Disclaimer: Any character, place, or product that you recognize does not belong to me, but their respective owners. Don't sue.

A/N: Yeah. So, dramatic last chapter, huh? And short, too. Sorry about that. Anyway, here goes chapter 11. It is official: I am a ninja. This is the fastest I have ever updated so much.

A/N 2: Check out my profile, which is constantly being updated, for news or info on my stories, and links to my other accounts. Follow me on Twitter

Shout out to Marvel-Lover (your PM is disabled) (And freakinaforest, too): Haha, don't worry –I DO have a plan for Jono's return! Just calm down and try not to hyperventilate. I mean, this wouldn't be half of a Gambit/Chamber fic if the guys never even got together. :D


Emma and Sean flew in from Massachusetts the following morning. They, as well as a few others from the Academy had come to pay their respects and stay for the funeral.

Jono had been moved off of the hospital bed and into the morgue. Yes, the X-Mansion did have one. It wasn't a part of the lab that Hank liked to advertise, but it was there –cold, dark, tucked away into a corner.

After the cause of death had been identified as gunshot wounds to the shoulder, back, and chest with excessive blood loss, papers were signed, and the funeral date was set.

Hank prepared the corpse for the funeral; stripping off the burnt yet soggy clothes and replacing them with a black suit. The soot from the fire in the Danger Room was washed off Jono's skin, and his hair was brushed back. The cavities in his body where his psionic energy had once been stored were just holes now; the energy had been extinguished with his death.

The Danger Room was shut down until further notice by Xavier.

As the days passed, Remy spent hours looking for Bobby. He was surprised to discover that when Robert Drake didn't want to be found, he would not be found. Remy was worried because he knew that the ice mutant was probably blaming himself for Jono's death and beating himself up over it.

On the fourth day –the day of the funeral –Remy just gave up looking and went down to the morgue where Jono was lying in a coffin. One of the students was already in the room as he entered. His eyes widened as he spotted Remy.

"Uh, I know I'm supposed to be here, Mr. LeBeau, but, um, I…Well Dr. McCoy… I just thought maybe-" He said immediately, trying to come up with a decent excuse.

Remy waved his hand in dismissal, "It's bien, Elixir." He said, "I won' tell no one."

Relief flooded the golden-skinned boy's face and he relaxed.

"I never thanked y'." Remy said as they stared down at Jono lying in the coffin with his hands folded across this chest.

"For what?" Elixir wondered.

"F' bringin' me back t' life." Remy said quietly. "Not sayin' I regret killin' myself in the first place, but… I wasn't doin' too well. Guess after I died, I never went back t' how bad I was before. I'm thankful f' dat. Y' gave me a second chance." He told Elixir.

The teen looked speechless at this but then looked down, "I know. When I healed you, I could feel all that stuff you did to yourself… The others don't know about all those scars and cuts or anything. But Mr. LeBeau? Was it really that bad?" He asked, glancing sideways at him, "I mean, I can't ever imagining doing that to myself…"

Remy thought about it. He blinked, "It wasn't good. Mais maybe I made it worse on myself." He said slowly.

Elixir rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at Jono, "You know, I could bring a lot of people back from the dead if I wanted to. I don't usually do it because it just disrupts the balance of things, but I really wanted to bring Jono back… That's why I was here, actually."

Remy peered down at Jono as well. He still looked quite dead.

"Obviously I failed, though." Elixir added bitterly. "I couldn't do it, Mr. LeBeau…"

"Y' can't bring everyone back. Y' said so y'self." Remy replied. Some part of him agreed with Elixir's bitterness.

"No, it's like, I always depend on people having a heart for me to fix, but Jono's mutation makes it so that he doesn't even have one! How am I supposed to bring back people like him?" Elixir said dejectedly.

"Y' did y' best, Elixir." Remy said firmly.

"Yeah, well…" Elixir touched his index finger to Jono's forehead and there was a golden glow, but nothing changed, "See? Nothing." He turned and headed out the door, "I guess I should go get ready for the funeral. See you later, Mr. LeBeau."

"Oui," He agreed, watching the teen go. Then Remy turned back to the coffin and pressed a hand against Jono's cold cheek. He frowned and said softly, "Je desole, Jono. Maybe if I had gotten to you earlier…" He trailed off and stared intently at the Brit's face. The expression was calm, as was to be expected of a corpse, and his eyes had been closed. "We never did make it right b'tween us." Remy said. "All dose weeks ago…dose things I said… I didn't mean any of it." He sighed and straightened up, saying quietly, "Adieu, chere."

At the funeral, after the viewing, Remy finally caught sight of Bobby. He was standing away from everyone else in a black suit, looking extremely blank. There were dark circles under his eyes and his skin had become a ghostly white color. Remy wasn't sure if Bobby had been eating for the past few days, because he looked rather gaunt.

There was the ceremony where Kurt spoke first, reading versus from the Bible, and then Xavier, Scott, Jean, Emma, and Sean spoke. Jubilee went up next, looking miserable as she talked about her friend. That speech had ended in a sob.

When it was Jean-Paul's turn, he walked up to the podium slowly and grimly. His expression was hard; he was completely composed. He began his eulogy: "Jono was a great man. He was a great X-Man and he was a great friend. My best friend. I did not know him for very long, but for the time that I did, I discovered that he was kind at heart, even if he did come across as rough. When we talked, I hung onto every word, whether he realized it or not. I met Jono on the third day he started teaching here. We were not friends, and we did not try to be. Then, perhaps a month later, I found him sitting in the kitchen around midnight. I remember that we exchanged some small talk and I told him to call me Jean-Paul and not any nicknames, and he said that he did not have any nicknames, so we probably wouldn't have any problems. I told him that I would have to get him one, then, and he just replied, 'I suppose you will'." There was a murmur of fond laughter among the group, and Jean-Paul continued: "Some people could say that Jono couldn't smile. But I disagree. There was something in his eyes that night –something happy and warm, and it was much better than any smile. I noticed over the time we were friends that when Jono stopped to talk with someone, they would do all that they could to earn that look… It made us feel special, I think. Jono could make anyone feel special. He is in a better place, now, and we are here at his funeral. I stopped crying a few days ago when I realized that Jono would never want us to cry for him. Though we will all miss him terribly, we must celebrate the life he had, and be grateful that we ever got to meet the man named Jonothan Starsmore. I cherish the friendship we had, and I know that one day we will all meet him once more, and he'll smile at us with his eyes and make us feel special once more."

A silence followed Jean-Paul's eulogy like all of the others, until it was broken was a sniffle from someone in the audience. Jean-Paul walked off the stage and returned to his seat.

The eulogies that followed his were from other X-Men and students. Many of the latter recalled fond moments from their classes with Jono, or something he had once said.

Not a lot of it registered in Remy's mind. He sat near the back, staring around at the cloudy sky and the trees, but not at Jono's coffin, which was waiting to be lifted to the cemetery. Remy never did do well at funerals. There were too many projected emotions, it just overwhelmed him. So he did all he could to distract himself.

At one point, Remy found himself staring at Elixir, who had his eyes transfixed on the front. He was twitching in what almost seemed like a nervous manner.

Then funeral procession started, and everyone followed Scott, Piotr, Logan, and Jean-Paul as they carried the casket to the cemetery. It was lowered into the ground, Kurt said a few more words, and the crowd dispersed, some people choosing to take a walk around the grounds while others made their way slowly back to the mansion.

Jean-Paul and Piotr designated to stay behind and fill in the grave. They worked silently, and Remy chose to hang around and clear is head of other people's emotions. He stood near the trees, out of sight, blending in.

He had meant to follow Bobby after the funeral and confront him, but he had seen the ice-mutant head back to the mansion, and he really couldn't handle all of the grief and depression.

Remy walked around the grounds by himself, his hands in his pockets as he stared at his feet. Slowly, the sky grew darker, and faint thunder began to grumble overhead. Then it began to drizzle. By the time Remy walked by the boathouse, a downpour had begun, and he had to duck inside.

The house was just as he had left it. Remy turned on the light as immediately saw black, dried blood smeared across the living room carpet and the couch. He felt sick to his stomach at the sight.

Shrugging off the jacket of his suit, Remy ventured into the kitchen to see if there was anything in the cupboards. As it turned out, there was a stash of Swiss hot cocoa.

He had just pulled a mug out for himself when he heard the door open and then slam shut.

Northstar appeared in the doorway, dripping wet.

"Y' want somethin' t' drink?" Remy offered after a moment of staring.

Jean-Paul nodded wearily as he peeled off the jacket of his suit and hung it up on the coat rack. He undid his tie and put it up, too, and the two articles of clothing happily dripped water onto the floor.

When the hot cocoa was made, Remy slid one mug across the table to Jean-Paul and held onto the other. They didn't really actually drink anything, but rather, they curled around the warmth in their hands.

After a moment, Jean-Paul asked, "Est Bobby faire bien?" Is Bobby doing alright?

Remy looked down into his mug and answered slowly: "Il se reproche la mort Jono. Je ne pense pas qu'il a été manger ou de dormir." He blames himself for Jono's death. I don't think he's been eating or sleeping.

Jean-Paul didn't respond. When he did, he switched back to English; "It was an accident. No one holds Robert accountable." He said quietly.

"No one mais him." Remy said.

Silence crept over them, once more, and they sipped their drinks and listened to the thunderstorm rage on outside.

"Gambit, you and Jono did not get along for the last few weeks. Why?" Jean-Paul said.

Remy didn't reply for so long, Jean-Paul almost thought he wasn't going to. But then –

"We said some t'ings t' each other." Remy admitted finally, "Gambit t'ink we didn' want t' get too close. So we jus' lashed out. Gambit didn' mean a word he said, mais the damage was done."

"Conflicting personalities." Jean-Paul nodded slowly, "Or maybe personalities that were too similar?"

"Oui." Remy sighed.

Jean-Paul set down his mug, "I have another question. Why are you referring to yourself as 'Gambit' again? I noticed you had stopped doing that."

Remy blinked. Someone had actually taken notice? Really? Of him? To answer Jean-Paul's question, the Cajun shrugged, "Bobby's been tryin' t' break me out o' de habit. Guess it jus' decided t' return."

They had to stay in the boat house for another hour. In that time, they talked a little more. Jean-Paul told Remy stories of times with Jono, with Annie, with Alpha Flight… He was a surprisingly good story teller, and he didn't require anything from Remy. So he just sat and listened. He also figured that Jean-Paul might just want to talk about something happier to take his thoughts of the recent death of his best friend.

Even after the rain stopped, they continued to sit inside the boat house. Eventually, dinner time came around and they decided to head back to the mansion.

As they made their way across the still-wet grounds, Remy realized that this had been the first time he had had a conversation with anyone other the Bobby for so long.

Remy went down to dinner after changing out of his suite and found the cafeteria was more packed than usual because of all of those who had flew in for Jono's funeral.

After getting his food, he set down his tray at a table with Jubilee and Jean-Paul and told them that he was going to find Bobby.

"You do that, Gumbo," Jubilee nodded approvingly, "That guy needs to eat something."

Finding Bobby turned out to be relatively easy. Remy discovered him sneaking around the kitchen, looking through the cupboards. He looked starved.

"Bobby." He said, stating his presence.

The ice mutant jumped and whirled around. He was wearing a loose-fitting sweater and jeans, but both articles of clothing were dark, so they made him look especially gaunt and pasty.

"Come t' dinner, mon ami. Y're missed."

Bobby stepped away from the cupboard and looked at Remy's feet as he addressed him, "No I'm not. I killed Jono."

"It was an accident, Bobby. No one holds y' accountable." Remy said, quoting Jean-Paul.

"How can they not hold me accountable?" Bobby burst out, eyes snapping up to meet Remy's, "I killed him, Remy –accident or not. Have you ever killed one of your team mates?"

Remy sighed, "Everyone blames demselves f' a death. I blame myself f' Jono's death, Jean-Paul blames himself, Xavier blames himself, Hank blames himself, Jean blames herself, Scott blames himself, Emma blames herself, hell, even some o' de students blame demselves!" He threw his arms into the air, "Mais it ain't y' fault, Bobby."

The ice mutant looked away, "Except it is, Remy, and you know it. I had some psychic fit and made over two-hundred people go into unconsciousness and Jono happened to be training with guns when it happened."

"Oui, an' some o' us blame Jono f' his death. Jus' come t' dinner, Bobby. Y' can't starve y'self."

"I should." Bobby mumbled bitterly.

"Den we'd drag y' back from de dead t' kill y' ourselves. People would miss y' if y' died, jus' like dey miss Jono." Remy told him, taking a small step forward.

Bobby bit his lower lip to keep it from trembling.

"Come t' dinner, Bobby." Remy repeated, stretching out a hand for him to take.

He sniffed and took the hand hesitantly. Remy pulled him into a tight hug and whispered into his hair, "Don' even t'ink about dyin'."

Bobby's body shook as he finally let go of his tears, but he whispered back miserably: "Okay."


A/N: Word of the day: BROMANCE. Wow. I've been watching too much Nigahiga. Anyway, that was pretty lame and I'm sorry. I made a new poll on my profile, and I advise you to go there and vote, if you want this story to continue. I'm seeing which story my readers think should go on hold while I focus on my other ones. Thanks for sticking by with me all of these chapters! Review and vote and you might just see more!