Years since Rogue's powers returned: 30

Chapter 38: Guilty Pleasure

"So," Blake said to Gambit while they were gathered in Rogue's kitchen. "Rogue tells me that you have a girlfriend this time?"

"Heh, yeah," Gambit replied with a smirk as Rogue placed her birthday cake on the table. "I suppose it had to happen eventually, that I'd be visiting here and have a girlfriend at the same time."

"How'd she react when you told her you were going to be jumping in bed with another woman for a month?" Blake asked.

"Blake," Rogue said with a frown.

"Didn't tell her that much, just said I'd be incommunicado for a month," Gambit replied with a shrug. "This cake looks delicious, Roguey."

"Thank you," she said with a proud smile. "I made it myself."

"And she was okay with that?" Blake asked Gambit with raised eyebrows.

"We have an understanding," Gambit answered.

"Right," Blake replied with obvious disbelief.

"Now boys," Rogue said, lifting up the knife. "This is my birthday. If you two start fighting you had better be willing to lose some clothes."

"Come again?" Gambit asked the same time Blake said: "Lose some clothes?"

"Yes, wrestling ancient Greek style," Rogue said wickedly as she cut up the cake. "Because that's the only way I will accept you two not getting along; if I can get some entertainment out of it."

"I thought you said he'd beat me in a fight," Blake said.

"Yes, but Remy doesn't like being naked in front of people he's not sleeping with, so that will throw him off." Rogue paused thoughtfully. "A little. A teeny tiny little bit. Actually it's possible he'd just kick your ass faster just so he can get his clothes back on. Probably wouldn't be that entertaining after all."

She gave Gambit a wink and he pulled a face at her.

"You know, I'm sure that Blake doesn't appreciate you questioning his manhood, chère," he said blandly.

"Sounds more to me like she was making fun of your insecurity about your own body," Blake retorted.

"Insecurity and modesty aren't the same thing," Gambit said firmly as Rogue slid a piece of cake on a plate towards him. "Additionally, being naked in front of a group of people does not prove that you're secure about your body. It could be that you hate clothes, or you're an exhibitionist," the memory of he and Haley being in Candra's clutches came to mind, "or a victim."

"It could mean that you're an infant," Rogue went on cheerfully as she placed a slice of cake on a plate for Blake, "and have no choice in the matter."

Blake looked at both of them, and decided his best response was to thank Rogue for the cake.

"I just realised we didn't sing you happy birthday," he said after thanking her.

"Well, you can still do that if you want," Rogue replied. "But I wasn't going to try blowing out the candles with my hazmat suit on. I just don't think it would work, somehow."

"There are other ways to put out candles," Gambit pointed out.

"Where's the fun in that?" she asked, slicing a final piece for herself. "I wanna put my lips together and blow."

Gambit gestured to Blake. "He holding out on you, chère?"

"Hey!" Blake objected while Rogue pulled a face at Gambit.

"I have no idea how we could possibly pull off oral," she said. "Filthy Swamp Rat."

"Oral?" Gambit replied innocently. "I just thought Blake forgot to bring balloons."

"Yeah, right," Blake said cynically and ate some of his cake.

"You getting a bit of a dirty mind in your old age, eh Roguey?" Gambit went on slyly. "First you're talking about seeing your boyfriend wrestle naked with another man, and then you're assuming I'm talking about oral over balloons at a birthday party."

Rogue pointed a finger at Gambit with an unimpressed expression on her face. "You're asking for it, you realise that, don't you?"

"Yes," Gambit replied. "I would like more cake, but only after I've finished this piece. And even then, I think I might wait. This is very rich, chère, delicious, but rich."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Rogue said. "But thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it."

He grinned at her.

Rogue watched as Gambit's hand trailed absently over her upper thigh near the bottoms of her short-shorts. There was a movie playing, but she was far more interested in savouring the feel of Gambit's hands on her body, and touching his body herself. Still...

"Remy?" she asked.

"Yeah?" he replied, his eyes on the screen.

"Are you sure this is okay?"

Hearing the uncertainty in her voice, Gambit looked away from the screen to meet her eyes. "Is what okay?"

Rogue gestured to his hand. "This. I mean, well, you're dating someone. I am too, for that matter, but Blake at least knows what's going on and why. Your girlfriend doesn't."

"You come first," Gambit replied firmly.

"Flattering, but not what I'm asking," Rogue said. "I know you, Remy. I know that you take fidelity seriously so... yeah... is this okay?"

Gambit lifted his hand to stroke her cheek.

"I don't feel like I'm cheating on my girlfriend by being like this with you," he said. "We've had a touching relationship for a long time, Roguey. No matter what it might look to outsiders, this is part of our relationship. Like I'm sure you would'ave already told Blake, it's all platonic. There's nothing romantic or sexual going on here, so, really, I can't see this as cheating."

"I guess. I just... I don't want to put you in a position where one of your relationships ends over me," she said, looking down. She was certain it must have happened at least once.

Gambit shook his head. "I'm really not concerned. I know what's important to me, Roguey. You're important to me. I don't see why our relationship should change every time I get a new girlfriend. I go through them fast enough."

"Aw," Rogue replied giving him a sympathetic pout. "How long have you been with this one anyway?"

"Umm, by the time I get back to Earth it'll be nine months."

"Nice. So, what are the odds she has a name?" Rogue asked, waggling her eyebrows.

"Heh," he chuckled. "I don't know. It's hard to say with this one. We met on a...professional level, so to speak. We've been teaming up a bit. She usually gives me information and I act on it. Sometimes we team up and go together."

"Oh?" Rogue inquired with a raise of her eyebrows. "Laura?"

Gambit blinked. "How?"

"Kimura's here. Which I'm sure you already knew."

"I thought Emma..." Gambit trailed off. Emma Frost was going to alter Kimura's memory of he and Vanessa, or that was what she said.

"Oh she did. I'd recognise her mental signature anywhere," Rogue replied cheerfully. "I only saw the memory briefly but I recognised your...style. And I know how you feel about the sort of thing Kimura was convicted for. Soooo, was the woman with you the girlfriend or someone else?"

"No, that's her," Gambit said with a nod while his hand continued to run over Rogue's legs. "Yeah, I don't think we're going to last."

"Throwing in the towel already?" Rogue asked wryly.

"No, it's not that. I mean, I like her, and I want to see how things go. But...she and I have very different moral compasses. I think it's only a matter of time before they take us in different directions," Gambit answered with a shrug. "Either that or the long-distance thing will be a problem again. It'll be interesting to find out if that'll be the end of our relationship or if we'll just give up the dating part of it."

"If you're so sure it's never going to work out between you, why date her in the first place?" Rogue asked sliding onto his lap and putting her arm around his shoulders.

"Just because you know the final destination is doesn't mean you should jump ship before you get there," Gambit replied. "Sometimes the journey is the best part."

Some weeks later, Vanessa lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling as she tried to comprehend what just happened.

"Wow," she said finally. "That was amazing. Completely unsanitary, but amazing."

Gambit chuckled and moved up from between her legs to lie beside her instead.

"So, next time I should bring the dental dams?" he asked slyly.

"Umm, yes?" she replied, having not actually heard of those before but assumed Gambit wouldn't bring them up for no reason. "I hope you're not expecting me to return the favour..."

"I won't try to talk you into it," Gambit promised her as he trailed his hands over her naked body. "But if you ever change your mind, I'll be sure to pick up some flavoured condoms for you."

"They make flavoured condoms?"

"Oui."

"I see," she said slowly and eyed Gambit with some nervous apprehension. "You must think I'm really naive."

Gambit chuckled and cuddled up with her. "Nah, you've just been too busy saving the world to take out any time for yourself."

Vanessa chuckled and turned her head to kiss him. Her lips stopped short of touching his when she remembered at the last moment where his mouth had just been. She kissed his cheek instead. Gambit chuckled.

"I know where that mouth has been," she said.

"Shall I go rinse?" Gambit asked teasingly.

"Yes," Vanessa replied. "With hot water. And brush. And throw away the toothbrush."

Gambit laughed and got up off the bed.

"If it made you that uncomfortable, why didn't you stop me?" he asked as he backed, naked, towards the door.

"Morbid curiosity."

"Heh, I'll accept that," Gambit replied. He stopped just as he was about to walk out and caught Vanessa's eye. "Nessie, next time I do something you're not comfortable with, say so."

"I will."

"No, seriously, say something," he said firmly. "I get that sometimes when you experiment you can do things you're not comfortable with. Or you do something that you're okay with in theory but you hate it in practice. I'm pretty accommodating, but you have to actually talk to me. Not just stuff you don't like either. The stuff you do like, I gotta know about too. I don't want to be someone you regret being with, okay?"

Vanessa nodded. "Okay. Next time I'll say something."

"Bon."

He started to head out when she called after him: "Aside from the hygiene thing that was pretty awesome."

"Note to self," he said, "get dental dams."

Vanessa giggled and rightly supposed she'd find out soon enough what those things were. She waited for his return, half impatient that it was taking him so long, and half relieved that he was being thorough.

Gambit returned before Vanessa could get too much more frustrated with the delay and he greeted her with a kiss with his minty-fresh mouth.

"How's that?" he asked.

"Much better," she replied and kissed him back. She continued speaking when he moved onto kissing her neck. "Remy? How come you didn't have any in the first place? I mean... safe sex and all?"

"Hmm? Oh," he murmured between kisses. "I usually don't bother with safe oral if I've only been sleeping with the one woman for awhile. It's slack, I know." He lifted his head and grinned at her. "What can I say? I like tasting you."

Vanessa pulled a face. Gambit chuckled and went back to kissing her neck.

"Guilty pleasure of mine," he said.

"And I just spoiled it for you, huh?" Vanessa asked, feeling just a little bit bad.

"It's fine," he assured her, meaning it sincerely. "We're probably better off your way, and besides you're hardly the first woman I've been with who thought it was unhygienic."

"It is unhygienic," she insisted.

Gambit chuckled and left it at that. Still, Vanessa continued to feel a little bit bad. He hadn't needed to tell her he was accommodating; she'd seen that for herself. Not once had he pushed her into going further than she was ready to go. He was always polite and considerate. She liked the fire he got in his eyes when he did something on impulse. Everything about the way he touched her was magical. She wanted him to keep touching her.

She really wanted him to keep touching her.

"Remy," she said.

"Mmm?"

"I..." she reached down and grasped his manhood within her hand. "I want... I want you in me."

Gambit lifted his head to meet her eyes.

"You sure?" he asked cautiously. Not that he was at all unhappy about the idea, but: "You're still pretty tight down there. I don't want to hurt you."

"I'm a big girl. I can handle a little pain," Vanessa insisted.

Gambit, who had memories of other virgins who had said similar things and then freaked out and told him to stop because it hurt too much despite his efforts to the contrary, looked at Vanessa dubiously. He liked the determined glint in her eye.

"Alright," he said cautiously. "I think I have some condoms with me. I'll go check. But Nessie, it's okay if you change your mind."

"I won't," Vanessa said. "Go get 'em."

Gambit gave her a final, cautious look and then got up to go check his bag. To both his irritation and relief, he found some and they were all still in date. As much as he wanted to go all the way with Vanessa, he wasn't convinced it was a good idea just yet. Having to go out to buy more condoms would have killed the mood and bought him some time.

He returned to the bedroom, set the condoms aside on the bedside table, and curled back up beside Vanessa. She glanced at him curiously, then at the square packets on the table, then back at Gambit.

"Umm..." she said as he returned to foreplay. "Aren't you going to...?"

"Yeah, yeah," he responded. "Not right this second, though."

'But..."

He caught her eyes and stroked her face gently.

"Nessie," he said softly. "I want to be with you, I do. But you need to trust me on this—really, you need to trust me on this or we really shouldn't be doing this at all. I'm going to do everything within my power to make this as painless and as positive an experience for you as I can. But first, we need more foreplay."

He waggled his eyebrows at her and she laughed.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," he went on. "There are a couple of nipples here that are just begging for me to suck them."

The following morning, Vanessa and Gambit wandered into the kitchen to find Vanessa's housemate Abigail in there, pouring herself a cup of coffee. Abigail looked up as they entered.

"Hey you two," she said and grinned at Gambit. "So, she finally let you sleep in bed with her last night huh? It's about time you stopped sleeping on the couch."

"Morning, Abby," Gambit replied, choosing not to respond otherwise. "I might have some coffee too, if you don't mind."

"Sure," she said, and set down the coffee pot to grab a couple of mugs. "You too, Vanessa?"

"Please," Vanessa answered and leaned on the counter. She was feeling a little sore this morning but not in a bad way. "And I just wasn't comfortable sharing the bed—"

Gambit put his finger to her lips.

"There's no need for you to apologise or explain, chère," he said firmly. "If you weren't comfortable, you weren't comfortable, and no blame or shame should be attached to that."

"Okay, seriously," Abigail said to Vanessa while she poured the coffee. "If you ever break up with Remy you're crazy and I'm going to jump him. Just so you know."

"I'll keep that in mind," Vanessa replied.

Gambit chuckled and Abigail passed him his coffee. As he drank, a folder on the counter top away from the main food preparation area caught his attention. The word that attracted his eye was "Madripoor."

"Who's interested in Madripoor?" he asked, having a feeling he already knew.

"Oh," Vanessa said, snapping her fingers and proving Gambit's feeling correct. "That's mine. I'm going on a team to set up an office there."

"In Mardipoor?" Gambit exclaimed. "Seriously?"

"What?" Vanessa asked after a sip of her coffee. "It's a source and destination country, not to mention it's becoming a popular location for sex vacations. Why shouldn't we?"

"I've never heard of it," Abigail said.

"It's a small island nation near Singapore," Gambit told her. "Founded by pirates. Their descendants still act like pirates. There are no laws against human trafficking whatsoever. The Royal Family has been known to actively involve themselves in the practice. I have good reason to believe that the rumours about the size of the harem are not exaggerated. They have no extradition treaty with anyone. There's no middle class to speak of. The poor are so poor that prostitution and mugging are considered viable career choices."

"In that case the harem might not be a bad job," Abigail suggested. "If there's really that many women, you get to live in a cushy palace and not have to worry about having to provide any services all that often."

Abigail then proceeded to cringe as Gambit and Vanessa glared at her.

"Women are kidnapped off the street," Gambit snapped at her. "He's stolen wives and daughters, and even pretty tourists who've made the stupid mistake of going there. There might be some women there who are by choice. Maybe. But it's probably best to assume that every single one of them has been raped. There's also no guarantee that he only does them one at a time either. And heck, maybe I'm wrong about the size of the harem. Maybe it really is small and the only reason why he goes through so many women is because he keeps killing them."

Abigail's cringe turned into a visible withering.

"Okay," she squeaked. "I'll keep my mouth shut."

"So you've been there a lot have you?" Vanessa asked Gambit. "Great! We're still in the planning stage and we could use some insider information." Gambit looked at her and it only took her a moment to read his expression. "And 'don't go' isn't an option."

Gambit growled under his breath.

"Fine," he said tersely. "When I have a chance I'll write something up for you."

"Thank you. That would be much appreciated," Vanessa replied. "Would you like to come with us when we go?"

"Oh don't you worry about that chère. I'll be there the same time," Gambit answered. "Someone has to be there to ward off disaster."

Rogue sat in her usual seat in the theatre while Blake performed in Les Misérables on the stage below. Beside her was Chris, and two other long-term personnel, Leesa and her son Jacob.

Although Leesa hadn't been the first woman to get pregnant while on the moon, she was the first to carry to term. Moon personal were strongly advised to practice strict birth control and when accidents inevitably occurred, abortion was "strongly recommended." Leesa had told administration where they could shove their recommendation.

The problem was that there were no facilities at all for looking after children on the moon. Pregnant women could not make the trip to and from the moon due to high risk of miscarriage and children couldn't do the trip to Earth until their bodies had developed enough to deal with the strain of the g-forces involved. There had been numerous experiments in adapting the artificial gravity technology to deal with transport in and out of Earth's atmosphere, but they were still working on finding something appropriate.

Fortunately, as most contracts were less than a year, the problem didn't come up very often. Nevertheless, Jacob was the oldest of the three total children.

Blake, as Valjean, opened his mouth to sing "The Attack on the Rue Plumet" when a loud boom cracked across the theatre, deafening everyone with its roar. At the same time, the walls on the moon side of the theatre split open. Emergency alerts went wild in Rogue's helmet, revealing that the containment field had been breached, and everyone started being sucked out into space as the community district de-pressurised.

Rogue reached out with her telekinesis, grabbing hold of everyone she could catch while telepathically assuring everyone that she had them and not to panic. She had a few doses of telepathy and telekinesis by now: not high levels ones, but plenty to get the job done.

James, who was quite capable of tapping into the main installation's systems in the event of emergency—which this most certainly was—was able to tell her that all the containment fields were down, except for the one around the prison. Only the community district's walls had been breached, however, not that it would last long if they didn't get the containment fields back up soon. This knowledge annoyed Rogue; they had deliberately created multiple backup and redundancy containment fields and every single one of them was down.

She pulled everyone (including herself) back inside the theatre and then out into the main part of the community district. Once there, she was able to activate the emergency blast doors which would shut off the theatre from the rest of the district, thus restoring it to airtight status, at least temporarily. Rogue did not like the fact that the blast doors hadn't activated already like they were supposed to.

"James," Rogue said while the pressure levels began to restore. "Patch me into Central, please."

"Yes Madame," James replied.

A moment later a male voice came through: "Central here. What's your status, Rogue? The prison appears fine."

"I'm in the community district," Rogue reported as she checked on those around her. "The blast took out the theatre. I'm pretty sure I got everyone before they could be pulled out too far into space. They're in the district proper now and the theatre blast door is down. It didn't automatically react like it was supposed to."

"Damn. We've already got emergency crews out to the containment fields to get them up and going-" Central was cut off by a new alert, one that Rogue also got: security breach in the prison.

Rogue swore."I have to get there. You need to get the folks out of the community district. Keep me apprised."

"Will do."

The call ended. She telepathically informed Chris (who had recovered his breath and was already getting into action to deal with the emergency on his end) that there was a problem at the prison, and then teleported off. She hated that she had to go. She would have preferred to assist with getting the containment fields back up. Unfortunately she had to deal with the possibility that the obvious sabotage was all a ploy to keep her busy while people were broken out of the prison. The moon personnel were perfectly capable of getting the containment fields operational again, but she was the only one who could handle the prison.

At least she knew that Chris, Leesa, Jacob, and Blake were okay.

"Ten invaders," James reported to Rogue the moment she stepped foot in the hallway between her residence and the entrance. "Sleep gas has been activated, but all are wearing pressure suits."

"Great," Rogue muttered. A quick absorption wouldn't do the trick then. No matter, there were other ways she could deal with them. "James, where'd they come from? They must have a vehicle somewhere."

"Scanning..."

Without bothering to wait for a response, Rogue zipped down the hall with the use of her super speed. There was no need to wait for any doors to open or phase through, as the invaders had decided the best way through them was to blow them up. Rogue was not impressed.

It took her no time to catch up. They had no warning at all; a blur and a rush of wind went by, something hard hit them and they were on the floor. The ten had split off into smaller groups, but it made little different to Rogue beyond the fact that it required a few more seconds to do the job.

Fortunately, being a prison, Rogue had three spare cells already set up to hold new inmates in. It would be a little crowded, but they'd just have to deal with it. She stripped them of their pressure suits and unceremoniously dumped them into the cells after making sure they had no further equipment with them.

"There is a ship above us," James reported. "It is registered as the Valentina. There is also a second ship, the Ophelia, which is hovering above the R&D district."

"They should not be there," Rogue said as she inspected the garage doors for damage. The internal door damage could wait, but there'd be problems if the garage doors couldn't seal properly. "Patch me through to Central again, please."

"Yes Madame."

Rogue started on repairs to the doors, thankful that she had plenty of materials at the prison and the powers to manipulate them with. Moment's later she had a response:

"Central here. What's the situation at the prison?"

"All prisoners secure. Ten invaders, also secure. I'm just attending critical repairs now," Rogue said. "Won't take me long. Also, the Valentina is above, and you've probably already noticed that the Ophelia is above the R&D district."

"It is?" There was a pause. "Crap! The sensor array's down. I can't see anything in our sky space."

"Alright, I'm boarding the ships," Rogue said. "I'll disable the personnel so they can't escape. We can deal with them properly later after repairs are complete. How are the repairs going?"

"Not good. Spare Parts has been sabotaged. We're going to be operating on a jury-rigged system until we can get parts from Earth."

"If the parts aren't too badly damaged I may be able to fix them," Rogue said.

"Deal with the ships first."

"Will do."

Again communications were cut off. Rogue finished sealing the door closed. It wasn't perfect, and she'd have to use her powers to get them open again, but they were airtight now which was the important thing.

She grabbed a fresh air cylinder and phased outside to fly up to the Valentina. The crew of which had seemed to have noticed that there was a problem as Rogue could see the thrusters firing. It was not sufficient to escape her. Rogue phased through the hull of the ship. The moment she was inside she unsealed her helmet, successfully absorbing everyone. With the use of her telepathy she locked onto the minds of those in the bridge and teleported herself there.

Rogue kept up the telepathic link with the pilot and used the information she got from his mind to fly the ship to the moon's surface. It had been a long time since she'd last flown a plane, let alone a spaceship, and the telepathic link was far more efficient than trying to figure out the flight controls of a vehicle she'd never seen the inside of before.

Knowing that the Ophelia would have likely noticed that the Valentina had been surfaced, Rogue wasted no time going after them too. With her enhanced eyesight she teleported as close to the ship as she dared and then flew the rest of the way. Once again she phased through the hull of the ship, absorbed everyone, and telepathically linked with the pilot to land it.

This task complete, Rogue teleported to her teleportation room in the community district. The moment she materialised, she contacted Central again.

"Central," said Chris' voice. "You got the ships, Rogue?"

"That I did. Glad to hear you made it back okay," Rogue replied. "I'm headed to Parts. What's the status on repairs?"

"Still working on it. Repair crews'll update you."

Rogue really wanted to update Chris on what she'd learned from absorbing the crews, but it would have to wait until she could speak to him—whether verbally or telepathically—in private. The ships were owned by HYDRA. It had been their intention to rob the R&D distract as well as recruit from the prison. They had a number of moles amongst the moon staff, including one of the long-term personnel. The bomb that had gone off by the theatre had been intended to both cause a state of emergency, and also to take out Chris. It had been their hope that their moles would be able to take over the station at least for the duration of the attack, if not indefinitely.

The one thing they hadn't properly taken account for was Rogue. S.H.I.E.L.D. had deliberately minimised the amount of information that got out about her, so the full extent of her mutant abilities wasn't widely known.

Rogue arrived at Parts and used the assortment of powers she had at her disposal to repair the ones she could. Unfortunately the damage was quite extensive and even with her super-strength, telekinesis, the ability to manipulate metal, fire, water, and other elements, and to do so within a hair's breath, she still had her limits.

They got the primary containment field back online, and this was followed by the sensor array and communications with Earth. Rogue had to return to the prison to deal with her usual prison duties as well as to switch air cylinders again, and then she was back to helping with the repairs. About two hours after communications with Earth were re-established (by which time Rogue had been able to report to both Chris and S.H.I.E.L.D. regarding HYDRA), they were advised to expect a long-distance teleporter to arrive with parts.

"Hi, Lila Cheney's the name," Lila said when she was greeted by Chris upon her arrival, the much coveted parts sitting in crates behind her.

"You have no idea what a pleasure it is to meet you," Chris replied, shaking her hand, considered for a moment, then asked. "That name sounds familiar."

Lila, dressed in almost exclusively black leather with lots of studs, grinned at him. "I'm a musician. Perhaps you've heard some of my music? Just got myself recruited at the last minute by S.H.I.E.L.D. who are now attempting to placate my fans with some made up emergency regarding why I can't make the concert tonight to attend this very real emergency."

"Sounds convoluted and yet not at all surprising," Chris said. "We're grateful you're available."

Lila nodded. "Anyway, I gotta keep moving, Lots more to come. And do try to keep the landing place clear. Oh, and Fury said that he wants someone named Rogue to absorb me?"

Chris raised his eyebrows. "Alright. Umm, fair warning, did Fury tell you that you're going to end up in a coma for two or three hours when she does?"

"No, he seems to have left that bit out," Lila said, considered, then shrugged. "I could use the sleep anyway."

Lila continued teleporting supplies and then personnel to the moon until she'd almost reached her limit. At that point, Rogue arranged to absorb her and then teleported her back to Earth where she would be taken care of until she woke. Rogue took over the teleporting to and fro, although by that point there was little left to transport.

Repair crews worked around the clock to get the last of the containment fields up and running again, along with making the much needed repairs done to the community district. Additional personnel from S.H.I.E.L.D. were brought in to deal with the HYDRA agents. No additional medical personal were required as there'd been no major injuries and no fatalities at all. Once the critical things were taken care of, Rogue was able to return to her normal duties... Until they asked her to teleport all the additional security and HYDRA agents back to Earth.

Rogue found that "long distance teleportation" understated Lila's abilities. "Intergalactic teleportation" was closer to it. She did, however, sense that Lila didn't care for S.H.I.E.L.D. (or anyone else for that matter) to know the true extent of her abilities and with that in mind Rogue didn't bother enlightening anyone about having to teleport to the Horsehead Nebula first before she could teleport to Earth. Fortunately she could do the double teleports fast enough that the people she took with her didn't notice the transition.

"You had better not be intending to only let me teleport on official business," Rogue commented to Nick Fury upon one of her trips to Earth.

"Actually I was thinking more emergencies only," Fury replied. "We can't be forced to go through Miss Cheney again should there be a recurrence in the future. She's made it quite clear she doesn't want a career out of this and frankly, I don't want to have to deal with tracking her down at a moment's notice."

"You're going to tell me I can't spend a few hours on Earth every now and then, aren't you?" Rogue said irritably.

"You're not in contact with James on Earth."

"I can fix that."

Nick Fury narrowed his eye at her. "Special occasions only, Rogue."

"I can live with that."

Gambit and Vanessa danced in her living room. Abigail was away for the weekend again and fun dance music played in the background at a volume loud enough to be heard but not so loud to make it hard for them to talk to each other.

As the song came to an end, Vanessa smiled up at Gambit with her arms about his neck.

"I love you, Remy," she said.

Gambit smiled tightly back and replied with "I like you too" only he made sure to drop the 'k' in 'like'. Between that and the music playing, he was confident she would only hear what she wanted to hear.

"I didn't quite catch that," she said playfully, her eyes on his lips.

He said it again not quite as fast, but quick enough. The light faded a little in her eye and he moved in to kiss her. He knew from experience his kisses could be quite distracting. Before their lips could touch, however, Vanessa pulled her head back again.

"No," she said, sounding tense. "Say it again."

Their eyes locked. Gambit opened his mouth, his heart racing in panic. He didn't know what he should say and no sound came out. Vanessa shook her head and stepped back.

"You can't, can you?" she said with the tone of someone who's trying to keep their voice level. "All this time... I'm just another woman to you, aren't I?"

Where one moment he'd been feeling helpless, the next Vanessa's words cut through him. He grabbed her hands.

"No," he said firmly. "No, you're not just another woman. I can name all the women I've had honest relationships with on one hand. You, Nessie, are not now nor ever will be just another woman to me."

"So you say," Vanessa replied, her eyes flashing in irritation as she reefed her hands out of his grip. "Yet you just tried to deceive me about loving me back!"

"Old habits die hard," Gambit answered uncomfortably, not able to look her directly in the eye. "I've been bluffing my way out of that situation for so long now... I just... I..."

He trailed off and Vanessa glared at him.

"You just what?" she demanded.

Gambit looked away, licked his lips and ran his hand through his long hair. Was he really going to tell her? He hadn't even told Rogue this.

"I... I haven't been able to say those words since I was seventeen," he said quietly. "I don't even think I knew what they really meant back then and now I... Hell, it's not like I haven't tried. The last girlfriend I was serious with, I ended up spending five damn hours in front of the mirror trying to say them to my own reflection."

He closed his eyes and dropped down on the couch a couple of steps behind him. There was a long silence as he buried his face in his hands, and finally Vanessa sat down beside him.

"Are you playing the sob story card?" she asked with a note of suspicion in her voice.

A snort came from between his hands. "I'd be lying if I say the thought didn't cross my mind. But no, I'm not." He lifted his head and finally met her eyes again. "I do care about you. I like being with you. I like doing the things we do together. I don't want to stop being with you."

More panic started to kick in. Getting caught bluffing his way through "I love you" tended to end his relationships. He knew he and Vanessa wouldn't last in the long term, but he didn't want things between them to end yet. He reached for her hand.

"I'm sorry," he said earnestly. "I'm just... I don't know what my problem is, okay? I want so much to be able to say those words to someone and they never come. I'm starting to think I might not be capable of it."

Okay now he was playing the sob story card.

Vanessa sighed and wrapped her arms around him. He gratefully leaned into her. This was a good sign, right?

"Remy, you are very sweet, caring, considerate, all those wonderful things," she said. "I knew there had to be a catch somewhere."

Gambit made a sound that was half laugh, half sob. He was somewhat disgusted with himself at that moment, realising he was pretty close to having a cry, but at the same time he felt like a huge burden had been lifted from him. He'd been keeping that little secret buried inside him for so long, letting it eat away at him, he had no idea how much of a relief it would be to actually admit the truth to someone.

"I thought it might have been the thief thing, but I guess I find Robin Hood attractive," Vanessa went on, then kissed his head. "So, I guess I have emotionally unavailable to deal with, huh?"

"Guess so," Gambit replied, which was all the words he was willing to say right now. He felt like his voice or his body was going to break and he really didn't want to make himself any more vulnerable in front of Vanessa than he already was.

"Okay, so, I guess we'll have to deal with this for now," she said. "But Remy..."

"Yeah?" he asked tentatively, mentally gearing himself for the "I'm not going to wait forever" speech.

"I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you intend to keep your promise not to lie to me," she said, looking down to catch his eyes. "And I realise that deception is probably second nature to you. With that in mind, I'm going to let you off trying to fob me off like that. I'm more than happy to forgive you when you screw up as long as you're genuinely trying, because we all screw up from time to time. I'd like to think you'd do me the same courtesy. But I'm not God, okay? I don't know your heart and I can't tell when you're genuinely trying not to lie and when you're playing me for a fool."

She looked him straight in the eye.

"So you had better not start playing me for a fool, or I will kick your ass so hard..."

Gambit stared at her, unable to believe a single word he was hearing.

"Remy?" she prompted when the silence went on for longer than she liked.

"You are an amazing woman," he said when he could trust himself to speak. "You, I can't... Why the hell would you want to be patient with me? I don't know if I can ever reciprocate."

Vanessa cupped his face in her hands. "What can I say? I'm not inclined to give up on people, especially not the man I'm in love with."

Gambit wrapped his arms tightly around her. "I don't want to give up on us yet either."