The Song is "Everybody Knows". Written by Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson. You heard Leonard singing this in the Christian Slater movie Pump Up the Volume but when you bought the soundtrack it was a cover by Concrete Blonde. And if I remember right you were pissed. smirk I wrote this with the Cohen version in mind.
Everybody Knows
Gambit sat on the old metal fire escape. He let one leg hang down gracefully as though he couldn't care about falling at all.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
The ancient memories tore at him but he continued to sit and to try to remain focused on the world around him and not the world that was.
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
He had sworn this would never happen again. That he would have been the last of his guild to defile themselves like this. He was wrong.
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor,
The rich get rich
That's how it goes
He was wrong and he knew it. Thoroughly.
Everybody knows
His prey had not yet come. This student that he must teach. Maybe he was dead already. Maybe he was off learning his lesson. And then he saw movement and he eased back in to the shadows.
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
The man looked anxious and nervous but otherwise just as Gambit had remembered him. Older perhaps. More disturbed that a street thief ever willingly became, but still. Very much the same. Maybe he already knew. He looked like he knew. But still, here he was, looking to cash in on the whole affair. And that made Gambit angry. He briefly teetered on wondering what could make a man do such a thing for money. But he hesitated out of self-defense.
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows
Gambit's mind flashed back to the night he had found out what had happened. How he had returned home. How it was written on his face. How his girl didn't know what he had done but once she saw him, and the look in his eyes, had turned him away. And rightly so.
Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah, give or take a night or two
He remembered how he had thought he could dismiss it. How he had thought that no one would ever know.
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows
He remembered standing in front of her as though he were naked and lame. He remembered how she said he wasn't deserving of a woman to touch or a single creature comfort. He remembered how it was all written right there in the burning behind her eyes.
And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah, when you've done a line or two
And here he stood again. Proving that, over and over, evil triumphs by design.
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows
The man approached as quietly as any thief. He was taking his time and scouting out the area. He was about to have the rudest awakening of his life. And that made Gambit's vengeful side grateful for the chance to be involved.
And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Soon he be facing me. Gambit thought Feeling naked. And lame.
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
The man picked up the hidden case from behind the garbage cans at the end of the alley. Gambit readied a card in case he needed it. The man opened the case. It was full of bricks.
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows
Gambit dropped in to the alley behind him and set his staff against the mans head with a hearty thump, knocking him back and away from the street. "Hay'lo." Gambit said, letting the man see him for the first time.
And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
"Remy the X-Man!" The man smiled despite the fresh trickle of blood rolling down his face. "What's wrong Ami?"
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Remy blanched at the mention of the X-Men. How dare this dog even speak their name? How dare he himself?
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
"You're out now. And I aint your Ami no more." Gambit made a slashing motion with his hand that the man found threatening. "You is jus' an assassin' now." And the man began to shake because he thought no one could possibly know.
And everybody knows
"Remy!" He pleaded. "I didn't." But Gambit cut him off. "No t'ief was ever supposed to work for Sinister after me. You wuz all 'sposed to be told. And you were." The man licked his lips. "I didn't want to believe." But again it was Remy who cut him off "That you were responsible for killing them all? A whole new generation of Morlocks under a whole new city? That you wuz as stupid as me and through your life away for Sinister? For money?"
Oh everybody knows,
That's how it goes
"And I see it wasn't cash up front." Remy eyed the bricks distastefully and shook his head. "I called the guild." Remy said quietly to the frightened man on the ground. "You can't ever go back." The man swallowed hard but didn't move to get up off the ground or to meet Gambit's eyes. "You been up a long time. When was your last shower heh? Yesterday? A week? You smell you know.." Gambit looked down as though he was looking in to a mirror. "And that smell, it don' come off. You reek of guilt now. And everybody's always gonna know."
Everybody knows.
Everybody knows.
Later that night Remy wandered the streets. He felt undeserving of his bed at the mansion and even of the girl he couldn't touch. His crimes were the greatest he had ever heard of and he could still feel the taint of it on him like a second skin.
That's how it goes.
There were many volunteers at the mission that night, when Remy LeBeau walked in and looked like a pleading puppy dog at the man in the priest's collar. "I need to get clean." He told the man. But when the man began to show him to the washroom Remy stopped him. "No." He explained "I mean … I needs t' help." And the man's eyes shown with understanding as he raised himself up and smiled at Gambit before leading him to the kitchen.
And everybody knows.
Everybody knows.
That's how it goes.
And Everybody knows.