A series by November

Chapter 11: Men, Snow and Otherwise

Thanksgiving came. As always around the holidays Rogue’s thoughts turned to Logan and she felt a tight faint pain in her chest, wondering where he was. If he was safe and warm and okay.

On Thanksgiving day the entire staff and faculty of the school attended a grand dinner with the students who remained for the break. There were about fifty people. Each person went around the room and said what they were thankful for, as was Xavier’s tradition.

Rogue was thankful for friends, for the professor, and for "her" little girl. Maggie was thankful for turkey and gummi bears.

Scott and Jean had been shooting each other secretive glances, holding hands. When it was his turn, he stated that he was also thankful for turkey and gummi bears, but also because the lovely Dr. Grey was going to do him the honor of being his wife.

Everyone cheered and applauded and raised a glass in honor of the couple.

Later, the boys pushed the sofas from all three lounges into the ballroom with the big screen TV. While students and faculty alike watched football in a turkey-binge stupor, Jean asked Rogue, Kitty, Jubilee, and Storm to be bridesmaids. They passed a bridal magazine back and forth, debating the merits of different dresses. Maggie sat on Carter’s lap and they watched football. Outside, it began to snow.

The next day when Maggie woke there was a thick blanket of snow all around. She bounced into Rogue’s bed and woke her. Rogue, who had been studying until three, groaned unhappily.

They went onto the front lawn and Marie showed Maggie how to make a snowball and roll it until it was big enough to make a snowman. Then Xavier’s little niece Gillian, who was visiting for the week, came to join them. Then some of the teenagers came too.

When it was done there were about five snowmen. "Now we’ve got to accessorize them." Rogue said. The teenagers went to scavenge for various items, then came back and began to dress them as different X-men. They put shades with red nail polish on one for Scott. The students who had been there longest, who actually remembered Logan, embedded long folded pieces of tinfoil so that they protruded from the thorax of one of the snow people, to be Wolverine’s claws. One of the girls embedded pieces of rock in their faces for eyes and Swedish fish for lips. They put a yellow shirt on one of them and made the eyes somewhat slanted.

Rogue took a smaller snowball and made a little snow-girl. She then took the food coloring the girls had brought and proceeded to dye the hair blue. It was a little snow Maggie.

Meanwhile more of the staff and students came out. Another snowman was erected and given red Swedish-fish eyes and a deck of cards.

Storm brought the professor out onto the lawn, manually pushing his wheelchair through the snow. He saw the motley snow-crew and threw his head back and laughed. "I think we’ve started a winter tradition," he said, chuckling. "That snow-Wolverine is the most pathetic thing I think I’ve ever seen."

Carter also came out to inspect the snowmen. He saw his likeness with a wrench and black hair and said "I look like freakin’ Trent Reznor."

"You say that like it’s a bad thing," Rogue smiled.

"No one’s built a Snow-Rogue?"

She surveyed the nine or so snow people. "I guess not."

"Carter, you should build one," Xavier said, eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Do you have a skunk we could put on its head?" Carter asked. She lunged and he remembered belatedly that he didn’t yet have her combat training. She ground snow into his face, down his pants, until he cried uncle.

Scott wandered out onto the lawn to see what was going on. He was quite amused.

"Scott, I think they nailed your likeness pretty well." Scott scooped up some snow and playfully tossed it at the Professor. It disintegrated about two feet from Xavier’s face and the residue blew back toward Scott.

"You just threw a snowball at the wrong man, son." Xavier said, grinning. He sat absolutely still, and without warning several snowballs materialized and flew out from behind the chair. This time Scott got a face full of snow, and it was Rogue’s turn to laugh. She had her camera and captured the moment for posterity, much to Scott’s dismay.

Xavier was still grinning and three more snowballs manifested and flew toward Scott. Jean saw them coming in their direction and without thinking deflected them each in a different direction. Two fell back into the snow, but one hit Carter in the face.

"Say cheese!" Rogue yelled, giggling as she took his picture.

"You little bitch!" he lunged after her. Rogue yelped with laughter, squealed and ran. He reached down to scoop up snow and hurled it at her.

What he wasn’t prepared for was just how well Rogue had trained. She moved in a zigzag line, then darted around the building and hid behind a rose trellis. When he came bolting around the corner she threw a snowball at his head. He yelled and grinned and she sprinted into the rose garden, taking advantage of the shoulder length hedges to duck and hide.

He could never catch her if she didn't want to be caught. And she knew the layout of the rose garden, which he didn’t. She scurried behind a rose bush and waited until he ran by. Then she tackled him, bombarding him with a handful of snow. He went down on his side, with her on top of him.

"Oof."

"So you wanted to catch me, huh?" She grinned, sprinkling snow down on his face. He winced and the snow caught on his eyelashes.

"Yeah." His cheeks were red and his hair was jet black against the snow.

He was a absolutely quiet for about three seconds, and then he growled and she was suddenly on her back, with him on top. He wasn’t touching her except for where he had her pinned - at her shoulders with his forearm and at her feet.

Her eyes were huge. He had growled at her. She didn’t know he had it in him. And she didn’t want to think about why that excited her.

They were both very quiet. She thought she could hear the snow fall.

"So what are you gonna do with me, now that ya’ve got me?" She said cockily.

"You‘re the one who tackled me!"

"Oh yeah. True." she said dumbly.

"So really I should be asking you what you’re gonna do with me." He grinned.

"Carter, shut the fuck up and kiss me!"

He kissed her hard, laughing all the while.

Just after Thanksgiving, Rogue drove into Dean Tierney’s office. He drafted the paperwork for her to request to adopt Maggie and it was filed shortly before Christmas.

Rogue never questioned her decision, not when finals rolled around and she was frantically spending every night studying. She was absolutely in love with Maggie and happier than she’d ever been.

She could not remember ever being so excited about Christmas as she was this year. Kitty and Jubilee came over and helped her decorate the tree. She baked more cookies than she and Maggie could ever eat. She bought Maggie an obscene number of presents, with her own money and Xavier’s, and wrapped them after Maggie had gone to bed.

It was around this time that she started thinking of herself as a mother, even though Maggie called her Miss Rogue. The custody hearing was set for July 11, an interminably long time away, and Rogue tried hard not to think about what would happen if her petition were denied.

On Christmas eve after Maggie had gone to sleep, she unlocked the hall closet and began putting presents under the tree. When she was done she was exhausted, and she fell into bed.

Before sleeping, she thought of Logan. As always wondered where he was, what he was doing. Whether he thought of her. Anger flared, calmed to sadness before she fell under the mantle of sleep.