This is absolutely, inexcusably sappy. And please forgive the completely daft plot twist. :) I don't think having a kid fixes all ills, I really don't, even though that's how this probably comes across.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Sigh.
Series: Tender, Sensitive, White Wedding
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When I say 'next', I'm talkin' about a year and a bit later. Amiko was toddlin', which was fun. Kept you on your toes. We picked a birthday for her, two months before the day we found her, but we also kinda had a little celebration on the anniversary of that day, too. So we're spoilin' her. Sue me.
Now, I don't know if you know, but I've got a little bit of history with a big bastard, name of Sabretooth. Goes back a long time. We've been tryin' ta kill each other for years. The reasons it started are too far back to remember, but for the times he's tried to hurt me and mine, and for the times he's succeeded, I oughtta kill him ten times over.
But at that time he was still roamin' around, causin' havoc, occasionally with that other bastard, Magneto, but mostly just off his own bat. I wasn't really interested in goin' after him any more - sure, I was still with the X-Men, and so was Marie, but we were makin' an attempt to avoid the kinda idiots who do stunts for revenge. Magneto's okay - for a bad guy - 'cause it's all just business to him, but Sabretooth's a psycho. I didn't want any trouble comin' down on my little family, and the best way to protect 'em, I thought, was to stay under his radar. See, the thing is, though, that's not how my life goes. I plan things, sure - but always, somehow, a fuckin' monkey wrench gets chucked in the works.
This time, the monkey wrench was that big pea-brain called Sabretooth.
It was a gorgeous day, that day, so we decided to take Amiko to the park. Nothin' much was happenin' on the bad-guy front of late - which shoulda been warning enough for me, but sometimes even the Wolverine gets caught off-guard. But you'd think, what could be easier, safer, than goin' to the kiddie's playground at the local park, right? Wrong.
Amiko likes the swings, these fuckin' awful half-cage sorta things that take like a year to get them in and outta, but she'd sit on 'em for hours if she could. Marie was pushin' her, and I went off to get 'em some ice cream. I knew it'd probably make the kid sick, after swingin' on that thing, but I'm no more immune than Marie is, when Amiko pulls that toothy grin and asks for "'Scweam, pwease, dada?" She an' Marie are the only ones who can twist me round their little fingers, but they take full advantage of that fact.
I nearly had a fuckin' heart attack when I heard the screams comin' from the playground. Dropped the ice cream and ran, hittin' speed dial on the mobile as I did. Someone at the mansion answered, dunno who, I just said where we were and to get the team the hell down here, right fuckin' now. Could hear screams and roars that I recognised. People were runnin' in all directions away from the place, but no Marie or Amiko.
I skidded to a halt when I got to the playground. The bastard had Marie under one arm, strugglin', but weakly, like she'd been hit on the head or somethin', and in the other hand he was holdin' up Amiko by one arm. She was screamin' fit to burst, and kickin' at his arm as hard as a little one-year-old could. Bastard was laughin'. I sprang the claws, which got his attention.
"Put 'em down." God, I wanted to cut his head off for this. Bastard just laughed louder.
"Why, what ya gonna do? Been a while, hasn't it, runt? Miss me? I thought I'd drop by while I was in the neighbourhood. Now I've got your woman and your little girl, and I'm gonna kill 'em." I was beginnin' to see red at this point. But I couldn't spring at him, or he'd sure as hell kill one of 'em before I brought him down. "Think I'll kill the little 'un first, then you, an' then I'll spend some time over your woman. She's a tasty piece, pity about the skin. I might not kill her for a good long while."
Amiko caught sight of me, and yelled out, "Dada!", reachin' out for me as best she could. Hurt like hell to see that, and not be able to do anythin'. I was pacing in front of him, waitin' for an opening, tryin' desperately ta keep a clear head - but it was gettin' harder. Suddenly, I noticed from the corner of my eye that Marie was lookin' right at me. She was still strugglin' weakly, but she gave me a wink, and I knew she was pretendin', and that she was gonna try somethin'. My blood ran cold, but it was the best chance we had - we'd gotta take him by surprise.
"Whaddya want, Sabretooth?" I had to keep his attention on me.
"Want? I wanna hurt you, of course!"
"I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna fuckin' kill you, you bastard."
"Sticks an' stones," he sneered at me. Then I knew we were out of time. Marie twisted, and at the same time I roared and leapt. She punched upwards with the ball of her hand, tryin' ta break his nose and touch his skin. Only he was too quick. He grabbed her arm and whirled her out, usin' her body to knock me outta the air and slam me into the swing support beam. I crashed to the ground, pretty stunned, but I managed to stagger up again, ready to leap back into the fight. Sabretooth was shakin' Marie by her arm, which looked broken, and roaring. "Just for that-" he yelled, and he pulled her bare hand up to Amiko. They both screamed, and I think I did, too, but Marie screamed the loudest. That was her worst nightmare come true. To be the one killin' that innocent little child.
"Noooooo!"
And then it happened. Or rather, it didn't. Amiko was screamin', and cryin'... and she was still screamin' and cryin'. And Marie was touchin' her. Nothin' was happenin'. Marie looked just stunned. Sabretooth looked puzzled, then furious, an' I knew he was gonna do somethin'. He flung Amiko - just hurled her, as far and as hard as he could, and in my mind I saw her little broken body... I leapt, even before I'd registered it, and I've never jumped so far in my life. I caught her. I rolled into a dive, and protected her with my body, and when I landed she was clingin' to me for dear life, sobbin' her heart out - but she was alive. Then I stood up, and turned, and I clung to her even tighter. Nearly crushed the poor kid. Marie... Marie was up in the air, held up by Sabretooth's claws through her gut, her blood pouring down his arm. The fuckin' bastard was laughin' again, with his claws stickin' out the other side of Marie's body, and she was twitchin' helplessly. I handed Amiko to Scooter, who was there too fuckin' late, and I roared, and I let the red rage take over.
His head was rollin' on the floor a split second later, yards from his body, and Marie was on the ground in my arms, in a pool of blood. I was fuckin' frantic. I was touchin' her face, her hands, and nothin' was happening. She coughed up some more blood, and I knew she was dyin'. She was ripped up from guts to ribcage, right through. She managed to open her eyes.
"I... I did it, didn't I? I found the switch. Ammy's okay, isn't she?"
"Yeah, darlin'." I was almost chokin' with fear, shakin', my hands on her bare face. "She's fine. But now you gotta switch it back on, okay? Switch your skin back on for me."
"I don't know if I can..." She was fadin' fast. Please, god, no, I was prayin'. Not her. Please, no. My mind was just doin' little circles, like a headless chicken, and I couldn't think what the hell to do.
"Marie, you gotta do it. You can do it. Think of how you managed it before. You saved 'Miko, now you gotta let me save you. Turn your skin back on, darlin'. Please."
Her gaze went past me, to where Scooter had come up behind me. "Take care of him," she breathed, and then she gave kind of a long sigh, and her eyes rolled back.
My heart stopped. I couldn't breathe. I grabbed her to me and yelled her name. And then, suddenly, blessedly, I felt the pull, and it was like my life kicked in again. I fought to stay awake for as long as I could, I saw her skin begin to heal closed, and I saw her eyelids flutter - and then I couldn't fight any more, and I sank down into oblivion.
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I woke up when we landed back at the mansion. Amiko was still whimperin' and cryin', I don't think she'll ever forget that episode, but she was alive, and she was in Marie's arms, and Marie was alive, and okay, and I couldn't speak, I just couldn't. I grabbed her hand, and just held it tightly, and she smiled at me and helped me outta the Jet. I was so far gone that it took me a good few yards to realise that I was holdin' her bare hand. I stopped, and everyone nearly tripped over me. I pulled her close, her and Amiko both. Kissed Amiko on the forehead, and the kid hugged me around the neck, patting me like I was the one who needed comforting. I just stared at Marie.
"You can touch now?" I know it was a dumb question, but I wasn't feelin' too bright at that moment.
"I can touch," she agreed. I think she could see in my eyes what I was feelin'. I think I musta been projectin' it like crazy, 'cause Jean came and took Amiko.
"Don't worry about Ammy," she said. "I'll take care of her for a while. We're going to go check you out, okay, princess? You want a lollipop?"
"'Pop!"
They all went, I think. I kinda lost track. I was starin' at Marie, and she was starin' back. Her mouth quirked up in a little smile, and I just stared, tryin' ta process it all. "You can touch?" I ran a hand through her hair, and then down her face, and she shivered, all down her body.
"Yes..." she breathed, and her eyes dropped to my mouth.
And then I was kissin' her, and I couldn't've stopped if I'd wanted to, I had to make her mine, I had to hold her so tight and never let her go. She was kissin' back just as frantically, leanin' in to me so I was almost holdin' her up. God, she tasted so good. She smelled so good, too - she smelled like she wanted me as badly as I wanted her. And the smell of the blood that we were both still soaked in, it was makin' me a bit feral - it may be wrong, but it's just how I am. I was goin' crazy, just from kissin' her.
Yeah, maybe it's caveman or some shit, but I carried her outta there - I just couldn't put her down. I had to have her close, I had to have her, right then, and I had just enough presence of mind to know that we weren't gonna do it in the aircraft hangar. Technically, our room was nearer, but just then I wanted privacy. I had to be alone with Marie. There's an empty groundsman's cottage out on the mansion estate, and I carried her there.
Her skin is... just perfect. No better word for it. Warm and soft and... Touching it, the first time with no barriers between us, no danger - it was just unbelievable. I could never get enough of it. I was almost grateful to that son of a bitch for givin' us the opportunity. But no. I'd rather never touch her again than to nearly lose her like that. I ain't a coward, but Marie's life - she's too precious to me to ever wanna risk what we'd got. When I think about what mighta happened... well, hell, I just don't think about it, that's all.
I can't keep her safe all the time. I can't even seem to manage it most of the time. But for a while, that afternoon, well, we were together, and we were alive, we'd got through it once again, and we'd even kinda won. Sometimes you've just gotta hold onto what you've got, and be thankful you've got it. You go through a thing like that, and you wanna experience as much of the good stuff as you can, live in the moment, at least for a while. It makes you really fuckin' appreciate the time that you've clung onto, held back from the floods and the fires and the evil in men's hearts.
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About a month after that, and it took us three mornings of Marie chucking up for us to finally cotton on to what was happenin'. Yeah, so we're a big cliché and all. Ha fuckin' ha. We weren't expecting... well, until we found out she was. Marie just about hit the roof with nerves. She went to Jean straight away, and wouldn't let me come with her. She was shiverin' with fear, wouldn't look me in the face. I know what she was thinkin' of. Well, obviously. Truth to tell, I was scared too. We hadn't thought she could get ever pregnant again, and after she found the thing in her mind that she had to switch to turn off her skin - well, we hadn't exactly been careful, and we had been doin' it a lot. I mean, really a lot. Really, really, really a lot. Havin' a touchable Marie anywhere nearby is... Anyway, as I was sayin', I think she gave Jeannie an earful, which I guess wasn't fair, but I know Jeannie understood. She ran a whole load more tests, and then Marie called me in, and I quit arguin' with Scooter and went to hear what they had to say.
Marie smelled all nervous still, but not so fearful, if you see what I mean. Jeannie explained what she thought had happened. It was that fucker Sabretooth again. When he'd clawed her, he must've shredded her insides through and through, including her womb. Then when I touched her, and she absorbed my healin' factor... well, it healed her. All through. Whatever was wrong in there, it musta just been ripped out and healed over.
Fuckin' unbelievable.
O' course, we still didn't know how, if at all, her mutation was gonna affect all this. Marie lived in fear for nine whole months. Each day it got a little closer to goal, a little more hopeful, but all the harder to give up on. I don't know where she got the strength to live through it. I know it weren't easy. But somehow she was still able to laugh at me, to tell me to bug off and stop hoverin' over her all the time.
The birth - hell, you don't really wanna know about that, do ya? Go look it up on the Internet or in a medical dictionary or somethin' if you do. Suffice to say, it wasn't a whole heap o' fun, and Marie had the worst of it, which I hated, but we got through it. I'm fairly sure she didn't really mean it when she yelled, "This is all YOUR FAULT!" We ended up with this scrawny little pink thing, a baby boy. My son. Our son. Complete miracle.
If Scooter tells you I cried, well, he's a lyin' bastard, that's all I gotta say. And he cried when Nathan was born.
And he choked on the cigar I gave him. He did.
We named him Thomas. Marie calls him Tommy an' I call him Tom or Thomas or son, and he smells and makes a lot of noise, much like Amiko did. I think he's actually noisier than her, in fact, which is a thing I didn't know was possible. Amiko is thrilled with her baby brother. She seems to think he's some kinda special toy, which is somethin' we'll have to train her out of, I guess.
Some days I stop and I stare at 'em - Marie, Amiko, and little Tom. It's like I can't believe they're real or something. Okay, the kids're a bit too real sometimes - when they're loud or smelly or a combination of both, or Amiko thinks it's real funny to tug on daddy's pointy hair - but Marie... I'll never know what I did right, what kinda good karma I've got that lets her be in my life. I get scared sometimes that the other shoe'll drop, and they'll get taken away again, that no one could stay as lucky as I've been. But, again, that's the good thing with Marie; she knows when I get like that, and she knows just what to say and do to get me out of it. She's sassy, and sexy, and lovin', and strong, and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, whether she's broken down and at her lowest, cryin' and blood-drenched, or on top of the world, dancin' with our kids out in the sunshine. She's given me everythin' good that's in my life, and I wanna spend the rest of my life makin' her as happy as I can.
END.