Chapter 5: What Doesn't Die
"Hank, I DON'T need to be lying in the hospital wing, it was only a little faint…" Kitty sighed as Hank helped her into one of the unoccupied beds in the hospital wing – happening to be a few feet away from Remy's bed.
Hank smiled, "I'd rather be safe, than sorry. You're obviously suffering from weakness – don't think I have not noticed all the weight you have lost," he stated, "in the past I let it slide, that's all going to be changing from now on," he stated.
"Hank, I barely lost ANY weight," Kitty rolled her eyes.
"Barely losing any weight doesn't make skin tight stretch fabric sag on you," Hank replied.
"Hank, being thinner makes my powers more efficient," Kitty tried to explain.
"Your powers are working better because you're lighter, but your powers won't work if you're too weak to use them, Kitty," Hank frowned a little.
Kitty sighed and propped the pillows up, she could think of several more interesting things she could do other than lie in the hospital wing with nothing to do period. "Can you at least bring in a radio or something, it's dull in here…" Kitty sighed, "please?"
"Perhaps later, in the meantime, rest," Hank pulled the blankets over her, he smiled in a caring manner, and then left the hospital wing, intent on checking on the others in the mansion.
Kitty sighed to herself and rested her back against the pillows, she reminded herself that only a month ago, Rogue had been the one lying in the very bed she had been lying in – with Miss Marvel in the bed nearby, where Remy was lying now.
"You know, the blue one has a point," Remy glanced over at her, he was half propped against the pillows, topless, lying over the covers casually as if he was just chilling out rather than recovering.
"Who asked you?" Kitty asked, she made a face.
"Would you rather sit in silence?" Remy asked pointedly, knowing she didn't want to sit there with nothing to do – or say.
Kitty shook her head but looked away.
"Y'know…last time I saw you, you looked a lot better, healthier. Now look at you, skin and bones. You look a fright," he leaned on his side a little, turning fully towards her, looking at her, "Whatyou wanna go and lose all that weight for anyway…or more importantly…who?"
"That's none of your business," Kitty chewed the inside of her cheek, she frowned a little, "anyway, why is it a concern of yours?" she asked.
"Well, I'm here right now, you're here, what better way to spend a Sunday morning than talk sense into a girl who wants to not-eat her way into anorexia," he smirked, "but seriously though, why you want to lose weight?" he asked, "I mean you were thin anyway, you weren't overweight or anything…"
"Well…" Kitty sighed, she pulled her legs up to her body and hugged them, resting her chin on her knees, "some guys at school said I had a fat ass," she shrugged.
"And you're going to listen to a couple of immature guys from school?" Remy asked, he raised an eyebrow, "let me guess, Jocks, right?"
"How'd you know?" Kitty raised an eyebrow.
"Wild guess," Remy gave a sexy smirk, "they're unrealistic, they live in a dream world, you know, guys like that."
"Whatever," Kitty looked across the room absently.
"If you're losing weight because of what someone said and NOT for yourself, then you're losin' it for all the wrong reasons," He stated. "A lot of guys in this day and age like a little meat on their woman, y'know?"
"I get it, you're a big ass man," Kitty rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but smile.
"I plead the fifth," Remy laughed softly and lay back on his back
Kitty paused for a moment, then turned back to him, "so, uhm…why are you here?"
"I'm here recovering, I thought that one was pretty obvious," Remy pointed out.
"No, I mean, why are you HERE," Kitty asked, "Why are you not with Magneto and the rest of his crones? Did they kick you out?"
Remy looked at her, "right now, I can't answer that," he replied.
"Did you walk out or something?" Kitty asked, she folded her legs under the blankets and rested her elbows on them, keeping her head turned towards him.
"I plead the fifth," he replied again, and closed his eyes, "rest time, now, eh?"
Kitty shook her head in disbelief, "Obviously something went down, you got stabbed…" she pointed out.
"Perhaps its best to leave some questions unanswered for the time being," Remy opened his black eyes and looked at her.
"Are you here because you want to be one of us?" Kitty looked at him.
Remy sat up slowly, and looked at her, "you ask too many questions."
"I have a right to," Kitty stated, "your being here is…shady…at best," Kitty pointed out, "I think it's only fair you tell us why you decided to come to us instead of go to the Brotherhood, or somewhere else…"
"I have already been through this," Remy sighed, "Wolverine and Beast drilled me this morning…and it best be dropped…I'm not budging…"
Kitty looked at him, "how do you expect us to trust you if you won't give us a reason why you're here."
"If you don't trust me, that's your problem, not mines," Remy responded.
"Rogue doesn't trust you either," Kitty folded her arms.
"The Cherie has a grudge against me. She'll get over it," Remy sounded sure.
"Sure she will."
"Chere got spirit, I'll give her that," Remy seemed pleased, he closed his eyes, "now we have some quiet time, I need to rest, injured man here, trying to recover."
"Whatever," Kitty remarked.
On lunch break at the all day training session, Rogue found Scott sitting by himself eating potato chips and looking up at the sky, Jean had gone off to find the nearby bathrooms in the building near the course. Rogue sat down beside Scott, "hi," she said, trying to sound cheerful.
"Hi," Scott didn't glance over to her as he greeted her.
"How's it going?" Rogue asked, trying to sound as casual as she could, she looked at him, studying his perfect profile.
"It's going fine. This training session is a lot of fun," He admitted.
"That was so funny when Jean fell in the mud," Rogue stated, referring to an earlier incident when Jean was trying to swing over a large pool of mud by a rope, and slipped and fell straight in. Rogue hadn't been able to hide her delight in seeing the girl up to her waist in thick mud.
"It was," Scott chuckled.
"It was up to her waist," Rogue giggled, "she looked SO mad…" Rogue took a sip from the water bottle she had been carrying with her.
"She's used to getting muddy – she played a lot of Soccer at Bayville high, remember."
"Yeah. She won't be doing that, anymore," Rogue pointed out, she was kind of smug about this.
"She does miss it," Scott stated.
"How's it goin' with you and Jean, anyway?" Rogue asked, trying to sound light about it, what she really wanted to know was if there was any chance of Jean getting out of the way so she had a chance with Scott.
"It's going great. We're getting along really well…its…perfect…"
Rogue felt her heart sink, "really?" she feigned a cheerful tone.
"Yeah…" Scott smiled to himself, he saw Jean appear out of the door of the building and begin to head back to where the group were sitting on a grassy area near the course.
"Do you love her?" Rogue asked quietly.
"I…you know, you can't really ask me that," Scott admitted, "if I did...I'd want her to be the first one to hear me say I did," he added.
"Understandable," Rogue nodded, she felt her heart sinking deeper and deeper.
"But…there's a feeling between us, that's…so strong…" Scott confided, "something I don't think will die."
Something came to Rogue's mind and shot out of her mouth before she'd even thought about opening her mouth, "You can't kill what doesn't die…"
"Huh?" Scott turned and looked at her.
"Uhm…oh, sorry, just when you said that, it reminded me of this song…Anthrax, 'what doesn't die', its sort of thrashy," she lied, her excuse was the first thing that had come to her head. "You should listen to it," she tried to change the subject.
"You and me have very different tastes in music, Rogue," Scott reminded.
"Yeah, I like Ozzy Osbourne, and you like…uhm…Hanson?" Rogue remembered having seen a Hanson CD in his car once.
"That was a LONG time ago," he looked at her, "That CD had been in my collection since 1997," he added.
Rogue giggled, "then why is it in the car you've had less than a year?"
"Uhm…picked it up by accident," he admitted, he stood up, "Excuse me," he waved to her, and then headed over to meet Jean as she arrived back.
"You're not excused," Rogue whispered, out of his earshot, she sighed to herself. She turned to see Kurt walking over, Kurt planked himself on the ground beside her.
"Something bothering you?" Kurt asked.
"No, why?" Rogue wondered.
"You look upset," Kurt responded, he offered her some candy from a bag he'd brought with him.
Rogue refused his candy. "I'm just, I don't know, frustrated with everything going on lately, Kurt…" she sighed.
"Are you worried Gambit will join the X-Men?" Kurt asked, he shoved a hand full of candy into his mouth.
"I'm not worried about it," Rogue stated, "But if he does, I'm gonna be severely peeved," she sighed. "I might even leave the X-Men. I can't deal with being near him. It's 'cause of him and that bitch, Miss Marvel, that I have another person in my head," She muttered, "I can't get along with him – only a couple of months ago he was intent on taking me to Magneto – god knows why!"
"But he isn't trying to do that now, Rogue," Kurt pointed out.
"How do I know he's not going to try to do it again, Kurt?! How do I know the minute I turn my back on him that a KNIFE won't be sticking out of it?
"Rogue, maybe he has a good reason to want to come over to us, maybe he's seen the error of his ways," Kurt admitted.
"I can't believe you're siding with him now," Rogue stood up, "jesus, what is it with everyone? Y'all are standing up for him!!"
"I'm not standing up for him," Kurt stood also, "but I'm saying that there's two sides to every story…"
"Kurt, you said you were my brother and you'd always back me up, why can't you just…back me up on this?" Rogue demanded angrily, "Jesus, you're ALL betraying me! You helped him when he needed help, now y'all are willing to accept him into the X-Men!" she shouted at him.
"We're NOT betraying you, Rogue," Kurt kept his voice down. "I just think—"
"Don't even try, leave me alone, I'm not talking to you," Rogue turned her back on him and walked away, leaving him standing there.
"Here we go again," Kurt rolled his eyes.
Professor Xavier had been away for a few days at a few teaching seminars, and had arrived back at the Mansion not long after 1pm that very day, greeted immediately by Hank and Logan. "It is so good to be back," Professor Xavier admitted. "How have things been in my absence?" he asked.
"Mayhem," Logan stated, "Kitty is in the hospital wing – she fainted earlier this morning."
"Fainted?" Professor Xavier asked, "How so?" he wheeled himself along the grand hall, Hank and Logan following.
"We think its from weakness – she has not been eating right, forcing herself to diet. All that will be changing from now on, though. We'll be keeping an eye on her," Hank explained.
"I sense the presence of Gambit," Xavier stated calmly.
"He arrived last night just after seven – seemed to come out of nowhere, was hurt," Logan stated, "he'd been stabbed. But he won't tell us who attacked him," he added, "Rogue made a big fuss of course, girl still holds a grudge against him – and I don't blame her."
"Gambit claims to want to join the X-Men," Hank said, "and to make matters worse he won't explain why he suddenly wants to switch sides."
"Strange," Professor Xavier stated, "if there is any sinister intentions behind it, I'll find out…I'll go have a talk with him now…"
"Professor, would you recruit him?" Hank asked.
"If his reasons for being here are good enough, then possibly," Professor Xavier admitted.
"Rogue won't be pleased if he's recruited. You can tell there's going to be some hostility between them," Logan reminded, "how will we handle that?"
"Logan, need I remind you that when Rogue first joined, she had hostility with everyone in the Mansion…" Professor Xavier pointed out, "and she has begun to accept everyone. It may take time, but she will over come her feelings of anger towards Gambit as well."
"You're talking like he's already one of us, Professor," Hank was concerned.
"While he's in the mansion, he is. But whether he has a future with the X-Men, is yet to be established," Professor Xavier headed towards his office, "can you please send him to my office…"
"Sure thing," Logan stated, he waited until Professor Xavier was gone, and he looked towards Hank. "What do you think, Hank, can we trust this Cajun?"
"I am not sure," Hank folded his arms, "the only one who can answer that would have to be a mind reader," he added, "So…I'm confident Professor Xavier will find the answer to that himself."
