Chapter 6:  Ultimatum

             Rogue opened a small first aid kit from under one of the chairs of the blackbird, she had Remy sitting on one of the chairs, "we have a sling…til you can get back to the mansion," she said, she slipped the plastic sling over his head and gently coaxed his injured arm into it.

"Ow…careful," he winced.

"Take it like a man," Rogue grimaced as she moved carefully, trying not to hurt him anymore.  She wanted to though, she wanted him to feel a little pain, especially after having let her think he was about to forget her and marry Bella Donna.

"You're mad at me, aren't you," Remy stated after a moment, he sucked a breath in, trying to deal with the pain.  He'd felt worse and tried to remind himself of this.

Remy touched her hair tenderly, making sure not to touch her skin, he smiled a little, feeling glad to be in the company of her – and NOT Bella Donna.

Rogue flinched back quickly, "No," she lied, she closed the first aid kit and put it back under the chair, clipping it in place with a small belt so it didn't slide around the floor.

"You're lying," Remy watched her, "You're mad at me because of yesterday."

Rogue was silent for a moment, then finally she stood up from where she'd been kneeling and walked to the controls of the jet, "did you sleep with her?"

"Huh?" Remy played dumb, he looked at her pretending to be heavily confused.

"Don't be a dick, Remy, just answer the fucking question," Rogue threw herself into her seat and pulled on a seatbelt.

"Why is it so important?" Remy looked at her.

"Because I sat in a fucking little dingy room all night thinking you had dumped me while you were only god knows where doing god knows what with that vicious bitch, that's why!" Rogue yelled at him.

Remy seemed taken aback.  "Chere, I had to."
             "You had to?!" Rogue snapped, "You had to stick your fucking—"

"I had to!" Remy repeated.  "You don't understand."

"I don't care what you say!  You didn't have to fucking sleep with her!" Rogue turned away from him.

Remy looked at her, "It was mechanical, Rogue, I didn't enjoy it, she did everything—"

"Did I SAY I wanted to hear the fucking details?!" Rogue shrieked at him.  "We could have found some other way to get out of there together, why did you have to go for THAT way."

"Because I needed some way to go ahead with my plan," Remy stated, he sighed deeply, "Look, Bella Donna always sleeps for like two hours after sex, I had to find a way to get her to sleep so that I could change the serum she was injecting us with – so when she was asleep, I used that time to sneak downstairs, and use water and a very tiny drop of blue food colouring to mimic the serum, I changed the serum, and it wore off.  Marcus injected both you and me with nothing more than blue water."

There was a strange silence, then Rogue began again.

"And that's another thing," Rogue turned back to him, her eyes were flickering with extreme anger, "You didn't even fucking TELL me what you had in mind!" she yelled at him, "I had no clue what was going on!!  You're supposed to confide in your team mates as part of the X-Men!"

"Chere!  I only thought of the plan that minute!" Remy put his hand up in self defence, "when Bella Donna woke us up and told us what was in store for us, it came to me, I couldn't exactly tell you while she was there, I had to act fast to get us out of there…" He frowned.

"I just find it awfully convenient that you manage to find a way to get us out of there AND get yourself laid at the same time!" Rogue folded her arms stubbornly.

"Chere, if I WANTED to get laid, I could have had you last night there and then, when your powers weren't preventing us from touching.  I'm not exactly proud of having to sleep with Bella Donna – yet again – to get what I wanted.  Believe me, she is the fuckin' lousiest lay in the Big Easy, I swear.  She's rough, and clumsy," Remy stated.

Rogue looked away from him again, "I don't want to know!"

Remy looked at her, "You're jealous?" He asked.

"Of course I'm fucking jealous, look at her!!  She's blonde, blue eyed, tanned and tall, she has a killer body, and she got to fuck you!" Rogue hissed, "she kissed you then and there in front of me, while only the night before I'd been wishin' that you would have kissed me in the way you kissed with her!!"

"Oh…" Remy looked away sheepishly.

"Jesus, every time I think we're gonna be alright something bad happens, or you do something extremely fucked up that makes me hate you!"  Rogue yanked off her seatbelt, got up and wandered to the back of the jet, the auto pilot still keeping them in the air.

"You don't hate me," Remy stated.

"Alright, I don't hate you," Rogue turned her back on him, "But I'm seriously beginning to wonder whether me and you BELONG together," she hugged herself.

"Of course we do," He stood up and went over to where she stood, "If we weren't meant to be together why do we feel so strong?" He asked, "if we weren't meant to be together why did we escape if we weren't going to be with each other."

"I don't know!" Rogue turned to him, tears trickled from her eyes.  "God, why is it every time you come into my life again everything gets worse than it was!!  You tried to kill me, you lied to me, made me fall in love with you, go off for stretches at a time, and then to top it off, you SLEEP with the girl you swear you don't love!" Rogue wanted to slap him so bad for having done this, but her bare hands wouldn't allow her this luxury.

"Chere…" Remy reached for her.

"Fuck off!" Rogue pulled away.

Remy stood, he looked down at the floor for a moment, another awkward silence filled the jet.  He tried to explain himself finally.

"Chere, I know I've fucked up, again, and again…but I did what I did because I was scared…I really did believe she would have killed you, I know her, she's not one for mercy."

"Excuses!! Nothing but excuses!" Rogue screamed at him.

"You're the only one I love!  Why can't you believe that?!" he demanded, "God, I can't be perfect!!  I'm trying!! I really am!!! I Can't change over night, and YES, I might make some really fucking STUPID decisions, but over all I'm genuine about how I feel for you!!!" he yelled back at her.

Rogue frowned, "You and me are just never gonna work!" she yelled at him.

"I can't believe you're making such a big fucking deal about this!" He walked away from her, "God, I try to do right by you and get nothing but complaint, nothing ever makes you happy!!" he yelled.

Rogue folded her arms, "You used to!  Until you slept with Bella Donna!!"

"I told you, I HAD to!" Remy yelled at her, "do you wanna see how it was in my mind!?"

"I don't EVER wanna see inside your head again, Remy LeBeau!" Rogue turned away from him again, she wiped the tears from her face, "we are…we are so through."

Remy looked at her, "whatever."

"What do you MEAN whatever?!" she demanded of him, spinning back around to face him.

"I mean that you're saying you don't want anything to do with me now, but in a few weeks – or months – we'll be back where we were, and you won't be able to keep your eyes off me."

Rogue wanted to yell at him, but the absurdity of his comment made her laugh, "Oh my god, you are SO full of yourself!" she muffled her laugh into her hand.

Remy smirked, "Oh come on, you know when I wear tight leather pants you can't keep your eyes off my ass…"

Rogue wiped the last of the tears from her eyes, "you ARE an ass…" she said, but smiled a little.

Remy looked at her, "Yeah…I know, I always have been," he shrugged, "But…you either take me the way I am, or…you don't," he looked at her.

"Remy…I really do not think this is gonna work out," Rogue sighed, she sat down on the nearest seat.

"Chere…please…we've come this far, we can BEAT this thing…" Remy sighed, "I feel like we've had this argument a thousand times…I know its considerably less…but, we've become this 'will they – won't they' couple who never get to be together for real…and…I don't wanna be like that…"

Rogue stared into space.  "The thing is, you slept with someone this time, which I think is technically cheatin' on me if you think we're 'a couple'," she said, "but…I'm always going to be wondering if it'll happen again, would you sleep with some other girl in what you call self defence or for some stupid plan, or just for fun…because you can't sleep with me."

Remy looked at her, his hand was in his pocket.

"Remy…lets just…forget about…us…"

"Chere, no…" Remy looked firm and angry, "We've come too far to go back on it all."

"Remy, we can do FINE as friends, and if things as friends go well, maybe in a year or two, when we've grown up a bit…then maybe then we can think about bein' together?"

Remy looked away, "I would have died for you back there…and now you're makin' me feel like my death would have been for nothin' if I had," He cradled his hurt arm again.  "If you want nothing from me but friendship then that's all I'll offer," he looked at her, "But lemme just say now I'm not gonna wait a year or two…so if you don't take me now…you don't take me at all…" he frowned.

Rogue looked at him.  The ultimatum made her feel cold all over, it was a hard decision to make, "You want me to decide at this very minute?!" she demanded.

"Yes.  So make the decision, take me now, we be together and somehow make it work, you don't take me, and we go to being friends and you never get another chance with me, ever…" he looked at her, "because I'm not the kind of guy who's going to be dumped and following you around like a puppy dog waiting for the next little ounce of affection you might feel like applyin' in boredom."

"It wouldn't be like that," Rogue commented.

"Then make the decision," Remy frowned.

Rogue sighed, "Remy…we can't be together right now."
             "Then we can't be together at all," Remy took something out of his pocket and handed it to her, "Here…" he said.

Rogue looked down at 80ml bottle full of a bluish liquid, "what's this."

"That's the serum…y'know, to take away your powers," he shrugged, "don't tell Xavier I gave you that," he dropped himself into the pilots seat.  "Enjoy."

Rogue felt a horrible sensation in herself as if her heart had just dropped into her stomach, and she looked at the bottle, and one final tear left her eye.  Remy's final word seemed to echo in her head.  "Enjoy."

The end…or is it???