The following does not reflect the views or opinions of Marvel or the author known as 'Kinetically Charmed'.
Entry number fifty four:
I heard nothing more about any sort of plan until the next morning. Rogue and I were up bright and early to endure the weekly Danger Room session, as per usual, and once that was out of the way, we hurried to the kitchen to try and beat the breakfast rush. The key is to get your food, and get out of the damn way. As quickly as possible.
A kitchen filled with hungry young adults is a horrible experience, just trust me.
Anyway, Rogue was busy piling butter onto her fancy raisin bagel and I was digging into my bowl of Alphabits, watching Kurt and Alex argue over rights to the last of the bacon, when the mental summoning came from Professor Xavier.
I paused with the spoon halfway to my mouth, and noticed that Rogue's buttering had ceased as well. She heaved a heavy sigh and dropped her bagel onto her plate, dusting the crumbs off on her pants, when she finally noticed I was staring at her.
She knit her brow silently and I lowered my spoon back into the bowl, holding her stare, mentally asking her if she'd been called too.
She must have heard me, through the magic of best friends, because she ducked her head with a slight nod, and glanced around at everyone else in the kitchen.
This was when we realized that no one else had been mentally paged.
Remy was still busy stuffing his face with eggs, Kurt and Alex hadn't skipped a beat in their bacon debate, and Jamie was still licking the jam off his toast, as if that's the way normal people eat their toast.
Rogue slid her plate over to Remy, who accepted her food without question, stood up, and slipped out of the kitchen.
I scarfed down as much of my cereal as I could as I stood up and moved over to the sink before discarding the bowl and following her out into the hallway.
Neither one of us spoke on the way up to Professor Xavier's office, and it wasn't until I stepped inside and came face to face with Wisdom that I understood what was going on. Logan leaned against the wall behind Professor Xavier with his arms crossed and his face set in completely unreadable indifference, and Xavier gave Rogue and I a disarming smile, gesturing towards the chairs across from his desk.
"Please, take a seat. This won't take long."
I know Rogue was just dying to ask what the hell was going on, but she kept her mouth shut and lowered herself down into the green chair, casting curious glances between the three men.
"Is this about your plan?" I asked, deciding to drop any pretense of ignorance and jump in feet first.
Wisdom gave me a single nod and I dropped down into the chair next to Rogues.
"Plan?" She asked cautiously, her eyes darting over to Logan's.
"Agent Wisdom has formulated a plan which might help us catch whomever is responsible for... recent events." Professor Xavier said, very diplomatically deciding to gloss over these recent events.
Both Rogue and I turned to look at Wisdom expectantly, his mouth set in a thin line and his face hard and determined. This was Business Wisdom.
"We need to force him to make a move." He began, launching right into it without hesitation, "No more of this sitting ducks bollocks, waiting for him to pounce, being completely blindsided when he does. We need to take control of the situation and flush him out, so that in the very least, Xavier can get a read on him and we can know exactly who we're dealing with. I'm not going to be around here to protect you two forever, and I'd like to be able to leave here knowing that you're at least slightly more ahead of the game than when I arrived."
I have to give Rogue credit, she didn't say a word about Wisdom saying he was protecting the both of us. Instead, she pressed her lips together and glanced back at Logan again, "And how exactly are we gunna do that?"
"Well, that's simple, love." Wisdom said with a half-hearted smile, "We need to use some bait."
"Bait." I repeated, as everything fell into place in my mind, and Wisdom turned back to me with zero smile, and gave me a very serious nod.
"Yes."
Rogue and I fell silent again as we thought this over. Bait. For a crazy toe choppin', Pyro wielding, Sabertooth using, maniac.
"If this bastard really is after Remy- and I have the tendency to agree that he is- then I'm sure he's just chomping at the bit for the opportunity to get his hands on Rogue, since it's clear the two of you are now... romantically involved." Wisdom explained after a few moments, to give us some time to process, "Obviously with me around, that hasn't been an option for him, since I'm sure he's not immune to the effects of a gunshot wound to the head, but if we take me out of the picture... I give him a week."
"Take you out of the picture." I repeated, again, stupidly, as my brain struggled to keep up.
He nodded, "He's getting impatient, and impulsive, his botched attempt at threatening Black Cat is proof. He'll observe you two long enough to ensure he's got a clear opportunity, and then he'll make his move. Logan and I will be watching, from a distance of course. The key is to make him believe that I am no longer a factor." He finally looked back at me with a piercing stare, "That means that from this moment on, we can't be seen together outside of this building."
I pressed my lips together into a thin line and gave him a nod.
"If you two don't think you can handle this, you say the word." Logan spoke up with a frown.
Rogue looked up at him, "You got a better plan?"
He sighed and shook his head, "No."
"Well then, I'm in." Rogue said plainly with a shrug, "The sooner we catch this mother(effer) the better."
I nodded slowly and let out a breath, wishing I could sound as confident as Rogue, "Yeah. I'm in too."
"Good." Wisdom said with a curt nod, "Once we've finished in here, Professor Xavier will hold a quick meeting in which he'll announce that my plan is to put my expertise to use elsewhere, helping Logan and Dr. McCoy rework the security efforts. We need to make everyone believe that the threat is contained here. Not at Rogue, but at the home, so that her lack of personal security doesn't become an issue." He continued, turning back to Rogue with a serious frown, "It's important that no one knows what we're doing. The more people who know, the more vulnerable the plan is, and besides, I think we can both agree that your boyfriend wouldn't be overly thrilled that we're using you as bait."
That would be the understatement of the century. I imagine telling Remy that the gun-for-hire who was subsequently protecting his girlfriend will be moving onto a different "job" will be a hard enough sell. I'm pretty sure if he found out the real plan, he'd probably shit a brick.
Wisdom sat on the edge of Professor Xavier's desk and bent at the waist so we were almost face to face, "I will be no more than two minutes away from you, at all times. If anything is off, anything even feels wrong, call me on the communicator, immediately. You're wearing it now?" He asked, holding my stare as he reached to my wrist to make sure. His eyes flicked down to the communicator to ensure it was in working order before looking back up at me, with my hand still in his, lowering his voice a notch. "Still trust me?"
I gave him a firm nod, without a moments hesitation.
He gave my hand a squeeze before releasing it and pushing himself off of Professor Xavier's desk, turning back to the Professor with a nod, "I think that about covers it."
Xavier returned his nod, his mouth set in a grim frown, and it was completely obvious to me that ol' Chuck felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"We'll be fine." I said, suddenly feeling the urge to reassure our team patriarch, "We've been through worse."
"Damn straight." Rogue mumbled as she pushed herself up from the chair, "With all due respect Professor, if we're finished here, I'd like to get back to breakfast. I'm so hungry I could eat the north end of a south-bound polecat."
I don't even know what that means, but the Professor gave her a smile and nodded, "Yes, of course. You're free to go."
Wisdom gave me a very businesslike nod as I passed him by, following Rogue out into the hallway before slipping the door shut behind us with a sigh.
"How mad do you think Remy's gunna be?" I asked as we started down the hall and Rogue let out a dry laugh,
"I really don't give a rats ass. He's just gunna have to deal."
"You're sure you're okay? With... all of this? I mean, I know you like to act all tough and everything, but Wisdom's been watching out for you just as much as he has me."
Rogue smirked and slid her gaze over to me through the corner of her eye, "Has he?" She gave me a shrug and quirked an eyebrow, "I mean, technically, I'm the one in immediate danger, and yet he didn't seem too interested in checking to see if my communicator was working properly..."
My mouth dropped open and I felt my cheeks grow slightly warm, "I don't know what you're even talking about-"
"Yes you do." Rogue rolled her eyes, "You don't think I noticed when you two suddenly stopped annoying the hell out of one another? Please, a little credit here. I spend two hours a day cooped up in a stupid car with the two of you. Of course I noticed."
I pressed my lips together and frowned at the floor in front of us as we walked, "It was nothing. Nothing happened."
"That's too bad." Rogue said, and when I looked up at her, it was fairly clear that she wasn't just being a sarcastic jerk. She was being sincere.
"What, no lectures on my stupidity?" I clipped, suddenly feeling a wave of defensiveness come over me, for no apparent reason.
Rogue snorted and rolled her eyes over to me, "What the hell do I care? If anything, I think it woulda been good for you. A nice romp in the sack to get your mind off things."
She talks like she's been around the block, but let's all just keep in mind that she's got one notch on her belt.
One. M'kay?
I managed to remain scarce for the majority of the day. After the subsequent "team meeting" in which the "plan" was revealed to everyone, I decided it was best for the real plan to avoid answering any questions regarding my thoughts on the subject. I'm self aware enough to know that I'm not that great of a liar, and I don't want my stupidity to be a factor in how successful this whole thing is. So I kicked Jubilee out of the library, explaining to her that I didn't give a crap about the stupid acoustics, and forced myself to work on my poetry assignment.
Have I mentioned how much I hate poetry?
Maybe I'm just poeming wrong or something, because I just don't get the appeal.
Anyway, I didn't care how horribly bored I was, sitting in that library trying to focus on working, or how blurry my eyes got after reading the same line over and over and over again, I was determined to both finish that damn assignment. It was the perfect distraction really, if you don't take into account how mind-numbingly boring it was.
I'm not entirely sure how long I was in there for (although it felt like a millennium) and there's a slight possibility that I'd dozed off with my eyes still technically open, because one second I was jotting down notes on haikus, and the next thing I know, I'm face to face with Remy.
A very serious looking Remy.
He'd pulled the chair next to me out, and plopped himself down in it, before reaching out and twisting my chair around so I was knee to knee with him, facing him square on.
"We need to talk." He said with that piercing stare of his.
I tried to avert my eyes and act casual, but I felt like I was being sucked in, staring back at him blankly whether I wanted to or not.
"Talk? About what?" I pressed my lips together and managed to pull my gaze away to glance back at the awful poetry book on the desk.
He leaned forward to recapture my stare and frowned, "Don't play stupid with me, Minette. Why are you goin' along with this? This guy is hired to be your bodyguard, and now what, he's just suddenly done? And you're okay with that?"
I shrugged and kept my breathing slow and even, "Why wouldn't I be? They have things under control, Remy. You're just over reacting."
He puckered his brow and placed a hand on the back of my chair to lean towards me a little bit more, "Am I?" He asked in a low buttery voice, the corners of his mouth tugged down with concern. "If you were first, and Felicia was second, who exactly do you think is next on his hit list? Don't you want to keep Rogue safe?"
"Of course." I frowned, starting to feel a little bit guilty for lying to the guy who was clearly just concerned for his girlfriends safety. And rightfully so.
"And what about you? You won't be safe either." Pile on some more guilt why don't ya?
"We'll be fine." I replied quietly, chewing the inside of my lip nervously.
"How does it make any sense to pull her only line of defense, when it's clear that she's the next target?" He murmured in a captivating velvety soft tone that made my resolve start to melt away. I couldn't quite remember why we were lying to him... or why exactly it was so important... clearly all the poetry was clouding my brain and affecting me far more than I realized. "You agree with me, right...?"
I shook my head and swiveled in my seat, turning back to my homework defiantly, "Wisdom already explained it." I said, suddenly remembering the entire plan with perfect clarity as if everything in my mind snapped back into place, "Everything that's happened, has happened in the home. I was attacked in my room. Felicia's house was set on fire. You hit this guy in his home, and now he's retaliating, tit for tat. If you want to keep Rogue safe, then we need to focus on security here."
Remy leaned back in his chair and watched me as I went back to scribbling down some nonsense about haikus, before he eventually let out a breath and gave his head a shake, "I don't know, minette. It just feels... wrong."
"This is Pete's job, Remy. He does this kind of stuff in his sleep. Would you really rather waste his talents following Rogue and I around all day long, when we could be putting him to proper use instead?" I asked, giving him a condescending look for good measure, knowing full-well that no one could argue with that iron clad reasoning. No one. "Don't you want to catch this guy?"
"Of course." Remy snapped, raking his fingers through his hair with a frustrated frown.
"Alright. Then let Wisdom do his job. His real job." I said with a nod of finality before turning back to my notebook. Apparently I was better at lying than I thought, because that was pretty convincing, even to myself. For a moment there, I'd actually begun to believe that Rouge wasn't in any danger at all, and that Remy was just being paranoid.
Remy worked the muscles in his jaw for a moment before digging a hand into one of his inner trench coat pockets,
"Take this then." He said with a frown, dropping a pocket sized can on top of my poetry book, "It's pepper spray. I tried to make Rogue take it, but she's too (effing) stubborn for her own good."
I picked the can of pepper spray up and rolled it over in my palm before quirking a brow at Remy, "Pepper spray? Seriously? You want me to wear a rape whistle too, Remy?"
"Just shut up and take the damn thing." He snapped and I let out a relenting sigh and shoved the bottle into my back pocket, with the promise that I would put it in my backpack as soon as I got back to my room.
He was silent for a few seconds, frowning down at my poetry book like a petulant child before lifting his eyes back up to me.
"You really think I can trust him?" He asked with a certain vulnerability that caused a wave of guilt to rush over me. He was asking me, as a friend, for my honest opinion. And what did I do? I lied through my teeth.
"Wisdom would never put Rogue and I in danger. I promise."
