Rogue sat on the end of her bed, tears streaming down her cheeks. The kid, Aidan, had been in her mind; he had played her fears against her leaving as nothing but an emotional mess. She couldn't understand how he did it; he was only 15 and he had gotten deep into her mind where not even the professor could get.
But even that wasn't as upsetting as finding out she had kids she never knew about. She should have been happy; all her life she has wanted kids, but she knew she could never have them, not since she had gotten her power. Her curse.
But she ran. How was she supposed to react? Even now that she had kids, something she'd always wished for, she knew she could never really have them, not when she couldn't even touch them.
There was a soft knock on the door.
"Ya okay ma chere?" came Remy's voice from the hall.
"Ah'm fine. Ah jus' need t'be alone f'r a bit, that's all" Rogue replied in a shaky voice.
"Okay, but jus' 'member Remy here f'r ya if and when ya want t'talk" Remy said.
"T-thanks" Rogue said, listening as he walked away from her door. Thru all that had happened during the morning events Rogue not once had thought about how Remy would react. She knew he wanted to help all he could, but she also knew he was hurt. How could she not tell him? How could she tell him if she didn't even know herself?
She picked up a photo of her foster mother, Mystique, as more memories came to her. Why was she only remembering all this now? How could she forget such a terrible event? Had it been so bad that it was pushed to the very back of her mind, never to be remembered until now?
So many questions were running through her head. She laid facedown on her bed and put her pillow over the back of her head in a weak attempt to get rid of her of her pounding headache.
"We're from the south," Aidan explained. "Our parents kicked us out after they found out we were mutants, tol' us they weren't our real parents an' said that they should o' known 'cause our outcast o' a mother was a mutie. Said we should go find her, the damn Rogue."
"So we did." Nadia said "Didn't know where t'start at first, we knew she was from 'round where we had lived, an' we had a few leads but they turned up t'be dead ends, then we started lookin' in the older newspapers an' found a bunch o' stuff about a mutant that could leave a person in a coma with a single touch. But it wasn't till after we started lookin' f'r a person by the name Rogue"
"What I don't get is how you found her here, not many people know about the x-men who reside here" the professor said.
"Helps if ya know how t'hack inta a computer like we do," Nadia said proudly. But everyone was looking at the paper she was holding, it had burst into flames. Nadia dropped it quickly and stomped on it as if it were an every day thing, which it probably was "um…ya wouldn't happen t'have fire proof gloves?" she asked quietly.
Rogue couldn't sleep all that night. She got up for a walk around the grounds, the first time she had been out since she had walked away from her friends and the two kids that were now hers. It was so hard to think of them as her own when she knew that it was almost impossible.
She walked quietly out the front door and into the fresh night air, totally unaware of the two who silently followed.
Professor Xavier had given her the whole story on the twins while she was in her room. How they were kicked out of their home and decided to search for her.
She walked to her favorite spot on the grounds, a small cliff overlooking the lake. She sat cross-legged on the edge and stared at the reflection of the stars and the half moon in the water below. She sighed.
"How am ah gonna deal with this, Remy?" she asked as the Cajun rested his hands on her shoulders. He had shown up only moments before.
"One step at a time" he replied in the darkness. "One step at a time"
"Ah jus' don't know what's goin' on, the memories that were always such a blur are clearin' up now an' ah don't know if ah can take it" Rogue took a deep breath and let out another sigh as a tear slipped down her cheek. She stood up and turned around to face Remy. He put his hands on her shoulders again before pulling her into his embrace.
"If ya can't take it alone, Remy take it with ya" he said softly.
"Remy…ah…when ah was…before ah got these powers…Remy, ah was raped" she began to sob on his shoulder. "Ah remember having twins, but ah fell asleep right after givin' birth an'…when ah woke they weren't their. Mystique never spoke about it an' they found the body o' the bastard who raped me in the river, always thought momma had somethin' t'do with it."
Rogue bit down on her lip to stop from crying.
Remy hugged her tighter. "Don' worry, Rogue, you get through this, Remy here an' all ya friends, we help ya, an' now ya have two people you need t'help."
Rogue looked at him and smiled weakly in the darkness "One step at a time?" she whispered.
"One step at a time" Remy said gently.
Rogue broke away from him and walked to the very edge of the cliff as the two teens appeared out of the bush, watching intensely as Rogue lifted her arms and jumped. Nadia gasped and looked at her brother who only stared.
Rogue fell through the air and just when she was about to hit the ground she flew upwards, taking great pleasure in the calming sensation she always got when she flew. But she couldn't help wondering what she was going to do next.