Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 24

Chapter 6: That Little Dress

An hour after Piotr had walked out, Kitty Pryde found herself summoned to the Professor's office on the ground floor of the mansion. She stepped in quietly for the second time that day, "you wanted to see me?" she asked, trying to keep her voice light and trying to hide her upset. Now that Piotr had walked out, and the anger had melted away, Kitty felt a great sadness, although the strange feeling that this was all for the best had not left her alone.

"One of the students reported yelling from upstairs – a lot of swearing involved," the Professor admitted.

"Sorry, Professor," Kitty chewed her lip, "Won't happen again," she said, she looked at him and hoped he would not ask her anymore questions regarding this, and he seemed to respect her wishes. She wondered if he had read her mind.

"Actually," the professor said, "that wasn't the reason I asked you to come down, but I just decided I might – as you young ones say – kill two birds with one stone," he smiled, "earlier I was discussing I have a little task to keep you occupied with until maternity leave," he reminded.

"Does that mean I can't teach until after maternity leave?" Kitty queried.

"No, I just, know that you'll find it hard to fill your days with so much free time due to the absence of danger room training in your schedule," he smiled, "I don't want you in there anymore," he explained, "not until a LONG time after the baby is born," he added.

"Okay, so…what's this about?" Kitty asked.

The Professor gestured towards the window, the sun was leaking in through the vertical blinds of the large window. Kitty moved over and stared outside, squinting in the light. The students were outside playing baseball on the field, using it as a makeshift pitch, laughing amongst themselves.

"You want me to coach them for baseball?" she raised an eyebrow.

"No, look on the benches away from the pitch," the Professor suggested.

Kitty stared towards the benches, and she blinked a little in surprise, a tiny young girl was sitting on the very bench, her feet dangling over the edge, her brown sandals skimming the grass ever so slightly. She had straight tawny blonde hair. Kitty could not see the girls face, but she would surmise the girl must be around five years old. "The kid?"

"She's our newest student," the Professor explained. "Jessie Crowell," he added, "she came in from Chicago today…orphaned at the age of two."

"Oh…" Kitty felt somewhat like crying all of a sudden. She always felt so sad to see a child parentless, especially one so young.

"She was in an orphanage these last four years," the Professor explained,

"Oh…that's…so sad…" Kitty swallowed the lump forming in her throat.

"She's a lot younger than the others, and I don't think she'll be able to…connect with them, and she's too young to be included in their classes and their training. I was thinking perhaps, with all the spare time you will have on your hands, maybe you would like to tutor her, and care for her."

"Really?" Kitty asked, somewhat touched the Professor thought of her to take on this challenge. "So…she's…a mutant?"

"Yes," the Professor responded, he looked down a file that was on his desk, he skimmed it with the blunt end of a lavish pen with his initials engraved on it, "there aren't too many details on the subject but the administrator at the orphanage who I met with told me she can create spheres of lightning…she…absorbs electricity almost like Rogue can absorb mutant power."

"Absorbing electricity, wow…she's only…what, six?"

"It is almost frightening to believe a child of six years old can hold the power of lightning in her hands, isn't it," the professor said grimly. "I was told her powers can be a little unstable, but she has not hurt anymore seriously…"

Kitty nodded, "What kind of stuff would I have to do?"

"Same as you do with the other students in the danger room, teach focus, discipline and control with the power. Help the child relax to her new surroundings, help with her schooling."

"How educated is she?" Kitty asked.

"She's very bright for her age," the Professor said, "incredibly clever indeed," he smiled, "she managed to read the name 'Professor Charles Xavier' from a folder on my desk, and she can tell the time perfectly from a clock with roman numerals," he gestured to the clock on the mantle.

Kitty smiled a little, already beginning to forget her woes for the moment, "can I go out and talk to her?"

"Of course," the Professor gave a nod.

"Thanks, Professor," Kitty said softly, she realised he understood that her way of dealing with emotion was to keep busy so she could heal from it faster – unlike the others who had always claimed she had to face her problems, he'd decided to give her something to keep her mind off of them. She was thankful for that.

The Professor nodded, as if he'd read her mind, "you're welcome."

Rogue and Remy stepped through the mansion doors, and Remy noticed at once the bad atmosphere seemed to have entirely ebbed away. Laughter echoed around the foyer from the kitchen, and there were some teenaged female students standing in the foyer discussing something, giggling and smiling at the subject.

Monet was one of those students, she was neither laughing nor saying anything, but seemed to find the subject fascinating enough to stay and listen to it with the other girls. She glanced over to Rogue as Rogue and Remy entered the foyer, raising one very inquisitive eyebrow regarding Rogue's very short sundress.

Rogue felt her cheeks flush scarlet, and found herself wondering how much the Student's had seen of Carol in the last three weeks. If this was the kind of attire Carol would buy and wear, what else had she perhaps worn. Rogue felt suddenly very disgraced, and ashamed of her own body, and felt perhaps that she'd been betrayed by her body too.

"Good afternoon, Rogue," Monet said in a very light tone, but she reserved a very small smile that seemed to indicate some very slight amusement.

"What're you smirkin' at?" Rogue asked, feeling suddenly quite hostile again. She'd thought after the situation in Genosha, that Monet might change her attitude.

"C'mon, Chere," Remy put his hand on Rogue's back, his fingers caressing the lacy material as if perhaps he'd never touched the fabric before in his life. When Rogue turned, to see why he'd touched her back with such a tender yet suspicious linger, he was smiling somewhat slyly.

"Fine," Rogue uttered under her breath, she headed towards the staircase, Remy following her slowly.

When they got to the hallway that was the beginning of the women's dormitory, Remy spoke, "are you okay?"

"Of course, I'm okay," Rogue sighed, "I just…I don't know, I feel weird…I mean… this dress is something Carol would wear – or did wear – and my students must have been looking at me as if…I don't know, I were some kind of loose woman."

Remy patted her backside, "girls were jealous, boys droolin'. They knew the situation, Rogue, they all knew about your past with Carol Danvers, they were warned by Jean and the Professor…"

Rogue sighed, "I feel so…I don't know, exposed, like, I don't know, all my dirty laundry has been hung out for everyone to see," she said with a strange shiver. It made her feel very uneasy, very violated in some way.

"That's not true," Remy said softly, "go take a shower, do your hair, get all dressed up nice and fancy, I'm going to take you out for dinner tonight, a nice relaxing evening, just the two of us, to celebrate your being yourself again."

"Oh, yeah?" Rogue folded her arms stubbornly, "and what the hell am I going to wear? Everything in the closet shows more skin than a see through bikini."

"Well…" Remy paused, "there's a very nice pinky-purple type dress with a little strap and buckle under the bust that's very…appealing," she said, he thought back to seeing how Carol had wore that same dress, how stunning Rogue's body had looked in it. And although his thoughts were screaming at him that he was meant to be tapering off from his relationship with Rogue rather than trying to ignite more flames of passion within himself for her, he could not help but want her all the more knowing that now his time with her was limited. A month had seemed like a lot at the time he'd made the deal, but now, it seemed as if it was barely enough to do as he'd planned.

"There is?" Rogue asked, "you…actually want me to dress like that? God, why does that creep me out…you wanting me to dress like your ex-girlfriend…"

"Carol didn't dress like that when I went out with her…" Remy responded, "and it's the classiest thing you probably own right now…besides…I couldn't help but…stare when Carol wore it on your body."

Rogue swallowed, it definitely made her feel uneasy, but at the same time, something intrigued her. Since she'd followed him to the store, all the way home he'd been very romantic, if not somewhat suggestive. The way he touched her, brushed his fingers against the fabric of her dress, and now asking her to wear something he found attractive.

"You sure it won't make you nervous being around me with so much of my skin exposed?" she asked anxiously.

Remy looked away, and his thoughts slid to seeing Rogue – with Carol Danvers in domination of her body – being taken against the counter in the staff bathroom of Asylum. It did make him wonder if perhaps after Betsy's mind games, that Rogue might have gained some slight control over her powers, and it was enough to ease his mind about being close to her, especially with so much exposed skin. He shook off the hatred for Carol and the disgust and dismay of what she'd done to Rogue's body, and he turned back to Rogue, forcing a smile, "Of course."

"Alright…" Rogue finally agreed.

Remy watched her disappear into his room, his heart was thudding a little more quickly – not from thinking of seeing her in that beautiful dress, but from the fear that she might somehow find out Carol had used Rogue's body to sleep with the man who'd raped her.

The end (dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnn or is it?)

notes

Sorry this one took so long, you can blame the release of the game "The Sims 2" for the reason there hasn't been an update in so long – it's hard to stop playing once you start.

Thanks to everyone as usual, I want to sit and list everyone who's left an excellent review (or review at all for that matter) here to thank you all so much, but my time is limited, it's now 6.52 am and I need to get this uploaded and get some sleep, wake up, do my hair and leave to get a train to Glasgow – I'm going to see Sarah McLachlan live in concert (19th October, 7.30pm). My father wants to leave early because we're going Christmas shopping in Glasgow first so I'll upload this then go offline. I'll say a quick thanks to my wonderful friend Alex who always helps me out by researching and calculating things (such as the last time Remy had sex, etc). Big hi to everyone, hope you enjoy this episode, and I hope to have 25 up as soon as possible for you all.

Luv and hugs,

- Ash