Chapter 4: Unlikely Hero

            Remy LeBeau hung the phone up quietly just after Kitty Pryde had called the Mansion asking for a ride back home.  He sighed, and headed for the grand hall, and retrieved the keys for the van just where she'd told him to.

He had thought that Kitty was pretty responsible – at least she'd seemed that way, and couldn't understand at all why she would be hanging around in a goth nightclub with Rogue.  Rogue and Kitty seemed like the most unlikely friends imaginable.

Rogue seemed like the kind of girl who would be hard to be friends with.   Remy could see she had problems, he knew she'd been spurned by people before, it showed in the way she acted.  He knew it would take a hell of a lot of work to try and get Rogue to forgive him for the past and just get along with him.

She infuriated him, sometimes he could tolerate it, but other times, he felt he just had to egg her on, sometimes he thought it was funny watching the look on her face when he did, but now, now he realised it was getting out of hand.  He was tired of her fighting with him, tired of trying to hold his secrets close to his heart for the time being.

He forced the thoughts of all this out of his head for the time being and got in the van in the garage, and left the Mansion grounds, he drove for what seemed like forever, but really he had managed to reach the nightclub called Asylum in twenty-five minutes, with traffic being considerably quiet on the roads.  He pulled up the van near the sidewalk and parked there, caring not about who saw or if any cops happened to see this, he knew cops didn't frequent the area, too much trouble brewed in the area, and the cops were always outnumbered.  He climbed out, seeing no sign of Kitty Pryde or Rogue.  He realised of course they probably would have been best waiting inside, the area being as bad as it was, standing outside was just asking for trouble – especially being young and attractive.

            He walked over to the queue to get in, kept a fake I.D. in his hand, and waited.

            Kitty couldn't believe she couldn't find Rogue, she'd left her at a table, but by the time she'd phoned Remy and returned, Rogue had gone.  Kitty wandered all over the club looking for her.

            "God this CAN'T get any worse," Kitty said to herself, "stranded in a night club, having to wait forever for a ride home, and now, my friend goes missing…" Kitty groaned, she squinted at all the bright lights flashing everywhere, and the noise of loud music booming around her, shaking the very floor on which she stood.

            The nightclub had begun to get even busier the moment one am came.  And Kitty had to shove past people just to move, a few people had spilled drinks on her, she cringed at the thought of going home smelling of alcohol, she'd surely get busted for sure.

            Finally, she found Rogue, dancing with her arms wrapped around the neck of some guy, Kitty came up behind her and grabbed her arm, "Rogue, c'mon we gotta go.."

            "Not now, I wanna dance!" Rogue remarked, she staggered a little.

            "Rogue, we're getting a ride home," Kitty pulled Rogue off of the guy and began to drag her along.

            Rogue stopped, and pulled Kitty back to her and began trying to dance with her in a very stupid way, Kitty felt flustered, and embarrassed and guilty she'd even let Rogue get so drunk. 

            Kitty felt someone tap her on her back and she spun around, it was Remy.

            "THANK GOD!" Kitty felt relief flow through her.

            Rogue swayed along to the music like an idiot, she looked as if she would pass out though, she looked more dreary every moment.

            "Rogue, c'mon…" Kitty gestured, "We're getting out of here…"

            "I wanna stay!" Rogue pouted like a child, "I wanna dance. Dance with me, Kitty!"

            Kitty refused.  She couldn't believe Rogue was acting this way, it was so unlike her, ever since having come out of the coma, Rogue had been unlike herself, but Kitty felt this was the worst she'd ever seen her at.  But then again, Kitty realised alcohol did strange things to people.  "I'm not dancing, I wanna go home."

            "I'm not leaving 'til I find someone to dance with," Rogue proclaimed.

            Remy looked at Rogue, "okay, I'll dance with you, then we go?"

            "Okay!" Rogue giggled and tripped over her own foot trying to dance, she grabbed a hold of Remy's bare hand with her gloved hand and swayed across the dance floor with him.  Right then and there everything seemed blurry and she didn't care about anything in the world, not herself.  Remy swayed a little bit with her, whilst trying to avoid bumping into other people, finally when Rogue staggered forward, he caught her.

            "That's it, Chere, you've had enough for one night," He pulled her arm around his shoulders and began to lead her out, Kitty followed.

            Once outside, Rogue seemed to come to her senses – at least momentarily.

            "Why is here, Kitty?" She asked, she motioned to Remy as she tried to untangle herself from him.

            "He's giving us a ride home…" Kitty took Rogue by the arm, "c'mon," she led her towards the van, seeing it parked nearby.

            Remy unlocked the door, he helped Rogue, who clambered in awkwardly, slipping at first on the heel of her platform heeled boot..

            "I don't need your help!" She tugged away from him, and pulled herself in eventually.

            "Even drunk she's nasty," Remy remarked.

            Kitty climbed into the front seat after Rogue, and Remy got in, Rogue found herself sandwiched between the two.

            "I don't wanna go home…" Rogue sighed, "god my head feels funny."

            "How much did she drink?" Remy asked, he started the van up, and it roared as it came to life.

            "I have absolutely NO idea," Kitty shrugged, "I lost count after a while…" she looked at Rogue, the girl looked a little paler than usual, and her skin had begun to look quite clammy, and looked like she'd be sick.  "Rogue, PLEASE don't throw up in the van…"

            Remy pulled out of the place he'd parked, "does she usually drink?" he asked.

            "No…" Kitty shrugged, "at least, I've never seen her drink before…" Kitty glanced out of the window, "this isn't the road we got here on…"

            "Short cut…"

            "She doesn't look good…"

            Rogue's head dropped back, Kitty looked at her, "Rogue?" She asked.  Rogue looked at her, her breaths were very slow, and uneven.  She looked like she was trying hard not to be sick. 

The drive was silent, Rogue slumped to the side with her head against Kitty's shoulders, breathing deeply trying to ease out the nausea. 

            Kitty rolled down the window, finally she felt she had to speak, "How are we going to avoid the adults…"

            "They're sleeping," Remy stated, "I checked, even Logan is fast asleep – but then he'd had a few beers…"

            "Not the only one in a seemingly drunken stupor…" Kitty remarked, and then remained silent until Remy parked the van in the garage, she climbed out.  Rogue slumped down onto the seat, her cheek against the leather, she had begun to stir from her sleep, she glanced up, and looked at them both confusedly, she rubbed her head. 

"Rogue, c'mon, get out, its time to go to bed," Kitty stated.

"Leave me," Rogue muttered and closed her eyes again, intending on sleeping where she was, the want to move right now was too much, still drunk, weak, and light headed, she would rather not move.

Kitty sighed, "great…"

"Go on ahead," Remy sighed, "I'll get her out somehow…"

"Fine, I've done enough worrying for one night," Kitty said, exasperated.  "I'm not hanging around anymore waiting for trouble," she added.  "Sooner or later someone's gonna catch her, and I'm not gonna wait with her to take half the blame," she added, and stomped off, she was quite angry with Rogue by now, she glanced at her watch, seeing it was almost two am by now.  "I'm going to bed," she stated, and headed off, disappearing out of the garage.

Remy reached over to pick Rogue up, Rogue stirred, and looked at him, she frowned a little, "leave me alone," she warned, and closed her eyes again.

            "Rogue, we need to get out of here before we get caught!" Remy hissed at her, "let me help you out…" Remy reached his hand out to her.

            Rogue shot an expression at him, her gaze like venom, he almost felt the sting.  "Get away," she struggled away from him, "I don't want your help," Rogue tried to climb out backwards, and  tumbled out of the van trying, she landed on the concrete floor of the garage, banging the back of her head against it.  "Ow…"

            Remy tried not to laugh, knowing it wasn't funny, but she seemed terribly pathetic, "are you okay?" he knelt down beside her.

            Rogue held her head, "ow…" she mumbled.

            "Here," Remy grabbed a hold of her arms and pulled her up very slowly, he got her into a standing up position, she stumbled and fell again, this time right on her backside.

            Remy swallowed his laugh, "c'mon, Chere, pull yourself together before someone sees you, eh?" he yanked her back up, she tried to pull her gloved hands away from his in the process as he got her up.

            "I'm tired…" she mumbled wearily, she seemed to collapse on him, flinging one arm over his left shoulder, her face pressed against his chest.

            "I know, Chere, I know…" he sighed.

            Rogue murmured, "tell me your secret…"

            Remy rolled his eyes, "please, give up…"

            "No…I want to know…" Rogue moved back from him, she staggered back a bit but caught her balance.

            Their eyes were on each other for several moments, yet, neither said anything, he found himself drowning in her dark green eyes for several moments, yet, he resisted.

            "I'm not getting into this argument with you, Chere," Remy looked at her, his intense eyes burning into hers.

            "Why not?!" Rogue demanded, "Why won't you tell me?!"

            "Now is not the time," Remy stated, he ran a hand through his dark brown hair in a frustrated fashion, he looked around absently, "listen to me," he pulled himself together and looked at her, "You're drunk – the only thing that you should be worrying about right now is getting your ass in bed before one of the team catch you out, smellin' of booze and staggering all over the place…" he pointed out.

            "Stop changing the damn subject!" Rogue raised her voice, her accent seemed to become thicker, and her words were slurred, "Tell me who you are!  Tell me why you're here!"

            "Rogue, you know who I am," Remy growled.

            "No I don't!" She yelled.

            "Sssh!" He warned.

            "Why am I even trying to talk to you?!" Rogue asked herself as she threw him another cold evil stare

            "Y'know, you're an ungrateful bitch!" Remy remarked, "I just saved your skin, you know, I could have left you girls there to walk home.  Out of the kindness of my heart I came!  And now that I've helped you, all you can worry about is what I'm not telling you!"

            "Oh well, whoopty-damn-doo, you picked us up, big fat hairy deal!" she gestured her hands wildly, "the only reason you came is so you could try and win my trust over – and it's not happening!"

"I don't need your trust!" Remy clenched his fists.

"Then what DO You need?!  Me to gush all over you now and call you 'my hero'?!" she demanded of him, she stepped closer, she was screaming the words right in his face.  He could smell the strong alcohol off of her breath.

            "No, but a thank you WOULD be nice, and it'd be nice if you'd be just a LITTLE patient with me, it'd make it easier on us both, Rogue."

            "Oh well, THANKYOU, my Unlikely Hero," she said in a sarcastic tone, she spun around and headed for the garage doors which were still hanging open, "Thank you for being a deceitful ass," she hissed in an icey tone, and then left, hopefully heading for her bedroom.

            Remy sighed and leaned against the van, he rubbed his forehead, beginning to realise that Rogue may never trust him.  Deep inside, he felt as if something was grabbing his heart and squeezing it, yet at the same time, he felt the heart in his chest sink with disappointment.  "Why must you make this so hard for me," he whispered to Rogue, who would never be able to hear him now, but he just didn't care.