The door opened and Ororo smiled. "Erik!"

"Ororo…I'm glad you came by. All of you, come on in." Erik Lensherr said, holding open the door and looking around carefully. Logan concealed his weapon and stepped into the house. It was large and spacious, uncluttered but many places where a person could hide, a tactical disadvantage. "It was on the news." He said, taking Ororo by the hand and sitting on the couch. Logan closed the curtains quickly and grabbed a chair.

"What was?"

"The fire and the murder. I'm sorry about Jean. She was a lovely girl." She nodded sadly and rested her head against his shoulder. Logan was confused. When Ororo said someone she used to date, he was expecting someone as spectacularly handsome as she was beautiful, full of youth and intellect. Not Erik. Erik was old, around his sixties, but looked fifteen years younger. Not a drop of fat on his body with a very toned physique, he carried himself like a self assured individual, just like Ororo.

His hair was the same color as hers, with more silver at the temple, about shoulder length. "What fire?" Logan asked sharply, something gnawing at his brain. Erik turned to him in slight surprise, and eased his arm from around Ororo's shoulder. That was better.

"The fire that consumed Ororo's house. It was on the news yesterday. Burned for a few hours before someone called for help. Odd considering Ororo was on friendly terms with her neighbors. They're ruling out arson."

"I'm sure they are." Remy said, smirking slightly. He sat forward for a bit, ignoring the chatter around him as Logan went on a continual sweep of the house. Finally, he narrowed down his options to one feasible conclusion. "I'm going to talk to the director. He can get us to a safe house and we all can stay out of sight until the trial."

Logan frowned. "Do you still think it was someone in house?" Remy shook his head.

"Not anymore. It doesn't make sense and the people who were trying to kill us were not with us. If they were, then we'd be dead, and that homing beacon wouldn't have been so obvious." Logan nodded to himself, for he realized that was quite sloppy and unlike the division.

"When do you want to leave?"

"No. Not all of us. You've got to stay here and keep them away from open air."

"You all are welcome for as long as you're able." Erik offered, patting Ororo's hand.

"Good. I'll be back tonight with a detail and directions to the house." Remy stood and took the weapon that Logan held out to him and was gone.

"Anybody hungry?" Erik asked, standing and stretching.

"You better believe it." Jubilee smiled.

*

"Guess who's here."

"I despise guessing games."

"Mr. LeBeau." Kitty smiled and nodded for Remy to go ahead.

"Send him in." Xavier said, putting on his best smile. The door opened and Xavier was there, all fatherly in his concern and slight indignation. "Remy! We've been worried about you and Ms. Lee. You've just dropped off the face of the earth without consent." He sat him down in a chair directly in front of his desk.

"You must understand sir, we've had some problems with this particular witness. Killings and fires, two attempts on her life and one on ours. She's attracting bullets sir, and we need a place to put her." Xavier's smile turned cold as he swiveled around in his chair to face the window.

"I have a place she could go."

"Which safe house sir?" Remy asked, relieved.

"She doesn't need a safe house. I'm thinking more along the lines of the Upper East Side Morgue." Remy started and raised an eyebrow.

"The morgue."

"Yes. You see, perhaps we need to have a little talk." Scott stepped out of the shadows and placed the silencer at the back of Remy's head. He stiffened and willed himself to relax. If they were going to kill him, they would have done it already. "We already know where the good doctor is."

"So what do you want from me?" Remy asked, hearing a deal coming along. Scott smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Your help."

"And what do I get?"

"How's 3 million?" He nodded satisfactorily, as if he heard the sum every day in reference to his name.

"Sounds good to me. And my bank account." The men laughed slightly. "So all I have to do is kill Jubilee, Dr. Munroe and Logan? And I'll get my money?"

"And any witnesses there. Also find out where the doctor hid the original disc that holds the chemical."

"Done."

"Good. Think of this as an initiation. If-"

"When." Xavier beamed.

"When you finish this job, you will be approached to join a sort of club, where we cut out all of the weak and the feeble, and everyone makes a lot of money. Sounds good?"

"Oh yeah. Just give me a few hours, and you'll have four bodies to dispose of." Remy's mind was racing along all the things he could buy.

*

"So you worked there for five years?"

"Yes." It was just her and Logan in the living room, the lights slightly dim as Ororo went through the channels of the television. Erik and Jubilee were in the kitchen, playing a game of cards. Logan was sitting next to her, paying more attention to the woman beside him than what was flickering by on the tube.

"How was it? I hear they pay really well." He asked, hoping to find out more about the company, more about who they were dealing with.

"Oh yes, that was a draw when I graduated. How much money would a company pay for a 4.0 average and a summa cum laude? I didn't even have to put out a resume. Many pharmaceuticals were watching me all throughout grad school. I could have went anywhere in the world, but I chose Bronson Group because I didn't want to leave New York. Now I wish I had." The tone of her voice made him think something had happened.

"What went wrong?"

"I picked the cream of the crop. I am the best, why shouldn't I work with the best?" She laughed bitterly. "But they were just pigs. When I went to work there do you know how many women worked there that did not handle the night cleaning?"

"How many?"

"None. I was the first one. That should have warned me. But I was idealistic, extremely so. I figured, they've got to start with someone, I just happened to be it. I was also the last." Logan frowned. He didn't like where this was going. "I looked around for other people of color and found none in Bot Head. None at all."

"Bot Head?"

"That's what we call the building that houses the entire botany facilities. It is wired to be solitary, we have generators that keep everything going, then the generators have generators, and those have a back up. All dedicated to not having anything disrupted."

"Oh. Continue." Ororo sighed and rubbed her shoulder.

"So I shook it off. I would be the most perfect scientist that I could, and I was. I was quickly promoted, but my looks got me through most of the doors. My brains kept me there. Then…then there were the little instances."

"Instances?"

"Instances were I would be in a crowded elevator holding a lot of research and hands all over me. I could never see who was doing it, they all ganged up on me so I couldn't turn around. I wanted to scream but I kept my mouth shut. I wish I hadn't." She shook her head. "And I would have been thankful if that was all that happened. Sexual harassment seemed to be the theme of the week when I first started.

The usual thing was that someone would stand too close to me, and when I'd feel off balance I would have to sort of fall onto someone else. That got a lot of laughs. I lodged a complaint and I was offered 5 grand to keep it quiet. The person would be reprimanded, I was told, so there was no reason to embarrass the company. I stupidly complied."

"Is there more?" Logan's voice had a low, growling quality. They touched her and made her miserable. He ought to find every one of them and kill them slowly…really slowly.

"Yes. The worse and last time anything happened. I was going to my car late one night and my key wouldn't work for some reason. Someone had rubbed a heavy magnet over the hole, and when I'd push the key in, it would slip out. Well, as I was struggling someone put a blindfold over my eyes and pulled me back. Other hands ripped off my clothing and just started to fondle me all over. I thought for sure I was going to be raped, and no one could hear me scream because a knife was pushed against my throat." She took a breath and looked at Logan. He looked sick to his stomach and angry.

"What happened."

"They left after a while. You kind of forget the passage of time during something like that. My hands were tied behind my back and I was laid on the pavement. Running footsteps and then nothing. I couldn't move, I couldn't feel, I was numb. So I did what I could do. I cried. I cried long and hard and loud. A security guard came and said to hold on he'd get help. This little episode, as Mr. Summers called it, would shame the company like nothing else, and there would be no recovery.

I said I didn't care about that, I wanted justice. They had found me a robe to wear and I was sitting on the 35th floor, shivering, angrier, and more ashamed than I've ever been, while Mr. CEO was just trying to downplay it as harmless fun. Harmless fun." She sniffed. "He agreed to pay me 4 million if I didn't press charges. Four million for my soul and peace of mind. And I went for it. I was so weak, so afraid of rocking the boat, so unsure of myself. I vowed never again."

"Why did you still work there?" Logan asked.

"I have no idea. " She thought about it slightly. "To prove I could outlast any of them, that I was smarter and I was bringing in all of the money the company boasted about. My products brought in profits, and I didn't want anyone to forget it." He nodded slowly as he realized why she had such a large chip on her shoulder. It was necessity. "I'm sorry if I bored you with all of this."

"No, not at all Dr. Munroe."

"Please, call me Ororo." He smiled involuntarily.

"Ororo." He liked the way it rolled off of his tongue. "Ororo." She smiled and leaned forward, closing the distance between them.

"Yes." She bit her lip and leaned forward, just as the door clicked and the spell was broken, both racing to other sides of the couch as Remy came in.

"Didn't interrupt anything did I?" He kidded, closing and locking the door.

"No." Logan snapped, breathing heavily. He had never wanted just a kiss so much before. Ororo was on the on the other side, trying to tame her mass of hair. She looked flushed and off kilter.

"Where's Jubilee and Erik?"

"In the kitchen."

"Where's the kitchen."

"Just take the hall all the way until the fifth door on the left. You can't miss it." Ororo said, pointing to the hallway. Remy nodded and left. He quickly made it to the large oak door and pushed it open. Jubilee and Erik looked up from their game and smiled.

"Hey boss, you're back." She said as she put down her cards. Erik sipped his lemonade and sighed.

"Is this something you need privacy for?"

"I'd prefer it." Remy said apologetically. Erik waved it off as he rose.

"It's not a problem. If it were, I wouldn't offer." He left quickly and Jubilee's young face went serious.

"So, where's the safe house?"

"There is no safe house." She started.

"They denied us? Why?"

"There has been a change in plans." He brought out a large bowie knife and slammed it into her chest. Jubilee looked down at it incredulously, blood pouring out of her mouth, but no words. "I'm sorry chere. You just got in the way." He pulled the knife out and plunged it in again, at her jugular. She dropped to the ground twitching, then died.

Leaving the same way he came in, he walked down the hall and saw that Erik wasn't far ahead of him, a load of towels in hand. He turned and smiled as he saw him. "Ah, Remy, you're finished. I was just getting some towels for tonight. You're the only one who didn't get to use the shower, that is if you wanted to." He stopped smiling as he saw the glint of the bloody knife. Erik threw the armful of towels at his face and raced down the hall. "He killed her! He-" His voice gurgled as the knife found it's target, the upper left of his back.

Logan and Ororo jumped up, and quickly ducked as Remy took a shot and fired. It lodged itself into the mantelpiece, both moving to the stairs. Logan fired back, Remy pulling away as it blew away part of the door molding. "Look, I'm sorry. It's not personal Logan!"

"To hell it ain't!" He roared, taking another shot. It was close, but Remy moved out of the way, his duster catching the bullet.

"They just offered me so much money!"

"I'm going to kill you!"

"I'd like to see you try." Logan and Ororo were upstairs now, Ororo rushing around to see any open windows with a safe landing. She found one and slipped onto the roof just as Remy crested the landing, shooting the glass into shards that rained down her back. Ignoring the pain on her neck she stumbled down the trellis and waited by the bushes.

Logan took careful aim and pulled the trigger, and by this time Remy was so full of hate he didn't see it coming until it was almost too late. He jerked, but the bullet landed near his heart, ripping open a major artery. He groaned and fell to the ground, his life blood beating out of him slowly. Not taking another look back he jumped out of the window and landed on the springy grass, looking around, crouched and ready for battle.

" 'Ro! Where are you?" She stood up and waved him over. Once there he grabbed her hand and they moved quickly to Erik's blue convertible, Ororo remembering where the keys were kept. She started up the car and they drove away.