I'm really, really sorry that I haven't updated in a really long time! First, I got really sick. Then, my computer did something weird and wouldn't upload files! When I finally got my computer fixed, I discovered that my disk had been corrupted and the two chapters I'd written were gone! So, instead of the promised two chapters, you're only getting one, because I have to completely rewrite them. I'm so sorry!
Disclaimer: Tainz owns nothing you recognise.
Since it's been so long, here's the last line of the last chapter you read:
Harry nodded. "And when you talked about Destiny and Mystique, you were broadcasting affection, among other things. What's with that?"
"Ah don't wanna talk about it."
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"Do you expect me to take that as an answer?" Harry demanded. "I have to tell Kathy these things, especially when you take on a new psyche. I need you to tell me where that affection came from. Was it yours, or was it his?" Harry jerked his head towards where they could see Remy through the one way glass,
"It isn't him. It's me. Ah can't tell you why Ah feel that way about them, but it doesn't affect mah judgement and it never has. That's all you need to know." Rogue felt a twist of fear in her stomach. This could cost her her job.
"I need to know more than that. I need something to tell Kathy." Harry had been working with Emil for two years now and he'd never been on the receiving end of her stubbornness before.
"Well, Ah can't tell you! There are people who could lose everythin' if Ah tell you."
Harry couldn't believe her. Until recently, Emily Manning had been the perfect agent. She did everything by the book and worked in synch with her team, even if she did keep to herself. She'd climbed the ranks quickly and now held one of the highest positions a mutant could obtain.
She was the talk of the water cooler. Everyone knew she was beautiful, deadly and intelligent. They knew that she would be the first mutant to get a promotion if and when the restrictions on mutant ranks in the FBI were ever lifted. Harry had long fantasised about being able to get closer to her and learn her secrets, but, like all of the agents, he knew it would never happen.
"Emily... You've never made it hard to do my job before. Please don't start now."
"Ah can't tell you," she repeated.
"At least name the people who would be hurt by this. At least then I have something to tell."
"Mah brother and me. Now leave me alone."
He knew she was often cranky after absorbing someone, but he had to persist. Her answer was far too vague.
"If you tell me and I believe that it won't impair your judgement, I can refrain from telling Kathy anything. As it stands right now, I have to tell her every word of this conversation."
She spun from where she was watching Remy through the one way glass. "Ah can't! Ah can't put mah brother at risk right now. He only just got out of the Place. He needs to be protected until he's better."
Harry sighed. Various members of the MPS, including him, had been over this with Emily before. "The doctors told you, he probably won't ever recover. He was in there too long. He's been through too much."
"It's gonna be slow and he'll never be who he was before, but he'll get better. He will," she protested.
Harry closed his eyes. He'd been in charge of sending all of the other victims of the Place to a psychiatric facility that specialised in mutants. He'd hated doing it, but most of the victims were too dangerous for them to do anything else with them. "He's going to be dangerous and scared for the rest of his life, Emily. You should have let us take him to the residential facility. He'd get better care there."
Rogue shook her head harshly. "No. He wouldn't. He'd just be goin' from one prison to another and he wouldn't have a chance at survivin'. He'd die in there." A few tears filled her eyes, but she took a breath and blinked, stopping them from trickling down her cheeks.
"Emily, what's going to happen to him when you go back to work full time? He needs care 24/7. You can bring him with you when you're only in for an hour or two, but what are you going to do with him when you're gone all day, every day? And what about when you have to go on trips?" He grabbed her gloved hand. "Please, listen to me. As a friend. You have to let him go."
She pulled away from him. "He'll be fine. Ah've got neighbours he can check in with and he's fine durin' the day. Just leave us alone."
He rubbed his eyes tiredly. Her anger was starting to give him a headache. "I will. Just as soon as you tell me what your relationship is with Adler and Darkholme, I'll leave you be."
Rogue knew full well she was backed into a corner. Given her behaviour in the last week, she could easily be fired over this. If she lost her job, she wouldn't be able to support herself and Kurt and she would be forced to send him to a residential facility. If she told, however, she might lose everything anyway.
"Ah'll tell you," she finally conceded. "But you can't tell anyone. None of this has ever affected mah judgement, except to make me hate terrorists more."
Harry nodded encouragingly.
"You already figured out Ah was once one of the X-Men, along with mah brother. You also figured out Ah was one of the Brotherhood before Ah joined Xavier's students."
"Yes."
"Do you remember who the leader of the Brotherhood was?"
"Raven Darkholme."
"Right. Ah once worked for her. What you didn't know was that... When Ah was a little girl, she adopted me. Ah didn't even know she was the same person as mah mother until after Ah left the Brotherhood."
Harry's jaw dropped. "She's your mother?"
Rogue shrugged. "She didn't even raise me. She left me with a friend of hers."
"Irene Adler?"
"Yeah. Irene could see mah powers manifestin' in the future... What they were gonna be... So Mystique adopted me so when Ah was old enough she could use me."
"Why the affection, then?"
"They still looked after me when Ah was too young to look after mahself. Ah still have some good memories of holidays and stuff, even if it was all just a way to get to me."
"I see...." Harry trailed off, then another thought hit him. "She adopted Kurt, too?"
Rogue shook her head. "No. She gave birth to him and dropped him off a bridge. He got adopted by a nice German family."
Harry blinked. "Oh. So... You just want to see them gone?"
"Mystique, Ah hate for all she did to us. Ah still feel love towards the memory of mah mother, but Ah can never forgive her. Irene, Ah like okay. She protected me as much as she could. Ah could forgive her, given a chance. Thing is, if she's workin' with Mystique again, she ain't worth it. She deserves anything we can do to her."
Harry could feel the raw pain and anger in Emily's mind. She truly didn't want to help her parents. Since he was fully aware of this, he decided that he didn't need to bother Kathy with it.
"Fair enough," Harry finally replied.
Rogue went back to the one way glass and looked through it to Remy. "What are we gonna do with him?"
Harry saw the abrupt subject change for what it was, a way to keep her own life private. He went along with it. "Kathy signed the release orders. We're sending him back out. He'll be rejoining the new Acolytes and reporting back to us in the hopes that he'll be able to reveal new information."
Rogue's face took on a look that said that, had she been drinking something, the room would have been sprayed with liquid. "Kathy did what?!?"
"She signed the release orders. We'll be escorting him from the building in a few minutes."
"That wasn't a release order--it was a death warrant! Mystique will kill him." Her voice sounded calm now, as though she were merely stating a fact about the weather.
Harry looked at her blankly. "Mystique won't even know that Mr. LeBeau's been here."
Something akin to a laugh leapt from Rogue's lips, but it was far too bitter to ever be linked to humour. "Just like she didn't know who we were investigating for involvement in the Place? Just like she knows nothing about God only knows how many confidential files?" She snorted. "It's like sendin' a lamb to the slaughter. We're murderin' him."
Harry's face blanched. "What can we do? Kathy won't revoke the order. She won't send him into hiding. He assured her that Darkholme had no clue he'd come here."
"Let me escort him by mahself. Ah can tell him a few things that might save him."
"Like what? You can't reveal details..." He got cut off.
"There's no regulation that says Ah can't give him mah address and home phone number." She looked at him pleadingly, willing him to allow her this.
Harry contemplated this for a minute. "Do you really want him in the same house as your brother? I mean... Look at the guy."
Remy was wandering the little room, examining the restraints and inhibitors. The way he moved seemed to scream criminal.
"Mah place is probably the one place he'll be safe. Mystique has no qualms about hurtin' us, but Ah don't think she'd kill me or Kurt. And Ah'd protect this guy with mah life. Worst comes to worst, he could be the difference between us winnin' and losin'." She seemed lost in thought, looking at a possible future that Harry couldn't begin to see and ready for a battle he waasn't prepared to contemplate. "Besides, Ah owe him one. He kidnapped me when Ah was a teenager."
Harry was silent for a minute taking this in. "You owe him a favour because he kidnapped you?" He sounded sceptical.
Rogue nodded. "It's a long story, but he inadvertently saved me from doin' mahself harm by runnin' away or... maybe worse. He showed me that mah friends really did care about me after Ah did somethin' Ah really shouldn't have."
Harry had just opened his mouth to reply when the phone rang. It was Kathy, telling them to take Remy outside.
***
Kurt had been crouched in the back corner of the lounge for over an hour, watching the comings and goings of the people Rogue worked with. They all noticed his presence and none of them seemed impressed by the fact that he was there. A few of them blatantly glared at him, but he could have been imagining it. At least none of them seemed frightened by his presence.
He was busy watching one of the people get something from the vending machines, so he didn't notice Rogue come in and sit on the chair next to his position.
"You ready to go?" she asked.
He jumped straight up and clung to the wall near the ceiling. After taking a second to catch his breath, he climbed down.
"Are you okay?" Rogue asked, concerned.
He tried to smile, but it didn't work. "I just don't like this place very much. There aren't enough windows and there are too many people." Though he didn't say it, it was painted painfully clear on his face that he had been worried she had forgotten him.
Rogue took this in stride. She should have guessed and known better than to have left him in here by himself. "Want to take off? We gotta finish the grocery shopping, then we can go home."
Kurt nodded shakily. "Ve don't vant the neighbours to have to eat leftover Chinese, do ve?"
Rogue smiled as they stood and started out of the building. "And you might like some home-cooked food. Ah remember how much you like sausages."
At this, Kurt grinned full out. "And I remember the look on your face when I used to serve them to you. You really hated them."
"Ah got over it. Ah've changed a bit, grown up some." She gave his upper arm a squeeze. "You'll be glad to know that, short of the world comin' to the end, they won't be callin' me in to work until Monday." It was only Thursday.
"How did you manage that?" he asked as they passed the last security checkpoint to leave the building.
"Ah had a little chat with mah boss, Kathy."
Kurt stopped in mid-step and turned to her. "You glared at her, didn't you?"
Her brow furrowed in amused confusion. "Probably. Why do you ask?"
"Ve vere all terrified of you vhen you glared."
She laughed, almost feeling care-free. "Ah remember. Ah used to hear y'all whisperin' about mah 'death glares.' It was so funny that you guys were that terrified of me."
By then they were in the car and they drove off to the grocery store, some of the happier moments of their adolescence coming up in conversation for once.
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So, ummm... yeah. That's it... the latest chapter! Don't forget to vote in the name the disclaimer contest! Caleb, Nicodemus, Pickadilly, Houdini, Daniel. Pick one! This is the last chapter open to voting.
Next Chapter: The big dinner with the good neighbours!
Sorry about the wait!
Shout outs: This is the fast version, so you'll get to read this faster.
Everyone: I love you all! Please review again! It is only your support that keeps this story alive! *cookies to all*