Chapter 1: Stormy Weather
The water pounded against the rocks, a vicious hiss as it rushed violently, washing over stone and the base of the cliff side, the white foam apparent even in the ever growing darkness as twilight ebbed into night.
Remy LeBeau lit a cigarette, pangs of guilt sweeping over his conscience. He had been lighting cigarettes for two months, and feeling the same rush of guilt and disappointment in himself – in his ability to quit the foul habit.
And yet, here he was, smoke filling his lungs, and in his head he could almost hear Marie D'Ancanto's tutting, preaching how lung cancer would be his doom. Then, after her voice faded away, his own thoughts came through with a rush of anger.
She isn't here to tell you that now, LeBeau, he thought at himself irately, he exhaled the smoke, watching it disappear into the wind and spray of a light rain. That was when the memory seethed inside his head, at his own fury with the woman he loved upon finding out she'd had feelings for someone else.
He felt fury now, not only with her, but with himself. Driving her away had probably been the worst thing he could have chosen to do, and upon realising it the minute she'd left Scotland to return to Bayville with the rest of the X-Men, he'd been kicking himself ever since.
I may as well have told her to rush to Jared's arms, Remy thought dully, he raised his head to the horizon, seeing the faint flickers of distant lightning, and soon the rolls of thunder rumbled tenuously.
His mind was full of visions of Rogue and Jared together, not only platonically, but romantically, them kissing, him stroking her hair, them holding each other, bare and exposed to the air, moving rhythmically in the love-making Remy had never been able to achieve with Rogue.
The thoughts stung like acid upon a raw bleeding flesh, the hurt of Rogue's kept secrets from him still hurt, an ugly gaping wound that wasn't healing, and wasn't soon to either.
He'd driven her to Jared, he thought pained with the memories of the last argument he'd had with Rogue. The one he needed to keep her away from the most was the one he'd driven her to. Surely right now they were laughing at him for being so stupid as to let love in and cloud his judgement over a girl.
A silly girl.
That's all she is, Remy, he thought angrily at himself, he tossed his cigarette away. Just a silly little seventeen year old girl, she doesn't even know what love is, he told himself.
No matter how many times he'd told himself of this fact, it had never changed his opinion. Despite she was no more than a silly girl, she was the one who'd reached him where all others had failed, the one he was willing to give up eternity for. He would have given his life up for her. And now…she was gone.
He'd changed his mind about his wanting her to leave the day after he'd asked her – no, demanded her – to, and the first thing he'd done upon returning to the Island was rush to her room in the research centre hoping to stop her from leaving, hoping she'd only be packing. But she wasn't…she was no where in sight. Nothing left of her in the room, no trace of her, not even a slight whiff of the perfume she wore.
And when he'd went into his room, he'd found the ring lying on the cabinet beside the bed, and realised what a mistake he'd made. It seemed it truly was over.
He'd waited with bated breath, hoping to hear from her, hoping to receive a letter, a phone call, even an email, but nothing had come, she hadn't tried to get in contact with her, and he'd anxiously waited every day, checking, but nothing came for him, except a cheque in the mail from Professor Xavier for the work he'd been doing at the Research centre.
It bothered him that Rogue had let him drop so quickly, he resented her for it, but even more than that, he resented himself for having let this happen.
He then had to reason with himself. So what if she likes another guy? He asked of himself, he took one final glance over to the horizon, the lightning seemed to be coming closer.
So what if she didn't tell me another guy was interested in her…at the end of the day…she asked me to Marry her, not him…at the end of the day, she came to me, not Jared…she wanted me, it was me she wanted, it was me she touched…it was me, not him, it was me…
He put his hand over his eyes, tears came but he wiped them away quickly, he felt stupid, men didn't cry over things like this, did they? Not men, and not him. And since Rogue had come into his life, tears had been all too often with him, a man who had never cried before having met her, and now, found it frequent.
I've made a huge mistake, he thought wearily, he looked down over the water and wondered just how easy it would be to end it all.
After a while of regret, and standing staring down into the crashing waves of the angry water below the cliff, he'd turned back to the centre, and headed into his room, he'd poured over blueprints exhaustedly. His only distraction these days was either pouring himself into work that didn't concern him – as a research assistant he was posing as while residing at the Centre – or the real undercover work, which consisted of finding all the security weak points to prevent a recurring break in and theft of several expensive chemicals, that were going into the illegal manufacturing of a drug called "MutantX".
He'd worked steadily for two months, designing new security systems, fitting them, trying to break in himself, and when finally the security systems he'd installed were even preventing himself from breaking in, he was beginning to feel rather successful.
It had been two months without a break in. It seemed that finally, after all his hard work, the attempts of break in were over, and nothing had been stolen, he was beginning to wonder if finally he could go back to Bayville. Two months was a long time, and despite his resentment for Rogue's having kept secrets from him, he still needed to be with her, and he knew if he could just look into those dark green eyes of hers, maybe there could just be a tiny piece of hope that they would be back together.
He glanced at his watch, it was ten at night, which meant it was probably about four pm in Bayville. He wondered if it was finally time to try and get in contact with Rogue. It had been two months spent trying to ignore his impulses to see how she was. Two months wondering if there was anything of their relationship to salvage anymore, or if…it really was over.
He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out the velvet box, opened it, and examined the antique white gold ring with its shimmering emerald and two rare diamonds. Admittedly, he'd been more than just a little mortified when he'd saw the ring lying on the bedside cabinet. He'd been almost heartbroken. He wasn't sure what to think of it really.
Remy wanted to call and ask Rogue. Did it mean that, after all she and him had been through, she was finally giving up and going to take Jared up on his offer, or did it mean that she thought he – Remy – had given up, and that she was obligated to return the ring?
He wasn't sure anymore. He closed the box and put it in his pocket, wishing he knew the answer already, and afraid that he maybe already did. A knock at his bedroom door made him jump, he hadn't expected anyone to come calling on him. Quickly, he folded the blueprints and shoved them under the mattress of the bed, "come in," he said, once he was convinced there was nothing suspicious lying around.
The door opened, a voluptuous brunette standing, framed in the doorway, her hazel eyes shimmering, "sitting in on a Friday night, again, Remy?"
Remy looked up at her, her name was Carmel Graham, and she was gorgeous, a classic beauty, with all the right curves, her hair hanging in soft, sexy curls around her heart-shaped face, contrasting against her fair complexion. She was a research student, doing part time work for the research centre in between studying genetics. She'd only been at the research centre for two months, she'd only arrived shortly after Rogue had left.
Remy pretended he'd been reading a book he'd brought with him over three months earlier, a horror book called "Once" by James Herbert, he'd never been able to really get into the story, although it gave him a reason to tear his eyes away from the ravishing creature in front of him as the familiar lustful feelings began to rise within himself like flames ignited upon highly flammable fabric. "You know me, I don't go out much, just a bookworm," he stated.
Remy had been playing this part for three months. Posing as a introverted, respectful, sheltered young Research Assistant, with no previous experience. He'd claimed he'd only managed to scrape up a job at the research centre because his Wealthy Uncle, Professor Xavier, was a major financial backers of the centre, and it had been one of the conditions that he continue to finance everything if he were to be allowed a job there.
This little lie gave him enough freedom to move around the other employees to try and find out if any of them were the chemical thief who had been breaking into the research centre, without seeming too suspicious. When they would take days off and the research centre was safe from their prying eyes, he would go to work trying to make the place more secure, installing new security systems, and testing them before the others got back.
Three months he'd spent and had barely learned anything about who was taking the chemicals, and who exactly was producing MutantX from them. He was determined to find out, even if it cost him another three months.
Breaking him from his thoughts, Carmel spoke, "why don't you come with us to the pub?" she queried casually, her Scottish brogue so thick sometimes he could barely understand it.
Remy glanced up at her and smiled, "no thanks, I'm kinda just gonna have an early night," he said.
"Remy, it's tragic, you never go out, I haven't seen you go out anywhere in two months…"
"That's how I like it," Remy lied, "have fun at the bar," he said, "I'll see you on Monday morning."
When she'd gone, he closed the door, and leaned against it, sighing, wondering why women like Carmel were there just to tempt him, when all he could think about was being with Rogue. He wasn't going to allow it to get as far as Rogue had, that was for sure. She might have allowed herself to feel for Jared however innocently it might have seemed, Remy wasn't going to let him feel the same to Carmel, no matter how attractive she was.