Disclaimer: The x-men don't belong to me, they're Marvel's property.

Author's Note: Oookay...I know I know. All of you are really really mad at me. But pleeease don't be angry cuz I had so much stuff that made it difficult for me to write. First I was on vacation for two months, then when I came home I moved, and then some other big personal problem came up. I don't wish to go into detail. I just want to thank you all for still reading this fic. Important: I already knew what I was going to do next in the upcoming chapters, but still I asked for your opinions to check what you guys were hoping to read next. There are a lot more chapters to come, so don't get disappointed with anything that went against your expectation. Now Read! :)

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Waited for so long

by Samman

Part VI

*She controlled her powers she controlled her powers she controlled her powers she controlled her powers she controlled her powers* Once again, the world collapsed around Remy after Jean enlightened him with another startling discovery about Rogue's mutation, which could only have been one thing, her control over it.

Just like for the past few hours it had been numb, Remy's mind refuse to react to the situation, he felt empty, hollow but at the same time, images of Rogue sprawled on the bathroom floor, the dark red blood, Storm's scream…All those clips repeatedly flashed in his mind. It seemed like a thousand pieces of a puzzle game had broken down and were haphazardly flowing into air with speed. Everything seemed to have stopped working in Remy's mind after Jean announced those words…She controlled her powers.

"Remy…" Jean started but words couldn't come out of her mouth. Seeing Remy in the bizarre situation, it was becoming harder for her to speak, she didn't know how to start talking, she couldn't proceed.

A frown appeared on Professor Xavier's forehead that he rested his chin on his clasped hands. He cleared his throat and looked at a falling x-man who sat across him with his hands buried in his head.

"Remy?" Professor asked in a stern voice but no answer from him.

"Remy, I do not know what you are going through right now, but I can understand. Since no one here knows the exact cause of the situation, I believe that we will have to think through it and discuss what might have caused Rogue such…harm." Although the professor spoke in a low voice, it was unstable and it looked that he was…afraid of something. There was no doubt about him being scared of the fact for what was going to happen next, either it was with Rogue or Gambit.

The room was filled with pin drop silence even though, Bobby, Jubilee, Storm, Scott, Jean, all were present along with Remy and Professor. Taking an audible deep breath, Remy looked up and ran his hand roughly through his short auburn hair.

"Are dere any more surprises left for me? Anyt'ing else?" The sarcasm in his voice was quick and sharp. "I'm jus' makin' sure so dat I'll know beforehand. Like Scott said, dere's more dan to it den we already know." He peered at Jean.

Jean arched her eyebrows and licked her lips before speaking. "Remy, you need to listen t--"

"Listen?! What is dere t' listen?!" He threw his hands up in the air. "Dere's nothin' t' talk 'bout 'cept dat Rogue's life is hangin' in mid air an' nobody knows dat if she's gonna be able to live anot'er second or not!" His voice roared in the silenced room. Panicked glances were exchanged among the x-men who were all scattered around the room.

"Calm down Remy." This time, Professor ordered Remy to stop what he was doing.

Remy's head sharply snapped in the direction where the Professor hovered in his wheelchair. His red on black eyes met with the Professor's brown ones. "I can't believe dat y' can possibly ask me t' calm down in dis situation Prof." Minutes were passing and tolerance was getting out of Remy's limits.

Scott stood with his back against the opposite wall. His body remained still and his eyes scanned everyone in the room. Storm stood quietly beside him with her hands folded in front of her. Jubilee leaned on Bobby who was unbelievingly quiet. When it came to Rogue, Bobby was not the one to sit and listen quietly, Scott thought. The dreadful and tragic accident had scared Bobby more than anything.

Professor took a deep breath. "Yelling and panicking will not solve your problem though." He looked down in his lap.

Remy didn't care and cursed obscenities to the Professor in his mind knowing that the Professor would be hearing them all. Sighing frustratingly, he pressed his lips tightly and ignored the Professor. "'kay."

"Rogue controlled her powers? Or lost dem? Y' might wanna be a bit more clear Jean so dat we'd fully understand what caused 'er t' get hurt so badly." His voice was criticizing, cold and bitter.

"She controlled them." Jean said through gritted teeth as she looked firmly at Remy.

Before Remy could speak, Scott broke in. "I knew something was wrong Jean. I knew it." Slight traces of a scowl appeared on his forehead. Scott looked at Jean showing no signs of sympathy for her because of his care and concern of the falling team-mate and friend.

"Scott? What do you mean by that? Are you accusing me of something?" Jean asked defensively.

"I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm just mentioning you about your strange behavior this morning. When were you planning to tell us this?" Scott asked.

"What do you mean by I was planning to tell you this? Rogue is the one who controlled her powers and she was supposed to tell you this." She shut her mouth and looked in Storm's direction who stood extremely quiet the whole time period. "And it was supposed to be a sur-umm..surprise." Now that she had said the word, she regretted it. But she had to say it in front of Remy anyway to find out the truth.

Remy's ears perked up and his eyes shot at her. "Surprise?" He snickered. "What kind of surprise is dat? She told you an' it was supposed t' be a surprise?"

Jean looked down in her lap and squint her eyes. She was getting sick of this. Tears escaped from the corner of her eyes and she wiped them away quickly before she'd create a scene.

"Rogue told me because she wanted to resolve matters with y--you first. She was so excited to tell you the news…but considering that you guys didn't have a stable relationship after the whole Antarctica deal, Rogue thought it would better if she told you afterwards and first made amends."

"She said that whoever she saw first except you, she'd tell them about controlling her powers and so she did. Right after Rogue told me the news, she said she was going to see you." Jean's voice was loud in the room and she found herself getting nervous so she paused to take a breath.

"She…she was going to come to talk to you in the afternoon…but things didn't turn out as they were supposed to…" Jean grabbed a tissue paper from the side table of the couch to wipe away the tears from her flushed face.

"Goddess." Storm whispered as she clasped a hand over her mouth. She didn't know whether it was because of the fact that things went worse with Rogue or if it was that she was thinking of regaining her relationship with Remy...Oh goddess…Rogue didn't know Remy and I are…Storm thought how selfish she was being. But what was reality? Was she and Remy in love? Or maybe there wasn't even anything between them at all? This is becoming worse than I thought.

Meanwhile, Bobby looked at Ororo doubtfully at the corner of his eye.

"Dieu.." Remy's heart throbbed wildly in his chest. He took shaking deep breath. Rogue was going to come and see him… because…she had controlled her powers…? And what had he been doing? Making out with Ororo? All these questions came to his mind, but now was not the time to think about relationships, what was necessary right now was Rogue's health.

"But why—why didn' she come up t' me…?" Remy asked knowing that he was in his room with Ororo when Rogue must have come up to break the news to him. And the only reason…she wouldn't have come to him would be because…Rogue…must have seen him with Ororo? Oh no, oh no, dat can' be possible…

"I don't know, you tell me." Jean said folding her hands across her chest and glancing at Ororo once in a while. Instead, Ororo looked at Jean quietly.

"So I take it dat Professor knew 'bout dis too? 'Bout Rogue controlling her powers an' all?" Remy said ignoring Jean's question and answer at the same time.

"Obviously Remy." Storm who had been quiet all the time, spoke up. She said in a tone that seemed quite unfriendly. May be it was the depression and stress that was taking over her.

All eyes shot up to her. Remy glanced at her and bowed his head down. "Don' need to get all riled up 'bout it 'Ro." He said slowly. "I know y' worried as much as I am."

Yeah right…Jean said sarcastically in her mind. But then it came to her, she felt a rush of guiltiness flow throw her. Things were so confusing but if Jean did not tell the x-men what she was going to tell them, she would not be able to forgive herself for the big mistake she would do. And Jean promised that she would reveal the big secret either to Professor or someone else who would take the situation single handedly. But right now there were more important things to take care of…

Ororo licked her lips and nodded slightly to Remy. Her voice was not as steady as it used to be in usual circumstances. Obviously, a member of the team was down and the team was under constant pressure since afternoon. Still, there was a possibility of something else going on in Ororo's world considering her current state that the others did not take notice of…except some of them.

"I am not getting mad at you Remy, I was just telling you that of course Professor would know about Rogue's control over her powers because he is the one who has been helping her with powers for a long time, how wouldn't he know?" Ororo said and walked over to Remy, she rested herself on the arm rest of the couch where he was sitting.

"So you need to calm yourself down. We all are worried about Rogue, it's going to be alright." Ororo massaged Remy's shoulder blade slightly, a small gesture of comfort.

Remy looked up at her and gazed at her. The action caused Ororo to back up a little bit. "Why are you indirectly sayin' dat I'm blamin' de professor?"

"Remyyy…I did not…" Ororo retreated but was cut off by Scott.

"Guys, guys, let's not start blaming everyone else. Storm, I don't think sticking up for Professor is necessary right now because as I said before no one is blaming anyone for what happened to Rogue. And Gambit…you uhh..I don't know what to say." A very aggravated x-men leader looked towards Professor who shook his head, feeling responsible for the misbehavior his x-men were showing such a difficult time. The problem was, he could not blame anyone.

Stickin' up for de Prof eh? Remy thought in his mind thinking how stupid certain x-men were acting.

"X-men, why don't we narrow our problem down to the main point? How did Rogue get hurt? I do not have a clue, and I believe I will not be able to get one until we know about her current health state. As far as I know, Rogue had complete control over her powers and there was not a hint that she would loose them."

"She okay dere Drake?" Remy asked who had been looking at Jubilee trying desperately not to cry as Bobby held her. Being the youngest one in the mansion, she was a little soft at heart, and at situations like these, she was affected a lot by it.

Bobby tightly held Jubilee's hand as she fought back tears. She gulped over and over to not let a hiccup escape her lips. She had known Rogue for a long time now. Rogue was the one who used to take her for shopping; she was the one who played basket ball with her when no one was around, Rogue was the one who Jubilee always went to after being yelled at by Scott…All these years she had come to know the southern spitfire, Jubilee couldn't imagine life in the x-mansion without Rogue…but as unbelievable as it was, it was slowly making its way to reality.

"Yeah I'm—I'm fine." Jubilee said wiping of the tears that were about to flow from her pretty, deep black eyes. However Bobby gazed at one spot on the floor. He kept his position still, like a statue.

Sighing deeply, he glanced at everyone in the room. "It's just so scary and amazing at the same time that no one got to know about it. Not a single person even had an instinct to go up to her room and check what she was doing. Maybe, maybe I woulda gone up to her room cuz I usually do, but I was in the kitchen this time." Bobby gave a sympathetic smile as he continued to speak in a low raspy voice.

"I wish somebody was up there, Remy, Scott, Ororo...anyone but I guess it had to happen." Another short period of silence flowed through the room. He patted Jubilee on arm trying to reassure her that everything would be alright.

"I was downstairs and I didn't have a clue." Scott replied rubbing his eyes by reaching under his ruby lenses.

Jean looked at Ororo and back at Bobby. "Ororo and Remy were busy… actually." Jean's anger started to rise. Just because she knew about Rogue's control, why did everyone in the mansion think that she knew about the accident too? It made her angrier than she already was at Ororo for not letting anyone know her and Remy's big secret.

It was enough and Ororo could not take it anymore, she gave Jean an irritating, questioning look. "And what do you mean by that?"

Remy ignored Jean and thought about dealing with it later. Scott with the Professor beside him, Jubilee and Bobby cuddled up together, All of the x-men just sat there and watched the complicated game.

"I mean exactly what you think I mean by that. I'm sorry but I think you're not concerned about Rogue's health only, but also worried about some other things too." A straight-forward reply was thrown back at Ororo by Jean.

"Ladies ladies.." Scott and the Professor started but Jean held up a hand to stop them.

"Scott, it's not about what you think it's about, so try and listen to me for a second." Jean said.

Ororo held up her hands to her forehead and got up from her position to look at Jean properly who sat on Remy's other side. "Jean, what you have to tell to the people here is not one of the most important things in the world right now."

"To some people it may be." Replied Jean.

Remy looked up at Ororo, and took her hand in his. "Don' worry 'Ro--"

"Why not?! Why shouldn't I worry when Jean constantly keeps on accusing me of some top secrets I don't even know exist!" Ororo threw up her hands with her eyes wide and voice loud as she yelled.

Jean tilted her head and gave a visibly fake smile. "Oh so may be it was me who was standing outside the door of Professor's study when Rogue learnt control over her powers and said that she would tell everyone? Don't forget that I'm a telepath and I can read your minds very easily."

"I'm sorry to interrupt the discussion but I have something to tell you about the patient's--condition." Dr. Cecilia Reyes announced as she came through the sliding doors of the room. No one got a chance to react to the astonishing discovery Jean had made and Remy, Jubilee, Scott, Bobby and Jean walked out fast and followed Beast. Their heavy and rapid footsteps against the shiny tiled floor could be heard from far away.

As Bobby got up, he made his way up to Ororo who was preparing to leave. "I never expected that from you Ororo." He lowered his hand down to rub his stubble chin.

Ororo kept her water bottle down at the table and peered at him. "Bobby, first of all, I was not eavesdropping just to get the updates about Rogue's powers, I was never interested in them. Even if I was, you have no right to interfere because you have no idea of what's going on." She said frankly as she tightened the top of her bottle.

Surprised, Bobby looked at her awkwardly. "Oh yes I do know what's going on. You did eavesdrop on Rogue and you knew that she controlled her powers. But, you were scared. Scared as hell that now Rogue would go back to Remy and steal him from you, even though there was no sexual relationship between you two…I don't know about now though--*SNAP!*"

Bobby's face swung to his right side when Ororo's slim hand met his cheek with a tight force as she slapped him. Her breathing became heavy and her head hung. A reddish mark was already appearing on Bobby's clear skin.

Keeping a hand to his jaw, Bobby looked back at her with his teeth gritted but he calmed himself in a second to show Ororo that it did not affect him at all. "You know what, truth always tastes bitter." He took some steps back with his front facing Ororo and turned swiftly to go out of the room.

Now that he was gone, Ororo regretted what she had done…

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The doors slid in and Dr. Hank McCoy, the mansion's doctor, also known as Beast came out of the room while Cecilia Reyes said something to him—which was barely audible. They nodded and Cecilia Reyes went into the room. The x-men waited out with anticipated looks on their faces, their breath caught in their throats to find out about something they were very scared of.

Remy, Jubilee, Bobby, Scott and Jean stood all together, but spaced out evenly, ready to burst into the room where Rogue remained. However, unfortunately the room was dark except a few dim lights that were on. Also, the blinds in the examination window were drawn off so that no one could see anything. It was an edgy sight.

Ororo came running and stopped short beside everyone. Her eyes were red and eyelashes wet. Ororo's blue eyes looked like they had been rubbed tightly-or in other words, it seemed like she had been crying.

Professor, who hovered in his chair moved to the front, and stopped beside Beast to hear about the results. "Well? How did it go?" He said.

Beast took a deep breath and took off his thick, black framed spectacles. He rubbed his eyes for a minute and looked up to see everyone's faces covered with worried looks. "You'll be glad to hear that Rogue's living—for now."

Sighs of relief broke, Bobby shouted out with happiness and clutched Jubilee to him, even a small smile appeared on the corner of Scott's lips. They calmed down the moment Beast announced it.

Something about the way Beast had said it did not look right to Remy, Jean and Scott. They were still waiting to hear the next part. Beast was looking down, but still he had let them cheered, they had not concentrated on the last part which was 'for now'.

"Wait, you might want to hear something more important before I ruin this moment—I do not even know if Rogue's living is a good news or not…" Beast said. He looked at them as if he were apologizing, as if everything that happened to Rogue was his fault, as if saving Rogue was in his hands only—not God's.

"Rogue is in a critical, unstable condition because her brain was damaged tremendously from the injury on the head—which we confidently believe she got from falling to the bathroom floor-just like any other person would fall and get hurt. Since the injury was severe, Rogue suffered from a brain hemorrhage. It—it can be harmful because it has can cause…mental illness or paralysis-I do not know which is worse." His words came out of his mouth smoothly but slowly, making everyone tense by every second of it.

Beast paused to see the following x-men's reactions. It was hard for him to do this as Rogue was a team-mate and a friend. It took a lot of courage and pain but it was his job and he had to do it. The x-men just stared at him unbelievingly.

Professor kept his hand slightly over his eyes for a second. Taking the hand away, he looked back up at Beast. "When do you think she will wake up?"

"I am sorry I don't. When will she wake up, how long will it take to recover, a day or two, a month, six months, year, never..we can't say anything right now." Beast replied. Deep down Beast felt terrible for saying 'sorry' at everything they asked about Rogue, he felt as if his saying 'I'm sorry' at every minute was no big deal to him.

"Don't say dat!" Remy burst in but Ororo held back his hand.

[Let him go Ororo, we do not want to take any chances with any x-man at this crucial point. You know how aggressively they can react at situations like these.] Ororo got the message from Professor and she instantly let go of Remy's hand—which he had not yanked away as he must have done under different circumstances.

"We are all worried Remy-I cannot think of anything to say to you people except to pray to God that Rogue recovers soon." Beast turned to Professor Xavier. "As of right now, Dr. Cecilia Reyes has gone to call Professor Donovan McFarland-the mutant psychiatrist to ask him for some assistance regarding Rogue's mental ability. I believe it was necessary to do since you will be treating Rogue mainly with the functioning of her powers. Excuse me please."

With that, Beast left into the infirmary; a second later the doors slid open with Hank McCoy and Cecilia Reyes coming out of the room with Rogue in a stretcher. The x-men made room for them, some of them crying with surprise and some of them gasping out loud.

"Cyclops, we'll need you, come with us." Scott kept a hand on Jean's shoulders and moved over to Rogue's side at Professor's order. Seeing his most powerful in this condition, his eyes closed automatically and he looked at Jean sympathetically.

As they turned to the opposite side of the hall, everyone got a slight view of Rogue's form but Beast and Cecilia moved fast towards the end of the hall. "We are transferring her to the ICU Professor. You people will be allowed to see her after three hours, so please.." Cecilia said to Professor who signaled the x-men to remain in their places by bringing his hand up.

The x-men remained stunned and petrified in their places. It was obvious that every single one of them had controlled on to his or her actions as they took her away. Although, Remy whose temper was going fiercer by the minute, turned on his heals and was prepared to take off after them. Beast and Cecilia were half way through the hall.

"What de hell is wrong wit' you Professor?! You actually have de nerve to let 'em take Rogue 'way from us when she's breat'ing de last minutes o' her life?! What de f**k y' t'ink we were here for huh?!" Remy banged his fist against the wall and yelled some more obscenities at the departing x-men.

"Remy-stop! For goodness' sake, please stop it!" Ororo cried as she moved in front of him with Bobby following her. Jean stood with Jubilee and watched them. She was amazed at herself for not using her powers to stop Remy. This time, she put herself in Remy's shoes and thought how she would have reacted if it came to Scott.

Bobby held on Remy's arm and stared at him. "Please Gambit."

Although Remy had already dropped dead in his tracks, he finally stopped yelling without much trouble. Seeing his team-mate's actions and pathetic condition, Bobby took his hand away. He was not in the mood for a fight right now, especially a physical one.

Ororo intensely looked into Remy's eyes and bringing her hand at his back, she pressed him against her who willingly did so. Bobby backed up and went to Jean who stood against the wall with a hand over her eyes. She sobbed quietly and this time, Jubilee was at her side.

For now, there was nothing else to be done so Bobby too leaned against the wall and hoped for the best. It's gonna be alright Rogue.

To be Continued…

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A/N: I hope it didn't get too depressing and boring, but I had to make it like that so you'd clearly understand—the next chapter wil cover some of the issues that you've all been waiting for including how Rogue lost her powers, so keep on reading! Please Review. You don't know how much it means to me when you guys leave comments whether they're good or bad. I'm having so much fun writing this fic. Why wouldn't I? When the readers are interested, how would I not love writing these fics? Well Stick around to ff.net soon cuz my other fics are going to be updated too! Once again, thanks to all for reading and reviewing!