AN: Hope you all enjoy the update. I know it's been a while, I just haven't had a lot of time to write lately, I've been ill a lot, on holidays, and started three other writing projects aswell (inc something original eep.) It still amazes me how much attention this fic gets even when its sitting so I felt like I owed it to you guys to get back on it. xxxx
R&R Drop me a line X-Fans.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
...You don't remember the fire?
Rogue tried to focus. "...No I don't...more importantly I don't remember forgiving you so can you please just get out." Rogue crossed her arms.
"Rogue..."
"I mean it. Go get Logan." Rogue huffed in frustration.
"Um...Chere..." Remy motioned beneath her.
Confused, she looked down. She was floating above her bed. It took a moment for her to register before she blurted out "Holy Shit." She shrieked in fright before falling back down and screaming out "Logan!"
He came running into the infirmary, took one look at Gambit and barked gruffly "You, get out."
Remy reluctantly went and stood outside of the door.
Logan sat down beside her bed.
"What the hell is going on?" Rogue was panicked now.
Logan tried to keep her calm. "You had an accident, you were with 'Ro and Kitty, flying back from DC."
"No...I mean...I just threw Gambit across the room and floated above my bed. He said I'd been out cold for six weeks...I've never retained powers that long. No longer than a day or two."
Hank walked in holding his clipboard.
"Given your reluctance to use your mutant ability Rogue, we have no idea of their full potential. It is very possible that you have taken on these borrowed abilities permanently."
"Somebody tell me what happened."
"I'll go get Storm. Sit tight." Logan told her.
By the time the three girls had left the jet the fire was billowing out of control. The research centre was trying to evacuate but parts of the building were quickly being cut off. Shadowcat ran into the building, she would be safe with her phasing. Storm set out to put out the flames while Rogue stayed on the ground to help the survivors. Within twenty minutes or so they had managed to help most of the people out of the building. Kitty ran up to Rogue in a panic.
"Hey Rogue this world's a small place huh."
"What is it Kitty?"
"Your ex is trapped up on the top floor. You want me to leave him there?"
"Gambit? You can't leave him in there...he'll die!" It was odd how she was so worried about his welfare.
"Chill, Storm's got him. What's he doing here anyway?"
"How should I know? Where is he, I want to see him. You take over here?"
Kitty knelt down to take Rogue's patient so she could go find out what was going on. She found Storm feeding him oxygen through a ventilator.
"Remy..." She knelt down beside him. "What are you doing here?"
"No time to talk Chere...I got to split." He pushed himself up on his feet. "Thanks for the gas Storm."
Rogue wouldn't be beaten that easily. She was on her feet in a second. "Did you do this?" She waved her hands at the smouldering remains of the medical centre.
"I thought you didn't care what I do." Gambit spat back.
"Don't be a wise-ass. How did you end up in there?" She demanded.
Her question was answered when Carol Danvers came running over to them. She was dressed in an ambulance coat pretending to be a paramedic.
"Don't think you can get away from me that easily LeBeau!" She kicked him hard in the ribs, sending him flying across the pavement. Danvers was a mutant, a very strong one at that.
Rogue automatically went on the defensive, she tried to remember everything that Gambit had taught her in those self defense classes. She held her fists up ready to fight.
"Oh real cute honey. Why don't you step aside before I hurt you. Your boyfriend and I have unfinished business."
"I won't let you hurt him."
"I don't think you have much of a choice." Carol taunted back.
Rogue tried to punch her with little effect. In fact it damn near broke her hand.
Storm intervened, sending gale force winds to knock Danvers down but they didn't budge her either.
"Carol the drugs are gone, you're gonna have to accept that." Gambit told her as he rejoined the fight, bo-staff in hand.
"They were my drugs aswell. You had no right! You owe me a lot of money!"
Gambit responded by throwing some charged cards at her but they didn't seem to phase her.
Rogue looked at him. "What is she, invincible?"
"Just about. Gambit never meant to make her mad." It was then that Carol flew at him and they began to fight.
"What did you do?" Rogue stood and watched as Gambit sparred with Danvers. Rogue was still reluctant to get involved, she was still upset with him after all.
"He took all of my profits and sent them up in flames." She punched Gambit square in the jaw sending him sprawling to the pavement.
"No Carol, you were the one that started the fire." He argued.
"You were the one who brought the Cure here in the first place!"
Rogue sighed. "The Cure? Really? I should have known that was what this was about." Rogue went to walk away until Gambit tried to tell her.
"I gave it away for scientific testing. So that they could develop a real cure! A permanent one this time. They agreed to put it into the healthcare system when they finally cracked it."
"You did that for me?" Rogue asked him, Gambit was taking a beating by now. Storm was standing by Rogue's side and asked her when they were going to step in.
"Just give it a minute." She told the Weather Witch.
"I didn't care about the money, I hurt you Rogue, and I'm sorry. Gambit thought he could give something back, try to atone for what he done." Gambit was on his back, Danvers was really laying into him.
"Alright, I've had enough of this." Rogue ran over and pulled off her gloves. She jumped onto Carol's back and threw her hands onto Danvers face. "You let him go."
It took longer than usual for the pull to start this time...perhaps it was the invulnerability that was protecting her. After a minute the desired effect took hold, but it only inched in slowly. Danvers was fighting back trying to shake Rogue off of her, so she held on tighter. Danvers still tried to shake her off but couldn't, so instead tried the only thing she could think of. She took to the air, Rogue still hanging off of her back.
Rogue was terrified now and was holding on for dear life. Danvers flew them straight into the still smouldering building. She managed to fling Rogue off by smashing her through a burnt column of wood. Her uniform ripped, and as Rogue found out Carol's clothes were too. By smashing the column, the roof began to collapse, trapping the both of them down on the floor. Carol fell while trying to avoid falling debris and landed on top of Rogue, a beam was pinning them both down.
Their skin was touching through the tears in their clothes and Rogue was helpless to stop what was happening. "Get off me..." She tried to push Carol who was now a dead weight. Rogue figured she had taken on Carol's strength but trouble was that the onslaught of emotions was hitting her wave after wave leaving her to concentrate on little else. Rogue had to stop their contact soon or she would kill her.
Gambit and Storm had rushed back into the building but by the time they found the pair they were both out cold. They lifted the beam and pulled Carol off of Rogue, but nothing they tried would make them regain consciousness. Carol Danvers was taken to hospital and they took Rogue back home. She had been in the infirmary ever since.
"Is she alright? Why isn't she here? I can't believe you just dumped her in a hospital?" Rogue was angry. "I did this to her! It's my fault."
Logan interjected. "Rogue, this woman attacked your team. She is not one of us. When she does wake up I doubt she'll be in the most forgiving mood. You really want her waking up in the bed opposite you?"
"What if she never wakes up?"
"You can't think like that." Storm tried to re-assure her.
Rogue snapped. "I have to think like that! This is what I do to people, it's who I am. I hurt people."
"Rogue..." Gambit had made his way back into the room.
"Carol needs to recover here." She was firm in her decision.
"The hospital is hardly going to release her to us." Wolverine tried to reason.
"You'll think of something." She was stubborn, they had to give her that.
Logan huffed and left the infirmary to go and make some phone calls. Storm also excused herself leaving Remy and Anna alone together.
Sitting up in the bed Rogue wanted to try and talk this out. She didn't want to be angry at him forever. "How much money did you throw away by putting your drugs forward for medical testing?"
"All of it. I cut all of my ties. I bought Johnny out of his shares, and gave the whole of the supply to the research centre. Course it's all gone now, Carol made sure of that. If she couldn't have it no-one could."
"It's a shame. Developing the cure could do so much good for the mutant community. What would you have got for that on the street?"
"Thousands...hundreds of thousands." He said it so matter-of-factly, with little emotion behind it.
"You really been here all this time?"
"Gambit ain't got nowhere else to be. Sex-Ed hasn't been the same without you though."
Rogue blushed before bringing herself back around to the serious conversation they needed to be having. "You killed someone."
The lines on his face pulled as he grimaced. "You really want to talk about that?"
She wouldn't back down. "I feel like I don't know you at all."
"Julian was my best friend. I suppose we knew the life we were in but dat didn't make it any less painful when I saw him shot. When I held his hand and promised I'd look after his girl...It all went to hell."
"You framed the murder on a dead woman, after you said you'd look out for her...I'm just trying to grasp how you thought any of this was ok?"
"Rogue I was just a kid. In that world it was kill or be killed. Gambit did what he had to do. If I could go back and do it over, sure I'd do it different. But I can't. It's done. I have to live with it everyday."
"How did you get out? When I left you were still out cold and Johnny still wanted to kill you."
"I was told Adrian stood up for me, vouched for me. Cajun code said I would be handed over to him. When I woke up he had taken me back to Nu'Orleans. Told me I had broken almost every rule that we live by. He said he was disappointed in me but a deal was a deal. He wouldn't kill me so he let me go. Told me to get out of Cajun Country for a while."
"And Johnny?"
"I threw money at him. My bank account is empty. I bought his drugs and took them to clinic. the money I stole from him was nothing in comparison to what I ended up paying so we're even, he'll leave me alone."
"How about the money you stole from the Thieves?"
"Man you don't miss a beat."
"I've had your memories floatin 'round in my head. Everything you've done was all I was thinkin' about for a long time. They were your family, how could you betray them?" Rogue wanted to be sure he wouldn't betray the X-Men like that, that he wouldn't betray her.
"I was looking for a way out. Any way out, I was desperate. Then I met you and I knew I had to protect you. Keep you out of my business. Maybe one day Gambit have to do the Thieves a little favour but for now they don't want to look at me."
"So where does that leave us..." Rogue made the comment more to herself than to the broken man in front of her.
"I'm broke Chere, I'm homeless. The X-Men took me in once before and for some reason they've given me a second chance...But if you ain't comfortable with me being in the Institute I'll go pack my things."
"If I said that I wanted you to stay...I don't want you to misunderstand. You and me...can't happen again."
"You need time. Remy understands Chere."
"No." She wanted to be clear. "The trust is going to take a long time to build back up, and if I really have retained Carol's powers permanently its gonna take some getting used to. I have to focus on me. But I can't promise that at the end of all these things going on that I'll feel what I felt for you before."
"Kitty tells me that when you thought I was trapped in the fire you were after me like a cat on a hot tin roof."
"Of course I was. I thought you were dying...that's different."
"You and me were good together Anna." A gloved hand ran up her bare arm.
"Please don't push it. I've destroyed Carol's life to save yours. That's something that I have to live with. She might never wake up."
"That was not your fault."
"It wasn't intentional, but that doesn't mean that it's not my fault. Don't you have a class to teach?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Ok, Gambit give you some space. I'll be here if you need me just say the word."
Gambit left the infirmary and Rogue rolled over.
She was exhausted and wanted to try and get some rest. She had a lot to think about. Seeing Gambit again made her want to crawl into his arms and let all of the emotions she had been holding in out. At the same time his lies still hurt and she was afraid that if she let him get too close a second time he would hurt her again.
Logan came back in and sat next to her bed.
"You have a minute?"
"I'm not going anywhere."
"The hospital have agreed to let us take Danvers. It's a little unorthodox but the idea of letting mutants look after mutants was more agreeable to them."
"That's good."
"Look Rogue I know you're confused right now. If you want me to throw LeBeau out on the street I can."
Rogue couldn't say she wasn't tempted. "Why did you let him back in?"
"He was with 'Ro and Kitty when they brought you in. You should have seen him, he was frantic. He wouldn't leave your side, Hank had to manhandle Gambit out of the infirmary so that he could assess the damage. Say what you want about his past but that boy loves you, and thats hard to find."
"It might not be a bad thing if he sticks around for a while. I'm going to need someone to help me get a handle on these powers and a punching bag could be just what I'm looking for."
"Well don't give him too much of a beating. I've already got him cleaning the jet with a toothbrush."
She smiled. "Thanks for looking out for me Logan."
Wolverine left her alone to rest, Rogue would have a long recovery ahead of her.
