Author's note: I'm finally deciding to publish a story I've written so please bear with me if its horrible and I apologize if this story is set apart from the timeline and if anyone is OOC. I don't like to write accents too, so imagine it in if you must. Comments are highly appreciated, constructive criticism is welcome too :)

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, just the ideas running through my mind.

-

Marie

"Marie!" Remy shouted as he ran through the smoldering ruins of Apocalypse's destruction. The smoke hung thick in the air as the X-men looked for their team members beneath the rubble. All around him chaos ensued, but as Remy searched through the fallen debris, only one thing was clear on his mind, he had to find his Marie.

As he lifted rocks and blocks of concrete, his mind wandered back to the morning before everything happened. They had been bickering as always. Something they did every time they met, much so that he forgot what this most recent one was about to begin with. This time he didn't allow her to have the last say, instead grabbing one gloved hand, stopping her mid-sentence, and pulling her close enough to smell the strawberry scented shampoo she always used. He held her tight and whispered, "Marie, we need to stop arguing so much when we're just two sides of the same coin." He felt her stiffen in his arms as he continued, "Can't you see that through all this quarrelling, we're missing the point of how much we care for each other? Je t'aime mon chere." The next second he received a slap on his face with Marie running away shouting "I hate you swamp rat!"

He remembered how she held his hand tightly when they met again, on the same side of good and evil against the raw power of Apocalypse. He had passed her the Queen of Hearts as encouragement then ran up to fight alongside Magneto. He started clearing boulders harder even as rain started to fall, plastering his hair to the sides of his face.

He was shocked when a feeble voice called out his name, spurring him to use all his strength to lift a large slab of concrete. As he tossed the offending block aside, he saw his Marie curled up in a fetal position. His heart soared when he saw that she was still alive, but his happiness was short lived as he lifted her gently out of the crevice in the ground and realized that her eyes were shut and blood was flowing down in the place of tears.

"Remy, is that you?" she asked as she gingerly put out a gloved hand to feel his face. She touched her hand back to her cheek and asked his why he was crying. At that, he cried even harder. He could feel her breaths getting weaker and as a tear slipped off his cheek, he whispered to her, his voice barely audible with the effort of trying to sound strong "I'm crying because I thought I lost you, but I've found you. Now I'm never going to let you out of my sight again."

He couldn't believe it, after everything, his Marie wasn't going to be snatched from him so easily. He touched her lips, "May I?" he asked, hoping she'd accept him. She nodded her head in response and said the words he desperately wanted to hear, "I- I think I've fallen in love with you too." At her words, he leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips, a chaste kiss but one filled with so much love and pain.

He felt her breaths coming in short gasps now and he knew that her time on earth was coming to an end. He cradled her in his arms and bit the glove off his right hand. He placed his hand on her cheek, waiting for the pull; but nothing came. There was none of that surge of energy being drained from his body like before. He looked down at her and asked her why. She merely smiled at him through her pain and shook her head.

He held her tightly as the rain continued to fall upon them, the rest of the world forgotten as he prayed for the first time in his life. He prayed for his love not to be taken from him, not now, not when they'd just begun to fall in love with each other. He held her close, as he told her how much he loved her. Even as her breaths got shallower, he held on, telling her to be strong for him.

He refused to let go of her even as Storm came and enfolded Remy in her arms. She could not bear to see the look of hopeless despair in his once proud eyes. He looked so lost that she had no choice but to get the professor to shut out his memories and put him in a deep sleep.

He was a changed man after her death. He no longer looked at any other woman, but only the picture of Marie he still kept in his wallet. He took it out as he sat across her gravestone, the spark of life in his eyes gone. He was a shadow of who he used to be as he sat there for an hour, talking to her.

He placed roses down at her gravestone before closing his eyes and praying to God to keep her safe for him, to hold her while he was not around. He looked up to the sky and saw the sun peeking through the clouds. The rays of light danced around her picture, making it look almost like it was really her he was looking at. He shook his head and resolved to do what she said to him before she breathed her last. He would live his life out for both Marie and himself instead of moping around. He kissed the top of the gravestone and walked back to the institute, a smile gracing his face for the first time in a month.