Waiting is the Hardest Part

Waiting is the Hardest Part (R for language and some mild sexuality)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Mad Queen of Plotbunnies, Ted requests that you save him one piece of candy from the package b/c he's a little homesick... I'm sure you can make him forget all about that, though! ;) Thanks to the archivists for archiving-InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are loverly! Readers/Reviewers: keep in mind this is a possible future for the Forever-verse...hee hee hee.... Thanks to Reimars for the challenge!


Second Trimester


"Jamie, what're you doing in here?" Scott looked up from the motorcycle he was working on as the garage door slammed. "Weren't you going to take Rahne and Kitty in to town to go shopping?"
"Hide me!" the younger maspeasped, eyes wide and cheeks flushed.
Scott abandoned his tools immediately, concern worming to the surface. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Jamie clutched Scott's forearms, a look of beseeching panic on his face. "I just can't do it anymore! I can't!"
"Do what? Jamie, talk some sense!" Scott stopped just short of shaking his friend, opting instead to forcibly move him away from the door and towards a workbench along one wall of the massive garage. "Sit, breathe...do you need some water?" Jamie nodded shakily and for the first time, Scott noticed the disheveled state of his clothing. "Did you get in a fight?"
"No..." he gulped the proffered bottle of water like a man lost in the Sahara.
A pop and a whiff of sulfur announced Kurt's presence before he even spoke. "There you are...Rahne's looking for you, man...What's wrong?"
Scott shrugged. "He won't say. He's freaking out about something..."
"I just can't do it anymore," Jamie repeated, taking a deep breath.
Scott and Kurt exchanged concerned glances. The women were all about four months into their pregnancies, each showing in various stages and having thsocisociated side effects of a mutant expecting. "Jamie," Kurt said with some concern, "you love Rahne...I know this is difficult for you-we're all kind of out of our depth here-but you shouldn't give up just bee yoe you're under stress..."
Jamie made a horrified face. "Shut up! I would never abandon her just because...God, what kind of man do you think I am?"
"Well, what's the problem then?" Scott sighed, relieved on one count.
"She's insatiable! Rahne barely let me out of bed this morning! I swear, I never thought I'd get tired of sex, but this is ridiculous!"
Scott and Kurt tried valiantly to hold in their laughter. Kurt broke first, peals of merriment ringing from the garage roof as he clutched his sides in mirth. Scott joined in soon after, his stomach hurting from the depth of his laughter. "Rahne's run you ragged in bed?" Kurt finally gasped.
"It's not funny! I guess you two haven't had that problem yet, have you?" He sighed. "Just wait...Beast said it tends to happen around this stage, their sex drive goes nuts..."
Scott gasped for air, wiping tears of laughter from his cheeks. "I'll take that problem over those weird cravings any day of the week!"
"Kitty actually ate pickles and ice cream yesterday!" Kurt said, still laughing. "I thought that was an old wives' tale!"
Scott shook his head, sitting next to Jamie. "Jean's got some weird cravings, too...she actually wanted Ramen Noodles today! She hates those things..."
Jamie grimaced. "I just know that, for the past week, Rahne has ravished me every spare chance she got...I think she broke it!"
Kurt snorted. "You're just worn out...Kitty's not at that point yet but let me tell you, she was looking at me awfully strange this morning..."
"Everyone looks at you strange, Kurt," Scott said, earning a cuff on the shoulder for his trouble. "Hey!"
"Just for that, I'm not getting you a beer!" he said huffily, but with a smile to indicate he was kidding. He was gone before Scott could respond.
"Let's go into the kitchen-if we don't stop him, he'll eat all the bacon for lunch..."
"But Rahne..."
"We'll protect you from Big Bad Wifey...It's okay..."

Beast was mildly nervous. In the small waiting area outside his office, Rahne, Kitty, Rogue, Jubilee, Amara, Storm and Jean sat, each staring up at him with earnest eyes and mouths set in anticipation. "Well, all the ultrasounds are finished...who wants to know the gender of their babies?"
"Babies?" Kitty squeaked.
"Calm down...I meant collectively...no one is having twins...no, Rahne, I checked...the baby isn't multiplying in your uterus so don't give me that look!" Beast sighed. "Everyone seems to be developing as normally as can be expected, though, Kitty....there's something you should see..."
Kitty was on her feet, panic clutching at her throat. "What's wrong?" She was still slightly amazed that she was actually carrying a human inside her body and that no one had come to tell her they were taking it away, sorry, you are too young to have this child...
"Nothing's wrong, Kitty..." The other women had risen as one, surging forward towards Kitty, a bond of maternity and friendship striking Beast as a slightly frightening thing. He had a sudden image of a mother lioness mauling the hapless beastie who would try to attack her cubs. "It's just something interesting on your ultrasound..."
She breathed a little easier but clutched tight to Jubilee's arm as she leaned forward, looking at the object in Beast's hands. "What is it?"
"First, do you want to know the gender?"
"No...Kurt and I want it to be a surprise..." she giggled helplessly. "What's on the ultrasound?"
Strategically placing his thumb over a portion of the picture, Beast pointed to a small protrusion. "Your baby has a tail."
Jean giggled first. Kitty was right behind her. Soon all the women were laughing and whooping. "Kurt's definitely the father!" Rogue gasped, wiping her streaking make up from her cheeks.
"Well, Rogue, there's something you should see yourself..." Beast produced a copy of her ultrasound. "Your child has their father's legs..."
Rogue snickered. "That'd explain the hellacious kicking..."
"What about the rest of us?" Jean asked. "I think our significant others are pretty much...um...well..."
"Everyone else has normal-appearing fetuses. Rogue, your child's long legs will no doubt garner few odd looks but otherwise, will appear normal. Kitty, Kurt can no doubt help hide the obvious parts of the mutation... " The other women converged on him as it became apparent that everything was fine and their concern was unwarranted. A buzz of femininity smothered him and, not for the first time, Beast was mildly jealous of the other men in the mansion.

Kitty smoothed lotion over her stomach and sighed. She was showing a little, her daily workouts wite ste students helping slow the inevitable. "Something wrong, Schatz?" Kurt asked, stepping out of the shower to see his fiancée staring forlornly at her bare abdomen.
"Not really...It's kind of silly..."
"Another craving?" he said, groaning inwardly. The cravings she had been getting were enough to put him off food entirely, combinations like pickles and ice cream, peanut butter and onion...he shuddered.
"No..." Kitty snapped the cap back on the lotion and turned to face Kurt. "I just kind of wish I had a really huge belly."
Yellow eyes blinked in a still face. Kurt was not sure whether to laugh outright or ask her to explain. He compromised with "Huh?"
"I told you it was silly..." Kitty took the towel out of his hands and absentmindedly began drying him, something she had found quite relaxing when they first started living together and something he did not mind at all. He usually understood it to be Kitty's unasked request for physical attention when they went to bed, but he had been hesitant since she had become pregnant, part of his mind fearful of hurting his child. "It's just that...I don't _feel _ pregnant, really. I know I am and I can tell that something is going on with my body...but I want to be huge like that fertility goddess statue..."
"The Venus of Willendorf?" he murmured as she lifted first one arm, then the other, drying his fur.
"Yeah, her..." Kitty moved around ts chs chest and pursed her lips in thought.
"So all those years of high school and college, struggling on diets...now you want to be huge?" he teased.
"Humpf." She made a face at him and tickled his ribs, reaching around him to dry his back. "Just for that, I'm not gonna tell you what I found out about the little Elf today..."
Kurt grinned. Kitty had taken to calling their baby the little Elf early in the pregnancy, after taking her tenth urine test "just to make really sure". "Is it an Elf or an Elfette?"
"I told Beast we didn't want to know...that's what we agreed, right?" She paused and tilted her chin up at him. "I can ask him in the morning if you want to know..."
"Nein, nein...what did you find out, Katzchen?" Kurt bit his lip as she dropped to her knees and started drying his legs, avoiding the very part of him responsible for her current state.
"You were mean...I'm not telling..." Kitty smiled, hidden beneath a fall of her hair. Rahne had told them all earlier that afternoon how sex was for her and Jamie now, how she was pretty much insatiable once she got started. _Maybe she's on to something... _ She worked her way down one of Kurt's legs and up the other, stopping when she reached his inner thigh on the other side. "I know how you can make it up to me, though..."
"Oh? sai said roughly, unable to hide his reaction to her presence. "How's that?" Her fingers closed over his length and he sighed. "Oh...I can do that..."
"I'm sure you can," she giggled, rising to her feet but still maintaining her grasp on his member. "Kurt, this baby is going to be just like you."
"How can you tell?" he murmured thickly, backing her against the bathroom counter.
"The ultrasound...it's got a tail..."

"Was that Kurt making that unearthly racket?" Rogue asked, pulling her comforter up to her chin.
Todd snorted. "Sounds like it...I nearly dropped the dishes." Kurt's whoop could be heard across the row of bungalows on the back of the Institute property, ringing through the trees like bells. "Kitty must've told him something good..."
Rogue grinned. Their baby having a tail would thrill Kurt no end, a sure sign that his mutation was not some freak occurrenut aut actually a beneficial trait, passed down to his offspring. "We had our ultrasounds done today...Jamie went into hiding from Rahne so the trip into town was canceled. Beast couee uee us all at once so we converged..."
"Poor guy," Todd said, stretching out on the bed, popping his back in the process. "If I have to slime one more kid, I may scream."
"Why did you keep doing it?" Rogue shut her book and td ond on her side to look up at him.
"They wouldn't shut up..."
"You sound like Logan now," she snickered, shutting off the light and scooting closer. "You know, Rahne told me the most interesting thing today..."
"And what would that be?" He already knew, Jamie having told the whole tale when he saw him at lunch. Kurt and Scott were still sniggg abg about it when Todd came in. _I know that Rogue would leave me on death's door in bed if she had half a chance...not that that's a bad thing... _
"I think it's easier to show you..." She shifted and Todd smiled in the dark.
_Yep...I think I like this pregnant thing... _

Jean was attempting to paint her toenails with little success. "Scott, help."
He sighed and looked up from the term papers he had spread across the desk. "Can it wait? I'm halfway through Esther's report on the Friends of Humanity...she can't spell to save her life!"
Jean felt a surge of hormones and unreasonable tears spring forth. "Fine. See if I try to look nice for you anymore." She closed the polish with a savage twist and flopped back onto the bed, turning her back to Scott with a nagging feeling of guilt. _I'm being stupid... _
"Jean, you're being stupid."
_Thanks for that confirmation... _ "Good night, Scott."
His weight dipped the bed on one side before he moved towards her, his hand coming to rest on the small swell of her abdomen. "Even when you're big as a house, you'll be beautiful to me..."
"You just want to get laid..." she said, but turned towards him with a smile in her eyes.
Scott gulped thinking of Jamie's panicked look. "Well..."
"Don't worry," she murmured, her lips a hair's breadth from his, "I don't have Rahne's energy..."
"How'd you know about that?"
"Girls talk..." she said, brushing her lips over his. "In fact, there's something she said was better than usual during this stage of pregnancy."
Scott's nervousness subsided and was replaced by arousal at Jean's hungry gaze. "And what would that be?" He kissed her deeply then, sweeping his tongue inside her mouth as she opened for him, clutching at his back in pleasure.
When she pulled back, she grinned. "Well, that, actually...only lower..."
Scott grinned. "Never one to refuse a lady..."

"Remy, put me down. I can walk."
"Non. I don' wan' you slippin' an' bustin' yo ass getting' outta dis tub!" Remy had scooped her, soaking wet, from her bath and was transporting her to the bed.
"I'm soaking wet!"
"Fine, fine..." he set her on her feet and said "Stay dere." He came back with her fluffy yellow robe and covered her in it, scooping her up once more and depositing her gently on the bed. "There...not so bad, eh?"
Jubilee sighed. Even after all their years together, Remy could still make her feel like an untried virgin, quaking inside at his glance and touch. "Not bad at all."
Remy lay next to her, rubbing her hip in slow, lazy circles. "You look tired...you getting' yo' iron?"
"Yes, Remy...I'm taking my vitamins, eating right, exercising...the baby and I are fine!"
"Sorry, chere...I love you both too much not ta worry..." Remy sighed and settled his head against her shoulder. "When did we grow up?"
"I think it was a week ago last Tuesday, around three o'clock. _Oprah _ was on..."
"Smart ass..." Remy pushed her robe open and spoke into her navel. "You hear yo' mama? She a smart ass, enfant. She give yo' papa nothin' but grief!"
"But you love it!" she said, nudging him with her knee.
"You know it..." he grinned up at her. He kissed her belly once more and stiffened in surprise as she arched against him. "Chere...you sure that okay for de bebe?"
"Remy, it can't hurt the kid. He or she is perfectly safe in my uterus..." She tugged on his shoulder to drag him up for a kiss. "Beast says they can hear sounds in there you know..." She kissed him again on the chin. "And my feelings affect how the baby feels."
"Why you tellin' me dis?" he said slowly, having a very good idea where she was going.
"I think it'd be a good idea for our child to know what it's like for two people to love each other as much as we do..."
Remy groaned. Jubilee's mouth was skimming over his collarbone and down his chest, her fingers tracing light circles on his back. "Chere..."
"Remy, it'll do 'em good to let 'em know their parents love each other so much..."
He could only nod in agreement as Jubilee's mouth claimed his again.

"Logan, let me in...I'm tired and I want to go to bed."
"Um...a sec." There was another scraping noise and a thump. A muffled curse and then another thump and Storm knocked again.
"Do not make me take this door off the frame, Logan!"
"Just a minute here, 'Ro..."
"What happened to a second?" Her feet were swollen beyond belief and she was a nanosecond away from kicking the door in herself.
Logan flung the door open with a sheepish grin. "Close your eyes."
'I'm too tired for that tonight, love," Storm sighed.
Only a little disappointed, he said, "No...not for that...just close your eyes."
With a sigh, she complied and felt him take her hand. He led her into the sitting area just past her door, maneuvering her around something that had not been there before. She could smell pine resin and fresh paint, sending a pang of nausea through her body. "Logan, please open a window...the smell..." He let go of her hand and she heard the window open, a cold breeze easing the sick feeling in her stomach. "Can I open my eyes now?"
"Go ahead, darlin'..." He stood just out of her line of sight, watching her with assessing eyes. Storm opened first one eye, then the other. Her gasp was all the approval he needed. A new crib stood in one corner, a wooden mobile dangling above it, turning gently in the breeze. There was a playpen nearby and a toy chest, open to reveal a cache of stuffed animals. A changing table to her right held a stack of cloth diapers and onesies.
"Logan..." she said, tears springing to her eyes.
"I, uh...I wanted to make sure this kid got off to a good start. I don't remember my father but...well, damn it, I want to be the best dad this kid could possibly have."
Storm took several steps and sank into a rocking chair, also a new addition to the room, and noticed that the whole place had been painted white and yw, aw, a mural on one wall presenting a lush jungle scene. "How..."
"I kinda got the shop kids to do it...I figure, since you really don't use this room any more except for your study and meditation... You don't mind, do you?"
Storm rose unsteadily and took his hand, pulling him into an embrace. "Logan, take me to bed."
'I thought you were too tired..." Her kiss was all the answer he need. "Guess not..."

Lance waited to come home until he was sure Amara was in bed. Their bedroom light had been off for an hour before he ventured in, steps silent on the thick carpet. "Amara?" he whispered, just to make sure. She was on her back, one arm flung over her head and the other clutching a ragged tissue. Her face still bore salty tracks from tears. "I'm an ass," he murmured, more to himself than to her. She made a noise in her sleep that sounded like agreement and he smiled faintly. Kneeling by her bedside, he pushed the covers aside gently, careful not to wake her. Placing his fingers on the small swell in her usually flat abdomen, Lance took a deep breath and began. "Look, I know I've made your mom pretty pissed lately...sorry about that. I'm just scared is all...I know it's hard for you to understand. I don't know if you can even comprehend words yet..." He looked up at Amara again but her breathing was still slow and even, so he pressed on. "My old man was a bastard. He used to beat me up a lot and he was a jack off to my mom...Kid, I don't want to be that way. I have a temper, though, and I'm afraid I won't be able to control myself or something. I know, I know...stupid of me, huh?" Lance sighed and settled more comfortably, his words ghosting across Amara's stomach. "She showed me the ultrasound today. I couldn't think of what to say. It's like my mind went blank...Kid, I love you so much. I don't even know you and I love you. I'm not good at showing it...just ask your mom about that. It's hard for me to show how I feel unless it's anger... Your mom helped change that when we were much younger. But Kid, I don't know...I'm worried. You're mom is pretty mad at me and I don't know how to fix it. I want to show her how I feel, that I don't hate her for having you and that I really want you here. Bad. I even went to the store and bought all these ridiculous baby clothes today...how the hell do yo know what size you guys are? I hope you're small, cause that's what I got..." Lance sighed and pressed a kiss to the swell. "I love you. I may not act like it, but I do..."
Amara's voice murmured into the darkness, "If you think I'm going to let you call our child Kid, you've got another think coming..."