--
Pyro screamed.
A syringe went flying.
Remy ducked behind a metal stool.
Hank staggered back.
A metal tray with a wrapper from a syringe and a needle went flying and hit the ground.
A sheepish Rogue sat on a table with the sleeve to her purple shirt rolled up. Her brows were arched up and her mouth formed an 'o' shape. "Opps."
"Who needs a bloody virus when you have her?" Pyro asked, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out his orange visor and slipped it on. "Need protection to be around this girl." He shot a look at Remy, who was now standing up, but still had the stool in front of him. "Right, mate?"
"Why are you still here?" Remy asked, tightening his jaw as he glared daggers at Pyro.
"Rogue, I hadn't even touched you with it yet. You certainly did scare me." Hank said, sighing. "I don't have time to deal with this. I have too much work to do."
"Good." Rogue unrolled her sleeve and hopped off the table. "I have things to see, people to do." No one bothered to correct her, although Remy was tempted to as he smirked at her. His smirk quickly faded.
"Wait, what if she has the virus? What if that's why her powers—"
"I'm not, all right? And you were Rem. For all we know, you can croak right now."
Pyro cleared his throat, "Which I'd rather you not since I did just sweep the floor for Hanky-Panky." He cleared his throat yet again, "Speaking of hanky-panky.."
"Pyro, would you be ever so kind and go get me a cup of coffee down from the kitchen." Hank asked.
"Are you tryin' to get rid of me?"
"Afraid so."
"Okay! As long as you're honest." Laughing, he skipped out of the room. Hank then looked at Rogue and Remy.
"We can take a hint, c'mon Rem."
"Actually, I'd like to obtain another blood sample from Gambit."
Rogue just shrugged, "Better him than me."
Remy smirked, walking over towards her, "C'mon Ro', I'll show you how a real man handles it."
--
"Baby." Rogue walked out of the medical wing, ahead of Remy who was rubbing his arm.
"It was a big needle." He stated, pressing the button to the elevator. "At least I didn't scream."
"No, but you did cry."
"I didn't cry." He pulled her towards him and locked his arm around her waist. He lowered his head down towards her. "And if I was, you're supposed to kiss my boo-boo."
Rogue cracked a smile, "You said boo-boo." She licked her lips as his head moved inward. On timing, the elevator doors opened. A pale, and frantic Pyro raced out.
"Where's Panky?" He asked, his eyes were wide as he walked into the doors that lead to the medical wing. They opened towards you, so when he walked into them, he fell back onto his back. "And where's—where's—Peeohmyowntar?"
"You all right?" Rogue asked, breaking away from Remy to help him up. What? Was Rogue showing concern for the dear pyromaniac? "I mean, not that you ever are in the right state of mind." Okay, maybe not.
"The gal with the red hair.." Pyro said slowly, staring up at the ceiling with an expressionless face. "Said that if Scott was dead, she was dead."
"Aw, damn. I'll go make sure she doesn't make a mess, Rem, you pick up Fire-boy." With a sigh, Rogue got onto the elevator.
"You all right?" Remy asked, helping his friend to his feet. "You don't look so good."
"I'm not sure."
Now, Remy was concerned.
--
"Here Jean." Rogue called, walking down the stairs, "C'mon girl." She walked around, not stopping the red head in the kitchen or in any of the downstairs rooms. Rogue brought her finger up to her chin, "Hmm. If I were an obsessive, suicidal psychopath where would I be? Other than in the psych ward?" The answer never came to her.
--
"Want a lollipop?"
"No."
"Candy?"
"No."
"Ice cream?"
"No."
"A foot massage?"
"No."
"A haircut?"
"N—what's wrong with my hair?" Pyro asked, patting the top of his wild, tangled up mop of hair. He was sitting against the wall, his pal Remy was seated next to him.
"Nothin'." Remy sighed, defeated. Something seemed out of place with Pyro. "Penny for your thoughts?" He tried.
"Where's the penny?" Pyro asked, his expression solemn.
"It's an expression."
"But where's the penny?" It dawned on him. "Oh, the penny is the expression?"
"Yeah."
"I was thinkin' about the red headed gal." John said after a few minutes of silence. "She looked depressed. Unhappy. Sad."
"Depressed people tend to look unhappy and sad, John." Remy pointed out, feeling he shouldn't have interrupted the pyromaniac. "She lost a team mate and her little one eyed lover." He felt better about interrupting after saying that, although he realized Scott did have two eyes but John probably didn't even know that.
"Would you kill yourself if Rogue died?" Pyro asked bluntly, turning to see the Cajun's expression.
Remy felt like killing himself when he had nearly killed Rogue when his powers first manifested. "I don't know." He answered, not wanting to tell him the truth, "I guess it would be under the circumstances."
John rolled his eyes, "You're just avoidin' the truth, mate."
"When did you become a psychiatrist?" Remy asked testily, darting his eyes forward. "Quit all the psych shit and just tell me why you're actin' all strange and sane."
"Just thinkin' 'bout the past an' all."
"Back when you lived in Australia?"
Pyro nodded numbly. In a beat, he stood up. "C'mon mate, let's go visit Panky!"
Remy's eye twitched. He watched Pyro wander off into the medical wing, not bothering to wait for his Cajun friend. He sighed heavily as he slowly suffered separation anxiety and just wished Rogue was sitting next to him.
As if on clue, the elevator door opened and Rogue walked out, "Couldn't find Jean." She said without much care or thought because the only good Jean is a MIA Jean, or even perhaps a dead Jean.
"She's probably tryin' to drown herself in a sink. Come here." Rogue walked over to him and was instantly pulled down. He wrapped his arms around her and sighed. "John depresses me."
"Really?" Rogue asked, shifting weight so she could sit sideways in his lap comfortably. "'Cause he annoys the hell out of me."
"That's because you don't know him." Remy mumbled, kissing the side of her mouth. "He has a serious side too, y'know."
Rogue shivered in his arms, which just made him tighten his grip around her. The skin-to-skin contact was making her paranoid; she kept thinking she could absorb him any second.
"You're tense." Remy stated as he softly kiss her jaw line. Inhaling deeply, Rogue relaxed. She rested herself against his chest with his chin resting on top of her head. After a few seconds of feeling his chest rise and then fall, Rogue fell into a slumber. Remy just smiled down at her. Just as his eyes started to close, the medical wing doors opened.
"Will you two get a room?" Pyro, who looked excited, now stared down at the two with a cocked brow.
"Shh. She's sleepin'." Remy hushed him, but Rogue stirred anyway.
"Not anymore."
Pyro just shrugged his shoulders. "C'mon. Panky is injectin' the blue hairball with something. He said he thinks it'll help 'im." Suddenly, he brought his hands up to his nose and whiffed them. He made a face and stuck out his tongue. "Oh, man! These little fellas smell like sardines."
"Did you eat sardines?" Remy dared to ask as Rogue got to her feet and then helped him to his.
"No." John answered curtly, as he shrugged again.
After exchanging glances with Rogue, Remy coughed, "I don't want to know. Lets just go see Panky—Hanky." He corrected himself, giving Pyro a stern look. He placed his hand on Rogue's lower back as they walked into the medical wing, leaving Pyro standing there.
"What?"
--
He looked like a blue, fuzzy stuffed animal.
Rogue stared down at Kurt, her eyes wide. "You're just goin' to experiment on him?" She asked, giving Pank—Hank an incredulous look. "That's no better than what they did to—"
"I already ran the formula with a blood sample I obtained by him, Rogue." Hank eyed the two Southerners. "And I believe there is something the three of us need to talk about." He referred to the fact that Remy had his arm around Rogue's shoulders and his bare arm was touching the skin on her neck.
--
"Were you treated differently than anyone else?" Hank stood in front of Remy, writing things down on a chart.
Remy shrugged his shoulders, glancing over at Rogue who was standing near the doorway. "I was treated like a mutant." Anger flashed in his crimson red eyes. "They did want to use Rogue and I to experiment differently." He shifted weight from one leg to the other as Rogue's eyes met his. He was reminded of Elvis. No, not by looking at Rogue. He was just reminded of the lad.
Hank raised a furry brow. "What do you mean differently?"
"Well, I could go find Trask and ask him to fresh my memory." Remy said, rolling his eyes. "I can't remember. It had something to do with just gettin' the royal treatment of dyin' from the damn virus."
"Gambit, It affected you differently.."
"Well, duh!" Rogue suddenly spoke up, taking a step forward. "We know that since he ain't lyin' on a bed, on a respirator waitin' to die. Stop tellin' us that an' just get to the damn details."
Remy smirked. That's my Rogue.
--
"Do you have any three's?" It was quite boring playing Go Fish when you have one card and the other person doesn't have that card.
"Not since the last time you asked." Piotr stated, "Sorry, comrade. Go fish. Do you have any queen's?"
Pyro flashed him his three of spades card. "Does it look like I have any queen's?"
"I was just asking." Piotr said, reaching down to pick up a card from the pile. "I will take that as a 'Go Fish,' if you do not mind."
Pyro sighed and leaned back in his chair as he flicked his card down. "I give up."
"Do you want to play another game?"
"I want to get out of here. I want to.." Pyro let out an aggravated sigh and threw himself on the ground. He just stayed there, on the ground, in a fetal position.
Piotr glanced at the card he had picked up; It was a threes card.
--
"You think it what his what?" Rogue asked, wrinkling up her nose in confusion. "Is that dangerous? Is he goin' to end up blowin' us up?" She looked over at Remy, "Do you know what he said?"
"The virus is weak, meaning the host has to be in a weakened form for the virus to take effect." Hank stated, wondering what was so hard about any of this. "Gambit was in tip-top shape. Instead, the virus just worked with his x-gene, advancing his powers."
Remy just nodded towards the Beast. "What he said."
"So, Rem is okay?" Rogue asked, unsure of what to say. When Hank nodded, Rogue hugged her dear Cajun. "You are never smokin' again."
"What does smokin' have to do with it?"
"Well, if I didn't lose you to a mutant killin' virus I sure ain't losin' you to cigarettes."
Hank just smiled at the couple. "I believe Remy's powers have created a force field of some sort not allowing you to absorb him." He cleared his throat, "Now, if you don't mind, I would like to go check up on Kurt."
--
Ororo tapped gently on Jean's bedroom door. "Jean?" She called out, opening the door. "How are you holding up, child?"
The red head was lying on her bed, holding Scott's glasses to her chest.
Ororo walked over to her, and shook her gently. "Jean?"
Jean wasn't going to wake up.
You know why?
Jean was dead.
Hold your applause, please.
--
He gently ran his fingertips down the side of her cheek. It just felt so soft, he found himself doing it repeatedly until Rogue pushed his hand away.
"I'm tryin' to sleep." Several hours later, Rogue was lying in her bed, trying to fall asleep, which wasn't working with a certain Cajun's hands always touching her skin. She was happy about that, but she couldn't shake off the eerie feeling of the skin-to-skin contact. "Rem?" She whispered, turning around to face him. He was sitting at the side of her bed and had been hovering above her.
"Yeah?"
"Are you goin' to join the X-Men?" She asked softly as she placed her hand over his.
"I-I don't know. Haven't thought about it." He answered, biting down on his lower lip. "Are you goin' to stay here?"
Rogue suddenly looked uncomfortable. A lump was forming in her throat as she sat up. "I like it here. I know it ain't really me, but the X-Men are sort of kind of like family to me." Her eyes darted down to her lap. "If I want to stay here, are you goin' to leave?"
Remy didn't answer.
--
The next chapter = epilogue.