(Suggested Music: The Reason, by Hoobastank)
The Fool
Storm followed Wolverine through the halls of Magneto's base, the sounds of battle coming to them through the walls. In the distance a siren was shrieking out an alarm. Wolverine stopped and sniffed the air, stiffening so slightly a less trained eye might not have noticed.
"Is she near?" she asked softly.
"I think so," he did not tell her that he also smelled blood and burning flesh. He followed the scent to a place where the hallway split into two branches.
"Rogue is down that way," he told her, pointing to a door with his claws.
"You are not coming with me," It was more of a statement than a question; she could tell he was not coming by the tone of his voice.
"Somethin else I gotta take care of. She's alone in there, I don't smell anyone else. All you gotta do is get her out. You'll be fine."
"As you wish," she did not ask him where he was going. More than likely it would involve Sabretooth. "Be careful."
"Are you talkin' to me?"
She chuckled at his little joke and turned away as he went on down the hall. He followed the smell of blood down the hall to different door, which was hanging halfway off its hinges. He could smell burning metal and rubber too. He slipped through the doorway cautiously, hoping not to draw attention to himself before he wished it. He need not have worried; the occupants of the room were in no position to object to his presence.
The room, once the home of complex machinery, was now a wreckage of burnt metal. The machine looked as though it had exploded in several places.
Sabretooth lay collapsed against the far wall, burns across his arms and torso, unconscious. Already the wounds were beginning to heal; his claws were stained with blood. Closer to the middle of the room was Gambit, the pool of blood beneath him slowly expanding. Wolverine could not tell if he was breathing.
He heaved a sigh of resignation and crossed the room, kneeling to check the Cajun's pulse. It was weak and faint; he could tell that within a short time it would flutter out of existence. There was a rip in the flesh of his chest, Wolverine could see the slight, almost imperceptible, beat of his heart, Sabretooth's claw had been millimeters from piercing it. It looked like the kid must have somehow blown him off with just seconds to spare.
Seconds to spare…he growled, wondering what he had come to; there had been a time when he would have thought nothing of leaving this boy behind, perhaps even slit his throat to make sure he had one less enemy.
The professor must be wearin' off on me, he thought, as he scooped Gambit unceremoniously into his arms and headed back out the door. Remind me why I work for a softie?
************
Storm finally found and depressed the button that would release Rogue's shackles.
"Thank goodness you are unharmed," she said as Rogue stepped down from the machine.
"Yeah, no thanks to Magneto and crew, they were trying to kill me!"
"But you are safe now," replied Storm.
"Yeah, but wait 'til Ah get mah hands on that Gambit," Storm looked back at the furious southerner with slight amusement, as she led the way out the door. "Tryin' ta feel me up, and actin' like he cared. I hate him. He told me it wouldn't hurt, and when that thing came on, it hurt like all get out…"
"What happened," Storm asked, curious to find that Magneto had actually tried to activate the power drain to for his machine.
"Ah don' know, the machine started up and Ah couldn' pull mah hands away, and it was like fire and ice and bein' crushed all at the same time, and then it was just gone. You shoulda seen Magneto's face, he was furious."
Storm chuckled.
"But if Ah ever meet that Cajun again, Ah swear, Ah'll kill him!"
"You may not have the chance kid, looks like Sabretooth got to him first."
"Wha-" Rogue and Storm turned around as Wolverine came up behind them, carrying Gambit's bloody body in his arms. Rogue did not finish her question, her mouth hanging open at the bloody carnage.
"Will he be alright?" Storm asked.
"I don't know. He's fading fast. If we get him to the jet Hank might be able to do something for him, but there's no guarantee."
"Let's hurry then," Storm replied, and the three began to jog to the jet. The rest of the X-men were returning there as well; the Acolytes and Magneto had fled. Wolverine turned Gambit over to Hank who began hurriedly trying to stabilize his condition, as the others returned to their seats.
"I knew you wouldn't want us to leave him to die," Wolverine shrugged at the professor by way of explanation.
"Thank you, Wolverine."
"Why?" Rogue asked, her voice barely coming out. "They were on the same side, why would Sabretooth want to kill him?"
"Sabretooth is an animal. He'll kill anyone."
Storm who had been leaning over Hank's shoulder looked up and called to Scott in the cabin, "We need to hurry Scott."
****************
It was too dark to see. He did not know where he was. He was walking, and his steps sounded hollowly, but he could not see anything.
Suddenly there was a mirror in front of him, and he could see himself reflected in it. He reached for it, but before he could touch it, it suddenly transformed, his image changing as his reflection turned into a card. The joker…the jester…the fool…
***************
Professor Xavier wheeled his chair into the infirmary to check on their unexpected patient.
"How is he Hank," he asked.
The Beast looked up from the monitors he was studying, "I don't know yet, we've managed to stabilize him, but his situation is still dire. I've given him a blood transfusion, but there is a lot of trauma in his system, he may not recover. On top of that, he's slipped into a coma."
"I see," the professor said, steeple-ing his fingers.
"Professor, may I ask what we are going to do with him if he does recover."
"I don't know for sure yet. I guess it depends on him. We may have to turn him over to the authorities, if he insists on continuing down the path he's been on, but hopefully it won't come to that."
***************
"It feels kinda strange to be back in school like nothing's happened," Rogue told Kitty as they walked down the halls of the institute.
"I know what you mean. It's like, a week ago Magneto and his guys were trying to kill you. And now everything is all back to normal."
"Mostly," Rogue replied, she was thinking about Gambit, it was not normal for him to be here. For him to be lying in that bed not moving. She frowned as she remembered his bloody body draped over Wolverine's arms, blood trickling from his open mouth.
"Well I hafta get down to the danger room for my session," Kitty headed off down the hall to where Jean was waiting impatiently.
Rogue heard her lecturing Kitty for being late as she turned and headed towards their room.
"Rogue!" she turned to find Storm coming towards her.
"Yeah Storm."
"How many times have I asked you to check your pockets before you put your clothes in the laundry?" Storm asked gently as she caught up.
Rogue grinned sheepishly at the rebuke, she forgot frequently.
"Ahm sorry Storm, with everything that's been going on…" she let the sentence hang in the air, hoping Storm would accept her excuse.
"It's understandable that you are feeling stressed, however, there is almost always something going on around here. You can't always use it as an excuse," Storm softened her words with a warm smile.
"Thanks Storm, I'll try and do better. What did I leave?"
Storm produced a playing card from one of the pockets of her jeans.
"What's this?" Rogue asked as she reached out and took the card.
"It was in your back pocket, isn't it yours?"
Rogue's eyes opened wide, when Gambit had hugged her that day…she had felt his fingers brush against her bottom, was it possible he had slipped it into her pocket?
Her eyes darkened and she fumed, "That stupid Cajun!"
She turned and stalked into her room, slamming the door shut behind her, leaving a bewildered Storm staring after her.
Rogue leaned her back against the door and slid slowly down it. She sat with her back to the door and her knees pulled up to her chest, staring at the card. She wondered what it could possibly mean.
Why would he put that in her pocket?
It had been so much easier to ignore her attraction to Gambit when he had worked for Magneto. She could hate him then. But when he was hurt…
The professor had sent a team back to try and figure out what happened, Wolverine had said that he had blown up the machine before it killed her. He had saved her life. But why?
Oh darn him, she thought in exasperation as she suddenly rose and crossed the room to her bed, flopping down across it. Ah don't wanna feel this way.
She clutched the card to her chest and closed her eyes, letting go for just a moment. She felt the bed shift slightly as he sat down next to her, his nimble fingers sliding over her back, massaging her tense muscles. She felt her breathing pick up and he stopped, only to pull himself more onto the bed, so that he was on top of her. She could feel his strong legs on each side of her as he straddled her back. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, his cheek brushing against her ear lobe, Chere…
She jumped to a sitting position as Kitty burst into the room, announcing that she had forgotten something.
Furious with herself Rogue pulled open her tableside drawer and tossed the card inside, slamming it shut again.
"Gee, aren't you like, in a bad mood all of a sudden," Kitty commented as she breezed back out the door.
Stupid, she fumed at herself, you know better.
It was a waste of time to think like that. Had she not already learned this after her obsession with Scott? It did not matter what she did, when it came right down to it, she could not touch, and what guy was going to want a girl like that.
She lay back down and turned to the wall, fighting back tears, she should already be over this. She was never going to have anybody.
Stupid Cajun!
***************
He could hear them talking. The cards were talking. Talking about him.
"So foolish of him" laughed a soft voice.
"Indeed," replied a stronger voice, masculine this time.
"Went and fell in love," hissed a snakelike voice behind him.
He whirled around, and found himself facing the Jack of Spades. It hissed like a snake as it hurled spades at him. He tried to dodge but could not and they cut through him.
"Foolish boy!" this voice was cold and hard, and resembled someone he knew.
The Queen of Diamonds, again he was unable to dodge the diamonds that she hurled his way.
Like kings and queens of old, mistreating their jesters, the cards came at him, attacking him for letting himself fall.
****************
"Professor, it's been almost three weeks, and there's no sign of improvement," Hank told him, sitting down in a chair across from Xavier's desk. "He may already be dead."
The Professor turned from the window to look at him.
"If his brain activity has ceased, it won't matter how long we keep his body alive, he won't ever recover. I'm beginning to get the feeling that this is the case."
"I see Hank," the professor sighed. "Come with me then."
"Where are you going?"
"To see our patient, I'm going to see if there's anything left inside."
The professor led the way to the infirmary and positioned himself near the head of Gambit's bed. He reached out and touched Gambit's forehead, clearing his head as he prepared to take the plunge.
****************
When he opened his eyes he was someplace dark. He could not see anything around him and he began to fear that Hank might be right. But he continued to explore, not ready to give up on Gambit just yet.
The place he was in was timeless; there was no way to know how long he had been there before he heard it. Laughter, cold, harsh, bitter. He followed the sound, to a place that was set up like a court. Lining the jury's box were giant cards, they were laughing down into prisoners box.
He went to the box, knowing that was probably where he would find Gambit. Looking up at them the cards and the jury's stand were stretched and distorted, bigger already than they already were.
Looking to his feet he found Gambit. The Cajun was curled on the floor, his hands covering his ears to block out the sound.
"Gambit. Gambit!" the Professor called trying to break through to him, but he could not hear. He knelt and reached out to touch his shoulder and try to break him from his reverie, remembering something Rogue had told him. "Remy…Remy can you hear me?"
Gambit stirred and opened his eyes in confusion, "Qui?"
"Je m'appelle Professor Charles Xavier," he replied, realizing that he and Gambit had never actually met face to face.
"From the X-men?"
"Yes," he hoped he would not shy away because Xavier was his enemy. "I'm here to help you."
"J'ne suis pas mouri?"
"Non," he switched languages as easily as Gambit did, he was not sure Gambit even knew he was speaking both languages at once, a lot of bilingual people thought in both languages. "Votre ettez dans un coma."
"What happened?"
"You and Sabretooth had a fight. My people got to you just in time."
"Yes, the fool tried to get something he can't ever have," called a cold voice.
Xavier looked up, the Queen of Diamonds was floating directly over them. Diamond shards shot at them, but Xavier warded them off.
"What is it you wanted," he asked.
"What?" Gambit asked.
"They are keeping you in here. Until you face what you wanted and decide what you're going to do, you won't be able to get out of here."
Gambit looked away uncertainly.
"Gambit, I want to help you out of here."
"Amour," he replied quietly, but what if they are right
"Love," laughed the card above them. He can't do love. Look what happened last time…"
The card floated down and landed next to them, changing. Taking the form of a human woman, her blonde hair hung over her shoulders, and her blue eyes flashed at him.
"After what you did to me, do you think anyone could love you? Do you think you deserve to love anyone? Just go back to being a mindless skirt-chaser, it suits you better," she sneered.
Gambit cringed away from his accuser, but Xavier stood and looked into her face, "Everyone deserves a second chance."
Gambit stood slowly and glared at the girl, "He's right, Bella, you and me, dat was a long time ago. And it's over."
He looked defiantly up at the other cards, gaining back his courage, "I don't care what you think anymore, I know it goes against anything I've ever believed…but I've made my choice. I won't change my mind. I can love, even if it's never returned."
The cards slowly vanished one at a time, and the courtroom slowly vanished.
A glowing card floated towards them, and Gambit turned to Xavier.
"Thanks for your help, homme," he grinned.
Xavier inclined his head towards him as Gambit waved and ran through the card, vanishing.
Xavier remained for a moment, staring at the card. He wondered if the card had any particular importance. The Queen of Hearts stared at him with brilliant emerald eyes. For just a moment it changed and resembled Rogue, but when he looked again it was the same. The realization came to him suddenly and he smiled as he turned and vanished.
**********************
The professor opened his eyes, still smiling.
Gambit moaned and opened his burning eyes.
"Hello again," he muttered trying to sit up.
"Take it easy there," Hank said, placing his hand on Gambit's shoulder. "I think you're going to be alright now, but you still need to rest."
Xavier turned to leave.
"Merci, mon ami," Gambit called to him.
Xavier looked over his shoulder raising an eyebrow at Gambit's choice of words, catching the ember eyes "De rien, Remy."
I think that young man is going to be just fine, he thought to himself.
French translations (my French is not always accurate, but I believe I have used the correct translations.)
Qui: Who
Je m'appelle: My name is
J'ne suis pas mouri?: I'm not dead?
Votre ettez dans un coma: You are in a coma.
Amour: Love
Homme: man
Merci mon ami: Thank you my friend
De rien: It was nothing (This is the most common way of saying you're welcome in French.)
AN: Thanks to everybody who has read King of Hearts and Fools. There is one more story in this trilogy. Hopefully I'll have it up in a week or so. Please review and let me know what you think of my stories, and my writing.
Also, if you found my story through a fansite other than ffn could you please let me know, I'm interested in finding out how many new readers I get that way. Thanks. ^.~