Author: tinhutlady
Email: tinhutlady@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Most of the characters herein belong to Marvel and Fox and I created a story about them with no intent to make a profit or infringe on any copyright
Archive rights: Please ask.
Rating: PG-13 (adult suggestions)
Summary: Marie says the strangest things to Logan after having surgery.
Series: none
Feedback: I would absolutely love it, but I’ll leave that up to you.
Category: L/M, S/J, Setting is first movie universe
Comments: This is dedicated to Jennie and all the weirdness she’s been through the past few weeks. It’s simple, it’s sappy, and I hope she enjoys it. Posted 03.15.04
"Marieeeeee…"
The voice was low and rumbling and Marie felt as if it were vibrating her ear off. She swatted a hand and made contact with something soft yet solid. Opening her eyes, she found her reflection mirrored back to her in the depths of two hazel eyes. She grinned and Logan smiled back, a rare treat and one she heartily relished.
"Hi, sugar," Marie mumbled, her tongue a little thick. "What’cha doin’?"
"Watching over you."
She giggled and he slid a warm hand along her cheek, caressing gently. He hated to see her like this.
"Is it over? Did they fix everything?" Her mouth ached and she tried to run the tip of her tongue over her parched lips. "Ah’m thirsty. Can Ah have something to drink?"
Jean reentered the room and gave Rogue a pat on the shoulder. "How are you feeling? Ready to get out of this chair yet?"
Marie tried to look around her. "How long did it take?"
"Not long," said Hank cheerfully as he also came back into the lab. "It was an interesting procedure, I must say. The last impaction had maneuvered itself into a tight situation. While not unexpected, since the x-rays indicated the positioning dilemma, it did require the shattering of the structure…"
"Hank," Jean admonished, "she doesn’t need a blow by blow detail of the surgery."
"But it was fascinating! How intriguing that, while her skin is impenetrable, the interior of her mouth…"
"Hank." The low growl left no room for argument.
Marie intervened. "They just did what Ah asked them to do, Logan." She tried to swallow and ended up gagging a little.
"Is it okay if she has some water?"
Jean and Hank tried not to grin. Logan was always so sure of himself under normal circumstances that it sounded odd when he was forced to ask permission for something.
"Of course," Jean said pleasantly. "I’ll get a cup and a straw. Hank, find the Tylenol3, would you? She may need it."
"I have already done so," said the huge blue mutant. He came over to the side of the chair where Marie lay. "Open wide, young lady. I need to ascertain if there is anything left undone."
"You said you had to break one." Marie looked nervous. "What happens if you left a piece inside?"
"There’s no chance of that. We did a thorough examination of the area. Our only concern now is dry sockets."
"Dry sockets?" Marie’s agitation became more pronounced. "What’s that?"
Logan fairly bristled. "Hank…"
Jean came back followed closely by Scott. "I brought the water and a friend."
Scott came over and held Marie’s hand while Jean took the pills from Hank and gave them to Marie, holding the straw while the young woman sipped enough fluid to get them down.
"See?" Scott said in a teasing voice. "There was nothing to worry about. Wisdom teeth become impacted all the time; it’s no big deal to have them taken out. You didn’t have to do all that paperwork."
Logan raised an eyebrow. "Paperwork?"
Marie sighed at Scott. "Ah explained to you why Ah felt it was necessary. If anything were to have happened, Ah wanted to make sure the best person for the job would take care of me."
Scott let go of her hand and smiled. "You were never in any danger, but it was a wise precaution."
Jean cocked her head. "Another visitor is on the way. Are you up for it before Logan takes you back to your room?" At Marie’s nod, Jean adjusted the chair to a more upright position.
Megan came bouncing in the lab, her bright yellow eyes sparkling with mischief. "Hi, Rogue! Did you get your wiseteeth pulled out?"
The room snickered politely before Jean corrected her. "Wisdom teeth, Megan. It’s the last set of teeth that come into your mouth and Rogue’s were coming in underneath her back molars because there wasn’t enough room along her jawbone for them. We had to cut them out."
The eleven-year-old was fascinated. "Cool! Did she get stitches? Are there holes in her mouth? Can I look?"
Scott laughed. "Megan, why don’t we let her get some rest before she let’s you look in her mouth. She’s going to be a little sore for a while."
Rogue let out a giggle and everyone stared at her. "What? Didn’t you notice? Megan is wearing a Tinkerbell T-shirt today. That reminded me that Ah need to get my teeth and set them under my pillow." She snorted at her own joke. "This is my last chance to get something good from the tooth fairy."
Logan turned to Megan. "The tooth fairy?"
Megan looked serious, knowing there were some things Logan didn’t know. "Kids put their baby teeth underneath their pillows because the tooth fairy gives them money for each tooth," the young lady explained patiently before she looked back at Marie. "Those aren’t baby teeth, Rogue. It won’t work. The tooth fairy won’t take them."
Marie pouted and the look was priceless. "Ah’ll try it anyway. May Ah have my teeth, please?" Jean and Hank exchanged a bemused glance before Jean put the extracted teeth in a baggie and handed it to Marie.
"What did you give her, Jean? She’s acting really…weird…" Scott scratched his head.
"Tylenol with Codeine in it. What did you think I’d give her, lover? Xanax?" Jean laughed. "She may have been nervous enough about going under anesthesia to draw up a Medical Power of Attorney, but she’s no Rush Limbaugh. She didn’t need something to calm her nerves medically."
Hank saw the concerned look in Logan’s eyes and took pity on him. "I believe the best course of action is to allow Rogue the opportunity to convalesce in her own room for an hour or two. I am confident she will be in extremely good hands with Logan present to look after her needs."
"Why couldn’t Logan heal her by touching her?" asked Megan.
"Logan couldn’t heal the problem her own body had made. He couldn’t make her mouth bigger to accept the four new teeth." Jean fixed Logan with a critical gaze. "Even now he shouldn’t heal her. He may cause her body to regrow the teeth we just took out." She scooted the girl from the room. "Go fix some Jell-O for her. She may need it later."
"Okay! ‘Bye, Rogue." The young girl happily skipped off to make a treat for her friend.
Logan grimaced; he had thought of doing exactly that — touching Marie so she wouldn’t be in pain from the surgery.
"Come on, darlin’, you need a break," he said as he gently lifted her out of the dental chair and held her in his strong arms. "Let’s get you up to your room."
"Will you read to me?" her green eyes were framed by long, dark lashes and she blinked them effectively.
"Let me guess, one of Jubilee’s smut books, right?" He smirked.
She slapped him on the shoulder and he winced at her strength. "No, silly. You can read me my new book, ‘No Death, No Fear.’"
The room went quiet. "What possessed you to buy something with that kind of title, Rogue?" Scott was concerned. "That sounds pretty ominous."
She cuddled Logan’s neck and swished her feet. "Ah wanted to understand my mate here a little better so Ah figured that kind of title suited him to a T." She giggled and then flung her head back and laughed. "Wouldn’t you know it, the book is about all sorts of wonderful things by this guy who’s a philosopher named Thich Nhat Hahn. He’s really wise and says all sorts of things like, ‘The world has a way of being circular,’ and stuff."
"I believe it’s pronounced ‘thick nat han’," said Hank. "He is a Buddhist monk who is celebrated as a human rights activist…"
"The world is circular? Who’ve guessed?" laughed Scott. Logan glared at him and he quickly added, "I can’t help it. She left herself wide open on that remark."
"Ah’d rather leave myself wide open for something else," Rogue murmured and she blew rather clumsily into Logan’s ear.
Scott blushed, Hank’s jaw dropped, Jean snickered, and Logan threw his head back and barked out a loud laugh.
"I’m more than willing to, darlin’, but I think I’d better wait until you’re really up to it." He threw a glance at Jean. "When will this stuff wear off, anyway?"
"She’ll probably take a nap for an hour or two, Logan," replied Jean. "I knew from what she said that medications would affect her strongly. That’s why I only gave her a little. She’d been worried about reacting adversely to anesthesia, too. That’s why she gave you Medical Power of Attorney."
Logan stared, trying to focus on what Jean said even as Marie began to nibble on his earlobe. "She did what? Her parents are alive, why name me?"
Scott snorted. "Gee, maybe she trusts someone who has given his life for her more than once over people she hasn’t seen in a few years. When are you going to get a clue and marry her?"
"Scott!" Jean admonished. "That’s a bit unfair. She’s not ready for marriage, yet."
"If I might interject," began Hank.
Logan simply turned and walked away. Rogue leaned over his shoulder and waved her baggie at the three of them, blowing a kiss at them with her free hand and sticking out her tongue.
Hank looked down. "I believe he and I are in the same predicament."
"How so?" asked Scott.
The large blue mutant raised his head and sighed as he made sure Logan was out of earshot before murmuring, "We’re both not entirely certain that our women will remain with us for long, owing to the variety of other specimens available."
"I think you’d better let Ororo be the judge of that," Jean said as she stroked the big man’s furry shoulder. "I happen to know she and Rogue are extremely happy where they are."
---
Marie awoke sometime later with a splitting headache, a sore jaw, and a sense that quite a few hours had passed. She blinked and looked out the window at the afternoon sunshine. A quick check confirmed that she was curled up on top of her bed, fully dressed, with an afghan and a pillow. She rolled over and stifled a surprised breath. There was Logan, sitting in a chair by her bedside, reading the book on philosophy she had just bought.
He glanced up. "Feel better? Ready for some real conversation?"
"Yes, I’m…" she paused. "Real what? What’re you talkin’ about, Willis?"
Logan cocked an eyebrow in alarm.
Marie closed her eyes briefly against the pain and rolled her stiff shoulders. "Relax. It’s slang from a TV show a while back. Ah remember most of what Ah said, sugar, that stuff just made me say things Ah probably wouldn’t have otherwise." She looked more closely at her bedside table. There was a little glass with green Jell-O in it. "Would you look at that? At least Megan cares about me. She has got to be the sweetest thing."
"Only sometimes and you know it," answered Logan. "This is a pretty interesting book," he said as he closed it. "I wouldn’t mind running into this guy someday."
Marie gawked. "Really? You like it? Ah mean Ah was surprised and all by how logical he makes things sound."
"He never said the world is a circular thing, you know."
"Ah bet he said something like it. We could run over to Vietnam and ask him."
Logan turned to the back of the book jacket. "He lives in Vermont."
"Whatever," Marie sat up and groaned. Then she picked up the glass of water beside the Jell-O, irritated at Logan for some unknown reason. "Have you been watching over me the whole time?" she asked hopefully.
Logan shrugged. "Nope. I had a couple of errands to do."
"Hmmmph. You promised me once that you’d take care of me," she said petulantly. Logan simply tilted his head slightly and quirked a small smile at her, making her want to throttle him. "Ah thought you’d stay with me. The least you could have done was take me up on my proposition."
"About leaving yourself wide open? I seem to recall thinking that it might be more enjoyable if you were more aware of what we’d be doing, darlin’. I’m up for showing you a good time any time you want. I just know you enjoy it more if it’s less about sex and more about love."
Marie blushed. "Ah do and you’re right. Ah’m grumpy as a bear right now. You probably don’t even want to stay with me," she sniffed. The pout Logan could not resist appeared. "Ah don’t suppose Ah could talk you into serving me dinner in bed and watching a movie with me or something, could Ah?"
"Sounds good to me," he said as he rose and leaned over, kissing her tenderly on the forehead. "I’ll go get us something to eat. Anything special?"
"Something soft, of course," she retorted and then said less moodily, "or whatever you can find. I trust you, you know." She laid special emphasis on that last phrase without much hope. She knew he didn’t think she was ready for a lifetime pledge of love, even if she did.
"I know. I heard about that Medical Power of Attorney thing. Sounds like some kind of commitment to me."
"Maybe so, sugar," she replied morosely, "but Ah haven’t seen that kind of a commitment from you."
"I guess you haven’t. I am committed and I’ll be right back with the grub."
She watched him leave and sighed. Marie knew he loved her and wanted to be with her, but she also knew he didn’t want to push her. He still had the feeling that she might change her mind one day, especially since he was all she had ever known. Well, besides that little dating thing with Bobby once. Logan simply didn’t understand that she’d made up her mind and knew what she wanted.
She flopped back on the bed, preparing herself for a miserable evening with her aching mouth and heart when something crumpled underneath her pillow. She must have put the baggie with the teeth under it, but baggies didn’t sound like that. Curious, she reached under it and pulled out a large manila envelope with her name written neatly in Logan’s handwriting. She opened it only to discover many papers, some old and written in French. After studying them, she began to understand these were deeds and receipts under several names relating to property and safety deposit boxes, some dating back almost twenty years. She noticed the papers had a strange smell, somewhat musty. They had been buried somewhere, she was almost sure of it. Logan had dug them up and had given them to her, but why? She came to the last paper and realized what they all meant. It was his will. He had left everything he had to her. Stunned, she put everything back in the packet and took a moment to catch her breath.
He had said he was committed. Now she knew what he meant and she lay back down on her pillow, clutching the envelope to her heart as her tears and happiness made her forget her temper and her teeth.
"Thank you, tooth fairy, wherever you are."
End
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