Chapter Three: New Orleans

Rogue woke several times over the course of the next few hours to Remy moaning in his sleep. His fever didn't seem to be raising any, but if it were going down, it was very slow. She ran her gloved fingers through his hair gently. His eyes fluttered open and she found herself staring into them.

"Mornin'," Remy rasped, grinning up at her.

"No, it's still night." She glanced over at Logan who was sleeping, although she could tell he could hear them even in his sleep. "So, ya wanna tell me what's goin' on, Cajun?"

"Hmm? Oh. Dis trip?"

"Yeah. The one ya decided to run off and take when you could barely stand. That one. You told me that you were going to make yer old man fend for himself."

"Dat was before dey called an' said they'd gotten 'im."

This caught Rogue's attention. "Who'd gotten him? Who's him?"

Remy sighed, and this turned into a coughing fit. He rolled off of Rogue's lap, eyes wide and hand trying to smother all the noise he was making.

"Can'tcha keep it down over there?" Logan grunted, not fully awake.

Rogue watched helplessly as Gambit tried to hold back the coughs, failed miserably, and looked like he as about to hurl before remembering that he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast that morning, nearly twenty-four hours before. He groaned, falling against the uncomfortable floor of the boxcar. Rogue was by his side as soon as he fell, pulling him back into a more comfortable position against her. He took a shaky breath, chills running through him.

"Anythin' Ah can do?" Rogue asked quietly.

"Dis ain't half bad right here, Chere," he murmured.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "When ya've settled down a bit, Hank sent medicine for you to take. With food."

Remy groaned at the thought of this.

"Don't be such a baby."

"'m not!"

"Would you two shut up?" Logan growled.

They laughed until they heard the unsheathing of claws. That sound sobered them up very quickly, reducing anything they said to a whisper, which was not hard in Remy's case,

"So, Cajun, you had a nicely timed coughing fit, but it's over now and you'll have to answer mah question."

Gambit sighed. "Ya know a bit about de two guilds, right?" At her nod, he continued. "Well, a while back – before I came into it – de Thieves Guild started doin' business with some group up north. I don' know much about 'em. Never cared. Dey always struck me as more trouble than der worth. Dey've been pressuring Jean-Luc for years to get into dey drug business, n' he's been tellin' 'em he's not interested every time."

"Ah'm gonna guess they stepped the pressure up a notch, hmm?"

"Sounds like it. Jean-Luc's been callin' for dey past week and a half, beggin' me to come help him smooth it over. Don' know why he wanted me out of anyone else just under him. Doesn' make sense, since I've been somewhat out o' th' loop." He stopped, blinked for a moment as if he were trying to regain his focus and remember just where he was going with his words. "Den dat phone call came though in the med lab an here we are."

"So what can ya do t' get Jean-Luc back?"

"Technically, wit' him out of power for de moment, I'm in, so dere callin' fer me to come have a chat wit' 'em next."

"Yer accent gets thicker when you're half a sleep, ya know that?"

"So do you have a plan or are we just bustin' in there?" Logan asked from the other side of the car, surprising the other two with the comment.

"Don' know yet. We'll have t' see when we get dere."

"Reassuring, Gumbo."

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Remy jerked awake some hours down the road, red on black eyes growing wide. "Where are we?" he asked as he sat up a bit too fast for his own liking.

Logan took a sniff of the air. "Gettin' close. We gettin' off here?"

The thief nodded, standing and gathering his belongings. He offered Rogue a hand up in which she turned down with the smirking comment to the extent of he would fall down and that would get them no where fast.

Rogue pulled the door to the box car open and watched as the ground seemed to be moving past them at an alarming rate. Under normal circumstances she was sure that none of them would have any trouble hopping off and landing with the utmost grace, but at the moment… "Remy, hon…"

"I'll be fine."

"Ya always say that and it ain't always true, sugah." She grabbed him by the jacket and the three of them flung themselves out of the moving train. Logan rolled when he it the ground, coming up with dirt covering his face and irritated look in his blue eyes when Rogue landed easily beside him. Remy's knees took that moment to give out and he collapsed to the ground.

"Yeah, Gumbo, you'd have done a fine job of jumpin' out on your own," Logan said with a small smirk playing on his lips.

Gambit looked as if he might start to retort, but then thought better of it. "Let's get goin'. We're runnin' out of time."

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Rogue had to admit, she was impressed. The house that Remy had called home from age ten on was ancient looking, but well kept. It was beautiful in a traditional New Orleans style that made her want to go on a search through it.

"Ya like?" Remy's voice drifted into her ears.

"It's amazing."

"I know. And dat's just the outside, mon coeur."

Rogue looked up into his eyes, causing him to grin. She smiled back, taking her hand from his. His grin turned into a frown and his eyebrows knit. "Roguey?"

"I didn' figure you… I dunno, I just thought maybe you wouldn't want anyone to-"

The thief grinned as he took her in his arms, kissing the top of her head. "C'mon. Let's get dis over wit' so we can have some time, non?"

"I don't like this," Logan said lowly as the started through the gates of the large house. "Smells like fear."

"Where is everyone? You'd think a house this big'd have people in it…"

"It does, usually," Remy answered, eyes darting to every corner. "Dey musta run for it when dey came after Jean-Luc."

"I'm gonna guess you and your old man aren't on the best of terms?" Logan murmured.

"What gave ya that idea?"

"The fact that you've been using his name instead of anything else. Not that I'm one to ask, but most people don't call their fathers by their first names."

"We had a fallin' out few years back," Remy answered quietly.

"And you won't expand on that," Rogue murmured, knowing the answer.

"Course not, chere."

They moved further onto the grounds, Logan's senses on high alert. Remy pulled a key from his pocket and slipped it in the lock, turning it only to find it already unlocked. He frowned at this.

"I'm going to guess that the head of the thieves guild's house is never left unlocked," Logan growled.

"Guessed right." Remy moved further in, motioning for them to hold back. The house wasn't lit except for the mid morning sunlight gleaming in through the half closed windows. The entire place, as Wolverine had mentioned, felt like fear and quick escape. A chair was overturned here, a lamp broken there. It worried Gambit more than he wanted to say. People had gotten out, he knew, or Richard – the man from whom he'd received the frantic phone call from the day before – would never have been able to contact him.

"Someone's in here," Logan said lowly. He balled his hand into a fist, looking as if he wanted nothing more than to release his claws and find just who was hiding in the darkness.

"Oui, but dey'll come t' us," Remy answered, voice also low.

The door slammed behind them. "Ah don' think we'll have t' wait long, boys," Rogue said as she glared at a shadow that moved through the darkened room.

The man came into the light. He was an impressive height, appearing to loom over all three X-men, though his slim build may have added to some of the appearance of height. His icy blue eyes gleamed in the dim light. "Remy LeBeau. So it's true, as they say, that your eyes glow."

Remy frowned irritably. "'m afraid you've got me at a disadvantage, homme. You seem to know me…"

The man before them leered. "Your father's been quite a handful, Mr. LeBeau. I do hope you'll come with us and persuade him towards a different path. The profit for your family's business would be quite large."

"I've heard it all before," Remy answered flippantly. "We're not interested, So you can just return Jean-Luc back and we can go along our way, non?"

"No."

"Figured at much."

The man approached the thief slowly, watching him. Several more came up and circled the X-men. "My name is James Carwin, Mr. LeBeau. I assume you know where I am from?"

"Oui."

"Very good then. I'm sorry that you have not come to us in better health. It would have looked more hopeful for you if you had."

Remy's eyes widened as the man leveled a gun at him, the other men doing the same. He looked back towards Rogue and Logan, hoping that if nothing else, they'd make a run for it. He opened his mouth to tell them to when he heard the sound of the gun going off and felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down and his eyes focused on a small dart lodged just under his right collar bone. Rogue called his name and that was the last thing he knew before sinking into darkness.

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A/N: There always seems to be one chapter that I really don't like and this is it. It's the bridge chapter that gets me from point A to point B, but not well. If you're familiar with my writing, you probably know what I'm talking about. It's the one that jumps around a bit in order to get to where it eventually needs to go. Bah.. I hate these chapters.

In other news, one of my good friends from back in high school is moving to China for a year. Sad times.

Lynx Ryder: I am now very angry at this Josh Holloway man. I blame him for Gambit being written out of the third movie. : yells at the actor : I too adore Logan. I got a hold of the Gambit comic 'House of Cards' that Logan's in and found out that he likes the OC… not exactly the most… Wolverinish show ever known to man/mutant kind, but ah well… makes for a good laugh.

Poison Rogue: Well, I'm glad you like it then! I always like to hear the 'I don't like this usually, but yours I like' from readers. It means I've done something right. So thanks!

Irisheyesrsmiling: Yay for Logan, Remy, and Rogue trips off into chaos. We cheer them on.

Ishandahalf: And here's another chapter to move the plot along (hopefully). Love the penname, by the way.

Rubic-cube: and continued it has been

Princess fairys: Yeah, I'm to the point in the comics where I'm going to just plug my ears and say it's not happening b/c Remy and Rogue don't seem to really be together at this point. What is it with all these blasted American comics turning my favorite characters evil? First DC did it and now Marvel… Shame on them.

4Rogue: Thanks so much! I always like to get the characters as close to the original as possible, which can be difficult with so many different writers in the cannon, non? But we strive. Thanks muchly for the review.

TBC

TS