32

Rogue hadn't specified where she had wanted to go so Gambit tried to think of a place that might cheer her up. Of course, he'd learnt by now that it was the little things Rogue liked. The casual little places where everyone went but just didn't appreciate that much because they were never denied it. He just drove around until he spotted the Ice Cream Parlour and figured it was as good a place as any.

When Rogue stepped inside the store, her eyes became wide with just how much ice cream she could see.

"What the heck is this?" she muttered under her breath.

"Ice cream parlour," Gambit responded, looking at Rogue questioningly. Did she really not know what an ice cream parlour was? "On moi, of course," Gambit added, enjoying when Rogue glanced up up at him with large, child-like eyes. The smile that followed was the first genuine one he thought he'd seen all day.

"So, I'm guessin' they do Vanilla and stuff?" Rogue asked as they joined the queue.

"Oui, all sorts. Bubble gum, peanut butter, rocky road, custard apple-"

"What?" Rogue asked, interrupting him.

Gambit couldn't stop the chuckle at Rogue's dropped jaw.

"Oui," he simply said. "Pick as many as you want."

Gambit found the whole experience quite amusing as he saw Rogue's eye's become bigger than her stomach. When they finally did get closer to the counter, Gambit leaned down close to her ear and asked: "You know what you're getting'?"

"How can I choose?" Rogue questioned, looking a little panicked that she hadn't made up her mind.

"Tell you what, why don't you pick a flavour your familiar with, we'll take a seat then you can read through all de flavours they got and pick which ones you wanna take back with ya when we're leavin'," Gambit explained.

Rogue nodded her head at that plan and picked strawberry ice cream before finding a seat for them both.

"Irene always got Neapolitan flavoured ice cream," Rogue had muttered after their orders were taken.

Gambit said nothing to that. Just took the information in and collected his bourbon flavoured ice cream after Rogue got hers. He noticed that once they did sit down, it didn't seem like Rogue was going to say anything. She was in her own little world as she licked at her ice cream.

Gambit found it hard to enjoy his. He didn't have an appetite since he was impatient to get started on his scouting trip. He was trying to be patient and make it seem like he was there, trying to be supportive, but he wanted to be supportive in another way.

Gambit slipped out his phone and sent a text message off to Piotr about dinner. It wasn't long before he got a response from the tin man agreeing to cook tonight without getting caught by Mags, but the big man wasn't slow and got straight to asking what had happened with Rogue. Gambit didn't respond to Piotr's question and forced himself to have some of his ice cream.

"So, what happened today?" Gambit finally asked.

Rogue glance at Gambit as if only just realising he was there. Rogue had ended up diving back into Jean's psyche as she calmed it down and put it away. As she was putting Jean's unusual psyche away, she had been engrossed in one of Jean's memories. It was the one where she was kidnapped by Magneto and taken to Asteroid M. She knew about this incident from both Magneto and Kitty's memories, but Magneto had held back information and Kitty hadn't been there to witness as much as Jean had. Rogue had seen through Jean's memories how Magneto kidnapped certain X-Men and how he had explained to them that he was going to force them to go through his machine and become warriors for him. She saw how he got into Scott's head and his brothers and how both of them went through the machine. This memory being from Jean's perspective, Rogue felt and understood the helplessness she had felt watching Scott and his brother be brainwashed and forced into something. The X-Men were just minding their own business, never having done anything to hurt or upset Magneto when he had attacked them. Rogue came to realise once again that, if she was to share any of the information she had absorbed from Jean, Magneto would use it to hurt them. Hurt people who weren't causing him any harm in the slightest and were just trying to live a normal life like her. If she did turn this information over then she'd be no better than Magneto. But still, what choice did she have? Colossus's sister was on the line here.

When Gambit's question finally registered, Rogue sighed.

"Rather not get into it," Rogue said, returning to her ice cream.

"You cut your hair?" Gambit said, already knowing the reason why but asking to keep up the charade that he was clueless.

"Yeah," Rogue said, taking hold of the ends of it and tugging at them. For some reason, she felt very self-conscious under Gambit's eye. She had no idea why she cared what he thought, but she couldn't help it.

"Got bored in a class? Or there actually be a reason why you cut it?" he asked.

Rogue glanced away, unable to meet his eye. It was embarrassing to admit that a few stupid girls had got to her and she still had this crazy idea in her head that Gambit would think less of her if she admitted it.

"Just felt like a change," Rogue lied.

"So, you thought with Duncan?" Rogue asked, wanting to quickly turn the conversation away from her.

"Oui, was expectin' it. He give ya any trouble today?" Gambit asked, feeling quite disappointed at knowing Rogue was holding back from him.

"No. Not him. Stacy and her cheerleaders were annoying though. I think I made it to the top of their list of people they hate," Rogue said, figuring Gambit wasn't stupid and was going to click on that she was keeping things hidden if she didn't start telling some truths soon.

Gambit felt his body ease as he started to get the truth from Rogue. He didn't even realise that his body had become strained from stress. He did figure out why he'd become so tense pretty quickly though. He'd had enough of Rogue lying to him and keeping things from him. All it did was cause problems for both of them and it was like she was pushing him away. After so many times of Rogue lying and being caught out after things had almost exploded in her face, he was really beginning to have enough of the lying. Of course, when she did mention the cheerleaders, it did ease him since she was starting to tell the truth. He tried to relax more, not wanting to push her encase she clammed up and began lying. As he eased up, he did start to think that he understood why she wasn't telling all. After all, he'd be embarrassed to admit some of the things the cheerleaders did to her today. So he let that go and moved to try and make Rogue feel slightly better about today.

"Stacy tried claimin' moi after school. 'fore you came out. A video should be goin' 'round town right 'bout now, showin' Bayville High's top cheerleader on her knees, cryin' at bein' rejected," Gambit said.

This had Rogue near dropping her spoon.

"What?" she asked, not quite believing what she was hearing.

"Oui," Gambit said with a smirk. "Some kids also got it on camera me claimin' you as mon femme so looks like ya stuck with me now."

Rogue snorted at that and rolled her eyes.

"So ya got what ya wanted after all," she said, digging into her ice cream.

"A ruse? Non. I want de real thing Cherie," Gambit said, raising his eyes to meet hers.

Rogue's mouth hung open from where she was going to place the spoon of ice cream in her mouth. She got caught in the eye lock with Gambit and only came out of it when she dropped the ice cream down her top.

"Damn it!" Rogue muttered, feeling grateful for the distraction.

Gambit's remark had taken her by surprise. She had no idea what game he was playing and she couldn't bring herself to try and figure it out. Not when there were thirty other things on her mind she was trying to figure out.

Gambit wasn't too happy at the response he got to his confession, but he let it go, figuring this wasn't the best time for that.

Silence passed between them as both had their ice cream. Neither actually wanted to talk about what was on their mind. Gambit didn't want to tell Rogue about what he intended to do encase she had any objections and because he didn't want to put any more strain on her day. It was his turn to take over and try and ease the problems they were facing. Rogue didn't want to speak about absorbing Jean and how she didn't want to tell Magneto about it. Or how she didn't want to absorb any of the X-Men because she knew Magneto was evil and wanted to hurt innocents who looked out for her just because they were good people. She also didn't want to tell him about her dilemma that, if she didn't tell, Colossus' sister would suffer. It didn't feel like it was her place to share that information about Colossus' sister. And she didn't want to mention absorbing Jean encase Gambit disagreed with her and pushed her to tell Magneto. Or worse, tell him himself. Having this little breathing space however, she did realise that she could probably get away with not telling anyone that she'd absorbed Jean. It would be easy to hide Jean's powers considering she already had a psychic in her head. All she would have to do is sort out the memories of the X-Men she did have in her head and make sure that she didn't reveal anything Jean would know but the others wouldn't. As for the long-term plan of not wanting to absorb any X-Men, well, she had a bit more time to try and figure that one out. She just needed to get Jean's psyche sorted out first thing before she could do anything else.

"Anythin' else happen today?" Gambit asked.

"Not really. Just a tough day with everyone callin' meh a boyfriend stealer," Rogue said.

Gambit had to stop the urge from tapping his finger against the table. That wasn't what he wanted to hear. He knew they were in a public space, but he was sure Rogue could find a way to tell him about absorbing Jean without putting the point across as blunt.

"So, you got de X-Men's protection?" Gambit said.

"Yeah… they've actually been pretty great all day. Watched mah back a lot," Rogue said, her voice trailing off as a deep frown took over her face.

Gambit didn't like this. He really didn't like how soft Rogue was sounding on the X-Men. He did understand that they were being nice to her and her job sucked, but still. If she wimped out or did go soft, it would be both their necks on the line.

"Got in closer with em? So it'll be easier to get a tap on the shoulder here and there," Gambit stated.

"Yeah, I guess. But I can't just jump in ta it right now. It'll become too suspicious," Rogue said, feeling uneasy at where Gambit was guiding this conversation.

Gambit, on the other hand, was being more impatient and irritated.

"So, you didn't manage to touch any of em today?" he asked, deciding he wanted to know if Rogue really was going to lie to his face and if they were back to square one again or if this was going to be different.

Rogue made a show of glancing around and angrily eyeing Gambit, making a show of calling him an idiot for talking about this in public. Gambit didn't care. He already knew no one was listening in. Plus, they wouldn't have a clue what they were talking about if they did. He just wanted to know one thing and as he watched Rogue stall for time, he became more and more disappointed.

Rogue had learnt from the past few times she kept things from Gambit, however, that stuff kept from him usually seemed to backfire and come back to bite her in the arse. She still didn't want to tell him about Jean so tried to buy herself a little bit more time to come up with a half-truth.

"I grazed Jean today in gym, but I didn't actually get anything from her. The contact was too brief and, if I did get anythin', all I got was a headache. No point in tellin' Mags that though. He'll just end up pissed at me that I didn't hold on for longer. Nothin' I could have done though. It was in a public place and I'm lucky she didn't pass out." Rogue said, thinking she'd covered just about very basic she needed to when it came to explaining things.

Gambit was in two minds. He was glad Rogue finally spoke up about absorbing Jean, but he didn't believe she was completely telling the truth. He'd seen the contact after all and he knew she had held on long enough to get some information out of Jean. But then again, Jean had been losing control over her powers so he wasn't too sure if that would affect anything or if there genuinely was another reason why Rogue was keeping things from him.

He saw how uneasy Rogue looked after she talked about absorbing Jean and he saw that she was beginning to turn pale again and her hand had gone to her stomach. He figured what was going through her mind and reached out to take hold of her gloved hand.

"Hey," Gambit said, gaining Rogue's attention. "She's alright. Saw it for yourself, didn't you? The fille's not in a coma."

He watched as Rogue's shoulders sagged and some of her walls came down. He kept a firm grip on Rogue's hand as he watched her eyes travel around a bit. He watched her eyes become watery and saw her blinking a few times to try and contain them. Eventually, he felt Rogue's hand tighten around his and squeeze his hand. She kept hold of his hand while she stared off into space, most likely lost in her own mind filled with psyches.

From Rogue's reaction, Gambit guessed that she might have been feeling shame or monstrous or something along those lines when it came to absorbing Jean. He guessed pushing her to talk about it wasn't doing her any good either. At feeling pity for Rogue, he began to ease off the topic and just let whatever suspicions he had about Rogue withholding information go. He knew they'd come back to this conversation at some point anyway, but right now, he'd gotten some half truths out of her and, although she didn't realise it, she was trusting herself with him to be vulnerable. He thought, even though it bugged him that he felt like Rogue was lying to him, this was still progress enough for one day.

"You decided what ice cream you wanna take back with you?" Gambit asked, glancing out the window and seeing that his time for gathering intel was passing by with the evening.

"Can I have lemon and blueberries?" Rogue asked, a little smile forming on her lips.

Gambit smiled back at her.

"Bien sur," Gambit said before standing up and heading over to the counter to order their final round to take home. He decided to treat Rogue to a few more flavours he thought she might like.

Xxxxx

When they got back to the base, the sun was setting and it was getting late.

"You gonna have enough time to make dinner?" Rogue asked as she climbed off the bike and started to head in. When she realised Gambit wasn't beside her, she turned to see him still on his bike.

"I got a few errands to run. Pete be sortin' dinner. Can you sort out de ice cream? Make sure John doesn't consume them all?" Gambit asked, restarting his bike engine.

"Erm, sure," Rogue said, feeling a bit bewildered by Gambit's attitude but not being in the mood to question him at the moment. Her head was still pounding from her contact with Jean. Her psyche really was a nightmare.

"Bien, merci Cherie," Gambit said before taking off.

Rogue watched him go, staring after him. She wondered what he was up to. She guessed it could have been another job Magneto had given him that he just hadn't told her about. She wondered what job.

She decided to leave it till another time to find out. Her head was aching and she just wanted to lock herself in her room and sort through some more of Jean's memories before taking a nap.

When Rogue entered the kitchen, she found Colossus at the stove. He turned to glance her way when he heard her approach. Rogue became a little on edge when she noticed Colossus' eyes travel to her hair and a visible frown appear on his face. She was hoping he really wouldn't say anything or push for an explanation about her hair. She really did want to just retreat to her room and call it a day.

"Hello Rogue. How was your day?" he asked her, trying to sound as gentle as possible.

"Hey," Rogue said, feeling her stomach muscles ease at his easy greeting. She realised that it had been quite some time since she had actually seen Colossus and spoke with him.

She found herself actually missing the guy, but she still really didn't want to talk at that moment. Especially since his small eyes were rather large and taking her in from top to bottom. It made her feel a little on edge. Not because Colosuss' gaze was creepy or anything, it was just so full of concern for her and he was obviously checking her over to make sure she was all in one physical, healthy piece. She felt a tad more guilty for how she felt, but she really didn't want to deal with Colossus being worried over her.

"It was the usual. Same old stuff. Girls' bein' catty and jealous. Boys' bein' stupid and lookin' for a fight. How'd yours go?" Rogue asked.

"It has been the same as other days," Colossus said, taking in Rogue's exhausted looking state. He was rather disappointed to see her looking so run down, especially since he'd been planning to have a conversation with her ever since the previous night.

The last he had seen of her was when she had been mad about Magneto forcing Gambit to attend the teenage house party with her. He had wanted to know then what Gambit had done to upset her, but he never got a chance to ask. He didn't see her for the rest of that night, even though he stayed up as late as he could to try and be there when she returned, and he wasn't able to see her this morning either as Magneto forced a task on him. He didn't like how Rogue had been forced to be linked up with Gambit when there had obviously been something bothering her and it had clearly been to do with Gambit. Then, of course, when he received Gambit's text, he instantly became more worried, especially from Gambit's lack of response to his question. He had been determined to speak with Rogue tonight alone and see what it was he could do to help, but from the state of her, he figured he was going to be denied that chance once again. Still though, he wondered when her hair had been cut.

"Although", he said, planning to at least try "I have been more anxious today than normal."

"Oh," Rogue said, moving towards the freezer. She knew the polite thing to do was to ask why, but she really didn't want to go there.

Colossus watched Rogue in silence for a moment, seeing her trying to decide which draw to pick. He noticed the bag of ice cream she was carrying and he couldn't help but think the ice cream had something to do with Gambit.

"John does not go in the top freezer draw," Colossus said, pointing at the bag.

"Thanks," Rogue said, taking Colossus advise and hiding her ice cream in the top draw. For good measure, she found a pen and wrote that bodily harm would come to anyone who touched her ice cream.

"Did you and Gambit have a fight?" Colossus asked her, deciding to try and tackle the problem straight on.

Rogue sighed into the freezer, making her breath show in an icy cloud.

"We were, but we sorted it," Rogue said, closing the freezer door.

"He bought you ice cream to apologise?" Colossus asked.

Rogue stopped to think about this. It was the first time she had pieced together Gambit taking her to an ice cream store for a treat as an apology. The memory of him actually apologising to her at the school came back into her head too and she couldn't help but smirk at it. She really hadn't pieced together that, Gambit buying her ice cream could have been a part of his apology for starting a fight with Duncan.

"I guess so," Rogue said.

At seeing Rogue's smirk and watching her look as if she was drifting off into a nice memory, Colossus felt his nerves ease a little. Although he didn't like the fact that Rogue looked exhausted and he was unsure how she had gotten in such a state, he was quite happy that she seemed to be doing much better than the last time he saw her. He still wanted to speak with Rogue in a bit more detail about what her and Gambit's disagreement was about, but for now, he could see that Rogue needed her bed.

"I'm gonna go take a lie down," Rogue said, finally coming out of her daze. She was actually finding it hard to stand still now without swaying and Colossus noticed this too.

"Rogue, you are alright?" he asked, his voice full of concern as he noticed her wobble.

"Honestly, I think I'm hung over," Rogue lied, forcing a small smile to try and prove she was what she said she was. Whatever she had absorbed from Jean, it was really taking a lot out of her. "I did drink quite a bit yesterday and then today's just been long and annoyin'. I just wanna lie down," she said.

With that, Rogue left Colossus in the kitchen, finishing up dinner. Rogue found her room and went straight to lying on her bed. She let her body relax and slowly began to enter her mind and visit her psyches.

Xxxxx

The day had passed, and Gambit had hit half the houses he wanted to. There was something troubling him though. It felt like there was something he was missing.

The first house he had hit was Stacy's. That was an easy enough heist. The whole family were out. He found a few bank statements that were in her father's name and it was clearly indicating that their family was about to go broke. Of course, Gambit put it together that the father hadn't informed his wife or daughter about it and he reckoned that he was turning to illegal activity to cover their mortgage. He knew he was going to have to do a little more digging there which shouldn't take him too long with his connections.

When Gambit did visit Stacy's house, there was one thing that felt extremely off to him and that was to do with the blood he saw at the bottom of the stairs. He wasn't quite sure what it was from, but he guessed one of the family members had taken a fall down the stairs.

The next house he hit was empty too. He found a few hidden phones that Kimberly kept in her room. Her parents were divorced, and he managed to put together that Kimberly's mum hated her father and didn't let her speak with him so Kimberly kept a few extra phones hidden from her mum so she could talk to her dad. What Gambit found amiss there was that there was a lot of make up on Kimberly's bed and it looked as if it had been knocked off her bed in a panic from the broken pieces of blush and lip sticks that were now staining Kimberly's floor.

He found a similar situation in the next cheerleaders house. One of the last ones he visited, he was just in time to see the cheerleader's family members helping her into a car and taking her to a hospital. It looked like that cheerleader's face had become bloated and puffed up until her eyes became little slits from all the facial muscles sweeling.

As much as Gambit thought they deserved it, he couldn't help but be suspicious.

After hitting the four houses, he now waited under a streetlight, waiting for his contact to show up and he came right on time.

"LeBeau, still can't believe you be hangin' 'round these parts," came the voice before the figure.

Gambit tilted his head in the man's direction, already knowing he was there.

"Vinny, you got what I asked?"

"Yep," said Vinny, holding up an envelope that looked like a birthday card was inside. "Gotta say though Remy, can't believe you'd take on a boy that age."

Gambit smirked at the comment, reading through what Vinny was actually saying.

"There be a reason. And it be worth it," Gambit said, taking the envelope inside his coat pocket.

Quickly, he opened the envelope inside his pocket, took out what he was really after from inside it and resealed the card. It was best to be discreet with these things and the birthday card was an easy cover.

"You ain't told anyone 'bout this, have you?" Gambit asked, actually asking another question than a question about the card.

"Nope. Figured you'd let people know who you wanted to know. Just do us a favour and don't be too much of a stranger. Come down my side of town and have a caught up soon, you hear?" Vinny asked.

Gambit smiled at his old friend, Vinny.

"I'll see what I can do," he said.

Vinny sighed then began to take his leave, muttering behind him: "Guess that's the best I'm gonna get. See ya LeBeau."