MaryCat felt the rumble of his chuckle under her arm. She could hear the heated discussion down the hallway, and began to wonder if this was a good idea. The storm broke outside, and thunder boomed and lightning flashed. She glance out one of the windows, expecting to see children running, but they continued playing as if nothing was happening.

The girl in yellow came back, a new piece of gum in her mouth.

"Storm will see you, but no funny stuff." She said, and emphasized it with a pop.

"Not an issue, Firecracker, just came ta talk." He said and led MaryCat down the hallway to a large office. Seated behind a huge desk, her scent full of fear and rage, was the most beautiful woman MaryCat has ever seen. Her white hair was a stunning contrast to her milk chocolate skin, and her vivid blue eyes glared at Victor, hate and fear showing in every glance toward the door.

"I don't know what you want, Sabretooth, but say your piece and get out." She said, her voice cold as the winds whipping the trees outside.

"Didn't come ta talk ta you, Storm. Where's my good for nothin' brother?" Victor snapped. She could smell amusement at the woman's anger, and something else, faint but a definite attraction.

"What? Who are you..." A roar that nearly put Victor's to shame interrupted her, she let out a sigh, and closed her eyes.

The doors that the girl in yellow had closed behind them burst open and one actually fell off the hinges. MaryCat's first reaction was that there was no way anyone could miss the family resemblance. They had the same grey eyes, well the stranger's eyes had more green than steel, and he was shorter, but still well built.

"Bout time you showed up, Jimmy." Victor said with a chuckle. The other man just slid three very wicked looking blades out of his fists, with a rasping metal on metal sound. "None of that, Jimmy, we're here ta talk."

"I don't care why you're here, you're leaving in a body bag, bub." Even his voice reminded her of Victor.

"James, have I done anything? I just need ta talk ta you." Victor gently eased her behind him, and MaryCat watched as he held his hands out, claws retracted to show no hostility.

"Fuck you, and your whore, bub." She gasped. This man didn't even know her, how dare he make accusations, even if he was Victor's brother.

"That was over the line, Jimmy Boy, apologize to MaryCat. She didn't deserve it." Victor shook his finger at the one he called Jimmy, like a parent scolding a child.

MaryCat could smell the rage building inside both men, ready to explode. She put her own hurt feelings aside and stepped around Victor, right onto the line of fire between them. She was surprised to find she wasn't the only one there.

"Sugar, calm down. He ain't hurt anyone, and it sounds laik he knows somethin' bout your past. At least hear him out." The other girl's voice almost made MaryCat feel at home.

"Victor, you are the one that wanted me ta come along, don't let him provoke ya. I been called a hellofa lot worse the last few weeks." MaryCat said, placing a hand on his arm, trying to calm him down

Victor looked down at the hand that lay gently on his arm and nodded.

Xxxxxxxx

Her touch actually calmed him, and she was right, he'd let far worse insults pass over the last few weeks. He took a deep breath.

"James we need to talk."

"Stop calling me that." He could smell the rage and confusion radiating from his brother.

"Why, decided you don't like your name, James Logan Howlett. James. JIMMY BOY! Hell I know you said we're done, but ya can't even call me by my name, just Bub? And where the hell do you get off callin' your future sister-in-law a whore? Shit, you not only lost your mind ya lost all them damned manners I pounded inta your skull."

He could smell the rage fading slowly, and the confusion growing stronger, along with active curiosity.

"Least ya coulda done is invite me ta the wedding." Victor said, pointing to the ridiculously small diamond on Rogue's finger. "Hell, shoulda done it right, and put a real ring on her hand. Little piece of shit like that is for little boys who don't know what to do with a frail, and from tha smell of things, ya got that right at least. When's the cub due?"

He felt MaryCat stiffen, and smelled tears. She was going to have to get over her friends. He knew that the girls had been excited over the puny ring the boy had given Katie. He never understood why frails got excited about that shit, and as small as that ring was, it didn't say much about how the kid felt.

The ring was the male's way of expressing not only how he felt but how well he'd be able to provide for his mate and cubs. He looked down at the naked hand on his arm again. Something was really wrong. It was trembling, and her tears were cutting a wound across his chest.

"Maybe you should follow your own advice. Bub!" Jimmy sneered at him. He shook his head. MaryCat's ring was...MaryCat's ring wasn't...on her finger. What the hell? He'd pulled it out of the safe last night, he'd planned on putting it on her hand after she showed him her new outfit. Shit!

"Kitten, I'm sorry." He ignored everyone as he pulled her against his chest. "Its on the nightstand at home, you distracted me with that thong last night." He whispered against her hair. "As soon as we get home, I'll make it right."

"Its okay, Victor, I didn't really expect anything..." She whispered against his chest. He felt the low rumble in his chest, and somewhere in the back of his mind registered the incredulous expressions of the others in the room. They could just wait, his mate needed him. He stroked his fingers through her hair, purring softly to soothe her pain.

"Bullshit, of course I've got a ring for you, Darlin. After the last few weeks, and that delicious outfit last night, ya just couldn't expect me ta remember a small detail like that." She chuckled and he gave her another soft purr, as she turned her tear streaked face up at him, smiling

"Look at that, Sabretooth can purr." The firecracker was back.

"Shut up, Jubilee." Storm said, a tone of awe in her voice. He felt MaryCat's trembling ease. And glared at Jimmy and his frail like this was their fault.

"Don't look at me, Bub." Jimmy said. "You're on your own."

"I haven't always been, I used ta have a brother that gave a shit." Victor said with a bite. He didn't know if he could do this, looking at him. It was important for his mate, to know that if anything else, his brother would be able to protect her if anything happened to him, but could he forgive almost ninety years of pain, especially when his brother acted like he didn't even know what it was about.

"So what the hell did you do to screw that up, Bub?" Jimmy said, the insult clear in his tone on the last word

"What did I do? What did I do?" The only thing keeping him from flying across the room was his mate clinging to him. "I wasn't the one that brought the whole fuckin' Hand down on my wife and son. I wasn't the asshole that knew he was being followed, and told a good enough sob story ta get me outa my house so the bastards following him could slice my six year old son's throat, cut my pregnant wife open from throat to navel and just leave them for me to find."

He roared the last, the ashen color on Jimmy's face goading him on. "And then YOU had the balls ta blame me for that little cunt that was using you for Stryker all those years, keepin' an eye on you, reporting back to Stryker exactly what you were up too. You let that bastard pull your strings like a puppet."

"Victor, is this why you came? This could have waited..." He could smell her tears.

"Darlin, he had ta know what he did. So he can understand that I forgive him." He said the words softly.

"So that's what all of the shit with Weapon X was about, revenge for Esther and Thomas?" Everyone in the room but him was shocked by the whispered words.

"Logan?" Rogue looked at her mate, and Victor could tell, she was his mate, not just his wife.

"I remember what he's talkin' about. Victor? Why now?"

"I couldn't stand ta look at ya half the time. I blamed ya for what happened. I've been through some shit tha last few weeks, and realized it ain't your fault. I watched a young girl blamed by a whole town for something, until she took her own life ta stop tha pain, hers and her unborn child's. Death and I are old friends, sometimes as close as lovers, but this...it tore me up." Victor didn't even mind admitting the momentary weakness of the frail moment about Katie. It had, it made him realize he'd done the same thing, and that he needed to repair the damage.

Jimmy just looked at him, as he rubbed soothing circles in MaryCat's back. The only sound in the room were her wracking sobs over her friend.

"Does this have something to do with the girl?" Storm asked, indicating his mate in his arms.

"They were best friends.". He said softly. "The other girl, she was dating a guy, found out he was cheatin' on her after she found out about the baby, he killed himself wrapping his car around a tree drunk. Katie was blamed by the town for his death. She ended up drinkin' bad shine deliberately until it killed her." Storm actually nodded, tears in her eyes.

"Victor, I'm sorry...I've told you that before." Jimmy said.

"And this time, its forgiven. I know it wasn't deliberate, I know you didn't think they'd hurt my family ta get ta you, but they did. That was on them, and we wiped them from the face of the earth, but it didn't bring them back." He felt the itching pain behind his eyelids, and let the tears slip past his eyelashes. He felt her gentle touch, wiping them away, and held her closer.

"I know there's a whole lot of water under tha bridge, but I'm hopin' we can let bygones be bygones for one day. The wedding's Friday, and i'd like ya ta come. You're my only family, and I'd like ya there."

"I'll consider it." Jimmy just glared at him, and after all these years, it was the best Victor could hope for.

Victor released MaryCat and reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a card. "The penthouse number's on the back. Call if you're comin, the mother-in-law will want ta know."

It was the frail that took it, and nodded at him. Frail, nothing, not by the smell. Little Stripes grew up, and he knew she was taking good care of his brother.

"We'll call ya." He took MaryCat's hand, and walked toward the door his brother still blocked. Jimmy moved out of the way and Victor and his mate walked slowly toward the front doors.

The first hurdle was down, now to deal with the fallout from the little shopping trip yesterday. He'd managed, between Herschel and himself, to keep the morning paper from her, but he wouldn't be able to control the swarming sharks from the press for long.

The feeding frenzy was in full swing, and the unflattering surveillance photos in this mornings paper, taken by the cameras at Saks had been bad, the headline worse. "Victor Creed to Marry Backwoods Hick?"

The implications in the article were disgusting and completely salacious and speculative. He and Herschel had laughed a little about the comments about a shotgun wedding, Victor even offered to loan him one. The rest, that she was pregnant, that she'd crawled into his bed to force him to marry her, the directly calling her 'a girl of loose morals, that Victor would be better off hiding in a tool shed back in the woods where she came from' had him seeing red.

His kitten didn't need such ugly comments. She certainly didn't need to know that news from hour home town had followed her to New York, and was the current fodder of every gossip columnist and tabloid in the city. Things were only getting worse, not better, with their retreat from West Virginia. He wanted to get the wedding over with, so he could just take her someplace where her past, and her friends past wasn't going to dog her footsteps.