Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 2
Chapter 5: McDuggins
Kitty Pryde entered into the hospital wing on the search for a mild painkiller, she'd had a headache since the moment she'd woken up at five am. She was surprised to see the back of Remy LeBeau. He was leaning into a deep cabinet, searching through boxes, a lockpick was jutting out of the lock of one of the wooden doors.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Lookin' for some bandages or somethin'," he muttered, leaning further into the deep cabinet.
"Hank doesn't keep bandages in there," Kitty said, she rubbed her forehead a little, "he keeps all his stethoscopes and stuff in there," she gestured towards where Remy was looking.
"Oh…" Remy leaned out, Kitty noted at once the large burn on his arm that was showing through a hole in the leather uniform he was wearing, "what happened?"
"Accident in the Danger Room, long story," Remy sighed.
Kitty walked over and closed the cabinet doors, yanking out the lockpick and handing it to Remy, "Here," she said and rolled her eyes, "You should have that looked at by Hank, what is it? A laser burn?"
"I don't need mollycoddling for a minor abrasion," Remy said sternly.
Kitty looked at him, "sit down, I'll do it."
Remy rolled his eyes, "Look, I just need a bandage, I don't want anyone dealing with me right now," he muttered coldly.
"Shut up and sit down," Kitty said sternly, the thumping going on in her head making her attitude a little harsher than it usually tended to be. She unlocked a cabinet with a set of keys Remy had noted she'd taken from her pocket, and she pulled out a few bandages and a dressing, "So…who were you in the Danger Room with?"
"Doesn't matter," Remy said, he didn't want to have to explain himself, he sat down slowly upon a wooden chair near a counter. Kitty moved over, he noted she had a bottle of some nasty looking chemical that had a brownish tint to it, "What is that?" he asked.
"Just some anti-sceptic to stop the wound from becoming infected," from a box Kitty retrieved a pair of surgical gloves and pulled them on with a strange snapping sound that left Remy with strange memories of those embarrassing and uncomfortable checkups at Doctors where you were always touched in the least likely places.
"It looks like it's going to sting," Remy remarked, making a face.
"You are, like, such a big baby," Kitty mused, she spilled a little of the brown liquid onto a cotton swab, "take that top off."
Remy sighed and unzipped the top, sliding it off carefully as to not let the leather brush against the already burning wound. Kitty took a hold of him firmly under the arm and began to dab at the wound with the cotton, he winced, "so…you training to be a doctor or something?" he raised his eyebrow at Kitty.
"No, I did do a little first aid training though," Kitty admitted smiling proudly at herself.
"Oh," Remy remarked, he really wasn't interested, he tried not to focus on the pain too much, it felt like Kitty was pouring some kind of acid into the burn on his arm, which already looked quite blistered and raw.
Remy slumped in the chair a little, still wincing in pain, sucking in his breath through clenched teeth, lips curled back.
"Y'know, you should come with us tonight," Kitty said, she continued to deal with his wound with careful hands, "Every Friday night most of us go to McDuggins," she sounded almost excited all of a sudden, her blue eyes widening a little, Remy watched her curiously.
"What's McDuggins?" Remy raised an eyebrow.
"It's a bar," Kitty said, "four miles west of here," she admitted, "we all go there…play pool, drink, have fun…sometimes there's even dancing," she admitted, "and it's hilarious watching Logan beat every single guy there at pool."
"I'd rather not," Remy admitted. Socialising with the X-Men didn't appeal to him in the slightest right now.
"Oh come on, Remy, I know you're finding it hard and that the others are still lookin' at you like you're guilty…if you keep your distance and don't let them get to know you, how do you expect them to accept you?"
"I don't need to be accepted, I'm not staying with the X-Men, remember?" Remy pointed out, "I'm only here until Xavier somehow manages to clear my criminal record – which so far he hasn't lifted a finger to do."
"Maybe you should stay," Kitty admitted thoughtfully, wrapping a bandage carefully around his arm. "Rejoin the X-Men…hey, maybe you could teach French here at the institute?"
"Oh yeah, Rogue would just love that, wouldn't she?" Remy remarked sarcastically, "she'd love my returning to the X-Men like I'm sure she'd love to be slapped in the face with a rotting fish."
"Just come with us, tonight, Remy, it'll be fun, I
promise," Kitty smiled.
"I have no wish to socialise
with any of you right now, Petit," Remy wished she would let him be, he had no wish
to discuss this with her. He had more
important things to think about – like getting out of the mansion before his
passion for Rogue began to develop again.
He'd spent a long time working towards forgetting about her, he wasn't
about to allow himself to feel too strongly for her again.
"Will you just think about it?" Kitty asked, "we can celebrate your innocence," she finished bandaging his shoulder, and stepped back to survey her work.
"Fine, I'll think about it," Remy responded, giving a sigh of defeat, realising that at least if he admitted he would, she'd leave him alone. It didn't mean he'd have to go, after all, did it?
What am I doing here? Remy thought miserably at nine-thirty-pm that night as he stepped through the large door leading into McDuggins, a rustic bar that reminded him slightly of 'Joe's', the place he'd been drinking at these last few days. Only the atmosphere at McDuggins was slightly more inviting and friendly.
Ororo and Kitty were sitting at the bar, Ororo seeming a lot more lighthearted than she seemed most other times, a smile on her face and a glass of red wine delicately held in her hand. Kitty seemed to be supping some kind of blue-tinted cocktail, and her eyes glittered as she spoke excitedly to Ororo, every now and then a high pitched girlish laugh ringing out over the bar, mingling with the laughs of other patrons nearby.
Remy pushed his sunglasses further up his nose to hide his mutant eyes, he glanced across the rest of the bar, Logan was near a pool table, watching another patron take his shot, Logan looked more than confident, while the patron kept glancing towards the wad of money set on the corner of the table that it seemed evident both men were playing for.
Others from the mansion – Bobby Drake, Hank McCoy (complete with image inducer) and Kurt Wagner (also complete with image inducer) were standing by a jukebox that Remy suspected was even older than he was. Kurt was picking songs, whilst Bobby was making noises of disgust.
Remy slipped into a darker area of the bar, took a seat at an unoccupied booth and watched the scene, his presence unnoticed. When Rogue stepped out of the ladies room, her long hair hanging in loose silken tousled curls, Remy's eyes raised, and he watched her fixatedly, without even realising it, letting a deep unhappy sigh pass his lips.
He watched her wander over to Logan who was standing watching the patron still taking his shot, Rogue rested her arm on Logan's shoulder casually, she stood leaning against him, and she spoke to him, a slight grin on her face. Remy felt pangs of guilt surging through him, she looked happy – the happiest he'd remembered her ever seeming. No longer an insecure teenager with gothic wear and thick eyeliner, now a stunningly beautiful woman standing there wearing flared hip hugging jeans and a cobalt blue top with embroidered sleeves, thin white cotton gloves protecting her delicate hands.
Rogue laughed softly at something Logan said, and she helped himself to his bottle of beer which had been resting upon the edge of the pool table. She seemed more than unaware that she was being watched not only by Remy, but by several men. Remy realised that the once insecure girl he'd known was now the kind of woman that men would turn and gawk at the moment she walked into a room. The kind of woman who had the ability – without even realising it – to light up a room with her presence.
"Ahem."
Remy had been unsure how long he'd been watching Rogue for, he blinked and turned to his side, Kitty was standing by the table, a freshly opened bottle of beer in her hand, she placed it down upon the table, indicating it was for him.
"How long have you been here?" Kitty asked.
"Short while," Remy picked the bottle up and took a quick swig, "didn't feel much like including myself in your socialising just yet…I think my presence would make everyone uncomfortable," he admitted.
Kitty took a seat, Remy noticing she'd carried her own drink over with her, she looked over at him, "have you thought any more about what I said?" she asked quietly.
"Hmmm?" he glanced back over to Rogue again, who was congratulating Logan with a hug for winning the game of pool – and a good three hundred dollars by the looks of it.
Kitty traced invisible patterns on the tabletop with her bare finger absently, "coming back to the X-Men."
Remy made a face, "I'm not exactly X-Men material…never have been really," he responded.
"I think you're underestimating yourself," Kitty said, "I think the Professor would like it if you stayed," she admitted, "he hasn't said anything…but I think he feels kind of guilty that he judged you really quickly too."
"It's an occupational hazard, petit," Remy took a cigarette out and lit it, "thief shouldn't expect to be trusted if he gonna be what he is," he remarked, he glanced back to Rogue, who was standing playing pool on her own now, Logan had apparently abandoned the table after having won.
Kitty glanced over her shoulder to see who Remy was looking at then looked back to him, "why don't you talk to her?" she asked suggestively.
Remy snorted in contempt for that idea.
"Buy her a drink," Kitty said, smiling softly.
"Believe me, me and her had an argument last night, I'm likely to get a drink thrown in my face tonight if I go talk to her," Remy mused, he took another drink of his beer, "the last thing I need is to buy her a drink so she has somethin' to throw over me."
"Nah," Kitty responded, "she's in good spirits, she's had a few drinks already…there's no better time to try and talk to her than when she's in a good drunken mood."
"She actually has good moods? I don't think I ever got to see one of those in all the time I ever went out with her," Remy took a long drag of his cigarette, and deliberately blew the smoke in Kitty's direction.
Kitty gave a cough, "ugh, bad habit," she grabbed the cigarette from his hand and stubbed it out into a nearby tacky looking ashtray, "Just talk to her, alright? I know you want to, or you wouldn't be looking at her like that," Kitty got up, "Just…be nice…and don't argue with her, and I'm sure it'll go fine."
Remy sighed, "fine."