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“Hmm. This is the life….umm….”

Stretching out like the proverbial lion, his back arched off the bed, taut as a bow, the feral mutant known as Wolverine, Logan to those around him, tilted mid-air, cracking his metal encased bones both this way and that. Letting himself go he fell back onto the soft yet firm mattress with an audible thump, completing his earlier comment.

“Yeah…sure is.”

Lying beside him, on her side, was the woman who not only did he love and who loved him back just as much, but also who had given him the one thing he had always lacked in his life, a family. That she had agreed to marry him, and then actually did it, would have been enough for him, but that she was also going to become a mother, mother of his kids, was something he had never even dreamt about…not even in his wildest, happiest dreams, no matter how few they had been.

That things didn’t happen exactly in that order, meaning, they came to know about her pregnancy first and then tied the knot, and then decided to tell their friends and family about the pregnancy and last of all about the marriage, none of that mattered to him….nor to her.

All that mattered was that the truth was finally out, and that now they didn’t have to sleep in separate rooms…or at least make a show of it, on the few days they actually did so.

“You see happy this morning,” Chuckling at her husband’s antics and rising as he leaned in to pull her up on his chest, she couldn’t stop herself, she just had to tease him. “What happened? Had an interesting night?”

Looking up at her smiling face, Logan took the time to just gaze at her, admire her. Her fresh mountainous waterfall like hair curtaining on either side of, the light through the open windows gave her an ethereal glow, one that only accentuated to her natural radiance and the ‘other’ one that she had just started to show…that of motherhood.

“Yeah, real interesting,” he replied. Reaching up to tuck a few errant strands of hair behind her ear, letting her fingers linger there before trailing them down her jaw line, and then up to her rose petals like lips, which parted to his caress. “A real lightning rod.”

“Lightning rod!” A snowy eyebrow cocked in amused query.

“Yeah. Made me see stars…and then some,” the last word barely out of his mouth, his pulled down the said ‘lightning rod’, mashing his lips against hers his tongue probing and twining with hers.

“Hmm.” Ororo sighed as they finally broke away, her entire body flush from just one kiss. “You are right. This is…the….Umph.”


It took Logan a second to realize what had just happened. One second he was ensconced in the warm left, totally at peace with the goddess above him…and the next, she was gone.

“Oh, yeah,” he grunted as he pushed himself up, sitting up to follow her to the bathroom. “This is the life….real life.”

---

“You sure you don’t want any?” A worried frown marring his handsome weathered features, leaning in slightly, Logan offered a helping of his rather substantial breakfast to his wife.

One look at the plate or more likely at the six waffles stacked above one another, all of them literally drowning in maple syrup, the two scrambled eggs on one side, two sausages on the other and the two hash browns holding on for dear life, and all a rather green looking Ororo could do was shake her head vigorously, turning away and trying her level best not to throw up again…for the third time this morning.

‘Bright lady.’ She cursed. ‘Why did you have to give me control over the elements as a mutant power. Why couldn’t you give me something useful, like the power of no morning sickness during pregnancy. I could sure use it right now.’


Almost as if hearing her mental prayer, the ever benevolent Goddess answered and sent an angel…just not the right one. Instead of the Angel of Healing, she sent over the wayward one, the Angel of Shopping, Jubilation Lee.

“Hey Wolvie. Hey ‘Ro.” As ever on a spirited high, Jubilee greeted both her teachers and settled down upon the empty chair besides Ororo, setting her industrial size bowl of various cereals mixed together.

Already turning her head away from the multicolored mix, Ororo near about lost it when Jubilee grabbed the mild cartoons, pouring both chocolate and strawberry flavored milk reveling in the fizzing, snapping, popping and various other sounds coming from her breakfast.

And if that wasn’t enough, the following conversation hammered the final nail into the coffin of morning sickness induced vomiting.

“Man, you won’t believe what happened yesterday. Whole you two were busy setting up, our Roguey, she had such a bad hangover…”

“What d’ya mean hangover?” Logan raised his head from his breakfast, looking not quite threatening, especially not with a spoon in his mouth and a sausage held midair, skewered through three very sharp claws.

“Oh….that we,” Jubilee blurted out the first thing that came to her mind, or rather dumped the blame on the first person. “It was all Remy’s idea. He wanted to celebrate Storm and your wedding and also her pregnancy. Anyways,” she carried out, her next words causing Ororo to flee. “Roguey got one Vodka tonic too many (didn’t have Gin), and by that I mean all Vodka and absolutely no tonic. You should have seen the girl go. She was ready to stri…uh, dance. Anyways, as soon as it blew over, so did she….not only vodka but also dinner, even the appeartiz…”

She was never able to complete her sentence as pushing both her Logan out of the way, Ororo made an Olympic level, barely making it to the sink, the sounds of her retching her empty stomach out causing both Logan and Jubilee too wince, their own appetites taking wings and flying away…

…right back to that accursed Goddess.

---

A little more than an hour later,

“How do you feel?” Using her fingers to comb back the silvery tresses of the mother to be, Jean Grey-Summers let the doctor slip away from her tone, falling back on the best-friend voice.

“Better,” smacking her lips, a failed effort in trying to remove the bitter taste, Ororo sat up slowly, accepting her redheaded friend’s offered hand for support.

“Good.” Flashing a friendly smile, Jean picked up the print outs, handing one copy to Ororo. The other would do in the file that Henry had almost set-up (and had hidden from her). “And even your vitals agree with me. Perfect…completely undeserving of Logan’s reactions.”

‘Underserving!’ Even Ororo broke into giggles at that, remembering how Logan had been shooed out of the infirmary, threatened by not one but two very pissed off X-Women. Her because she just wanted the tests to be over so that both he and her could relax and Jean because the continuing ‘back-seat’ doctoring was getting to her, the final straw being when Logan unleashed his claws and skewered her stethoscope. Thankfully, for Jean, the device had been on the bedside trolley and not around her neck.

‘GET OUT!’ Jean had practically yelled her command, with Ororo putting in her own two words…or just one. ‘NOW!’

Shocked rather than angry or disappointed, Logan had stomped out of the infirmary, muttering something about ‘Broads’, ‘Goddess’, ‘Hormones’ and last but not the least, ‘Scooter’ and ‘Pay’.


“I should go now,” Ororo pushed herself off the flat bed. “Its almost eleven and I still haven’t had a bath.”

“Want me to find Logan?” Offered Jean. “If nothing else, I can check if he is still on the mansion grounds.”

“No need for that,” shaking her head, Ororo slipped out of the green hospital gown and started to don her clothes, the ones from her previous night’s sleep. “I think I know where he will be.”

“Ororo…” Jean started, only to be stopped by the Weather Witch.
“I know it Jean,” already heading towards the door she tossed over her back. “Try to abstain from excessive power use…doctor’s orders.”


Minutes later, she exited the elevators, having used the teachers’ code to take it up all the way to the roof.

And as she had suspected, there sat her sulking spouse, puffing away on a trusty cigar, an almost empty bottle of beer dangling from his fingers.

---

Finally,

With lunch over, the boys had dispersed, all thanks to Scott’s orders…or rather Jean’s.

“Coming through.” Jubilee’s slim form appeared through the recreation room door, her arms practically overflowing with popcorn, chips, cookies and other whatnots. Close behind her came Kitty, her slim shoulders dropping at her having been turned into the drinks-mule.

Setting everything down and explaining it all away as ‘mid-movie’ snacks, the girls flopped down on their reserved places, ready…not for a movie for something more interesting.

Present in the room, apart from the terrific-trio, namely Jubilee, Rogue and Kitty, Jean, Lorna, Siryn, Betsy, Dani, Rahne (the youngest of the group), Jean and of course, the center of attention, Ororo.

“Ahem…everyone,” the MC and main mind behind the ‘planned’ ladies only gathering, Jubilee stood up to address everyone. “Okay, now that everyone is here, lets get to the viewing…uh, narration of ‘How the Grouch stole the Goddess’.”

“Jubilee!” Jean exclamation even as laughter broke out around her. Hoping to control her own chortles, she finally lost at the gaping look on the Goddess in question’s face.

“Nah, nah, its not thaht,” Rogue leapt in with her own title. “Its more lahke a fahry tale. Kinda like the ‘Beauty and the Wolverine’.

“Hey, how about ‘Dances with Wolverines’,” someone else suggested.

Not to be shown up by these new upstarts, Jubilee decided to show, once and for all, who was the name naming king…uh, queen of the X. Dumping movie names, she went in for a musical route.

“How about a 'The Doors' song…just modified,” she near about yelled. “Rider of the Storm.”

“Oooh…” still not unable to control herself, Jean winced at the way Ororo slapped her hands in front of her face.

**Too close for comfort?** She projected to her embarrassed friend, getting a rather Wolverin-esque growl in return.


“Sit down everyone.” As much as she was enjoying herself, Jean realized that if they wanted to hear all about this secret that had transpired under their very noses, she would have to be the adult. “I am sure we can come up with many more names. But that is not what we are here for. So, lets take out seats…and as for the name to this tale, lets keep it simple.”

“The Story”

Note: For posting this fic (or rather this part) on FF.net, I started revising the NC-17 rated chapters and ended up doing so for the whole story. Have updated them elsewhere too (both on the RoLo Realm and also on my site).

This chapter, came up during that and while the ‘The Story’ is an independent tale, there might come a point (towards its end) where it might intersect with the current timeline (in this one).

Please Review…both this and ‘Secrets 2 - The Story’