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“Laura?” Jubilee eased her bedroom door open. “Yo, you okay?”She hastily wiped her eyes. “What are you doing here?”“Gabby called me,” she shrugged, “said there was an ice cream emergency that needed mine and Shogo’s immediate attention.”Now that she listened, Laura could hear the fitful giggles of the baby as Gabby entertained him some way or another. Hopefully not in a way that was fragile.“…And she said there was a serious case of big sis blues,” she added after she sat down, turning more sincere. Laura kept smoothing her hands over her arms, knees tucked in close to her chest, and Jubie shuffled onto the bed to sit beside her.“I get that stuff can be overwhelming,” she said, taking a punt at the possible root of the issue. Laura appreciated the attempt. “It’s a lot of pressure to look after someone littler than you, I mean, you remember what I was like when I first got Shogo… You love ‘em to death and you never want to let them out of your sight but at the same time you’re so tired and you just want a second by yourself and—”She stopped abruptly, and it made Laura stop rubbing her arms and staring into space. She looked at her, and her eyes were fixed right where she’d hoped they wouldn’t. She touched two fingers to the thin red smear that was left there, and they came away dry, but her eyes had already moved to reach Laura’s; searching, open… scared.“I didn’t mean to,” she choked, and Jubie pulled her close, wrapping both arms around her with a little too much of her strength.“Oh, L…” she said, and she was crying too, but they both stifled the sounds, not wanting them to leave the room and find their way to the kids’ ears. There was a comforting pressure between them, and it was grounding, bringing her back to the apartment and what was real.When the pressure relaxed, Laura wiped her nose. “It really was an accident,” she mumbled. “But then I started thinking about…”Jubilee took both of her hands. There was no hesitation; their fingers entwined, and it was a warm, gentle reminder that claws weren’t the only thing that belonged there. That these hands were good for something else, something softer, something she had, in this apartment and outside it. Jubie squeezed before she let go, reaching into her back pocket and producing a packet of baby wipes. “Being a mom has made me so prepared,” she flashed a grin and tore it open before wiping at the blood on her arms and between her knuckles. When she was done, she balled it up and said, “Wha’d’you say we investigate this ice cream emergency?”With a smile, she let Jubilee tow her from the bedroom by the hand. When they entered the living room, Shogo raised his arms and exclaimed, “Aa!” and Gabby waved happily to them, mirroring his enthusiasm.“Hey, little man,” Jubie picked up her son, and he giggled. She turned around so that he could see Laura and asked him, “Hey, you remember who this is?”Shogo chewed on his finger for a moment, and then extended his pudgy little hands out to her and cried, “Bub!”“He calls us all Bub,” Gabby grinned as he was passed into Laura’s arms. “Old Logan too.”His hands were exploring her face, harmless fingers pressing into her cheek, and he suddenly turned and pointed at Gabby. “Buh!”“Is he pointing out my scars?” she asked, delighted.“He likes pretty things,” Jubie said, her face in the freezer, and before Laura could ask what she was doing, she extracted several tubs of ice cream that hadn’t been there earlier. “I couldn’t decide. Being a mom hasn’t made me any better at choosing between sweets.”Gabby had approached Laura and Shogo while she was talking, and gave Shogo a warm smile as he chewed on his hand again. She looked at Laura and asked gently, “Are you okay?”She nodded, and wrapped her free arm around her sister, pulling her in close with Shogo. She was lucky to have a family like this one, who would declare ice cream emergencies and hold her hands and ask after her even when they weren’t sure what to say. “You did good,” she said into her hair. “You did amazing.”“Nn!” Shogo agreed.“Who wants to pick a movie?” Jubilee asked.Gabby gasped. “Thunder! Let’s watch Thunder.”“Thunder is a big kid movie,” she reminded her. She tried to suppress an outright grin when she glanced at Laura. “And from the look on Laura’s face, it’s had enough running exercise recently. Have you still got Princess Starlight? Shogo’s partial to a princess.”Princess Starlight it is.Starlight had only just begun her adventure into the uncharted magical wilds in order to rescue her faithful comet-rabbit companion when there was a knock at the door.“Oh, shoot,” Jubie said around a spoonful of marshmallowy ice cream, and Laura shot her an inquisitive glance as Gabby hopped off the sofa to answer it.“Heard there was an emergency,” Gambit greeted, leaning in the doorframe next to Rogue.“Emergency neutralised,” Jubilee called, wincing. “Sorry I forgot to text you.”“Oh, so I should just throw these emergency cookies in the trash?” Rogue suggested, eyebrows raised, and with zero hesitation Gabby was tugging her in by the sleeve as Remy chuckled.“Duh-bo!” Shogo welcomed, extending his arms, and Remy stooped to pick him up, making strained sound effects as if he weighed a tonne.While Rogue perched on the arm of the sofa, Gabby settled on the floor, crossing her legs. “Did he just call you Dumbo?”“He said LeBeau,” he corrected. “I’m Uncle LeBeau.”Rogue snorted and met eyes with Laura. ‘Dumbo,’ she mouthed, and she smirked. Gambit sent a glance at the two of them sideways. Shogo reached for Rogue next – he liked getting passed around.“No can-do,” she said apologetically. “You like pinching cheeks too much.” She pinched his cheek with her gloved hand and wiggled it, making him laugh. “Maybe next time.”He turned his attention back to the movie and was handed back to Mom, who wiped his sticky fingers with her emergency wet-wipes, only just realising that Gambit had been subject to his ice cream-y hands. He didn’t seem to mind, though; he sat down in Gabby’s former spot, next to Laura.“You okay, Petite?” he asked in a low voice while the others started to dig in to the box of Rogue’s cookies. The discretion wasn’t strictly necessary, but it was nice of him to be considerate of her privacy. It reminded her of Paris, when things had been rough, and he’d always been close at hand. He’d been kinder to her than she’d felt she deserved.She nodded. “I am now.”He put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “Your family’s always here for you.”Her eyes went to the framed photobooth strips that lived on the dresser. Her and Jubilee pulling faces, Gambit throwing a peace sign behind Jubie’s ear, and in the very last shot, a disgruntled Logan dragged into the frame. Sometimes the family shuffled around, people came and went and died and resurrected. That was how it was. But they were held together with stronger ties than most. They were never all alone.