Ah was beginnin' ta think o' th' girl like a bad habit. Hard ta shake. Although Ah wasn't about ta decide one way or th' other 'bout her. Just kept my mouth shut an' my ears open. Quickest way ta learn.

Her hair was limp an' fell in her eyes when she tried ta look straight on at us. Even if it was pretty obvious that she really only cared about John. But she started back like she'd been hit when she caught sight of Graydon.

"What?" she asked weakly. "I didn't realize that..."

Ah reached out an' gave her a little pinch. She flinched, but snapped her mouth shut.

Curiosity was a persistent burn inside me. Ah wondered how she knew we were here. How she'd gotten th' money for our bail in th' first place. Why she was doin' all that she was. Ah could feel th' questions pilin' up in my closed mouth. Ah sealed my lips tight ta keep 'em from pourin' out.

Anne blinked slowly. "The FOH is willing to believe that this was all some horrible misunderstanding. They'll drop the charges as long as you'll consent to be interviewed."

Graydon tugged at my sleeve, low, where Anne couldn't see. Ah looked at him an' he mouthed 'no.'

"What happens if we don't play nice wit' others?" Remy asked softly an' distinctly. No one has an attitude in quite th' same way he does. Gets under everyone's skin like a damn splinter. Gets under mine sometimes, but right then Ah was grateful for his cool head an' his uncanny ability ta piss people off.

"You'd better just come with me," Anne said, not soundin' at all sure of herself.

We all exchanged looks, but what else was there ta do, really? Ah saw that Remy was tiltin' his head so that his eyes were shadowed from her. If she'd bothered ta look at all. Th' girl's perpetual condition seemed ta be 'rattled.'

"I'll explain everything later. I promise," Anne added hastily.

"Mon chu (my ass)," Remy mumbled.

We followed her into th' street. She'd slipped her hand into th' crook o' John's arm an' he looked ta me like he was doin' his best not ta notice. His shoulders were rigid an' when he turned ta look at her, Ah could see how tightly his teeth were clamped together. Couldn't blame him, really. If it'd been me, Ah'm not sure Ah could've kept from screamin'. She was such an odd little thing. Uncomfortable. Bein' around her too much gave me th' cold chills.

Once we were a good distance from th' police station, she whirled on Graydon, eyes blazin'. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. Her thin fingers twisted into John's arm an' he grimaced.

"It wasn't my choice," Graydon explained calmly. "They brought me out."

"Do you know what you've done?" she asked, her voice risin' shrilly. "The house is gone, Graydon Creed."

"Gone?" he echoed dully. In an instant, all th' life drained outta his face. It's still hard for me ta think about it, but that horrible place had been Graydon's home.

"It needed you. How could you leave?"

"I didn't want to. But I had to let them go." He ran his eyes over each of us. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't bring the house back! We thought you understood that the organization can't survive without you, even for a moment. I don't know what we'll do, now that the house is gone." Her lower lip trembled.

Remy rolled his eyes, but only a little. "Sure you'll think of somet'ing," he offered insincerely.

Anne raised her free hand an' brushed Graydon's cheek with her fingertips. He closed his eyes. "You should come back with me, okay?" she asked gently. Anxious, Ah drew Graydon from her reach. Ah couldn't say for sure what Ah was doin', but Ah didn't like her touchin' him. Her hands looked clammy an' cold an' pale, like somethin' grown underground. After that, her eyes got real narrow an' she looked at me.

"Stop it!" Kitty insisted, steppin' between us. "I'm not really sure what's going on here, but I don't really care either." She closed her eyes and sucked in a sharp breath. "Right now I'm tired and dirty and hot and can we just go home?"

"She's got a point," John said, wormin' his way out of Anne's grasp an' puttin' a friendly arm around Kitty's shoulders. "It'll be a lot easier ta get everything sorted in the morning. After we've had a chance ta sleep."

Kitty's eyes got real round. "You're agreeing with me?"

"And what's wrong with that, then?"

"Not much, except I figure it's got to be one of the signs of the apocalypse."

John dropped his arm.

* * *

Woke up from a dead sleep t' find Rogue's side of de bed empty and de soft tumble of voices coming from de living room. Sunlight spilled across de sheets and so I figured it had t' be 10 at least. Swung my legs over de side. It'd felt good t' be able t' sleep so long. Wit' all dat happened, it felt like I hadn't slept in a week when, in reality, it'd only taken a day and a half for everyt'ing t' happen.

Sat up straighter and winced. Felt like my whole body was one tender bruise. Mebbe Rogue should kiss it t' make it better. Smiled.

I stood stiffly and made my way t' de bedroom door. A quick glance showed me dat Anne and Kitty were still asleep. Kitty had curled on de loveseat, but in de night she'd gotten unwound. One leg was thrown over de overstuffed arm, de other splayed across de coffee table. Her heel rested in de middle of an old copy of de Weekly World News.

Rogue and Graydon were in de kitchen. Talking. Tamped down de feelings dat rose inside me before I could quite tell what dey were. De two were so absorbed in conversation dat dey didn't hear me coming.

"It just seems impossible," Rogue was saying. "Neither one of 'em are stupid 'bout stuff like that."

Graydon shrugged. "But I didn't want them to know. Why would I?" A pause. "Think of it as being layered. And if you work hard enough, you can switch the order of the layers and bury things you don't want people to find."

Rogue opened de refrigerator and pulled out de carton of grapefruit juice. She poured a glass for Graydon and one for herself. Downed it in one gulp. "Ah wouldn't even begin ta know how ta do that."

"I bet I could teach you."

"Really?" she asked breathlessly. "Would ya?"

Graydon and I stepped forward at de same time. Rogue's eyes settled on me.

"Remy!" she exclaimed happily in a way dat made one of de tight knots in my chest come untied.

"Shh," I cautioned her, jerking my thumb back toward de living room. Couldn't keep from smiling though.

She laughed quietly and hugged me tightly before planting a kiss on my cheek. Instantly hated myself for those t'oughts from before. For de way dat jealousy sometimes got a stranglehold on my better instincts.

"Morning," I said, propping my chin in her hair. She was warm and smelled like de honey scented shower gel I'd given her for her birthday.

"Ah made coffee," she said, her voice muffled by de fact dat her lips were resting close t' my chest.

"Ca c'est bon (that's good)," I told her gratefully. Rogue's specialty was coffee. Somet'ing she'd picked up from Alistar at Ben's. It was good and rich. Dark as midnight. Smelled like heaven.

"Here." Wit'out untangling herself from me, she shuffled us t' de counter, and arranged my coffee one-handed. She knew how I liked it by now -- splash of milk, no sugar. I knew dat she didn't really like coffee, but she'd learned how t' make it because she felt guilty dat I was de one t' do cooking all de time. I knew dat when she did drink it, it was wit' at least a third milk and enough sugar t' send a normal person into insulin shock.

"I think I'll go see if the others are up yet," Graydon said. Tell de truth, I'd forgotten all about him.

"Okay," Rogue agreed. She smoothed her hand down my arm and suddenly coffee didn't seem so important anymore. Looked down t' find her squinting intently into my face.

"What?" I rubbed my free hand over my hair.

"Somethin's wrong."

"Not'ing's wrong."

"Uh uh. Don't ya even try ta lie ta me, Msr. Remy LeBeau. What is it?"

Figured I might as well come clean. "It's Graydon," I admitted quickly. "Can't help it, chére. I know it's crazy, but dere's somet'ing dat..." Cut off because damn it if she wasn't laughing.

"Oh, Remy," she gasped between chuckles. "Ya don't even know." Scowled at her. She calmed down enough t' offer me a brilliant smile dat made my heart beat a little faster. "Don't be like that."

"Like what?"

She squeezed my waist. "Like that. Remy, Graydon's...well, he's my brother in a way. Same as Kurt."

"Comment (what)?"

"He's Mystique's son. Her's an' Sabretooth's. They figured any son o' theirs would have ta be a mutant an' a pretty powerful one too."

"Graydon is a mutant," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but they don't know that. Graydon hid his mutation from 'em." She looked thoughtful and sad. "All they did ta try an' bring out his powers so they could use 'em...it wasn't like they cared 'bout him at all."

Even though I knew it was wrong t' feel relief at dat time, I still couldn't help it. "I'm sorry, chére."

She shook her head, den tilted her head into de crook of my neck. "So'm Ah."

An amused snort brought me out of de daze I'd lulled into. "Ya never stop."

Rolled my head in John's direction and gave him de most malevolent look I could manage. "Mmm."

"What d'ya say to a bit of breakfast? Or is it lunch?"

"Dis an offer or an order?"

"Little of both, actually."

"Why don't y' get Kitty t' help instead?"

"I would, but th' girl's having herself a bit of a lie-in."

"Hey!" Kitty exclaimed from de living room. She burst into de kitchen breathlessly. "When did you get up?" she demanded.

"I stand corrected, love," John replied mildly. "And I could use a hand since Remy's determined ta be useless."

Caught off balance, all Kitty said was, "Oh."

Guided Rogue t'rough de living room and it was fairly amazing how much de bedroom door cut out most of de sounds from de rest of de apartment.

* * *

Lucky 439: You're always the first to review! And always with such enthusiasm! It warms my black little heart.

Lace123: Admittedly, I'm...tinkering...with Graydon's character by giving him powers. But, hey, it's not like Marvel's given him loads of backstory or nothin'. And Anne posting bail on behalf of the FOH? Dun dun duuun.

ishandahalf: I was pseudo-crippled by a girl on the Metro over the weekend (kicked me in the shin and then stomped on my instep...gah) and thought immediately of the falling down and running into things club. And then I thought of a supremely funny book I read recently called, "The Idiot Girl's Action Adventure Club". And then I laughed like a monkey being hit with the crazy stick. Good stuff. I am really going to the Norwegian fjords. And Stockholm. And Helsinki. All in two weeks. All starting Friday. Eep. I should probably be packing right now.

Panther Nesmith: Sooo much of what I know about Marvel is through study. Because, really, no matter when you started getting into the Marvel-verse there's bound to be backstory. And Marvel (to my knowledge) hasn't done anything along the lines of DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths to reset their continuity and backstories. Sigh. Also, I should stick to rewritable CDs I think. Booo floppies.

Jean1: ITA about Graydon! Being raised (in part) with Rogue and yet turning out so differently would have been a fascinating kind of parallel. I'm sad that they didn't do much but make him into a zealot. Because even zealots can be multifaceted.

Christy S: More Remy jealousy! But I couldn't let the poor guy twist in the wind. And someone had to set him straight. I want to do lots with Graydon too. We'll just have to see how long he wants to stick around. He's squirrelly.

Susanna de Silva: I sometimes find that I'm more excited if I miss loads of chapters, just because reading everything as one continuous strand is fun. Hi to Ryoko! Jealousy is so interesting, because it's so irrational. I like Remy to be slightly irrational sometimes. Because he's usually Mr. I've-got-everything-totally-under-control.