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"Goddammit," Pierce exclaimed as he stepped in something he dared not examine closely.
At the best of times, Pierce hated it down here and now that he was the bearer of bad tidings, he disliked it all the more. Given that it was the sole tunnel to Essex's inner sanctum, it was rather fitting that it was as unnerving as the man himself. Pierce very much doubted that it was part of the original blueprints but rather something Essex had put in afterwards where there would be no official record of it and little chance of anyone knowing of its construction.
The single door to the room was an ancient metal monstrosity with a wheel that you would turn not unlike the doors found in a ship or submarine. In fact the whole tunnel down to the lab gave off the feeling of being submerged, like being in a sewer or a waterworks. The walls had this persistent slime and even the air seemed a little off. Frankly the sooner he got this over with the better.
He knocked firmly on the metal plating twice, the dull sound echoing about him seeming unnaturally loud to his ears.
"Enter," a calm voice called through, as though he had been expected.
Pierce spun the wheel and pushed the door inward with a little effort as rust had long since invaded the door hinges and made it increasingly less likely to cooperate. As he came through he once again felt he was stepping into a different world from the one he had just endured with the pristine white walls and tiled floor a complete opposite to the slick cobbled path he had just traveled.
He caught a brief glimpse of Emma on an operating table, her upper body totally exposed though any chance of a cheap thrill was quickly spoiled by the sight of a number of organic tubes that were attached to her at various points, each of them pulsating sickeningly in a steady rhythm all of their own. They resembled bloated snakes eating into her then any medical equipment he had ever seen. Essex quickly covered her with a white sheet before turning his attention to Pierce who was particularly horrified to note that the man's entire forearms were covered in dull crimson of blood.
"It looks like the thief ran into a spot of bother," Pierce announced though his voice faltered, betraying the unease he felt.
"Oh?" was all Essex said in reply though it was clearly an invitation for Pierce to continue.
"I drove him to the mansion like you instructed. He told me to wait for about an hour while he checked the place out and he just disappeared over the wall. About twenty minutes later, a corner of the mansion exploded and I think it's fair to say, it wasn't a scheduled occurrence."
"Did you wait the hour?" Essex wondered aloud, tapping his chin with a finger that created a small stain of blood.
"What?" Pierce asked in confusion, thrown by Essex's ignorance of what he was doing.
"Did you wait for the hour that he instructed you to wait?" Essex responded in such a manner as to suggest to Pierce that he regarded him as being only two steps up from a worm.
"Well I - No...no I didn't," he admitted.
"It doesn't matter. What manner of explosion was it?" he asked curiously.
"Well from where I was sitting, a portion of the west wall got blown out by a red beam," he described with as little enthusiasm as possible.
"Well it seems that my thief, as you put it, ran into Mr. Summers," the mild irritation he felt at Remy's blatant failure overshadowed by evidence of Scott's prowess, "he truly is all that I hoped for."
Pierce said nothing to this, his already immense dislike for Summers growing by the moment.
"What's wrong with Frost?" he asked, hoping for a quick change of subject and because he actually was genuinely interested if not a little concerned.
"There's nothing wrong with her at all...well nothing that we can't fix anyway," he joked with that rather chilling smile of his. "Now Donald, if you'd please excuse me, I've a depressing phone call to make to poor Remy's father."
Donald, who was more then eager to leave said nothing and practically sprinted out of the room, pausing only to laboriously close the metal door behind him. It was only afterwards in the clammy cold of the corridor did he wonder if Essex even cared that he had blood dripping from his arms.
While he never expected nor even remotely wanted to be treated like some sort of a hero for his actions the previous night, he really didn't expect to be given the silent treatment by just about everybody the following day. Evan was seemingly pissed because the wall Scott knocked out also took a big chunk out of the side of his room, meaning that he was forced to bunk with Kurt for the night which Scott could would entail little sleep as Kurt could be very talkative.
Jean who Scott noted had been acting weird for the past few days anyway just acted increasingly so while Kitty was putting up a show of solidarity with her roommate Rogue who seemed to be avoiding him like the plague and finally the Professor was apparently disappointed in his shoot first - ask questions later response to the intruder. He hadn't said anything but Scott knew the disappointed face a mile away.
So it was just him and Hank alone in the kitchen helping themselves to breakfast the following morning as everyone else avoided him. Hank was too good-natured and understanding to ever willingly alienate someone.
So how's the patient?" Scott asked between mouthfuls of warm coffee.
"Still unconscious naturally but no longer in harm's way," Hank replied cheerfully, having always gained pleasure from performing his medical duties.
After the others had arrived in the bathroom the previous night and someone more capable was there to comfort Rogue, Scott had gone down to the grounds to try and track the intruder. It didn't prove very difficult as they found him in an untidy heap by the western wall; his strength having given out before he could scale it. Between them, Bobby and Scott carried him down to the infirmary where Hank immediately went to work, unconcerned about his identity or what he had done. The Hippocratic oath didn't see good or bad, just an individual in distress.
"The Professor's pissed," Scott noted, hoping for a sympathetic ear in Hank.
"Well, he can be just a bit too much of an idealist from time to time," Hank replied diplomatically, "I'm sure you made the right decision at the time."
So how come I'm been given the outcast treatment," Scott wondered aloud, his voice betraying a little of the bitterness he felt.
"People are feeling vulnerable at the moment," Hank surmised. "An apparent attack on a defenseless girl taking a bath of all things, just reminds everyone that even in our most personal and private moments in this most secure of buildings, we are not safe from intrusion. You're not being given the silent treatment Scott, you've just dealt with it a lot faster then everyone else."
Scott scratched the back of his head. All of that sounded great but he didn't necessarily believe any of it to be true. He shrugged his shoulders and began buttering a slice of toast, at a loss for what else he could do other then wait for everyone else to deal with it too.
"It's as you suspected Professor, he's X-Gene positive," Hank informed the rest of the adults a while later in the Professor's study as he stared out the window, watching the rain from the light shower that had threatened all morning. It seemed to match the mood of the place right now.
"His name is Remy LeBeau," the Professor responded unsurprised by Hank's revelation. "I ran his details through a number of law enforcement databases and got a positive match. It's filled with mostly juvenile crime, nothing too serious," he told them, throwing a paper folder onto his desk.
"So what's he doing sneaking around here with all this gear?" Logan asked as he went through the equipment that was laid out on a small portable tray. "Some of this is military grade equipment and some of it seems even more advanced then that...certainly ain't cheap."
"And who is he working for? No one would burgle a boarding house for teenagers and expect to make anything from it," Ororo added from her seat on the couch.
"These are all questions that only he can answer. I do not wish to enter his mind while he's recovering. Such psychic landscapes can be...disorientating," the Professor mused.
"We may have another issue to deal with too," Hank broached a topic that had been troubling him since his breakfast encounter with Scott.
"With LeBeau?" Ororo asked.
"No, with the students."
"How so?" Xavier asked.
"We have been so busy dealing with Mr. LeBeau that the students have been left rather rudderless. This episode has fragmented the older ones and the younger students are listless through sheer empathy."
"The doc's right," Logan nodded, "they all seem kind of lost at the moment."
The Professor considered this for a moment and could think of only one action to take.
"Well then this is what we shall do," he gestured at Ororo and Logan. "You two split the students between you and take them off somewhere for the day. Do something to take their minds off of things, something fun. Hank and I will remain behind to tend to our mysterious guest."
Logan was about to say something when the Professor interrupted him.
"And no Logan, the Danger Room does not count as fun."
They all smiled at Logan's half-hearted grimace before leaving to round up the errant students.
"Now this is heaven," Amara moaned through the fog of steam that filled the small wooden room.
"Where did you find this place?" Kitty murmured as talking properly just seemed like too much effort right now. In fact just keeping her eyes open seemed like too much effort right about now.
Ororo who was well used to the steam's effects smiled at her charges lethargy; nothing cleansed the mind and spirit like a day spent lounging in a sauna where helpful attendants waited on your every whim. Much like Rogue's Friday night bath ritual, this place was the little corner where she could escape from all the pressures and tensions of the mansion and life in general.
"As last night's normally laid back atmosphere had been so rudely interrupted, I decided that in order to restore the natural balance of things, us girls needed some proper and professional pampering."
As the girls murmured their approval, she poured some more water onto the red-hot coals. An almost palpable wall of steam bellowed out as the water hissed on contact with the glowing rocks. Normally she would lock the door, discard her towel and sweat until her soul was as clean as her skin but today she kept the towel on for the sake of the rest of the girls who might not be as comfortable with their bodies as she was with hers.
She turned towards Rogue, who this trip was very much for. Anyone who knew the girl would readily acknowledge that she was a fighter so it was unsettling to Ororo to find her now so unwilling to talk about what had occurred to her the previous night. However she knew better then to force the issue with her so instead she decided that therapy should begin in that tried and tested of arenas; boy talk.
"How was the film last night, Kitty?" she asked, her voice betraying the barest hint of amusement.
Six pairs of interested eyes turned to face young Miss Pryde, who had turned a rather endearing shade of red.
"Oh it was alright," she replied, her voice unnaturally high pitched much to everyone's amusement.
"Only alright?" Ororo teased.
"Judging from the smile on her face when she came back, it was a lot more then alright," Jubilee giggled.
"Though I had some misgivings about him, Mr. Alvers is turning out to be quite the gentleman, and so handsome. It appears that he's quite the catch, Kitty," Ororo mused out loud causing Kitty to blush even further before she continued, "I must confess I thought originally that you and Kurt were going to end up together given the way he was chasing you."
"Kurt?" Kitty exclaimed loudly while some of the others laughed at this, it being a common misconception at the time.
"What's wrong with him?" Ororo asked innocently, pleased at how easy it was to get the ball rolling.
"There's nothing wrong with him," she stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "it's just...it would be like going out with your brother or your cousin. He's Kurt, ya know?"
"It would be like going out with Jaime," Rahne echoed, "except it would be a whole family instead of just a cousin." It sounded to Ororo that the young shape shifter doth protest too much but she said nothing.
"Plus he's about twelve," Jubilee added, which made them all laugh.
"Anyway Kurt wouldn't give us the time of day because he is so very happy with Amanda," Kitty stated to a general consensus.
"Is it that serious?" Ororo asked, intrigued, as Kurt was uncharacteristically shy when it came to talking about Amanda.
"I think it is. If you ask me, I think she's really into him," Jubilee contributed.
"Has he said anything to you about it Rogue?" Ororo asked. It was a pretty clumsy attempt at getting her involved but she couldn't very well ask her about what romantic entanglements she was involved in.
Rogue took a while to answer, aware that everyone was watching her carefully in case she might break. Not for the first time, they totally misread her silence.
"Jubilee's right. He's taking it slow because he really likes her and he's smart enough to see that she really likes him. It's just a shame more boys weren't like that," the ire in her voice clearly audible.
"You don't think all of them are like that, surely?" Ororo wasn't sure of her footing as she proceeded along this line of conversation. She realized she was foolish to expect Rogue to be full of self-pity. No Rogue always bypassed pity and went straight for anger.
Rogue sat up on the bench so she could see Ororo properly and to give her a moment to get her thoughts in order. "Ah think that unless they've been hit with a mallet, guys are blind to what's going on around them. Look at Kurt. Amanda had to go up to him and say "Kurt, I really like you" before anything happened but now that he knows, he's totally into her too."
"Is Rogue right, are males simply ignorant or is she being harsh?"
"Men are designed to hunt," Jean answered slowly, "so doing the chasing comes easily to them but when it's a girl whose doing all the work, Rogue's right. Guys are oblivious."
"So speaking of oblivious men, how are you and Duncan getting along these days, Jean? I expect it won't be long until there's talk of a rather large anniversary," Ororo half joked.
Jean, who had been largely silent for the majority of the conversation thus far pursed her lips slightly as she considered Ororo's remark. She and Duncan had just recently had a heated discussion concerning said anniversary and it had been anything but a laughing matter. In spite of herself, she started talking out loud, the heat of the room and the overwhelming aura of relaxation loosening her tongue far more then she would normally allow.
"I wish the whole anniversary thing was a joke, I really do but he's kind of taken it to heart. He wants to move the relationship on," she parroted in a distinctly un-Duncan like voice though the sentiment was certainly his.
"How far does he want to go?" Kitty asked.
Jean hesitated before answering in a rather flippant though truthful manner, "All the way."
It was the kind of statement that silenced a room and for a moment, a pin dropping would have drowned out all other noise in the sauna.
"You and Duncan haven't done it yet?" Kitty finally asked, almost embarrassed to be the first to speak after such a revelation. It almost sounded like an accusation rather then the statement that Kitty intended. Jean was the big sister that she never had and to Kitty appeared to possess a wisdom that Kitty aspired to have as well.
"It's not that he hasn't wanted to before...it's just...I," Jean searched in vain for the right words to convey what she meant.
"It would make it real," Rogue practically whispered from her corner.
"What?" Jean asked, slightly thrown by the remark.
Rogue looked at Jean evenly. Whatever the others may have felt or even believed, she knew that Jean would never do anything serious with Duncan even if the redhead didn't know it herself. There were other factors at play here.
"It's all been fun and games with Duncan but the minute you two start fumblin' around in the back of his daddy's car, you've made your choice and it becomes something else, something official and bigger then you. Ah don't think you ever thought about committing to Duncan; he was just a simple but popular boy who caught your eye. You could dump him at a moment's notice and there'd be someone waiting to take up the slack. Someone you could string along all this time with no risk of ever losing him."
Had Jean been thinking straight she might have reasoned that Rogue was being offensive due to what happened back at the mansion and that she wasn't really attacking her at all. She would have let the remark pass and taken the moral high ground by not responding in anger but by saying something conciliatory to smooth over what she said.
However a more base part of her reasoned that Rogue and she had been careening towards this confrontation from the moment she joined and that recent events had only helped to push the schedule forward. Well if she wanted to do this now, then it was fine by her. All pretense of the Taryn Convention went out the door.
"Just who the hell do you think you are?" Jean roared, the temperature in the room going up several notches.
"Girls," Ororo interjected but by now it was far too late for that.
"Ah'm the one who gets to see all the damage done every time Hurricane Jean comes through the mansion telling him what a wonderful time she'll have out with Duncan. Ah'm the one who gets to pick up the pieces and put him back together again." Rogue replied, not backing down in the slightest. "You beat him down and then when he might just get free of your spell, you reel him back in, make him feel like his valuable to you again. Some of us wouldn't ever let him forget that he's important."
Rogue's aim was sure and true, her words filled with a year's worth of venom to which Jean had little answer.
"He's not stupid Rogue; if you or Taryn or anyone else for that matter wanted him bad enough, you could make it happen."
"No one can make anything happen with you still in the picture," Rogue replied with an Oh Please expression. "Taryn practically kidnapped him and he still wasn't anything other then friendly towards her."
"That's different, he has to hide what he is from Taryn and he could never really be himself-"
"still you still fumed every time she put her hand on his arm or what about that time she asked him to the dance? Ah say the look on your face."
"And I saw the look on yours. You know what your problem is Rogue? You're afraid, plain and simple."
"What? Afraid of you?"
"No, afraid of him. You're just using me and anything else convenient as an excuse. I think you're afraid of what he'd say if you told him what you really felt, a little afraid in case he'd say no but you're really afraid in case he'd say yes. You're just not able to deal with that so you've given yourself a million reasons why it wouldn't work. If it wasn't me then it would be your power holding you back or if not then something else."
"There's only one reason that counts and that's you stringing him along," Rogue answer defiantly.
"You really think I'm stringing him along, do you?" Jean asked, her voice getting increasingly lower as she regained her composure. She realized she couldn't fight back without saying things that would hurt Rogue deeply, whether they were true or not and though they were on opposite sides here, this wasn't worth decimating the last shreds of companionship they had.
Rogue laughed mockingly, "Do you really believe you're not?"
There it was; the $64,000 question.
She knew the answer. Hated herself for knowing it all along but what choice did she have
She attempted to explain, everyone else seemed to fade away leaving just her and Rogue alone in the room.
"Don't you think I know the way he looks at me sometimes, the things he does for me without being asked. There are occasions when I know where he is or what he's doing without even trying and that frightens me. To be the focus of all that intensity, it's just too much to handle. But funnily at the same time it makes you feel special. He can look at you and make you feel like you're his whole world and that's a lot of responsibility to bear."
"Ah know that look," Rogue replied, her voice now calm as well. It wasn't some idle boost on her part either. She would happily bet her life on the fact that the things he confided in her were something that he had told no one else not even Jean. It somehow made her special.
"Then you know how terrible it would be to lose that but also how scary it would be to finally embrace it totally. It's selfish I know to keep the distance but wouldn't you do the same until you knew you could measure up to that responsibility."
"It's not fair on him though, he's never sure where he stands," Rogue retorted.
"Because I can't...I can't...," she just stopped, her mind stuck in a recurring loop. "Do you think you could you make him happy? As happy as he deserves to be?" she finally asked. It was something she wondered about herself. Of all the people in the mansion, she believed he was the one most deserving of genuine happiness. He gave so much of himself and never asked for anything in return; despite the cards life had dealt him.
"Ah don't know." She didn't. "Always knew Ah never had a chance so never really gave much time to thinking about what Ah'd do if Ah did."
"I'm not sure either," Jean mused, "Wouldn't it be terrible to be a disappointment to him. To not live up to those expectations."
Rogue said nothing but for a moment she hated Jean for her doubt and her self-pity. She never knew how easily everything came to her; or how he would never be disappointed in anything she did or said. She could smile at him while walking up the aisle with Duncan and somewhere he'd still hold on to the glimmer of a chance with Jean Grey.
"You don't have to worry about that," she whispered, "and anyway, maybe someone will come in and sweep him out from under us."
"It won't be Taryn," Kitty's voice quietly interjected, the two of them having forgotten there was anyone else even in the room.
"Sorry?" Jean asked, a little startled to hear someone else's voice other then herself or Rogue.
"Taryn and Scott are officially history...though come to think of I don't know if they were ever like...current," Kitty stated, suddenly a little nervous at being the center of attention.
"What happened?" Jean asked, having not heard this gossip for some reason.
"Well rumor has it that Scott caught her badmouthing him yesterday at lunch," Kitty filled in quickly, not mentioning any badmouthing of Jean for diplomatic reasons. "He left in a hurry, then she left in a hurry so I think it's safe to say that's over."
Jean sat back, soaking up this latest piece in the puzzle when Kitty started to talking again to fill the uncomfortable silence.
"Now there's just Library Girl left in the race," she added helpfully.
Kitty wasn't sure whether this was right time to say that or not but it slipped out anyway. As Rogue's roommate and Jean's surrogate sister, she felt a little caught in the middle and wasn't one hundred percent sure where her loyalties should lie. She knew how Rogue felt about Scott having caught her furtive glances on a number of occasions and she saw how jealous Jean could get of anyone showing an interest in him so her feelings were pretty evident too.
"Whose Library Girl?" Jean asked, her face screwing up in confusion.
"The girl he rescued, remember?" Rogue reminded her.
"That wasn't a once off?" she asked.
"Taryn was talking to her when Scott caught her stabbing him in the back. Whose to say she wasn't prompted," Rogue wondered aloud.
"She did seem awful keen and a little too nice," Kitty agreed immediately.
Rogue simply nodded in agreement before leaning back against the wall, suddenly tried of the discussion. Her action seemed to signal the end of conversation in general and Ororo was left sitting there wondering if all of this had been a good idea in the first place. Well at least Rogue was acting like her old self again even if a few home truths had been revealed in the process. Young love was a funny thing, she thought with a smile.
"The boys still aren't back," Kitty announced as she entered her shared room.
Rogue simply murmured something and continued to read some tattered novel she had been stuck into for the past few days. She was always reading something or another, Kitty had observed so as usual, she continued the rather one sided conversation.
"I can't imagine where Mr. Logan has taken them for fun. Won't be a sauna that's for sure. Maybe a bar, or a strip club. That would be funny. I can just picture Kurt's face and Sam, he won't know where to look."
"Ah huh," came the automatic uninterested response.
"So you and Jean finally got it out in the open?" Kitty asked as she carefully hung a clean top of hers. She heard the book close and a slight sigh.
"It was always out in the open, we just never talked about it is all," Rogue responded thoughtfully.
"Scott's clueless, you know? He needs the mallet to the head." Kitty advised as she took a seat at the side of her own bed so she was facing Rogue.
"You know what's funny Kitty, last night two guys saw me naked; not a stitch on me. One of them is lying in a coma down in the infirmary and-"
"He got what he deserved," Kitty interrupted. "Anyone who would try to do what he did deserves a coma and more."
"Maybe...Ah don't know. But Scott knew just what to do. Ah don't think he even noticed Ah had no clothes on, he just went ahead and held me anyway, not saying a word. Ah never felt safer."
Kitty smiled sadly at her friend's wistful look. There was a situation she would never get in the middle of.
"Ah got him swimming around up here now," Rogue indicated to her head.
"Who? Scott?" Kitty asked wondering for a moment why he too was not down with Mr. McCoy."
"No the thief. Got flashes of memories that aren't mine," she said with tested resolve.
"Like what?" Kitty asked.
"They're strange and kind of mixed up, like remembering a dream. Ah can picture someone smiling, but the smile looks more like a shark, all sharp teeth. There's a smell like Logan's cigars, only softer and there's a moment of pain, right here," she indicated her cheek, "associated with a flash of white or yellow maybe. Ah don't know, there's just so much going on up there now."
"What's it like?" Kitty asked, leaning forward.
"It's fine but there's a voice like yours going "dance, dance" all the time," Rogue replied with a smile.
"Oh shut up, you were never so cool in your life," Kitty taunted.
They both turned at the low rumble of Scott's car and the X-Van coming from somewhere in the distance.
"Look's like the boys are back," Rogue murmured.
To be continued...