Eli likes puzzles. (dashdotdash) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-15 22:54:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, eli, logan howlett (wolverine), velma kelly |
Who: Eli, Logan, Velma.
What: Things change.
When: Wednesday evening after Eli wakes up.
Where: Their house.
Rating: PG-13 for language.
Status: Complete!
Logan was sitting at the kitchen table, having some Beerios and generally feeling happy to be in his body. With his normal smells and his normal life.
He glanced at Eli. “You didn’t hafta feed while he was stuck in me, did you?”
“Yes, but I had blood in the fridge,” Eli shrugged. “It was all right. Did he do anything untoward to your body? Did she?” The she was Emma, someone Eli didn’t know but knew that Velma and Logan disliked, so she disliked her by proxy.
“I don’t think so.” Velma wrinkled her nose. “I admit I’m surprised.” Not that Emma would have shot him or something like that - she just hadn’t thought Emma would be able to not screw her husband for a week. “I looked him over when he got home, and he seems none the worse for wear. Epically pissy, but so what else is new.” She couldn’t resist the faint smirk.
“Her scent was on me, but if they did anythin’ it ain’t like I’d have the markin’s to show.” He shrugged a shoulder. On one hand, it was fuckin’ Emma Frost. On the other it was Emma Frost. It was possible to be repulsed and aroused at the same time.
He was more than happy to let Eli and Vel’s scents save his nostrils.
“Is she evil because of some sort of mental problem, or was she simply dropped on her head as a child?” Eli fluttered her lashes, knowing the out of character joke would make both her parents laugh.
Velma had to laugh. “That was almost rude.” She ruffled Eli’s hair lightly, amused. “No ... she isn’t evil. But she’s proud, and stuck up, and treats most people like dirt, and I don’t take kindly to that crap.”
Logan laughed too. “I’m pretty sure she was jus’ born that way. She knows exactly how to rub people jus’ the wrong way.” He glanced at Vel and grinned. Then he blinked, and sniffed, then looked at Eli.
Eli blinked as well when Velma got close enough to ruffle her hair. She looked over at her father, cocking her head to the side then grinning. “Should I go to my room?”
“Why would you have to?” Velma raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong? Did I step in something?”
“Uh.” Logan said, trying to do some math in his head while simultaneously trying to process that.
“You did not. Do you want me to explain to her, Papa?” She looked at Velma, impulsively getting up out of her chair and wrapping her arms around Velma’s waist.
Velma smiled at the affection, but she was still curious. “Seriously, what’s going on? Did Scott leave some kind of weird vibe on me?”
Oh god. Logan's eyes widened. "Don't..think so. Because fuck." He glanced at Eli, then rubbed the back of his neck. What the fuck. What the fuck.
“That’s exactly why this is happening,” Eli quipped. She looked up at Velma. “He couldn’t have, because um. I think you’re pregnant. I’d guess a month in? So it was Papa in his body.” Unless she was wrong.
Velma’s eyebrows shot up. “I ... what?” No way. Although if it was a month, there was no way it could be Scott’s. She didn’t think. That was one time, and Logan had actually used a condom. “No, that can’t be.” Except it totally could.
“It kinda is,” Logan said, with all the gravity of declaring that Galactus was approaching.
Eli hadn’t stopped hugging Velma. “Do you want me to go fetch a test?”
“Yeah.” Velma said after probably too long considering it. “I don’t know if it’ll show anything at this point, though. Will it?” She didn’t know shit about pregnancy. Or tests. Or fuck, Logan was going to leave her.
He hadn't actually anticipated something like this. He really should have, and there had been a part of him that had wanted it. Some day. Eventually.
Just fuck.
"It might. But I can guarantee you it'll say yes an' if it don't it's lyin'."
Eli looked up at Velma and then looked at Logan. “Papa, tell her you’re not going anywhere. She’s terrified.” Then up at Velma. “If he leaves you, I will personally decapitate him with nothing but my fangs. You can carry his head around until he apologizes.”
She hadn’t actually intended for terror to be so obvious on her face, but apparently it was. Velma managed the ghost of a smile. “That’s some image.”
Logan snorted, taking a moment to compose himself, and walked over to Velma, grabbing her shoulder and kissing her like he’d never, ever let her go.
Eli smiled. “Mother, you’re - “ Her voice shook a little and she shook her head. “Papa and I would be lost without you. Please. Understand that.” She hugged both of them before taking a step back. Bloody tears had filled her eyes, but she was crying happy ones. “I should leave you two to talk. I think I will go to Athelstan and tell him the good news.”
Velma saw Eli cry, and heard what she called her, and damn if that didn’t set her off. She hugged the girl as tightly as she dared. “You can if you want, but it’ll affect you, too.” If she actually was knocked up.
“It ain’t a bad thing,” Logan said, and he really wanted to believe that. He actually liked babies. Just don’t tell anyone. But usually the ones he had were either killed or turned against him.
“We’re a family,” Eli smiled. She wiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand. But then she play swatted her father. “You. Stop worrying. You have me to help defend the little one.”
Fuck, Velma realized, if she really was knocked up, she’d have to stay on the sidelines with Neena. She wondered if she could keep training for a while. But she looked up at Eli, then Logan. “You guys are both sure? I mean, there’s nothing else you could be sensing or smelling or whatever?”
Logan sighed and nodded his head. It was long suffering with an undercurrent of happiness. "Yeah. Our family is gonna expand."
He hoped.
He might be a little paranoid.
“I do not think it could be anything else. But I would be willing to get a test or go to the doctor with you.” Eli felt a sort of giddiness, but also a tiny pang of jealousy. Eli would age, but she would never get to be anything but a little girl to most people. She’d never have her own children. But she ignored that in favor of celebrating her family getting larger.
Velma couldn’t help but start crying. She felt loved, but she couldn’t help but be scared shitless. “I’ll trust you guys.” She hugged Eli again, then got up on wobbly legs and hugged Logan. “You don’t have to marry me, you know,” she told him, hoping he’d laugh.
He gave her a nervous, gruff laugh, squeezing his arms around Vel. “Yeah. I know. Never gonna hear the end of this from some folk.”
Eli looked at the two of them and threw her hands into the air before walking to her room. “You both want it and we all know it!”
“Eli, I’m not gonna twist his damn arm.” Velma was still crying, and it made her maybe a little sharper than she would have been. “If I force him to marry me, he gets bored. Or worse, angry.” She wasn’t going to make Logan do anything he didn’t want to do.
Logan watched Eli go, then turned to look at Vel. He wiped her tears with his thumbs. “Velma, look at me. You don’t need to force anything with me. I ain’t goin’ to leave you. I love you.” He voice even cracked, and not on purpose.
“I’m sorry, Eli,” Velma murmured before wrapping her arms around her man. “Sorry to you, too - I didn’t really think you’d leave, just, fuck, I know how it works.” He’d be terrified, and part of her wanted to run away so he didn’t have to be, but she needed him. She’d admit it, at least to herself.
“It ain’t how it works.” Logan gave Vel a sharp look. “I’m a little shocked, yeah. But this is a fuckin’ thing.”
“You two are a unit. You go together,” Eli murmured. She believed in the strength of love. If anything in her dreams and waking life meshed together, it was her belief in that. “I would do anything for either of you, and I know you two feel the same about each other. You two are already there, you just don’t have the paper.”
It was one of the reasons she didn’t think she needed the paper. Velma tried to calm down, wiping her eyes. “Well, at least you know it’s yours.” Unless the condom and the pill had both failed at the same time. “You know I’ll defend this with my life.” Everything. Her family. Including the tiny thing growing inside her.
Though she did grimace. “Fuck. I’m so sorry for all the shit you two will have to put up with.”
Eli walked back toward her mother. “I will not put up with any shit, Mother. I will tell people exactly what I think, and if they aren’t happy for you, they will not be in my life. Period.” The young woman had a spine of steel, and she meant what she said.
“I love you both.” Logan kissed Vel, then Eli on the cheek, and pulled her into the hug. “An’ I look forward to the fucked up cravin’s you’re gonna have.”
“That’s the kind of shit I meant.” Velma wiped her eyes again, leaning on him. “Me being a bitch. But thank you.” God, who should she tell first? “Alyssa’s going to freak out.”
“You’re not a bitch,” Eli smiled. But then she blinked. “Who is Alyssa?”
“Friend o’ours,” Logan said, inhaling deeply. “Few years older’n you. Probably waitin’ as much on baited breath at the idea as you.”
“You slept with her, then.” Eli nodded, then went to hug Velma once more.
“Yeah. But it’s no big deal.” Velma appreciated the hug, but still. “She’s got a boyfriend.” And Logan, while many things, wasn’t a homewrecker. At least not intentionally.
“Yeah.” Logan darted his eyes. Alyssa was one of that short list of women that he’d both slept with and was still on good terms with.
Eli smiled. “Oh, I just assumed. It is Papa, and we were talking about a woman he knew.” Eli knew that she’d made her father feel a little nervous, but she liked making Velma laugh. She’d appreciate the punchline.
It was true; Velma did smile. “I’ve always accepted that. But no, Alyssa and you would get along pretty well, Eli.” She leaned on the girl. “She’s going to freak out. And oh, God, Neena.” Velma shook her head.
“I’ll tell ‘em myself,” Logan said, making a face. Like he was going to walk in front of a firing squad, at least where Neena was concerned.
Eli rolled her eyes. “You’re not telling them that you’re going to become a monk, Papa. you’re telling them something that I think everyone figured would happen eventually.” She moved to ruffle her father’s hair. Sometimes he was silly.
Velma didn’t like the implication. “I’ll tell Neena if she busts your balls too hard.” She didn’t want to think about anything emasculating or domesticating Logan. That hadn’t been her intention.
“I’ll deserve it an’ there’s only a few people I’ll take it from,” Logan admitted it. Two of them were in this room.
Eli just kissed her father on the cheek and smiled. “I’m very excited to have a brother or sister. You are going to be wonderful parents.”
She was still scared. She’d never been pregnant, never experienced anything like this. She didn’t know how it would go medically, and she didn’t know if Logan really would be able to stand her for the whole time. “Gonna need your help,” Velma told them both.
Logan still had his arms around them, and they squeezed, hard. “You got my help.” There was a light in his eyes. Excited, scared and happy.
“Of course, Mama.” Eli tiptoed up to kiss Velma on the cheek. She might not be a human girl anymore, but she’d been one long enough to want to defend Velma always.
“Thanks.” Velma pulled them both close. The borderline-terror wasn’t gonna go away anytime soon, but it meant a lot that she had both of them in her corner. It would require a lot of trust, but she had to give it. Especially now.