X-Men Fiction

Seasoned: Part 13

Disclaimer: Recognizable characters are Marvel's, not mine. Just playing.

+++++

A/N: Last chapter for this one, peeps! As for the event near the end – I do not pretend to be an expert. I did as much research as a search engine would allow, and the rest is my vivid imagination.

Thanks, everybody. Smootchies to you all!

+++++

Jubilee's Very Own White Picket Fence

Night was falling over the marketplace that Sumeeta got her goods from. She was keeping company with her troop of boys before heading back to the dilapidated factory that she, Jubilee and the Colonel were living in. She was leaning on a bench, and laughing with the hookers as they tried to lure one of her boys for a 'ride around the block'. The boy's name was Ogotai. He was small for his age, but twice as smart as the rest of Susie's little scouts. And he was a mutant, with an undeveloped ability to make things disappear for a short time. It came in very handy when she needed food; Ogotai simply picked up a piece of fruit or bread, making it vanish, and walked away. She didn't relish the thought of leaving him behind, as she had already taken him under her wing – literally. A 132 pound eagle could lift a little fella like Ogo sky high. The way he giggled when she flew him over the dingy city at night was worth all the energy it took to do it.

<Come on, Ogo! Be a man! Tegin will not bite you!> The hooker teased him as he stood with his hands in his pockets, blushing like crazy, and her older partner scoffed.

<No, Tegin will not bite… Unless you pay her to!>

Susie put her hands on her knees and bent over, laughing her head off. These people were rude, dirty, starving and uneducated. They were also honest and dependable. She knew that the three of them never would have made it without their help.

<That is enough, Tegin – the poor boy is going to die of embarrassment before he is old enough to date!> She laughed, pulling Ogo away by his sweaty palm, and they headed for the market. Susie was in her usual guise – a teenage boy, although she made herself up with a different face everyday.

She slung an arm around his thin shoulders and grinned. <Miss Jubilee wants something sweet. How about a cantaloupe… and some fudge?!>

The boy's eyes lit up. <Can I have some too?>

He nodded and ran off to find the treasures. Susie sighed. She hated teaching him to use his mutant ability to steal… but it was better than the alternatives. Most boys his age wound up running drugs, or worse.

She rounded a corner to hide in her usual spot while waiting for Ogo to return, when something grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her feet, slamming her into a brick wall.

<You boy where's at Chinese woman?!> The stocky, hairy man's Mongolian was pitiful, but he got his point across. The adamantium claw poking dangerously close to the youth's Adam's apple might have helped.

"Put me down! I can't breathe!" The youth choked out.

Logan was so angry, it didn’t register that the kid was speaking the King's English, but Kurt noticed. "Wolverine!" He yelled, "Put him down!"

"He's got Jubes' scent all over him! He's covered in it! What have ya been doin' ta my girl?!" The last part came out as a growl, but the boy didn’t appear to back down.

"Of course I smell like Jubilee! I'm wearing her old shirt!" Sumeeta's voice managed to hiss its way out, then she morphed into a snake and slipped through Logan's fingers. Wolverine backed away with a curled lip and watched as the snake turned clear, then manifested back into Susie's natural form. She rubbed her throat and tried to steady her breathing. "Jubilee was right about you, Logan." She winced. "You've a temper to go with those claws."

Logan's shoulders slumped in an embarrassed fashion. "You're Sumeeta, I take it?"

Ogotai suddenly appeared, and dropped the food he was carrying. He ran up to Kurt and kicked him in the shin. While the teleporter was leaning over, groaning and rubbing his leg, Ogo barreled his little head into Logan's stomach, pummeling his fists on the man's chest.

"Hey! Get the hell offa me, kid!" Logan held the kid at bay easily, pushing him back with one huge hand to his face. Sumeeta shot him an angry glance and reached out to pull the boy to her. <Ogo, it's okay. These are friends of Jubilee. They are here to help. Go take all the fudge home, all right? And I'll see you tomorrow.> She smiled at the boy warmly, patting him on the cheek. He nodded to her, looking far too stern for a boy his age. As he passed them to leave, he hit Logan in the gut with a tiny fist (which did nothing) and kicked Kurt in his other leg (earning a second yelp from him). Muttering a slew of curses in Mongolian, the boy grabbed the fudge, shooting daggers at the men the entire time, until he turned around and ran off.

Susie crossed her arms and glared at the wall of muscle in front of her. "You and I are not getting off on a good foot, Mister Wolverine."

"Logan, you are supposed to be working on controlling your temper, not letting it run rampant!" Kurt tskd in his throat and apologized to Sumeeta, giving his teammate a scolding glance. She smiled at the strange priest as he actually bowed with his introduction.

"Wow. Gallant. How refreshing." She gave Logan yet another depreciative look.

He grunted out an apology to Susie, and looked at his feet. "I'm sorry. I'm just worried 'bout Jubes."

"Well, you should be. She's brave and crazy. That is never a stable combination."

"Is she safe? Can ya take me to her?" The man's impatience was also running away with him.

"She's fine, for now. Colonel Fury has helped us. We were expecting his colleague, however - with a ride home."

"They ain't comin'." Logan crossed his arms defiantly. He was getting quite used to both receiving and giving bad news, and he just wanted everyone else to roll with it the same as he did. But then, their minds weren't on a single track like his was as of late. All his head had to offer was 'Jubilee, Jubilee'. Kurt scoffed to himself. It was easy to 'roll with it' when all you had was one goal. At least, that was the lecture he was going to give Logan when they got back to Westchester.

"They aren't coming? You actually said that, yes?" The two men nodded solemnly. Susie glared at them for a moment, then looked away and cursed quietly. "Great… That's just fucking peachy."

***

The night air was unexpectedly chilly for Mongolia, and the warehouse district was very poorly lit. Nick barely saw the figures approaching below the dirty window. He did a double take, at first glancing down at Logan and Kurt walking behind Susie, then he gaped. He glanced over at Jubilee nervoulsly, who was oblivious to the visitors. Should he tell her that her boyfriend had arrived? Should he let Logan find out he was about to be a father with no warning? And, oh, the yelling. There was going to be lots of yelling… with these two, of that he had no doubt.

Nick sighed. He set his Styrofoam cup of warm coffee on the dilapidated windowsill and attempted to look casual as he walked past Jubilee.

"Hey… Colonel? What's up? Where ya goin?" She paused in devouring her orange slices and watched him leave.

"Nuthin'. Stay here. Gonna go walk the perimeter," he barked at her. Jubilee watched him open and shut the door, and heard him descend down the flight of stairs.

"Sheesh! What a crab-ass!" She shrugged, and grabbed his abandoned bag of peanuts.

***

Nick stopped them at the base of the stairs leading up to the foreman's office that the three fugitives had been bunking in together. He blurted out a few questions, and Logan blurted back his replies. Nick nodded his head curtly until Logan got to the part about how there was no rescue party coming.

"The hell there isn't! Carter was supposed to pick you up and then come'n get us!"

"Change o' plans, Nicky. That gal's got some serious SHIELD issues that she needs to discuss with you. But fer now, we're it."

Nick swallowed hard. They couldn't wait forever. Jubilee was too close to giving birth.

That thought made him straighten up suddenly. Her being pregnant was something Logan didn’t even know about yet. Noticing the change in his posture, Wolverine eyed the old soldier. "What?" he asked.

Nick growled, popping his last cigar stub back between his lips. "Nuthin'. Let's move."

Logan took the stairs behind Nick, sniffing him. He curled his lip back. "Uh… Nicholas? You got somethin' ya wanna tell me old man?"

Nick looked back at him, already irritated, but now more so with the mutant's sarcastic tone. "Huh?"

"You takin' up wearin' perfume since we last met? Cuz ya smell like a whorehouse." Logan grinned at him nastily and Susie squeaked out a laugh. Fury narrowed his good eye at her. "Any other new girlie habits you got goin' on? Ya wearin' panties, too?"

"Cripes, just… Aw, nevermind!" Nick bellowed as he climbed the stairs, the three of them in tow. Suddenly, Logan stopped grinning and rushed past Nick, his nose giving all the orders now. "Logan – what the hell?"

"I can smell her! Lemme past!" Wolverine had the happiest look on his face Nick Fury had ever seen since he had known the man. Still, he wouldn’t move… not just yet.

"Hey, look… As yer buddy, I just wanna prepare ya fer what yer gonna see in there." Fury stood in front of the door, and put a hand on Logan's shoulder, trying to get him to stop. Their eyes locked, as they had many times before, in brotherly confrontation. He could feel the force of the shorter man in his palm, like a tightened coil just aching to be released.

With a dangerous gleam in his blue eyes, Logan's voice dropped low and quiet. "I said, lemme past, Fury. Yer wearin' on my last Goddamn nerve." He didn’t wait for the okay and pushed Nick out of the way roughly.

Defeated, the SHIELD agent tossed his hands in the air. "All right, already… Just don’t say I didn’t try…" he sighed. Susie giggled quietly behind her hand in the background. Kurt looked at the pretty girl, frowning in confusion.

Logan swung the door to the office open quickly, stepping in with a wide grin. And there he stopped, dead in his tracks. In the dim light of a kerosene lantern, his future wife stood before him; small, young, and…

Pregnant?!

"Ju… Jubes…?"

She was munching on the roasted peanuts and wearing a huge, dirty t-shirt that only served to emphasize the roundness of her belly. Jubilee dropped the bag along with her jaw.

"Hey… them'r my nuts," Nick muttered.

"Oh. My. God…" she finally gasped, smiling.

Logan took a few unsure steps forward, glancing from her face to her stomach. "Is that… Are ya…?"

"Holy Father! Jubilee… Sind Sie schwanger?!" Kurt gasped, made the sign of the cross, then nearly started laughing as well. No one got Logan as close to stammering as the little firecracker, and this time she actually did it.

Nick rolled his eyes and shook his head, ushering the others back down the stairs. "Well, shit… let's just leave 'em to it," he muttered, shutting the door and walking Susie and Kurt back down the stairs and outside.

"Wolvie!" Jubilee shouted ecstatically, closing the gap between them. He hugged her as close as he dared around her bulging stomach, even lifting her off the ground with some effort. "Oh man! I was so scared you were hurt or captured!" She clung to his neck and shut her eyes, squealing in her excitement. Logan set her down and looked her face over, breathing a very long sigh of relief. He put a calloused, thick hand on her stomach, and rubbed back and forth, noting how smooth the plane of her belly was. The skin was taught and very warm. She shrugged impishly when he looked back at her, and he was smiling like a complete idiot.

Most of his language had left him, but he managed a whisper. "How'n the hell…?"

"I dunno, Logan. I just don't. I've done the math over and over, and I can't be any further along than four months." She smiled and looked down at his hand on her stomach, grateful that he had the chance to do that before the baby was born. Just seeing and feeling his hand right there was a thing she had envisioned… hoped for, desperately, and more times than she could have counted since she knew she was pregnant. Now, here he was…

She thought about how what lay beneath his palm was a life that was a complete mix of the two of them. It was so simple and so amazing, both at the same time. Jubilee looked up at him again, watching the elated expression on his face as he stared at her belly. He met her gaze and grinned back at her. She put her own hand on top of his, stroking the knuckles with her slender fingers.

"Aw, Wolvie…" Jubilee's voice cracked, tears formed in the corners of her eyes, and she fell to whispering. "I missed ya like crazy…"

His nostrils flared and his throat tightened up, both being warning signs that his own unshed tears were threatening to fall. Then his gaze fell to her hand, and he lifted it up, taking up her other one in his free hand as well. He looked down at the back of her hands as they lay in his palms, noting their bony appearance… and he frowned. Logan stepped forward and pulled up the back of her shirt without warning.

"Wolvie! What?!"

He saw what he expected to see: her ribs were poking out, just enough to give him pause. He growled, stepping back and taking her shoulders in his hands.

"What the hell did they do ta you? Did they fuck with the kid to get it to grow faster?" Wolverine's eyes narrowed dangeroulsy. "Did they hurt you?!" The force of his words startled her for a moment. She stared at him wide-eyed, afraid that if she told him everything, his anger would flare up so badly that he'd leave her there to seek out whoever was left of her captors and disembowel them.

When she found her voice it was quiet and nervous. She put a trembling hand to his cheek and her blue eyes darted back and forth between his. "They're all dead now, Logan. None of that matters… we're together. Please don't start yelling… And don’t you ever call this baby an 'it'."

***

Outside, Kurt finished filling Nick in on the situation. "Agent Carter zaid she would tell Cyclops where we are as soon as she landed. We just have to stay put and wait for ze X-Men to get ze chance to come get us."

Nick scoffed. This was going nowhere fast. "Oh yeah? Stay put, huh… You seen the size o' that kid's gut lately?"

Sumeeta groaned, leaning forward and burying her face in her palms. "Ohhhh… I wanted to sleep in a nice, clean bed tonight, Nick. Dammit."

Kurt glanced at her, while Fury rubbed her back briskly. "I know, Suse. Me too."

***

"Don't you ever hesitate ta call Xavier's - an' I mean first - fer help! If you'da started with the X-Men like you should have, none o' this crap with the PHP and Nick havin' ta rescue yer ass woulda happened! Goddammit, Jubilation!" He slammed his fist against an inside wall, and broke through it easily.

"Turn down the volume, would ya Wolvie?! Cripes!"

Her tears had been abandoned like a soap opera rerun, and Jubilee's anger quickly rose to meet his own - along with her voice. She placed her fists on her hips defiantly and glared at him. "I did what I thought was best! An' it didn't work! So sue me!"

"I can't sue ya if yer dead! An' that's just it!" He turned on her now, growling and yelling at her all at once. "You did not do what ya thought was best - you did what ya figgered would make you look more grown-up and independent to yer former teammates! Takin' a chance to prove somethin' ta somebody ain't no way to run a mission, girl! That was stupid, Jubes! Totally stupid!"

She grabbed the back of a folding chair and threw it out of her way roughly. It landed near Logan's boots. "What the hell is that about?! I don't gotta prove a goddamn thing to you, Logan! I already know that!"

"I ain't talkin' about me, Darlin'!" He kicked the chair out of his way, and grabbed her by her shoulders again. "I know what yer doin', cuz I was doin' the same damn thing! Yer just as scared about the way that Jean an' Storm an' the rest of them narrow-minded X-ninnies are gonna react to you havin' my kid, as I was to them gettin' all snobby about you an' me just bein' together!"

She scoffed at his words. "How do you know that? I didn't even know I was pregnant until after I got captured!" She inhaled sharply, as if to yell at him further, then suddenly stopped.

***

The cool Mongolian air was a welcome relief to the remaining members of the company that had to listen to Jubilee and Logan screaming at each other. They were leaning on a rusted rail next to a polluted industrial river. They winced as they heard Jubes screaming, all the way through the door upstairs and the brick wall of the building. The kid was doing a great job keeping up with Logan.

Kurt looked at Fury strangely. "Ah, Colonel…? Did Logan really just use de verd 'ninnies'?"

Fury grinned in the dark, in a way that made the fuzzy elf slightly nervous. "I believe he did."

The three of them looked at each other for a moment, then busted up laughing.

"The path to true love is never an easy one," Sumeeta said with a smile on her face, though her voice was sad.

"Hell… you can say that again, Sweetheart," Nick took one last drag on his dwindling cigar and tossed the little stub into the river that was attempting to flow next to the building. It made a barely audible hiss when it touched the surface.

Kurt put his head in his hands and groaned. "Ach… I don’t vant to talk about true love…" Fury snorted a laugh at the blue man. Everything got quiet, then Kurt suddenly brightened. "Listen! Zey aren't yelling at each other anymore!"

"Hey! Hey! We need… Uh, we gotta…" They turned to see Logan standing in the door of the dingy building. He had the most confused, frustrated look on his face they had ever seen. "Aw, fer fuck's sake! Jubes' water broke!" He tore back into the structure, and the startled trio blinked at each other. Then they got up and followed Logan, running into the building.

***

Jubilee was about to become two people, and they needed a lift home. Just waiting for Sharon to contact Xavier's wasn't going to cut it anymore. They needed another way back to the States, and fast. That required the Blackbird and the X-Men. And that required a cell phone.

Hopefully, the X-Men would find them before the FOH did.

Nightcrawler elected himself to leave the deserted group of buildings and steal one. He had no idea where he was going to get one, but they had little choice. He had bamfing and his ability to crawl around on the walls, and the advantage of near-invisibility in the dark on his side. He left before any of them could object.

Sumeeta stood at Jubilee's right, trying to calm her with her soft voice and soothing words. It didn't help that her fiancé was screaming nervously at her other side.

"Dammit! I wanted fer us ta be married before this happened!" Logan growled angrily. "Ya ain't even - oh! Here! Before I ferget!" Logan's shaking hands let go of hers and he nervously pulled something out of the pocket of his jeans, like a man trying to get to his car keys in a downpour. He winced, and unfolded a small piece of fabric that looked like it used to be one of Jubilee's hair scrunchies. Low and behold, he produced her engagement ring, along with a shaky smile. "You put this back on. At least be wearin' it when the baby comes out."

Jubilee attempted a weak but happy smile and grunted as he slipped the ring back onto her finger. Her hands proved to be much thinner than they were as the ring circled her finger loosely. She looked at it nervously. "Ohhhh, It ain't gonna fall off, is it?"

Sumeeta yanked a pinky ring off of her hand that she had found in the streets and slipped it onto Jubilee's ring finger, right in front of the engagement ring. "There, that'll hold it in place!"

"Gnnnh… Wolvie," Jubilee panted, grabbing at the collar of his shirt, "Was that my neon pink scrunchie you kept it in? I was wondering where that stupid thing went… Gnnnnnh!"

He brushed a thumb over her forehead and cleared away the sweat. "Yeah… it smells like yer shampoo. I decided to keep it. Eh, well… I kinda couldn’t let it go. Sorry," he gave her a sheepish glance. She smiled back at him full of affection. Then she clenched her eyes shut as another contraction overtook her.

"Arrrrrrhgghhghh!"

"Aw, Jubes, I'm sorry I yelled at ya, baby! This is all my fault! Shit!"

"Stop it Wolvie, just ferget it… We can talk abo-ggnnnnnnhhh!" She scrunched up her face and bore down purely on reflex. Then she stopped and breathed, in synch with Sumeeta. She was trying her best to coach the smaller woman with what little she knew about Lamaze. And what she did know, she had learned from watching an episode of er.

They'd cut Jubilee out of her loose cotton pants and got her on a folding table in a kneeling position. Sitting on the dented chair between her knees, Fury glanced at her progress, partially hidden under Logan's Jacket. With the nearly invisible Nightcrawler out looking for a phone, he was the only one left with actual experience in helping a woman give birth. "Okay, yer enough dilated that there's no turning back," he said nervously, not at all liking the idea of staring at Jubilee's privates, let alone touching them, no matter the situation and no matter how grown-up she had already proven herself to be. Part of him still saw her as that little kid, especially since she was in pain. If that made him one of Logan's 'narrow-minded ninnies', so be it. He was already an asshole. Being a ninny couldn't hurt.

He smiled apologetically at Jubilee. "The Elf's gonna swipe a phone just as fast as he can, Sweetheart. We'll get the X-Guys here in no time!"

"That's nice," she drawled, biting her lip. "Cuz I want an American beer. A big, fuckin' American beer!"

"Yeah, I know the feelin'," Fury muttered.

Kurt suddenly bamfed back into the room, startling Sumeeta. "Entschuldigung, Fräulein," he said quietly, handing her what looked like a common turkey baster. She looked at it, then frowned at Fury, who nodded reassuringly. "Yes, she is already in labor. Just get here now!" He rolled his yellow eyes and looked over at the others. "I called zem as soon as I got a few phones. Zey are triangulating our position now. All we can do is hope that zey get here before the PHP or the FOH does." He went back to the first phone, turning a little green as he saw Jubilee squeeze Logan's hand and grunt loudly. "Ach… Cyke, mein Freund, you had better hurry…" Nightcrawler switched it off, and grabbed a flare out of Fury's bag and went outside. He'd keep calling on the four phones he had swiped, and as soon as the Blackbird was within range, he was to light the flare. Jubilee's plasma bursts were the favored signal choice, but her powers were still too weak to set one off.

And… she was a little busy.

***

In the same facility that had held Sumeeta, a young, nondescript FOH soldier ran into his superior's office with a printout. "Sir, we have a loose signal."

"How far away?"

"Not sure yet. It appears to be several different phones; they keep switching. But they can't be far."

"Well get a lock on it, Goddammit! If they are risking a cell call, then they must be on their way out. We need to get to them before their ride does. And call McClelland in California. If he wants his prize he better be ready for it."

"Yes sir!" The young man ran back to his station.

***

Fury lifted up Logan's jacket again and peeked. Then he frowned. He reached inside and felt something out of their view, making Jubilee jump slightly.

"Nick - hey!" growled Logan, "What are ya… oh yeah, I guess ya gotta do that."

Fury winced. "Aw, cripes!" He looked away from their faces, staring only at the task in front of him.

"What now?" Jubilee, Logan and Susie all shouted in unison.

"Ahh, well…"

Logan swallowed hard. Fury never hesitated. Ever. So this had to be bad.

"Jus' spit it out, Nicholas!" Logan gripped Jubilee's hand harder in his frustration.

"Owch! Dude! My hand, okay?!" She whined, and he apologized quickly as he lessened his grip.

"Aw jeez Jubes sorry sorry sorry!" Logan repeated himself spastically. Never in her life had Jubilee seen him this nervous before.

Fury placed his palm on Jubilee's stomach and spoke as calmly as he was able. "The kid's comin' out butt first."

"Oh Brahma, no…" Sumeeta groaned.

"Breech?! Dear God," muttered Logan, burying his face in Jubilee's damp hair.

What else can go wrong?!

Jubilee strained to yell at Fury. "That's cuz he's tellin' ya to kiss his ass just like her old lady does!" Despite her pain and fear, she managed a small laugh at her choice of words - she'd called her not-yet-determined child a boy and a girl in the same sentence. "Now get your ham-hands in there and turn things around!"

"Yes Ma'am," said Fury, containing a smile. Leave it to the tiniest member of this 4-way circus to be in charge. Soon to be the second tiniest, if he had anything to do with it.

He'd never delivered a breech birth before. His time in the field had seen him deliver three babies total, but they had all come out head first, and to women that were seasoned in the act. Jubilee, for all her experience, was still new to this. She had a vague concept of what had to be done, but she also knew that Nick was the one that actually had to do it. All he could think about now, was that he was going to have to put his hands inside the privates of his best friend's wife, not just coax a baby out the easy way. His friend… that also had a berserker temper and adamantium claws to go with it. Fury swallowed, and did what he knew he had to.

"Get her off her knees, and no more pushing. Flat on yer back, Jubilation, now."

"Why!?" Logan screamed. "What the hell for?!"

"Cuz we don't need gravity helpin' us right now, Logan! We need time." Logan frowned, but complied, and with Sumeeta's help, they transferred Jubilee quickly from kneeling to laying down on the table, with her screaming angrily all the way. Fury parted her knees, and his hands disappeared from everyone's view. He leaned in even closer to her, and all Logan saw was his face.

"Whoa!" Jubliee started.

Fury's expression was at first unreadable. Then it changed to confusion, shock, and finally embarrassment. He was manipulating the baby's body with his eyes closed at that point.

"Fer crissakes, don't close yer eyes, man! Lookit what yer doin'!"

"I don't need to look! It ain't like I never had my hands in one o' these before!"

"Don't get cute, Fury! Ya ain't never had yer hands in hers before, an' that's my kid yer holdin'!!" Logan snarled at him.

"Do you wanna do this?" Fury bellowed back, honest anger flashing in his eyes. "Cuz if you do, just say the fuckin' word an' I'll step asi-!"

"Listen, you Goddamn Spy-boy Mother Fu-"

"Shut up! Shut up before I kill the both of you! Aaaauauauuughghh!" Jubilee winced as she screamed with another involuntary push. Susie's head stopped bobbing back and forth between the bickering men, and they all looked at Jubilee.

"DON'T PUSH!" The three of them yelled at her in unison.

"Okay. Okay. Calm down, girl, I gotta get the kid turned around before you can do that again, all right?" Fury readjusted the position of his hand, locating the baby's feet and the umbilical cord; it was thankfully not wrapped around the child's neck or anything worse like that. His fingers had drifted near the baby's genitals and he had to force himself not to reveal the sex - cuz they still wanted to be surprised. Everything was warm and wet and slimy, and the walls of her birth canal were surprisingly strong as his knuckles slid against them. He managed to get the baby's tiny buttocks pushed back in with his free hand, and then on the inside, he easily slipped the baby's feet back toward the direction of Jubilee's chest. Thankfully it was a small baby, because Nick's hand was large, and this was Jubilee's first. She groaned aloud, and Logan whispered in her ear.

"Don't push babe, not just yet… I know it's hurtin' bad, but ya gotta ride it out." She nodded, whimpering, and turned her head to where her face was buried in his sweaty neck. "That's my girl," he said encouragingly. "Nicholas knows what he's doin'. It won't be long now." The last words were uttered looking up at his longtime friend, with hope in his nervous blue eyes that he was telling the truth. Fury nodded his head in agreement; this was not a thing he had a lot of time to do. The baby had to come out.

"It'll be alright, Jubes… you're strong, your baby is strong, just do as the Colonel tells you." Susie stroked her other hand and cooed at Jubilee despite the tears in her eyes.

Fury slid his hand down to where he was holding the baby's neck and back in one large palm, and maneuvered it towards the opening. Then he looked down, and saw a crown of thick back curls resting in his palm, both of which were still buried inside of Jubilee.

He slid his palm out slowly, saying, "Okay, now, Jubilee, push!" Fury smiled and looked down as his handiwork came into fruition. With every clench, with every grunt, she was closer. "More, don't stop now," he shouted gleefully. Suddenly the baby's head popped out, and Fury grabbed the stolen turkey baster from Sumeeta, and sucked the fluid out of the child's mouth. Almost immediately the baby started to scream displeasure at being yanked from mommy's protective womb. Nick smiled unabashedly from ear to ear, the cheesiest grin on his face that Logan had ever seen.

"One more, girl - one more big one and yer baby's out! Come on, Jubes, lemme have it!"

Yelling all the way, she squeezed Logan's fingers so hard it almost hurt the big man. Then with a sudden rush of healthy newborn and warm, sticky liquid, the baby was finally out.

"It's a boy!"

***

The blackbird had landed just after Logan and Nick had gotten everything cleaned up as best as they could, and the baby was resting comfortably in Jubilee's tired arms. Logan stood right behind her, giving her something warm to lean on, and Fury was actually cooing at the infant who had his tiny fingers wrapped around the big man's pinky.

Logan heard the jet, as did they all, and he looked over at Fury with his son. "Heads up, Nicky – ya don't wanna be caught actin' all gooey over a baby," he teased.

"Aw, the hell with that. I wanna gush over my Godson."

Hank and Besty came rushing in first, with all the equipment of a proper, medically supervised birth being dragged behind them on a cart. They looked flushed and horrified.

"Wha… Where…," was all the big blue scientist could manage.

Kurt and Sumeeta followed behind them, shaking their heads and smiling. Everything was already over.

"Too late, Blue… He was in a hurry," Jubilee smiled, turning the baby towards Hank slightly. All he could see was a very tiny pink face and a shock of black hair, peeking out of a garment that looked suspiciously like Nicholas Fury's standard issue SHIELD sweatshirt.

Nick cleared his throat. "Now. Let's get the hell outta here before the neighbors get any funny ideas."

***

The same young soldier that had traced the call to the warehouse spoke into his headset on a secure, private line. "They're gone, Sir. We just missed them." He kicked over a bucket that held some soapy water. Fury's cold coffee was still sitting on the windowsill and bloodied rags were strewn across a folding table.

Back in Washington DC, Congressman Wentworth spoke matter-of-factly into his speaker phone. "Your FOH superior?"

"Angry. As expected."

"The PHP Rep?"

The young SHIELD agent nearly laughed. "Angrier, Sir."

"All right. None of that is of any consequence. You did your job well, Agent. When you return to the FOH facility, make yourself scarce. Gather your gear, meet your ride, and then report back here to DC immediately."

"Yes, Sir."

The call ended and the other FOH troops looked back at the soldier in charge.

He wasted no emotions, and told them, "That's it, back to base."

One of the soldiers balked. "Well, what did he say? Is he gonna bust our chops when we get back to headquarters?"

The SHIELD agent, dressed in an FOH uniform, answered honestly. "I have no idea."

Outside the building, little Ogo was kneeling on a stack of crates and watching them through one of the dirty windows. He narrowed his eyes at the soldiers as they left. His 'Miss Susie' was gone, and he knew he would miss her terribly. But at least she and the rest of her friends got away clean. He popped the last piece of fudge in is mouth, imagining all the food he would steal the next day.

***

"Name?" asked Hank, smiling softly over his half-spectacles.

Jubilee looked up at Logan shyly from where she lay in her cot on the Blackbird, en-route back to New York. Her lids were heavy with a demoral drip. She was perfectly content just to look up at her two fellas and twirl her engagement ring around her finger in lazy circles. Logan smiled back down at her while rocking his baby boy in his arms. Full of pride, he gave Henry a smile and said, "Julian Nicholas Logan."

At that, Fury leaned back on his heels, twirling an unlit cigar in his mouth. With his feet positioned at a perfect, military-honed 45-degree angle, he crossed his arms over his puffed out chest, and looked for all the world like the cat that ate the canary.

fin.

+++++

COMING NEXT: "Tested", part 3 in the Guileless series!

comments and criticisms very much so welcomed and appreciated!

+++++