Chapter 11
To the surprise of everyone who had even spent five minutes with Marrow, she actually willingly sought out Carrie's company and allowed her to educate her in the finer arts of ladylike behaviour and etiquette. Sure, Marrow mouthed off as always, was sullen and disparaging, but she never actually acted on any of her threats of violence. It wasn't until long after the wedding was over that Gambit figured out what was going on in Marrow's head. He realised that Marrow didn't want to be a monster, and she probably concluded that a lady was probably the furthest thing from a monster. (Rogue's comments about Carrie being the dragon lady aside).
To Rogue's embarrassment, however, Marrow was not the only one who felt the lash of Carrie's tongue. The older woman took it upon herself to not only correct Rogue and Marrow on their language and posture at the dinner table, but everyone else's as well. Logan and Gambit found this highly amusing, right up until she started correcting them too (much to the amusement of the younger X-men). The only ones who escaped Carrie's wrath were Professor Xavier (Rogue figured that Carrie wouldn't dream of criticising her host even if she had found something), Storm and Kurt.
Professor Xavier didn't offer Gambit's family a place to stay when they came up. This was partly because Gambit told him it would be a bad idea, and partly because the LeBeaus (and Emil) would have each other for company, unlike Carrie, who had come up on her own.
The night that the LeBeaus (and Emil) arrived, they, Gambit, Rogue and Carrie went out for dinner. Rogue made a point of introducing her aunt to everyone as soon as possible and it was only then that Rogue realised Carrie was in the same age bracket as Henri and Mercy. Carrie was the younger sister, and by Rogue's calculations (because Carrie would never discuss her age), that made her about early forties. Gambit was thirty-eight this year. For the first time ever, Rogue was actually uncomfortable about the age difference between them.
While the introductions went on, Gambit walked in a slow circle around Jean-Luc. Jean-Luc noticed the intent investigation of his person, and after telling Carrie he was delighted to meet her, addressed his son:
"Something on your mind, Remy?"
"It looks like him," Gambit said as if talking to himself. "It sounds like him. But can I be sure it's really him?"
Henri laughed behind his hand.
"Ask me anything," Jean-Luc said expansively.
Gambit eyed Jean-Luc with mock suspicion. "Where were yo' on the night of the forty-second o' Octember?"
"Feeding the chickens," Jean-Luc replied jovially.
"At night?"
"They were feeling peckish."
"I see... and just where were these alleged chickens?" Gambit asked.
"Timbuctoo."
"Ah ha, I see," Gambit said, then edged over to Henri and whispered loudly. "He's an impostor."
Henri snickered.
"He's not an impostor, Remy," Mercy said.
"He must be," Gambit said, the big grin on his face completely ruining any illusion of seriousness behind his accusation. "Père never leaves New Orleans."
"Hmph, shows what yo' know," Jean-Luc replied. "I used t' be quite the traveller before I got stuck looking after yo' lot."
"Excuses, excuses," Gambit teased him.
"Okay, so are we going t' stand out here all night, or are we actually going t' go into the restaurant?" Gigi demanded.
They decided that Gigi had made a good point, and the group headed into the restaurant. Gambit had previously booked a private room for them (ever mindful of the unwanted attention from the media Rogue had attracted), and it was to this room that the host lead them. The menus were already waiting for them when they sat down. The group spent some time choosing and ordering.
As soon as the waitress departed with their order, Carrie announced they should say Grace now, before anyone forgot. Gigi snickered under her breath.
"Ahh, yes, how easy it is t' forget," Jean-Luc said without even a trace of a smile.
So they all held hands and said Grace. An awkward silence followed.
"Wow," Emil said. "It's been years since I've done that."
"Then it's been too long," Carrie said firmly.
"Yeah, probably. Haven't been t' confession in years either," Emil went on with a sly grin. "I remember never knowing what t' tell the priest, so I'd just make stuff up. Ahh memories."
"And den yo' could honestly confess t' lying," Gambit said, grinning at him. "Ahh irony."
"I did tell him the truth once," Emil said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "I told him about that jet we stole."
"Oh yeah?" Gambit asked, giving Emil an amused look. "How'd that go?"
"He didn't believe me. Can't imagine why."
Gambit laughed.
"Why wouldn't he believe that?" asked Gigi from across the table.
"We were twelve," Gambit replied.
"So? Kids can fly planes."
"It was a military jet."
Gigi giggled.
"We crashed," Gambit added.
"Ahh, good times, good times," said Emil.
"In that case I hope that the military has improved security since then," said Carrie, clearly unconvinced she should believe a word of it.
"So do I," Emil said cheerfully. "If we ever do this again for nostalgia, we need something more challenging."
"This may not be the most appropriate discussion," Mercy said pointedly to Emil, gesturing oh so slightly to Carrie with her head, who was sitting next to her.
"Nonsense," said Emil. "Any time is a good time to talk about your childhood exploits and revisiting those days. I'm sure that Carrie and Jean-Luc got up to just as much trouble as the rest of us."
Jean-Luc chuckled wickedly.
"Oh, I'm convinced he did," Henri said, jerking his thumb at his father.
"Ah was a good girl growing up," Carrie said with dignity and ignored the way Gambit quirked an eyebrow at her. "Ah assure you, Ah always had better things ta do than ta go around steal military jets."
Emil snickered.
"Oh yeah?" Gambit asked. "Now where have I heard dat before?"
He looked pointedly at Rogue. Rogue looked back at him innocently.
"Why, whatever could ya be implying?" she said.
"I told yo' dat yo' and your aunt were alike," Gambit said smugly.
"We are not," Rogue and Carrie said together.
Laughter came from the LeBeaus as the two women looked at each other.
"Uh huh yeah sure," Gambit said.
"Hey Oncle Remy," Gigi said slyly. "Do you suppose if yo' and Carrie had met first, that yo' might have hit it off?"
"Gigi!" Rogue exclaimed, horrified.
"Just 'cause dey share some personality traits doesn't make 'em the same person, petite," Gambit replied, smirking.
"Besides," said Carrie with the faintest hint of a smile as the waitress returned to the room with their entrees, "Ah'm much more interested in older men."
The waitress had no idea why that was so funny.
Haley pulled out a clothes rack filled with clothes for Gambit, Logan, Henri, Emil and Piotr to try on. Gambit smirked at the expressions on his friends' faces when they realised all the suits were white, and the shirts were pink.
"You're joking, right?" Logan said.
"Nope," Gambit said, grinning at him slyly. "This is what Roguey wants."
"Whipped," said Emil.
"I'm not the one who has a problem wit' it," Gambit said.
"Oh, and Remy," Haley said, holding out a red shirt and a white shirt. "We want to see how both of these look on you. Rogue couldn't decide which colour, so she's leaving the final decision to you."
"Uh oh, Remy," Henri said teasingly. "Don't choose wrong."
At first Rogue was a little anxious about Carrie getting involved with the wedding plans. Rogue wanted to keep things simple, and she didn't want some busybody taking over and changing everything on her. Fortunately, although Carrie had plenty of suggestions, each one of them was intended to enhance Rogue's existing plans. A lot of them were just small details Rogue hadn't thought of, like lighting or parking, or some decoration. Some of them did add further complications, but Carrie assured her niece that she would do the work required to pull them off.
"It's what I'm here for," she had insisted. "And you needn't worry about any wedding day disasters either. Whatever happens, I'll take care of it."
Before anyone knew it, it was the last week of school. As they usually did, classes were cancelled so that the school could indulge in their annual Capture the Flag competition. Rogue and Gambit decided to bow out of participating this year, as their families were over. Indeed, with the wedding only days away, Gambit's friends and family were arriving from all over the place.
Rogue's bachelorette party, and Gambit's bachelor party were both arranged for the night of the last day of the Capture the Flag competition. Kitty had thought about having it a little earlier, but she didn't want any cleaning up that would likely have to be done after the fact to interfere with the competition. She did face one problem in that she didn't think she could get away with not inviting Carrie, Mercy and Gigi, yet they weren't supposed to know about the Danger Room. It took a bit of brain storming with friends, but they did decide on a course of action. Invitations went out printed on parchment coloured paper, telling everyone not to tell Rogue that the theme was 'pirates' and that costumes were optional, but recommended.
On the big night, Kitty and Jubilee arrived at Rogue's bedroom the same time that Gambit was leaving for his bachelor party.
"Yo' filles have fun," he said as he passed them.
"Oh we will," Kitty said gleefully. "You have fun too."
"Yeah," said Jubilee. "Try not to get too excited by the strippers."
Gambit walked backwards down the hall and grinned at Rogue, Kitty and Jubilee.
"Believe it or not, strip clubs are actually really boring," he said. "Personally, I'm hoping we're hitting the casino, but Henri thinks I'll just spend the whole night playing poker if we do dat."
"Gee," Rogue called after him. "Ah wonder why?"
Gambit chuckled. As he disappeared around the corner, Kitty and Jubilee ushered Rogue back into her room.
"I hope you can get dressed blind-folded," Jubilee said, holding up a blindfold.
Rogue looked at the blindfold apprehensively.
"Trust us," said Kitty. "You do trust us, right?"
"Normally, Ah'd trust ya with muh life," said Rogue, reluctantly turning around so that Jubilee could put the blindfold on.
"Well, that's not really saying a whole lot," Jubilee said. "You're invulnerable."
"Not the point. Besides, powers can be shut off, you know."
"True."
Kitty and Jubilee went through Rogue's clothes, found the pieces of her pirate costume, and handed them to her one by one so she could change. They put her boots on for her though, not wanting her to feel the boot covers. Once they were done getting Rogue ready, Kitty and Jubilee finished changing into their own pirate costumes, having arrived at Rogue's room wearing the bare minimum of their costumes so not to give the surprise away.
They were just finishing up with the jewellery and other accessories, when there was a knock at the door. Kitty opened it to reveal Kurt standing there in his pirate costume.
"Aww, you got dressed up too," said Kitty. "Isn't changing back going to make you even later for Gambit's party?"
"I'm half thinking of showing up to his party like this," Kurt said, grinning. "Carrie, Mercy and Gigi are all there, so now it's just you three."
"Great," Kitty said. "We're all done here."
"Hey Kurt," Rogue said. "Ah don't know what you're wearing, so make sure you're still there when they take this damn blindfold off."
Kurt chuckled. "I can do that. We ready?"
Jubilee grabbed Rogue's pirate hat. "Are now."
They all took hands and Kurt teleported them down to the Danger Room. Rogue became immediately aware of a crowd of people, and that was before the cheer went up from those gathered. Kitty directed Rogue to stand in a particular place and Jubilee finally removed the blindfold.
Rogue blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light, and then gasped at what she saw: the inside of a pirate tavern. She was standing in front of the bar, which was slightly raised above the ground floor. The ground floor was full of tables and chair, and there was a staircase to the right which lead to the mezzanine. There were people everywhere; both real people (including some of the older students who had graduated), and computer generated people.
"Ahoy mateys!" said Kitty, putting one foot up on a nearby crate. "Welcome to Wenches Night at the Purple Dragon. I be your hostess, Black Kitty. Our guest of honour be the infamous rapscallion, Poisonous Mary," and Kitty gestured to Rogue, "who be getting herself hitched to the notorious pirate Captain Rembrant the Lady-killer in four sleeps." Kitty paused and glanced at Jubilee. "Arrr, Mad Lee, methinks we need to be changing his name."
Rogue giggled. "He never liked ye calling him that, anyway."
"Arrr," Kitty said, then looked back at the crowd. "The bar fight be starting at eight. All ye land lubbers not wanting to be participating; keep your weapons sheathed and stay out of the way. Now, someone fetch me my grog!"
"Bar fight?" Rogue asked, as everyone went about their party business.
Kitty chuckled wickedly. A shirtless man—one of the tavern staff—handed Rogue's usual pirate sword out to her.
"Thanks," Rogue said.
"Yeah, you're going to need that," Kitty said gleefully.
"Arrr, I wish I could be staying," said Kurt, looking around the tavern. "Looks like ye lasses are going to be having all the fun."
"That be the plan," Kitty said, grinning.
"Well, Ah'm sure that you'll have fun at Remy's party," Rogue said to Kurt. "You look pretty awesome too, by the way."
"Thank you," Kurt said, then sighed. "Well, I'd best be abandoning ship."
"The tavern will still be here," Kitty teased him. "I've been wanting to add a tavern to the Pirate sim anyway. This just gave me some incentive to stop procrastinating."
"Well, it's certainly paid off," Kurt said.
Kurt tipped his pirate hat and teleported away. As soon as the smoke cleared, Rogue caught a glimpse of Carrie actually wearing a pirate costume, or what she could put together of one in the time available.
"Aunt Carrie?" Rogue exclaimed in surprise.
"Hope you don't mind," Kitty said as Carrie took that as a cue to walk over, "but I couldn't in good conscious not invite her."
"It's fine, it's fine," Rogue assured her. "Ah'm just surprised."
"No more than Ah," said Carrie, looking around as she stopped in front of her niece. "Just, what is this place?"
"The Purple Dragon Tavern," Kitty said mischievously as Gigi and Mercy also joined them.
"Ah know what it's called," Carrie said. "But there's something...a little off about this place."
"Yeah and I worked out what it is," Gigi said, butting into the conversation. "Well, part of it anyway. Nothing smells."
Rogue and Kitty glanced at each other. Kitty shrugged as if to say "can't program the Danger Room to simulate smell."
"Seriously," Gigi said. "For this kind of crowd, there should be more 'people' smells, like body odour. And that fire over there? There should be a burning smell, but there isn't. And there's a bunch of people eating, but you can't smell their food or drink either."
"Yes, that's true," Carrie said thoughtfully.
"I guess it's amazing all the little things you notice but you don't really notice until they're not there," Kitty said. "You're right, this place isn't real. Let's just call it a trade secret and leave it at that, okay?"
Gigi hesitated for a moment and then said: "Arrr, what if I be stealing trade secrets fo' a living? What den?"
"Ye be a very mighty pirate," Kitty replied solemnly.
Rogue chatted with her aunt, and soon-to-be sister-in-law and niece, and then went on to mingle with the other wenches. The pirate program was reasonably popular in the school so pretty much everyone there had a halfway decent costume.
They danced, and sang along with some of the songs the band was playing. The music was anything Kitty had deemed to be "piratey" enough not to ruin the immersion. Mercy did, however, notice that the instruments the band was playing, and how the band was playing them, didn't entirely match the music they were hearing.
All the men in the Purple Dragon were there as staff to wait on the wenches. Kitty did mention to those who asked that the tavern would have female staff as well normally, but this was a special occasion. Not that any of the girls were complaining about Kitty's carefully programmed men in various states of shirtlessness and musculature.
Marrow was one of the few who didn't have much of a pirate costume. She didn't care for the pirate simulation all that much, nor for parties, and spent the beginning of the party in a little corner on the ground floor, with a view of the front door. The only thing particularly piratey about her clothes was the holographic sword lying haphazardly on the table.
When Marrow had arrived, Storm instructed her (and everyone else that came in) that they should pick a weapon. Marrow felt the whole thing was stupid, especially since any time she needed a weapon, she could pull out one of her bones. The fact that these particular holographic weapons were programmed not to hurt anyone not a hologram themselves was not the point. The weapons were removed shortly before Rogue's arrival.
Because of her vantage point, Marrow was the first one to notice when the tavern doors burst open. Standing in front of a gang of cutthroat, grog-swilling pirates was the Pirate King herself, Elizabeth Swan.
"Poisonous Mary!" Elizabeth bellowed.
The tavern fell silent, bar for the band, which was played an ominous tune. Rogue, who had been dancing on the table, was rather surprised to see the simulation, and remembered Kitty saying something about a bar fight.
"Whaddya want?" Rogue demanded with her hands on her hips as she glared at Elizabeth.
"Where is it?" Elizabeth said as she stalked over to Rogue, the crew of pirates close behind.
"Where's what?"
"Don't play games with me, ye scurvy bilge rat," Elizabeth said, pulling out her sword. "Ye know exactly what I'm talking about, so hand it over before I cut ye to ribbons."
Rogue nodded. She had no idea what Elizabeth was apparently after, but odds were not even Kitty knew what Elizabeth wanted.
"Ah'd like ta see ye try," Rogue retorted, drawing her own sword.
"I was hoping ye'd say that," Elizabeth replied.
Their swords clashed, and the clang that sounded around the tavern was the cue for everyone else to draw their swords and engage Elizabeth's pirate crew. The tavern staff made a discreet withdrawal, except for the band, which started playing lively, 'pirate fighting' music. The fighting inevitably made its way up the stairs to the mezzanine. Jubilee even fought her opponent—or one of them—on the stair railing and did the classic somersault down to the ground floor via the chandelier.
Storm, Carrie and Mercy watched from the sidelines while the younger women fought.
"Ah see that Marie and her friends are very...capable women," Carrie said. "Ah assume these weapons are non-lethal?"
"Perfectly harmless," Storm assured her. "You're more likely to hurt yourself on the furniture."
"Hmm," Carrie murmured.
Mercy leaned in towards her.
"Wondering why the kids should have all the fun?" Mercy asked.
"Ah am, actually," Carrie replied, a sly twinkle appearing in her eye.
Without another word required between them, Carrie and Mercy stood, drew their swords and entered the fray.
With a bamf, Kurt teleported to Gambit's bachelor party, still dressed in his pirate costume. He had scoped out the place earlier, since he knew he was going to be late, so seeing the arcade games, pool tables, air hockey tables and the X-box's and TVs set up was no surprise to him. He wasn't expecting to see the cocktail waitresses walking around in their underwear though. Fortunately, being blue and furry meant that no one could see him blush.
"Hey Henri!" Emil called from across the room. "I don't recall ordering a male stripper."
Kurt felt all eyes on him and he cleared his throat uncomfortably. Gambit twisted around on the lounge to grin at him.
"We didn't," Henri said and then noticed Kurt. "Oh hey homme. About time yo' got here. I like the outfit."
"Danke," Kurt replied.
"Ahoy matey," Gambit said, gesturing for Kurt to join him. "Just what are the femmes up to? Kitty wouldn't tell me."
"It's Wenches Night at the Purple Dragon Tavern," Kurt replied, walking over to Gambit. "They're playing Pirates."
Gambit laughed as Kurt found a space on the lounge next to him.
"That's awesome," Gambit said. "I'm going t' have t' visit this 'Purple Dragon Tavern' later. Hey, what do yo' think about crashing it later tonight?"
"Well, they were going to call me when they were finishing up so I could teleport Carrie, Mercy and Gigi out," Kurt said. "You can join me then, if you want."
"Excellent. I will take you up on that."
"It looks amazing," Kurt added enthusiastically. "Kitty did a great job programming the tavern."
"I'm sure o' dat."
Kurt was soon swept into the gaming of the night. When he was inevitably approached by various cocktail waitresses throughout the evening, he made a point of keeping his eyes either on the tray, or above her shoulders. Kurt wasn't the only one who was uncomfortable with the situation, but he was one of the few. Gambit noticed and made a comment about having friends who didn't think a bachelor party was any good if they didn't get to see any boobs.
"I find that very disappointing," Kurt said.
Gambit shrugged. "There was a time I would have agreed wit' dem, mon ami. I think I've become immune or something; seeing half naked women walking around everywhere just doesn't do anything fo' me anymore."
"True love?" Kurt suggested.
"Well, as much as I would love t' say the romantic thing and declare dat since meeting Rogue all women pale in comparison—which they do—but, the truth is dat I got bored wit' strippers years before I even knew Roguey existed," Gambit said. "Logan's the same way, ain't dat right?"
"Shuddup," Logan said, with an X-box controller in his hands and his eyes focused on the TV. "I'm concentrating."
"See?" Gambit said as if this proved his point.
Kurt chuckled lightly.
Some hours later, Kurt got the call from Kitty that they were finishing up. The bachelor party was still going strong as Kurt wandered over to where Gambit was playing foosball with one of his friends. He waited until the game was up, and then let Gambit know he was going to be gone for a few minutes.
"The girls aren't done already are dey?" Gambit asked in surprise. "It's still early."
Kurt shrugged. "They were planning a bar fight. I imagine that they've been more active than us."
"A bar fight?" Gambit repeated. "Dat would have been fun. Man, why wasn't I invited?"
Kurt chuckled and Gambit grinned at him.
"Okay, but I'm coming wit' yo'," Gambit said. "It'll be fun."
"Don't you think that everyone would notice if the guest of honour leaves his own party?" Kurt asked.
"No idea, let's find out."
Kurt laughed at that. They found a discreet place to teleport, and reappeared outside the Danger Room doors, just because Kurt wouldn't risk teleporting directly inside (he had no idea where everyone may be standing). The Danger Room doors opened and Gambit caught his first look at the Purple Dragon Tavern. Much of the furniture was out of place, there were every a couple of 'broken' chairs. There were far less people in there than there had been there when Kurt had left before.
Before Gambit had a chance to take everything in, he was pulled past the doorway. He felt a slight tingle as he did and looked back to realise that Kitty had programmed a scene over the doorway so that instead of seeing the real hallway there, they instead saw the street where the Purple Dragon Tavern was supposed to be located.
"Well, well, well," said Jubilee, and it took Gambit a moment before he realised where the voice was coming from: she sitting on top of one of the chandeliers with Rogue and Kitty, each with a bottle labelled 'grog' in their hand. "If it isn't Nightcrawler and Captain Rembrant the Lady-killer."
"I thought we weren't calling him that any more," Kitty said the same time Gambit replied: "Dat's Captain Rembrant the Notorious."
"Hey Oncle Remy," Gigi said, swaggering towards them with Mercy and Carrie close behind. "You missed the bar fight."
"Ah kicked Elizabeth Swan's butt," Rogue declared from the chandelier.
"Elizabeth Swan?" Gambit repeated, then looked at Kitty. "Do yo' mean t' say yo' actually brought Kira Knightly int' this after all? I thought yo said—"
"Yeah, yeah, just don't make me regret it," Kitty replied as Kurt approached Mercy and Gigi.
"I make no promises," Gambit replied wickedly.
"See y'all later!" Gigi said.
There was a flash of blue smoke, and Kurt, Mercy, and Gigi vanished. Carrie coughed and waved away the smell of sulphur from her nose.
"The bar fight was epic," Rogue went on, swinging upside down by her legs from the chandelier. "Even Aunt Carrie got involved."
"Oh yeah?" Gambit asked, grinning at Carrie.
"One pirate," Carrie replied with dignity.
"Ah didn't even expect ya ta be in costume," Rogue said. "In fact Ah'm starting ta wonder if you're really muh aunt."
"Aww Roguey," Gambit said as Kurt reappeared. "Is it so hard to believe that your mother-figure might want t' cut loose every now and then? Aunt Carrie's a person too, y'know."
"Ahem," Carrie said, and looked towards Kurt. "Ah am ready ta leave whenever you are, Mr Wagner."
Kurt took her hand with a debonair grin, and in a flash they were gone. Jubilee flipped off the chandelier and landed on her feet with the grace of a cat.
"Okay, well, I guess we'll just leave the love-birds alone," Jubilee said.
Kitty chuckled as she phased through to the floor. By this point, they were pretty much the only people left in the Danger Room.
"Just remember to turn the program off when you're done," said Kitty. "And try not to leave too much extra mess for us to clean up tomorrow."
Gambit saluted, and the women departed. Rogue flew down from the chandelier. Gambit immediately wrapped his arms around her waste and kissed her soundly. Contrary to what he had said to Kurt and others during the party, he may have been just a little bit more turned on by the strippers than he was willing to admit. He blamed it on being abstinent for so long. Rogue looked so incredibly sexy in her pirate costume too.
"Oui," he said, "dat is a hornpipe in my pocket and I am happy t' see you."
Rogue giggled as he started kissing up her neck.
"Ah'm sure you can wait four more sleeps, sugah," she said.
"If I take four naps right after the other, does that count?" Gambit asked between kisses.
"No," she said, grinning as Kurt returned once more. "It's not that long now. We can save the pirate role play for after, okay?"
Kurt, who was behind Gambit, threw Rogue a look as if to say "too much information." Gambit sighed.
"Fine," Gambit said reluctantly.
Kurt clamped his hand down on Gambit's shoulder, and Rogue had just enough time to wave before they teleported away. As soon as they reappeared at Gambit's bachelor party, Emil was on him.
"Hey! Where have you been," Emil demanded. "We were looking for you."
"Oh look," Gambit said, grinning at him. "You did miss me. And here I was thinking you'd be too crotch-deep in strippers to notice."
Tante Mattie got out of the car and took in the sight of the quaint little church where Rogue and Gambit planned to get married. It was the night of the wedding rehearsal, and Tante Mattie had only just arrived in Westchester that day. She had already caught up with family, and this was the first opportunity she had to catch up with Rogue and meet everyone else.
"Rogue," Tante Mattie said when she spotted her, and she held out her arms to the bride-to-be.
"Tante Mattie," Rogue replied and gave her a hug willingly. "It's good ta see you. How have you been?"
"I've been well," Tante Mattie said as they pulled apart again after their hug. "And I trust you have been well also?"
"Ah have," Rogue said, and then gestured to Carrie, who had been by Rogue's side. "And before Ah forget, this is muh Aunt Carrie. Aunt Carrie this is Tante Mattie. She's uhh...a very, very close family friend of the LeBeaus."
Tante Mattie chuckled lightly as she turned to Carrie.
"What she means t' say is dat I helped t' raise Remy," Tante Mattie said.
"Ahh," Carrie replied with a graceful nod. "Ah had a firm hand in raising Rogue as well."
Rogue glanced between them and couldn't help but have the feeling that next time Carrie and Tante Mattie met there would be potentially embarrassing photos from childhood involved.
AN: Tomorrow's chapter is the last.