Note : Oooookay. Sorry that took soooo long. I kept sitting in the living room, laptop on my knees, looking at the white sheet entitled "new document" on my screen, wondering how to put into words the images in my head. I fell I rushed this, thought, but it was supposed to be a ten chapters story at the beginning, so… Now. Maybe some of you will have a déjà-vu feeling while reading this chapter. This might be because I have based some facts on another fanfic I have read on the Internet. Don't worry, I'm not the kind who just steals ideas from others to put it into my stories and get all the credits. I give credit to all writers out there. I just found they ideas interesting, and used it in my plot. Nothing criminal here, I hope. The intention, at least, was never to steal. Please, I'm on my knees, don't call me thief. I'm just doing this for fun.

Oooooooh, I'm soooo tired! I really wanted this to be finished today for you, to keep my update-every-day beat. So I did.

Disclaimer : I do not own Remy nor Rogue nor Sinister aka Nathaniel Essex… I do not own the name Remington, it's Kaleidopy's. Everyone else who's not from the Marvel Universe is mine. That narrows it down to a very few individuals (like the barbarian drunk men in the tavern), but it's nice to know I actual own something in this.

Special thanks to ishandahalf, Tammy, crazytook and T. for reviewing the last chapter, and also to those who reviewed on the other chapters. I really appreciate it, it helps and gives reasons to continue this story. This actually takes a lot of time since I have to check in my English-French dictionnary all the time and spend precious time looking for mistakes… Your positive commentaries and opinions make it worth it, believe me. It's so exiting checking my email and seeing review alerts from FF.N… And to those who read but don't review, I don't begrudge ;-) I just hope it's not because you're afraid to flame me. Please do, if you feel you have to!

Okay, enough of it.

Enjoy.

Chapter 11

Nathan

I sat at a table, looking at the ale in my mug. What the hell was I doing here? Remy had sent me here to try to talk to Nathaniel, and my heart was beating wildly. I had been sitting here for a while without seeing him. What had we tought? He didn't seem the kind of man to drink and talk in taverns all day long, like the ones yelling and chanting tuneless songs right now, while looking at me with hungry eyes. I wasn't the only young woman in the place, but I had more teeth in my mouth than all the woman here reunited had, and had by far better health than anyone here. A great family maker, they probably thought.

I shivered at the tought of babies. I had been totally freaked out by the thought of killing that baby's father, for a reason I didn't know. Having myself been in an orphanage, I knew it wasn't the reason for my hesitation. I didn't know why, but something told me that baby had to stay by his father.

My mouth twitched. Babies. Since my powers had revealed themselves, I had never thought of having any. But now… My heart warmed each time I thought of Remy. His smile, these eyes… He could wear an unexpressive mask, a poker face, whenever he needed to. But with me, his eyes carried formidable expression. Love, desire, and recently, fear and jealousy. I felt myself blush. Never in my life I would had thought a man could have rather live in hell than live without me. And now, I found myself loved by a man scared to death of loosing me.

It wasn't malice that had taken him to think I would ever leave him. It was his sense of logic. I sighted. Sure enough, I had thought of what it could be with another man. The possibilities the pill had gave me were numerous, but I could never bring myself to do such a thing as leaving Remy. I just had to think about him, and all other men disapeared. To imagine his warm hands on my body, his smooth lips on mine, on my breasts, on my… I close my eyes, breathless. I certainly wished he could had sensed my feelings right now. It would have taken these silly ideas from his head, all right. I took a deep breath to clear the images in my head, but the heat in the pit of my stomach was still there. 

I finished my ale and rose to leave. Nathaniel would never come. He had other things to do… a baby to take care of. I walked to the door to get out of the atmosphere of the tavern. Fresh air wouldn't hurt. I opened the door and found myself putting my nose in silver buttons and nice smelling shirt. I snapped my head up, unable to speak. He smiled down at me and put a hand on my arm to steady me as I leaned back.

"Well, hullo, my dear. I couldn't dare to hope seeing you again so soon!" He had a nice deep voice, and his deep-blue eyes settled into mine.

"Oh… well… Ah'm happy to see yah too, mister…"

"Essex, dear. But you can just call me Nathan." I gulped. Somehow I had hope we had mistaken… "I see you were heading outside, but I was hoping you would have some time for a drink? A refreshing one…" He added with a smirk on his lips. I was still flushed with my previous thoughts about the Cajun, and blushed even more at Nathan's words.

"Sure, Ah thank yah." He motionned towards a bench under a nearby tree.

"Perhaps we could take it outside, where the air is more breathable." He smiled again and turned inside to buy refreshments, while I walked to the bench. The air was fresher than inside the tavern, but it was hot, and beads of sweat were forming on my skin in my back and between my breasts. I used a kerchief to wipe my face, wondering how the hell Remy could survive under his dark hooded cloak. As I waited, I began to think about the future. The Professor haden't contacted me since our first day, and that was… what, six days ago? We still had eight full days to end our mission before Gabrielle made us come back into our time.

Our mission. My heart squeezed again as I saw Nathan coming out of the tavern, two mugs of ale in his hands. He seemed so sweet and charming; I broke my heart thinking it was the same man that had tried to kill the X-Men so often, and that had entered our minds in our dreams. Thank God these dreams didn't seem to reach us in these times; I wondered if the others still had them at night, or if they didn't need the protective helmet anymore.

"Well you seem deep in your thoughts, my dear. Am I interrupting some important thinking, or would you have a little place for conversation in that beautiful head of yours?" I smiled. It was like having a conversation with the Beast.

"No, no, please sit down." I took the ale he was handing me and took a large sip. He sat down and looked at me.

"I have told you my name, dear lady, but I do not recall having heard yours, if you think it appropriate to tell me" he said, his eyes intent on me.

"Uh, sure." Certainly Rogue wasn't a good idea. I settled for my real name. "Mah name's Jade." His brows went up. It certainly wasn't a familiar name in these times.

"Well, these lovely eyes of yours certainly deserved such a tribute as a beautiful name like that" he smiled. "I must thank you for granting me the pleasure of your company, miss Jade… Are you here alone, or do you travel with… friends? Family?" He clearly hesitated when he said family. He clearly was interested in me, and I associated that sentence with the famous "you come here alone?" that you could here often in bars in the 20th century. Thank God Remy wasn't near; killing Nathaniel would have happened much sooner, and with a lot more violence. I repressed a smile.

"Actually, no. Ah'm with… a… friend o'mine. We're just stopping by for a few nights."

"Oh… That is too bad." He made a little smile. "I would have liked knowing you better."

We continued our chat for quite a while. I was surprised when I saw the sun was already declining; we had been talking for at least three hours, and I knew nothing of his son. I cast a look at the long, slender hands that gesticulated a little while he talked of his father's work as a lawyer, of his sister, of his mother… He asked few questions to me. He had tried, but getting only evasive answers and questions from me, he had understood my hesitation and resolved on answering my interrogations. He had smooth hands, indoor hands. I caught myself comparing them to Remy's large, warm hands, that could demonstrate great power or excessive delicacy. Nathaniel was looking away while he talked, sometimes looking at me with a smile, carefully not staring. He was charming, but it had nothing to do with Remy's candid talk and fatal smiles and winks…

"I have a son, Jade."

I started, lost in my thoughts. "You what?" He only had a sad smile.

"I have a son. He's only a few months old. His name is Remington, I named him after my grand-father."

"Oh, well… And his mother?" I felt cruel. But I wasn't supposed to know his wife was dead, after all.

"She died two weeks after Remington was born… We were good friends, she was a good life." There was coldnest in his voice and I glaced up at him, surprised. He turned his head to look at me. His eyes were enlighted with something I couldn't understand. "My son will be the greatest of all, Jade. I'll make sure he is" he said, his voice suddently cold.

I just stared at him, my heart thumping loud. The last words he had said were said with the voice of Sinister. I looked at him with new eyes. Carefull eyes.

"Come with me, Jade. There is something I would like to show you."

***************

"Stupid girl. You shouldn't be here, alone" I thought as we climbed the wooden stairs to the front door of the big house. Nathan gestured me to enter first, and I repressed a shiver seeing the living room in daylight.

"Follow me" he said, and he unlocked a door, leading obviously to the basement, with a key he put back in a front pocket of his vest. That aroused my curiosity and I followed the glow of his candle as he led me downstairs.

It took my breath away. In the middle of the room laid a big glass tube, an eerie glow around it. Filled with some kind of liquid, it was connected to small wires leading to a plastic box, where thousands of little red lights were flashing. My jaw fell and stayed that way, until I realized that it wasn't the kind of machine you would see in a cottage basement in the end of 18th century.

"Oh, dear Gawd, what in hell is that?" I whispered.

"A cryogenic machine" he answered, talking as low as me. He put a hand on the tube and slowly caressed the green glowing glass. "Apocalypse brought it to me, from the future, for my son." I shivered, hard.

"A… Apocalypse?"

"A beast, a monster, from the future. Telling me only the strongest will survive in centuries to come. His mother was weak, but my son will survive. He'll be the strongest." He turned back to stare at me, blue eyes suddently cold. "Remington will be kept inside until I find out how to make him powerful, it may take years but… he will be the strongest. Undestructible." I stared at him, unbelieving.

"Years? What happens if yah die before yah find out? Yah'll let a baby die in there?" Flush was rising to my face. The sweet Nathaniel I had talked to hours ago was fading, letting place to the monster I knew before.

"I won't die. The Apocalypse will make me immortal. Remington, my Remy, my son, will be powerful, even if it takes centuries to make it so. Jade, I had to tell someone. Why it ended being you I don't know. Something's telling me you should know."

My heart stopped beating, as a cold wave seaped through my veins. No, this couldn't be. It simply couldn't… No. I picked up my skirts and ran up the stairs, out of the house and on the road, running like hell out of there, tears streaming down in my face.

We couldn't kill this man.

To be continued…

Okay. The name Remington I took from a fanfiction writen by Kaleidopy, entitled "The Cold Hearted Truth". I also picked up some elements from the story "Menacant" from BelaLeBeau, but please don't read them before my story is ended, it would be a terrible spoiler…

I'm trying to put as much information as I can so you guys can understand where my crooked mind is heading. Although, if you have any questions, don't hesitate, I'll do my best to answer them in the next chapter. Once again, thanks for reviewing!! (*hint, hint*)