DA Revelations

Episode 21 - Scared

Chapter One - Worse and Worse

Rogue was shaking; her heart was pounding and her chest rising and falling with uneven frightened breath as she stared at the seven year old girl who had just taken a forceful hold of her face without even blinking. And the child stood there, so calm, so normal...so...unharmed.

"Jessie..." Remy whispered in awe.

Confused, Rogue moved backwards, and used the wall to brace herself as she pulled herself up, she was trembling.

"Jessie...how did you do that?" the Professor asked, wheeling over quickly, his voice was terse, his eyes were piercingly cold.

With big grey-blue eyes, Jessie looked at all three adults, and she shrugged as if this were no big deal. "I dunno..." she answered, her voice was truthful.

Remy took a hold of Jessie's hands and examined them, they were unharmed and apart from the cast on her right arm, nothing seemed any different from months before. "How..." he shook his head in confusion. "I don't understand..."

Jessie tilted her head to look at him. "I dunno..." she said again with a shrug.

Rogue said nothing, she stood there in the corner trying to catch her breath, her lips trembling; she'd been so frightened. She'd thought for one moment the little girl would be dead...or in a coma for the rest of her life. But she was standing there quite the thing...so perfect, so untouched by her powers. It just couldn't be possible.

"How long have you known you could do that?" Professor Xavier asked.

Jessie shrugged, "I dunno," she said a third time, "Rogue was sleeping beside me and I touched her and I didn't get hurt and I did it again..."

Rogue's face paled to hear this, with shaking fingers reached out to grab Remy's sleeve.

"Don't you know by doing that you could have been seriously hurt?"

"I didn't feel like I would be..." Jessie answered softly, "I just knew I wouldn't be...like I know things sometimes that I probably wasn't supposed to know..."

"You still should not be taking that risk..." the Professor warned.

"But it never doesn't work..." Jessie explained. "And if I had told her...she wouldn't have believed me anyway...I had to show her...that's why I got hurt..." she gestured to her arm.

Remy turned to look at Rogue, "you okay?" he asked.

"I...no..." Rogue shook her head, "I thought for one minute..."

"I told you..." Jessie stepped up to her, "you can't hurt me...you can't hurt me like that...so you don't need to be scared about it anymore..."

"I could still hurt you with my strength," Rogue reminded with a frown.

"But you wouldn't!" Jessie said quickly, her mouth tight.

"But I did," Rogue said sharply.

"But it was my fault," Jessie said in an immature and stubborn tone. "And I don't want you to feel bad any more...it's not fair...you shouldn't be feeling bad about something you didn't do...and I did..."

Rogue rubbed her head, "I think I need some air..." she said quickly before darting out of the room.

Remy looked between the Professor and Jessie and sighed, "I...guess I better go chase her, huh?"

"Probably," Jessie reasoned, she chewed the inside of her cheek.

Remy turned and left the room, he heard Rogue's footsteps heading down the hall and he rushed after her; he caught her arm as she'd almost reached the back door. "Chere...wait."

"I feel sick," Rogue remarked. "I feel like I'm gonna throw up..."

"It's just stress. Breathe it out..."

Rogue opened the door and stepped outside with Remy in tow. "This is so...so fucked up," she admitted, she took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"It is?" he asked, in earnest he didn't see anything messed up with what had happened, perhaps he just wasn't looking at it from her point of view.

She shook her head, "this whole thing. God I've been so...so anxious to see you...and then Jessie got hurt and I couldn't bear to see you...and then this..." she sat down upon the steps and pulled her knees to her chest. "Not exactly the warm welcome you should have been enjoying."

He sat down beside her and slid his arm around her, "not exactly. But hey...it's like I never left."

"This whole thing sure overshadows your coming home," she ran her hand through her hair frustratedly.

"Hey, it's a lil' bit messed up but...wow, what a revelation..." he smirked.

"You think this is all funny, don't you?" she asked.

"No...I think it's kinda cool though..." he confessed. "My daughter...can touch you. I mean how is that for a sure fire meant to be sign right there?"

"That's not even funny," Rogue looked away from him stubbornly.

"Sorry...but I find it so...I don't know...reassuring."

"Reassuring? Are you mad?"

"There you are afraid you'll hurt her and it turns out your powers have no effect on her..."

"What if she had been hurt? Again..."

"I'd have been devastated...but I couldn't have blamed you when I was there to see what happened..."

She sighed.

"It's good to be home..." he admitted after a moment. "Everything looks so different...so lush...so...bright..." he gestured.

"It's cloudy out and it's been raining..." she raised an eyebrow.

"Compared to how bleak things seem on Muir Island, this is like Eden..." he joked.

"I don't see how you can sit there so calm and be laughing about this when...everything is so fucked up."

"Nothing is fucked up."

"Your daughter has just revealed that she can touch me. That's fucked up."

"It's fucked up that it's not me who can touch you like that..." he admitted, "at least...not to the extent she can. But god...it gives me such hope."

"This is messed up and you're trying to make this a reason that we are meant to be together..."

"It might be fate, you never know..." Remy shrugged, "after the things that have happened and things I've seen in the past few months, it's hard to not believe in fate."

"You're acting weird..." Rogue turned to stare at him strangely. "I have to wonder if it's really you or another clone."

"I'm not a clone..." he shook his head, "I've just...had some time away to get my head together..." he explained, "I feel...kind of like a new man."

"How new?" Rogue asked, "you're not going to start going on about finding Jesus or that you're intending to have a sex change or something, are you?"

He put his hand on her knee, "no. I'm still me...just...the better me."

"Remy..." she began; her expression said it all...she had doubt that he was completely better.

"Look..." he interrupted softly, he unbuttoned the first three buttons of the top of the boilersuit he'd borrowed from the plane, he revealed his chest, neither side showing any scarring anymore.

Her face became unreadable as her eyes roved across the flesh, "no marks..."

"No marks, no pain, no fractured bones..." he gave a weird laugh, "no tattoo either."

"No tattoo?" she asked.

"Yeah, my body rejected the ink when I started to heal up..."

"Are you going to have it redone?" she asked curiously.

"Maybe..." he shrugged. "It's not really important."

"But if you don't have any scars anymore, how will I be able to tell you from the clones?"

He considered this, "you know me so well I think you'd be able to catch any of them out...especially over stuff that's happened since I moved back into the mansion."

She nodded, and accepted this for now.

A moment of silence fell between them, Rogue stared down at the ground, her eyes distant, her mouth taut.

"You aren't glad to see me, are you?" he asked.

"I'm just...annoyed I didn't get to pull myself together before you got back so I could properly be happy to see you. I am glad to see you...I just...so much has happened that nothing has really sunk in yet...y'know?"

"Yeah..." he stood up.

"God I need a shower," Rogue sighed as she stood too, "I haven't showered in a couple of days – the electricity and the water aren't running in that house of yours, you know."

"The power is out...the shower won't work here either," Remy replied.

"Great..." Rogue muttered. "This day keeps getting worse and worse."