Chapter 4
Jessie's Present
There were so many presents for Jessie, that Remy quickly realised she was becoming like the spoiled youngest child in a family of many children. But looking at the little girl, he realised no matter how they spoiled her, it was justifiable that they dote on her so much when she'd grown up with nothing most of her life – not even a parent's love.
Remy sat upon a kitchen chair with Rogue on his knee as Jessie tore through shiny paper and ribbons with the wide excited eyes only a child could have on Christmas morning. Stuffed animals, Barbie Dolls, accessories for Barbie Dolls, a toy cellphone, books (although the tag said 'from Santa', Remy could only assume that the gift of books had come from either the Professor or Hank, and he swayed towards the latter). Pyjamas, jeans that were dyed an outrageous shade of pink, a matching little denim jacket and lots of colourful and glittered logo t-shirts and sweaters.
While Jessie unwrapped, everyone exchanged gifts although Remy paid no attention to their items. He and Rogue exchanged theirs – she got him Calvin Kleins (he'd expected it, of course, it was such a generic gift that all girlfriends seemed to get for their boyfriends regardless). In his presents from Rogue, there was also an expensive deck of customised playing cards with his initials on the back; a few t-shirts (he felt it seemed she was trying to tell him that he didn't have enough clothes), and a couple of DVDs that she'd thought he might like. There were other small and thoughtful gifts, but he was too distracted to focus on everything. He watched Rogue open the gifts he'd gotten her; the expensive designer cashmire sweater; La Perla underwear – very elegant and soft – he was slightly amused to see her reaction to receiving these. He handed her her final gift, the small box with her necklace inside.
She opened the box pleased to see the cross attached to it, it looked just as it always had done, although the chain was more expensive and less prone to snapping than the previous one. He unclasped it and put it around her neck.
"I'm glad to see you wear this again," he said as he closed the catch behind he neck carefully. He smiled at her.
Rogue took a small box from out under the chair and handed it to him, "and of course, in return..."
"What's this..." he asked curiously, for he thought he'd opened all of his gifts.
"Something you left a long time ago," Rogue replied, "really, you don't deserve to have it back. But since I'm getting my cross..." she teased.
He untied the silk ribbon and then opened the navy blue box – inside was a silver ring with a single yellow gem inside. Surprisingly, he had forgotten all about the ring, even though he'd gone to the trouble of leaving it on his daughter's grave the night he'd left Bayville after the accident involving Jared Rickman.
"The ring you got me for my twenty-first birthday," he murmured. "I forgot all about this..." he gazed up at her.
"I didn't..." she took it out of the box and raised his hand to slide it onto his finger. Without thinking, she slipped it onto the ring finger on his left hand. He seemed startled by this, but he said nothing, he just looked at it. It reminded him of the ring she'd once wore on the ring finger of her left hand.
They stared at each other, and he was sure they were thinking of the same ring, but he wasn't sure if she was thinking of it in the same way that he was.
"Hey, this one doesn't have a tag on it," said Jessie; her sweet and childish voice interrupting their gaze.
Remy turned to look at the gift Jessie was holding up; it was a box wrapped with incredible care, made to look positively exquisite. "Let me see..." he said, recognising it as the present he'd bought her from the jewellery store.
Jessie stood up and came over; she handed him the present.
Remy held it in his hands, "it's beautifully wrapped, isn't it?"
"It's really pretty!" she said, beaming.
"Sure is," said Rogue, she looked at Remy with such a tender glance and Remy gave her a wink and a smile.
He gestured for her to come over and he held the present out to her.
Jessie looked at him.
"Some gifts in life are the things we keep with us for the rest of our lives; something to remind us of the things we've seen and done, things we've been through, things we've felt...," he said in a soft whisper, he placed the box upon her open hand and clasped both of his much larger hands around her fingers and the box. "I hope that will be what this gift will be for you..." he squeezed her hands tenderly.
Her large grey-blue eyes stared across at him, and he felt as if he were staring into a stormy ocean during the calm.
Remy removed his hands from hers and she unwrapped the ribbon slowly, carefully, and it fell to the floor in a gentle swaying dance. She opened the box, inside was a silvery bracelet with heart charm dangling from it; she stared at it in awe. Remy removed it from the box from her and turned the charm around, "I had it engraved especially for you," he said, "see...it says Jessie right here."
She smiled somewhat wanly, although she seemed so unsure if the present could be for her even though it had her name on it. Perhaps it was that it looked so expensive. He wrapped it around her tiny wrist and carefully clasped it closely enough so that it would not fall off.
Without another word she jumped into his arms to hug him, wrapping her small arms around his neck tightly. He hugged her with one arm, still with one arm around Rogue who was sitting on his knee. He heard the beep of a digital camera and saw Hank standing there with a tiny Fuji Finepix camera in his over-large hands.
"Smile, Jessie," said Hank.
Jessie turned, her forehead against Remy's cheek, and she grinned, all tiny spacey teeth and rosy cheeks. Remy feigned a smile, but he felt an emptiness tugging inside him that made it hard to do so.
"Do you like it?" Remy asked, looking at the bracelet on her wrist.
"This looks very expensive," said the Professor, he wheeled over to examine the bracelet.
"That's 'cause it's platinum," said Rogue with a roll of her eyes, "you know Remy, he doesn't buy cheap," she said out of the corner of her mouth in a murmur as Jessie was gushing over how much she loved the gift.
"It's so pretty!"
"Please take good care of it," Remy begged of her, "I would hate to see you lose it."
"I'm never taking it off!" she giggled, she hugged him again.
Remy wondered why he always felt so awkward whenever she hugged him and yet, it didn't feel particularly wrong?
A loud buzzing sounded off on the intercom panel on the wall by the door. Jean got up from her chair and walked over, "I guess one of our guests is arriving early," she said, she glanced out of the window beside the heavy doors to see a taxi cab at the end of the drive. She hit the button, "Hi," she said into the microphone.
"Hey, it's Kitty!" came the reply.
Jessie jumped up, "Miss Pryde is home!"
"She was meant to stay in the hospital another night," the Professor said with a smirk, "I guess she couldn't keep herself away."
Jean hit the button to open the gates at the bottom of the drive; she opened the door and went outside, a few moments later, both Jean and Kitty entered the foyer; Kitty was taking very short steps, while Jean was holding the bundled up baby in her arms.
"You should have called, one of us would have come to get you," said Logan gruffly.
"I was going to," Kitty said, she checked on the baby in her friends arms before slipping her jacket and scarf off, "but I thought it'd be a nice surprise if I just showed up. I see everyone opened their presents."
A strange silence fell over everyone. Kitty, being Jewish, didn't normally celebrate Christmas, and since the death of her parents – whom she would normally spend Hanukkah with - early in the year, it had been expected she might just stay at the hospital until Christmas Day was over.
Still, there were presents for her regardless.
Jessie ran over to Kitty to throw her small arms around her waist, "merry Christmas!" she said brightly.
"And to you," Kitty said, stroking the girls sleep-mussed hair. "Wow, it looks like you got so many nice things!"
"I got dresses, and Barbie dolls, and dresses for Barbie! And a car for Barbie!" Jessie reeled off, "and a pair of fairy wings..." she giggled, "and thisssssssss from Mr. LeBeau!" she held up her wrist and waved it around.
"Wow...is that white gold?" Kitty held Jessie's wrist to examine the present from Remy.
"Palatum," Jessie tried to respond.
"Platinum," Remy corrected, he and Rogue both stood, and he moved over to Kitty to kiss her cheek, "welcome home, mommy," he smirked.
Kitty gripped a hold of Remy's arm, she searched his eyes, as if she were checking to see if he were really alright.
Caleb started to wail, Logan sniffed the air, "think he needs changin', there's an odd smell of sh---er..." he glanced at Jessie, realising he needed to tone down his language some, "baby poo hangin' in the air."
With a sigh, Kitty took the baby in her arms, "I'll take him upstairs...Can someone go down to the hospital room cabinet and get me some ointment?" she asked.
"I'll do it," Remy shrugged, "where is it?"
Hank patted Remy's shoulder, "unlocked cabinet near my desk, grab a tub from the white box marked sudocrem."
"Okay," Remy shrugged.
