's wrong?"
"Rogue broke my arm back at Harry's when she was having a contraction."
"What! Why didn' ya say somethin'?"
"Cause I didn't want to distract Hank from taking care of Rogue."
"Why don' ya just heal it?"
"I can't. I don't have the energy."
"What?"
"I've had a lot of problems gaining weight and Hank thought it was in the best interest of the babies that I shut my powers completely off."
"Why didn' ya tell me?"
"Logan we're barely on speaking terms most of the time and how am I supposed to talk to you about this?"
Logan didn't say anything.
"I'll have Hank or Cecilia take a look at this when they're not busy."
"Let's see if we can get one of 'em to look at it now."
"Logan…"
"No Alex. We're not goin' to argue about this. Yer goin' to have someone look at it now."
Alex nodded and didn't say anything. She really didn't feel like arguing either.
"Hank!" Logan bellowed.
"Yes Logan?"
"Can you or Cecilia take a look at Alex's arm? Rogue broke it when she was having a contraction."
"Sure. Come with me if you please my dear."
Alex reluctantly followed Hank. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Logan sit down in a nearby chair. There would be no getting out of this with him sitting there.

An hour later Alex, sporting a new cast on her left arm, was heading upstairs. Alex was alone because Logan left the medlab after he had watched Cecilia start to apply a cast to Alex's arm. Where he was now, Alex didn't have a clue.
"Alex!"
Alex stopped on the stairs and turned to see who called her. "Yes Storm?"
"Can we talk?"
"Sure Storm. What's up?"
"Let's go somewhere where we can talk."
Alex nodded and followed Storm to the library. They sat across from each other in two of the large chairs that were scattered throughout the room.
"What's up Storm?" Alex said with a touch of annoyance in her voice. Alex was tired and really didn't feel like spending half of the night talking to someone. Especially about the topic she knew was going to be discussed.
"How are you and Logan doing?"
Well that was getting right to the point. "Okay I guess. I can never be sure."
"Alex. I know you probably don't want to talk about this, but all of us have been concerned since the rather large argument that you and Logan had, right before you left for Massachusetts."
"Storm I appreciate your concern and everyone else's, but I really don't want to talk about this. I'm tired and all I want to do is get some sleep."
"I understand Alex. Scott and I are concerned that this is having an impact on the whole team."
"Look Storm, Logan and I are both professionals. We know how to keep personal things out of our work. Now is that all? I really need to get some sleep," Alex said standing to leave.
"Please, Alex. We need to talk about this."
"No we don't Storm." With that Alex left the room and shut the door quite hard behind her.
   
At the same time Storm was talking to Alex, Logan was in the danger room getting out some frustrations. Sometimes avoiding an argument with Alex took more out of him and created more frustrations than getting into an argument with her.
He was in the middle of finishing off an opponent when he heard the door open. He turned expecting Alex, but saw that it was Jean instead.
"Logan."
"Jean."
"What brings ya down here at this hour darlin'?"
"Well, the events of the night have me a little too keyed up to go to bed right now. Besides I wanted to talk to you."
"Oh?" Logan eyed her suspiciously.
Jean just smiled.
"'Bout what?"
"About you and Alex."
"What 'bout us?"
"What's going on Logan?"
"Dunno Red."
"Want to talk about it?"
"Not really."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes darlin'."
Jean just nodded and quietly left the room.

Storm caught up with Jean in the kitchen. Storm fixed the both of them a cup of tea and they sat down at the table.
"Get anything out of her?
"No. How was your talk with Logan?"
"Not good. Didn't get anything out of him either."
"They're very much alike in a lot of ways."
Jean nodded. "That's part of the problem I think."
Storm nodded. "What do you think we should do?"
"Probably nothing. Hopefully they will work it out on their own."
"I hope so. They both deserve to be happy."
Jean nodded.
They sat and drank the rest of their tea in silence.

Logan found Alex already in bed and asleep when he returned to their room. He quietly got undressed and crawled in to bed beside her. He put an arm around her and closed his eyes. Sleep quickly overtook him.   

Ten hours later Angelique Renee LeBeau was born weighing eight pounds, five ounces and was twenty-one inches in length. During the day most of the X-Men made their way down to visit the new parents and baby. Gambit was a proud poppa and Rogue glowed. Little Angelique spent most of the day sleeping quietly in her momma's arms.