Chapter 5: Suspicions
Rogue and Remy turned towards the stairway, seeing Hank McCoy standing there, looking distressed, and tired, wearing pyjama bottoms, his hair ruffled.
"Hank, we didn't do it…" Rogue leaned against Remy's chair for support, feeling drained by the whole situation, "why the hell would we WANT to break into the research centre and mess up the labs?" she demanded, "or STEAL anything?" Rogue demanded, she sounded incredibly angry that Moira had even blamed them without giving them a chance to explain.
"I do not have the answer to that, and I am not blaming either of you for this," Hank stated, "Moira might be, but she is just angry, a lot of work has been destroyed, and a lot of expensive chemicals and equipment have also been stolen," Hank explained.
"She jumped right on our backs though!!! WE didn't do ANYTHING!! We rushed down there hearing the alarms and when we noticed the alarms coming from the lab area we headed down that way!" Rogue was yelling.
"And destroyed the locked doors?" Hank queried.
"Yes, that I'll admit, okay so you got me for destruction of property," Rogue gave in, "But the lab was like that when we got there!"
"Chere, calm down," Remy stood up, he walked over to Hank, "Dr McCoy, it was I who blew the doors up, Rogue didn't have the power to do that, you know that," he explained, "you can discipline me with blowin' the doors, but leave Rogue out of it," Remy stated bravely.
"Where were you two?" Hank asked again, absent-mindedly already forgetting pieces of the story he'd been told, he'd received some yelling from Moira, he had a hard time concentrating on everything going on around him at that particular moment in time.
"Me and Rogue were down at the beach…"
"What were you doing down at the beach after curfew," Hank looked at Remy, his eyes squinting in suspicion.
"Hold on, you're starting to suspect him too, now?" Rogue demanded worriedly, "I was with him the whole time!" She tried to defend Remy.
"Chere, please, hold your tongue," Remy looked at her sternly, he then turned to Hank, eager to explain himself, "Dr MacTaggert got pissed at me around ten pm when I accidentally set off a smoke alarm in my room when I was having a cigarette," He explained, "she gave me some shit about this being a new building and not wanting nicotine on the ceilings, and told me if I wanted to smoke, I had to go outside."
Rogue was about to speak again, but Remy interrupted.
"I was down at the beach taking a walk while I was havin' a smoke," he explained, "pure and simple. And I am almost twenty-years old, for Christ's sake, I don't HAVE a curfew," he reminded, "would you like to check my breath for the smell of cigarettes?" Remy asked impudently.
"No, thank you," Hank put up his hand in his defence, "please do not come off with a bad attitude at me, Mr LeBeau, I must remind you that I'm trying to gather all the facts here so I can prove your innocence…the fact is that even though you only just arrived moments before myself and Moira did, it seems that the damage was done before any of us arrived, it looks like the rats sent off motion detectors near the floor of the laboratory. These are questions I must ask to make sure you are not to blame…"
"Fair 'nough," Remy snorted.
"Rogue…why were you with him?" Hank looked at her, "You have a curfew of eleven, and I know you don't smoke…" Hank said confidently, "so I do not need to see why you would be there with him."
Rogue looked at Hank, then to Remy, back to Hank, and then away in space, she searched her thoughts for an answer, how was she going to explain she snuck out to see Remy? Without getting herself in to trouble for breaking curfew, or worse, raising suspicions that she and Remy might be romantically involved and doing things that they should not be doing. The first was true, of course, but the second? Only partly perhaps.
Still, the answer did not come easily.
"I told her to come…" Remy lied, and rather excellently he did as well, "had things to tell her about why I joined the X-Men…she kept demanding to know, and I told her…"
Rogue looked at Remy, completely amazed how well he could lie. Of course, it didn't seem that Hank would know that Rogue had discovered the truth over a month ago – Hank was not even aware of the whole story of how Rogue had absorbed Miss Marvel's powers totally, only Professor Xavier might have known that, and Professor Xavier had not even indicated total awareness that Remy had told her everything about that night.
"So you went to see a nineteen-year-old – after dark - in skimpy nightclothes…" Hank gestured to Rogue, who – still wearing Remy LeBeau's long leather trenchcoat which was hanging open – could be seen wearing shorts and a tight tank top. "You must understand how suspicious this is sounding to me – is there something going on here that I don't know about?"
"I didn't think to change, I didn't know how cold it gets in Scotland at night…it was warm in the room, I got a note from Remy under my door just after I had changed, told me to go to him at midnight on the beach," Rogue looked at him, building the lie up, Remy looked at her desperately as if to tell her not to speak anymore.
"The reason she had my coat on is because I thought she seemed a little exposed," Remy tried to quickly take Hank's attention off of the lie about the note.
"So there is a note?" Hank asked hopefully, anything that might have proven where Rogue and Remy had been might have seemed extremely useful. He was no detective but he knew what to look for in an alibi for most situations.
"Uhm…no…" Rogue clenched her teeth, quickly trying to come up with an excuse, "I…threw it away…"
"Then it must still be in the garbage, I need to see it just to verify facts to hold you both innocent…" Hank stated wisely.
"You can't see it, Mon ami," Remy sighed, still trying to look for another lie, he quickly found one. "She was mad at me and threw it in the water…" he lied.
Hank looked as if he didn't believe a word of their story at all. "Rogue…Remy told you about his secrets a month ago…Professor Xavier saw it in your mind when you had your breakdown," Hank seemed very upset.
Rogue gaped, she couldn't believe it, their only real alibi to keep them from being blamed for something they didn't do anyway, was shot.
Rogue drew her breath, and glanced at Remy, "I…uh…"
Remy looked at Rogue, wondering what they were going to do now.
Rogue moved over to Remy and put her arm around him in a very confident way as if it were something she always did, "Fine, I'll admit it, I went to see Remy 'cause we've been seein' each other…" she gripped Remy's side and squeezed, so that he'd respond promptly to her words.
Remy nodded quickly, and put his arm around her, "Yes, we're sorry Mon ami, it was a sneaky thing to do but…" he felt Rogue squeeze his side again, and he quickly came up with a reply, "but we knew that you would not agree with this seeing as I am much older than she is…but…we could not help it…" he tried to explain, "We have very strong feelings about each other, and could not fight the need to see each other…" Remy laid it on thick, sounding genuine – it made Rogue wonder if he was just a very good liar, or very good at being honest.
Rogue felt herself tense up wondering how Hank would receive this story, would he know it was a lie? Or perhaps would he believe it? Rogue looked at Remy, knowing he was thinking the exact same thing she was, and that also, that they both understood – whether Rogue would ever want to admit it or not – their story was partly the truth.
Hank sighed, "I'm disappointed in you both, you should know better than to be getting involved…" he looked at them sternly. "I'll be informing the Professor of this little relationship – and he'll deal with it as he sees fit," Hank warned, "In the meantime, I don't want you hanging around each other alone anymore," He sighed. "And as for the situation with the laboratory, I guess this confirms that you are both innocent…I don't see any noticeable proof that either of you could either be responsible…"
Rogue felt relief pulse through her.
"Tomorrow you'll both still help us clean up – since you did destroy the doors," Hank stated, "in the meantime…you'll go to bed – separately I might add," he added.
Rogue and Remy walked a distance apart to their rooms, Hank behind them both, he made sure they went to their rooms without saying anything else to each other, and stuck around the hallway for a good while to make sure neither snuck into the others room.
Rogue could hear Hank pacing outside in the hallway, she sat on her bed, still wearing Remy's trench coat, and waited for Hank to leave so she could go to speak with Remy, but it seemed Hank wasn't intending to leave any time soon. She took off Remy's coat, taking the cards out of his pocket, she shuffled them absently, waiting for Hank to go away so she could quickly go and clear things up with Remy – make sure that he was aware that there was no relationship between them.
But Hank did not go, and Rogue spent the night waiting, trying to figure out how she would speak with Remy and clear things up.
