I Remember You

They just stared at each other.

"You still won't talk to me?" Rogue asked. He didn't reply and she sighed. "Is it because I took the cure?" She looked at her hands, the skin pale from the years that she wore gloves to protect others from her deadly mutation. She thought that they looked stupid, her hands with their bare skin and their normality. "It feels weird, you know," she told him. "Like something's been cut off from me. But I can still feel it, inside, crawling beneath, like worms." She suddenly looked angry as she stared at him. "Don't you have anything to say? Talk to me, damn it!" Furious now, she slapped him. "Say something!" she screamed right in his face.

He met her gaze directly. "What do you want me to say?" he asked, sounding very tired.

"I don't know." She shook her head. "I don't know."

"Why are you here? Why do you come here every day? What do you want from me?" He didn't look like he cared what her answer would be, though.

"I want to understand," she whispered. "Nothing makes sense anymore. I always thought I would do anything – just to touch someone again. Now I can, and I just hate it. I hate it. It makes me feel weak and small and I hate it. I hate it!"

He laughed. She glared at him.

"That's why you're here then?" he asked. "Because you've found out something about you that's dark and twisted and you figured that someone like me would understand it? Didn't want to let perfect little Bobby know that side of you, huh? What would he feel if he found out that it makes you sick every time he touches you? What would he think if he knew that you wished you could just suck the life out of him?"

"It's not like that!" she denied hotly. "I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"Don't you? Then what are you doing here with me? I don't have anything for you, Marie." He said her name with bitterness. "I don't have anything left."

"You don't mean that."

He turned away from her. "Would you just leave?" he said after a long silence. "Please, leave. I don't want to see you."

She looked like she wanted to argue but, instead, she stayed quiet. She waited for a few more minutes and, when he continued to ignore her presence, she finally left. She made her way to Storm's office.

"How long are we going to keep him a prisoner here?" she asked abruptly.

Storm sighed. "As long as we have to," she answered. "Hank is working with the government right now, trying to formulate some kind of agreement with them that would give us legal custody of Pyro."

"So, they know we have him here right now?"

"Actually, no. If and when we get that agreement, we will be authorized to capture and detain him. That's the time that we will be informing them that we have him. The X-Men will then be in charge of his rehabilitation."

"And why are you going to all this trouble for him now?" Rogue wondered. "When he ran off with Magneto before, I don't remember any of you trying half as hard to get him back then. Isn't it a little too late for all this concern?"

Her words seemed to strike Storm like a blow. "Rogue, I know we've made mistakes," she said slowly. "One of them was letting John go. But I intend to rectify that. We are going to help him."

"How? How are we going to help him? Have you seen him? He's so – I don't even know who he is anymore."

"Then the more reason for us to help him. I'm hoping – I have to believe that we can help him." Her voice faltered for a moment. "We've saved so many people. But what does it matter if we can't even save the ones truly important to us?" She looked away from Rogue and composed herself. "Please, Marie," she said. "You were his friend. We've failed him once before."

She nodded. "I know."

Rogue walked back to her room with her mind in chaos. She had no idea what she was doing and what she wanted to do. Since getting the cure and since learning that Pyro was back in the mansion, she had been confused. Except that this confusion wasn't brought on by the presence of the other personalities in her head as she was used to. Oh, no. This time, it was all her. Only her.

"Hey."

She was startled to find Bobby sitting on her bed, waiting for her.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly, his eyes begging her to confide in him.

"Bobby," she sighed, "not now."

"When? When, Rogue?" he demanded. "What's happened to us? Why aren't we talking anymore? Was it something I did? Tell me, please."

"No! No," she shook her head. "It's me. It's me, Bobby." She collapsed at his feet, tears suddenly spilling from her eyes. "I'm falling apart," she whispered in agony. "I feel like I'm breaking, and I'll crumble if I move."

"It's okay." He pulled her into his arms. "It's okay." He was crying now, too. "I love you." He kissed her rather desperately. "I love you."

"No, you don't!" she screamed. She pushed him away. "You don't. How can you? I'm nothing. I'm just nothing!"

"Rogue, please!" He tried to reach for her again but she moved away from him in a panic, her eyes wide with terror at something that only she could see. She scuttled into a corner of the room and peered at him through the dark curtain of her hair.

"I don't want to hurt you, Bobby," she said, her voice uneven. "I never wanted to hurt you."

"Then why are you doing this now?" he asked her. "You're hurting me now."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Her entire body trembled with her sobs.

"I'll stay here," he promised. "I'm staying right here."

He watched her helplessly as she cried.