Chapter Six: Reminds Me of You

Rogue stared into the lab from the observation room; she hadn't been able to sleep so she'd gotten out of bed and come back down. If this was the closest she could be to Remy – at least for now – it would need to be enough for now. It was the only thing that would still the worried skip in her heartbeat.

On the plasma screen on the wall, she could see Remy's x-ray and there were improvements. Bones were knitting clearly now, and she began to feel slightly more at ease just being able to track the progress. She sighed and sat upon the floor, resting her back against the wall, to her left she could see through the glass and look down at the chamber; she could see Hank McCoy checking readouts from all the monitors in the lab and his calm professional manner told her things were fine...for now.

"You didn't sleep."

Rogue raised her head as Kurt Wagner stepped into the observation room; he was in his human holographic form and it almost come as a shock since she hadn't seen it for so long. She sighed and moved her hair out of her face. "I couldn't."

"You will make yourself very ill," he said, he came over to sit beside her, he let his forearms rest against his knees.

"Where's Jessie?"

"Sleeping," Kurt replied, "I think I exhausted her. I took her to the movie, for hot chocolate, then let her run riot in the fun factory. She'll sleep for a while."

"I need to get her back to Bayville," Rogue sighed, "It's a long flight, and she has school on Monday morning."

"She's at a human school now?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah. Mathers Academy."

"Private school – bah. The kids coming out of that place were always so snooty."

"I don't think Jessie has it in her to end up like them," Rogue confessed, she toyed with a lock of her hair, she picked at her split ends absently.

Kurt paused, then said, "she has changed so much since she first came to the mansion..."

"Yeah," said Rogue, she glanced up into space, "she's...really something."

"Highly intelligent, I would say," Kurt admitted, "she catches on fast..."

"Yeah."

"She has...so many burdens...for such a little one," Kurt sighed, "it makes me very sad to be around her. She has that look in those big eyes of hers – like the weight of the world has always been upon her shoulders. Want to hear something funny?"

Rogue sighed, "go for it."

"She reminds me...very much...of you."

"Of me?" Rogue turned to look at him, her eyes fixed on his.

"Her loneliness, struggling to connect to other people – wishing she were older. It reminds me of a girl back in Bayville who wore black clothes, heavy makeup and who kept everyone at arms length."

"Jessie doesn't keep people at arms length anymore," Rogue remarked; it had been the way initially, Jessie had been very shy to participate with anyone, but these days she was speaking more and more to everyone – including her. She hadn't thought about it much until now, but it had gone to show how much seven months had changed that little girl.

"No. She keeps people close...afraid they will leave her."

"She's had a hard life, Kurt. Dead parents...orphanages...these powers, which she is way too young to really understand....living in a mansion with people who don't really get it..."

"Like I said...she is very much like you."

"That isn't a good thing, Kurt. It isn't good at all."

"His condition is improving dramatically," Moira MacTaggart remarked, as she stared at the monitor near the head of the chamber, "Already several of the bones that were re-broken have nearly mended back together...it would have taken months to see this kind of healing..."

"It's astounding what this machine can do," Hank McCoy nodded, he was sitting at a computer going through Moira's research, astounded by some of the things she had discovered and in so short a time period.

Moira gave a wan smile, "it's astounding what it can do now," she remarked. "I can't believe I missed that one small thing...that tiny piece of DNA. I'm so ashamed."

"It was easy to miss, Moira. It was almost as if it had been hidden there...which is...startling...and...what's more...it raises so many questions."

"Such as?"

Hank sighed, "Moira...did you use Jessie's DNA on the clones in your research."

"Of course I didn't – nor did any of my colleagues," Moira said, she folded her arms and seemed quite offended by the accusation.

"And there's no way it could have accidentally just gotten into one of the clones while you were testing the RGT chamber out?"

"Absolutely not," Moira confirmed.

Hank gave a soft "Hmmm," and began to load up various files on the three monitors on the long table, he examined each one carefully, zooming in on each one to get a better look. "Baffling."

"What is?" asked Moira.

"These files...are these different test subjects. I mean...clone1, clone2, and clone3 are all different clones, not the same clone under various different states of treatment?"

"They're all different test subjects," Moira said, moving over and taking a seat beside him. "Why?"

"They all have that one small molecule of Jessie's DNA...see? Here," he pointed out with the eraser end of his pencil, "and here, and here..."

"Very unusual," said Moira.

"Hasn't it occurred to you yet?" Hank raised a thick eyebrow.

"Hmm?"

Hank shook his head in disbelief at the monitors, "it's...confounding...I can't quite figure it out..." he admitted.

"What are you talking about?"

"Think about it Moira. Why do all these clones that specifically have Jessie Crowell's DNA?"

The End – Or is it??? Mwahahahahahahah!!!

(I'm really getting on a roll now with putting these out but it may be a while before I get 18 and 19 out since I'm still in the midsts of finishing 19. Thanks to everyone who's being reviewing. Ishandahalf, Rogue4787 and Lil' Queen – I adore your reviews, you always have such brilliant thoughts and theories! )