Rogue woke up with a gasp, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. Suddenly a pair of glowing red eyes appeared in the dark. Instead of screaming, those eyes immediately set her at ease.
She was with Remy.
"Hey." Rogue said.
"Hey chere. You okay?" Remy asked, a small note of concern threading into his voice.
"Yea. Just didn' know where ah was there for a second." Rogue replied.
"Den we go back to sleep, non? It is way to early t' be awake." Remy told her as he closed his own eyes.
Rogue opened her mouth to reply just as the sound of her cell phone ringing burst the relative peace of the moment. Grumbling, Rogue reached and grabbed her jacket off the floor. Retrieving her cell phone for the pocket, Rogue answered.
"Where the hell are you Stripes?" A gruff voice demanded on the other end of the line.
"Logan?" She asked, her sleep fogged brain still trying to deal with being awake.
Her answer came in the form of a low growl.
"Good morning to you too sugah." Rogue replied, stiffling a yawn.
"Where are you?" Each word was carefully pronounced and drawn out as if Logan was speaking to a very slow individual.
"Umm..." Rogue looked at Remy who was pretending to sleep, "I'm not too sure. Just a second and ah'll ask."
Rogue placed her hand over the phone, muffling the angry noises coming from it, and threw a pillow at Remy to get his attention. Remy simply snatched the pillow as it flew at him, never opening his eyes as he did so.
"Where are we?" She whispered.
"We be at Remy's place. But Remy don't think he be wantin' ya to go tellin' the grump on de phone where dat is."
"Well at least tell me what city we're in!" Rogue ground out.
"New York, of course."
Rogue glared at the cocky Cajun, seeing his lips stretch into an insolent smirk as she uncovered the phone, "Logan? Ah'm in New York."
"You're with Gumbo, aren't you?" Logan accused.
"Yea." Rogue replied, choosing to add as little to this conversation as possible.
"Ask the thief if he knows why there were a bunch of people trying to sneak into your room last night." Logan growled out.
"What?" Rogue sat up.
"You had some unfriendly visitors last night. Seemed intent on getting into your room. Know why, darlin?"
"Shit." Rogue swore, "Logan, Ah'm on mah way back. We'll talk then."
"Hurry your butt up before I come find you." Logan said before hanging up.
"Problems at home, chere?" Remy drawled out the question.
"Yea. Someone tried to break in to the Institute last night. Specifically mah room. You know somethin' about this, Swamp Rat?" Rogue asked, struggling out from under the covers of the bed.
"Non. Remy didn' even know cher was home till last night." Remy said, finally opening his eyes, "Besides, if Remy had wanted somethin' from your room, Remy nevah would have been caught."
Rogue laughed, throwing the other pillow at him since she no longer needed it. This one actually hit. Remy gave her an offended look as he stood up from his chair.
There was a brief struggle for the keys to Remy's bike, but Remy refused to let Rogue drive his baby. Rogue lost the fight with as much grace as she could, settling for sticking her tongue out at him when his back was turned.
They drove to where her jeep was parked first. After going over it, between the two of them they decided that it hadn't been tampered with. But just in case, Remy offered to follow her back to the Institute. Rogue smiled, accepting.
Outside the school gates, Rogue stopped the jeep with a relieved sigh. Nothing had malfunctioned on her way home so she figured she'd say good-bye to Remy. As she opened the door, Remy pulled up along side her and got off his bike.
"Thanks Remy. I'd invite you is but..." Rogue gave a small, helpless shrug.
"No problem, cher. Remy understand." Remy said with a smirk, "So did y' have fun?"
"Fun?" Rogue asked, confused.
"On de date, cher."
"Date?" Rogue wasn't doing well in this conversation - she seemed to just keep repeating whatever Remy said.
"Last night. Our date. Did y' have fun?" Remy asked, clearly enjoying her confusion.
"That wasn' a date, ya dumn Swamp Rat!" Rogue yelled in shock.
"Non? Chere told Remy to meet her under de moonlight in der special spot. Remy bought y' dinner an' den Rogue spent de night wit' Remy. How's dat not a date?" Remy asked, fake innocence oozing out of him.
"We were runnin' for our lives and you bought me McDonald's hamburgers!" Rogue retorted.
"Cher, cher, cher. You be avoidin' Remy's question. Y' have fun last night?" Remy said, shaking his head.
Rogue just glared at him, trying to think of something to say, amusement and anger warring in her in a way that only happened when she was talking to Remy. Finally amusement won and she laughed.
"Yea sugah, I had fun." Rogue admitted.
"Good. Though, Remy admits dat de date wasn't de greatest, considering' de people wit' the guns. Next time, Remy gets to pick de night's entertainment." With a wink, he hopped back on to his bike.
"Wait! Next time?" Rogue said, bewildered again.
Remy just chuckled and put on his helmet and gunned his bike before driving off the way they'd come.
"Stupid Cajun." Rogue muttered, getting back into the jeep and driving it up to the school.
Logan stood on the front step, arms folded as he glared at her. Rogue knew that he could smell Remy on her and that he disapproved but they had already had this argument, several times, and she knew that he wasn't going to bring it back up again. At least not yet. She hated the fact that Logan didn't approve of Remy and he knew that. Logan was more than just a friend to her and his approval meant a lot to her but for some reason she just wasn't willing to give up the Cajun's friendship. Maybe it was stupid, maybe Logan was right and the thief couldn't be trusted, but it was something that she wanted. And if it was a mistake, it was her mistake, freely made with eyes wide open. There was something very refreshing about that.
"You okay, Stripes?" Logan asked as she walked up.
"Yea. Long night. Think I might have met the guys who were tryin' ta get in here las' night."
Logan just raised an eyebrow at her and she told him what had happened last night. She told him as much as she could remember and explained why she had ended up spending the night at Remy's.
"Books?" Logan asked.
"Ah've been thinkin' about that." Rogue said, thinking, "The only books I could think of that I have are a couple paperbacks back in England. Nothing that anyone couldn' find at any bookstore. But I did get Irene's diaries. Maybe there was something in them that someone wanted. After all, she was involved with people like Mystique. Maybe that's what they are after."
Logan nodded, "Where are they?"
"In my room." Rogue replied.
"We should take a look at them, see if there's anything in there that people would want." Logan suggested.
"I don't know. That's the thing. I was reading them earlier, but parts are written in another language. I don't recognize it. Maybe you will." Rogue said, heading up towards her room.
"What if we grab those books and go talk to Chuck. He might recognize it or know something that would explain this." Logan said, following her up the stairs.
In her room, Rogue grabbed her carry-on bag and did a quick check to make sure all the books were still there. Together, Rogue and Logan went in search of Xavier. They found him in his office, looking over some papers.
"Ah. Logan. Rogue. How may I help you?" The Professor asked as they came in.
"We think we might know what those guys were after last night, Chuck." Logan began before retelling the Rogue's story.
"Hmm. May I see one of these diaries?" Xavier asked Rogue.
Rogue grabbed one of the latest diaries, almost entirely written in the strange language, and handed it over. Xavier took it and carefully opened it. He studied several pages, flipping through them and stopping occasionally.
"Interesting. This isn't anything I recognize. With your permission Rogue, I'd like to let Hank take a look at this. He may be able to decipher the writing here." Xavier asked.
Rogue looked at the book, hating to let it out of her sight now that she knew people wanted it but still knowing that they needed Beast's help and that meant let letting him have at least one diary for a while.
"Rogue, I can promise you that we will do our best to make sure that no harm comes to the diaries while they are in our care." Xavier said, sensing his old student's hesitation.
Rogue looked Xavier in the eye and nodded, "I know Professor. I've think I've just gotten paranoid over the years."
Logan snorted at that and Rogue glared.
In the end she gave Beast three of the books. The first and the last of the set, plus one of the middle ones. The rest she kept, planning on reading the parts that she could in the library. She had gotten through most of the first one on the plane so she didn't think that she'd be too lost reading the second. Beast had promised to return the books as soon as he had scanned all the pages into the computer. He didn't actually need the books themselves after that. He had suggested leaving the entire collection with him but Rogue just couldn't bring herself to do that. She didn't understand it, but she knew that these were important and there was a reason Irene had left them with her.
Rogue didn't know how long she spent in the library, pouring over Irene's diaries. She was frustrated by the vague hints in the parts that she could understand. She was able to piece together that the journals took place over a relatively short amount of time - just over a year. Each book seemed to represent a new month.
13 journals. 13 months. Starting when Irene was 13 years old.
Now if only 13 wasn't considered an unlucky number.
What Rogue could read described a terrified young girl, slowly losing her sight and suddenly being flooded by images that appeared in her mind. No one was able to explain what was happening to her. There was no Xavier or Magneto to swoop to the rescue and explain what she was becoming. There was no one to help her through it at all and the young teenager was forced to deal with everything on her own.
Apparently Irene was experiencing some sort of black outs as well during this time because her writing also indicated some confusion over what she had written. Lines like,
'2 days! I've been out of it for 2 days now and all I have to show for it is more of this weird writing about...well, that stuff in my head. At least, that's what I think its about.'
were regularly scattered through the books.
With a sigh, Rogue finally got up and stretched. She grimaced as her joints popped back into place. Deciding she needed a breath of fresh air, Rogue collected the books and threw them back into her carry-on and headed outside.
As she walked out onto the grounds she was surprised to see the sun had long since set and the stars were beginning to appear. With a guilty thought, she realized she should have called home to check on things today. She wasn't really worried, they had her cell number and the number of the Institute if they needed her, but she was worried about what might be happening to her house while she was away. Memories of other's parties that had been thrown by teenagers when the adults were away, especially one famous one thrown by the X-Men, flitted through her mind.
As she was standing there, she looked up and saw a raven circling in the sky. Its black wings seemed to absorb the last remaining light of the day into them and she wondered what type of prey it was circling.
"Rogue!" Logan's gruff voice yelled from inside the house, pulling her attention away from the bird above.
Rogue took one last breath of the night air before heading back in to the house to talk to Logan.
"Hey Stripes," Logan said as soon as he saw her, "Blue said he was done with these and you can have them back."
Rogue took back the three diaries and added them to the rest. With a small yawn, she decided that it was time to call it a night and head to bed. She could tackle the weird mysteries tomorrow.
Rogue sleepily reached out for her phone and pulled it into the warm nest of blankets with her.
" 'ello?" She answered, never once opening her eyes.
"Hello chere." From the other end of the line came the entirely too cheerful voice of a certain Cajun.
"Remy?" Rogue asked in disbelief, groggily opening her eyes to glance at the clock, "Remy, it's 3 in the mornin'. This better be a bloody emergency or I'm goin' ta kill ya."
"Aw Roguey. You aren't asleep already? And here I though y' be a night owl like Remy." Rogue swore she could see the stupid smirk on his face.
"Remy..." Rogue growled into the phone, too tired to think of a good threat.
"An' after Remy went snoopin' for y' an' averyt'ing."
"Snoopin'?" Rogue asked, waking up a little.
"Yep. Found out some interestin' stuff dat I t'ink y' might want t' know." Remy's voice was now serious and Rogue was fully awake.
"What?"
"Not over d' phone chere. Remy not sure he trust it." Rogue's eyes widened at that.
"Where and when." She asked, already fighting to untangle herself from the sheets.
"Remy thinkin' now be good." At that Rogue was able to roll free and looked out her window to see a familiar motorcycle at the Institute gates.
"Be right down." Rogue said, turning off the phone and grabbing the pair of jeans that she'd worn earlier that day from the floor. She grabbed her jacket and, as a last thought, the carry-on bag with the diaries before leaving. Using a touch of both Jean's and Kitty's powers, Rogue phased through the wall and flew towards Remy, landing behind him on the bike.
Remy just shook his head and threw her a helmet before taking off into the night.
Rogue sat and looked out over the sea. Next to her sat Remy. Behind them stretched out a graveyard, rows of solemn blocks of stone silently bearing witness to an old loss and the pain that came with it. They had driven here, Remy taking side roads and round about ways to get there to make sure they weren't being followed.
"So, what did ya find out?" Rogue asked.
"Remy did some checkin' today. Wanted to know who was doin' all de shootin'. And I heard about Irene." Remy sad, sympathetically, "Dat why you be back in town chere?"
Rogue nodded, not sure how to respond to the concern she saw in those serious red eyes.
"I t'ink Irene was murdered." Remy said.
"What?" Rogue asked, confused.
"De cops didn' look dat hard into her death but Remy t'ink she was poisoned. Remy took a look at de autopsy report once he found out that she died. Irene was one healthy fille. She had no reason to just die like dat." Remy explained.
"But...then why ain't the cops lookin' into it?" Rogue asked angrily.
"Because dey t'ink she was a sick lady dat didn't tell no one she was sick. She had been havin' some health problems recently accordin' t her doctor. She had been making sure her will an' evert'ing was in order recently. She even had her lawyer start takin' care of t'ings before she was even dead." Remy answered.
Rogue listened, stunned, "But...I thought ya said she was healthy? What were the health problems that she had?"
"I don't know, cher. De doctor dat gave dat report is gone missing on Remy. No one knows where de man gone to and the police reports all just say dat de woman had miscellaneous health issues recently. Dey figured dat she knew she was goin' t' die soon and was just takin' care of t'ings herself rather than tell people she be sick."
"She was a precog. She probably did...Oh my Gawd. Remy, she knew she was going ta be murdered and all she did was arrange her will." Rogue said, getting lost in her own thoughts as she tried to absord everthing Remy had just said.
"Der be more chere." Remy said, recapturing her attention.
"What?"
"De neighbors, dey seen a lot of strangers in white vans down der for awhile around de time dat Irene died. Strangers dat seemed awfully curious about d' dead woman's family and friends."
"Those men last night." Rogue stated, knowing it had to be them, whoever they were.
Rogue stared at the sea, taking in what Remy had said and turning it over in her mind to try and catch all the implications of it. She could feel the weight of the cemetery at her back but she refused to turn away from the swelling waves crashing against the rocks again and again. Somewhere, in another cemetery, Irene lay under one of those blocks of stone. It suddenly seemed wrong that she didn't know where that particular marker was or even what was written upon it. Was it just a name and a couple dates? Was there anything to indicate to those passing the sheer importance of the woman who once foretold the future? Or was it just as forgettable as all the others?
And were her real parents out there somewhere, dead as well – in similarly unknown tombs like Irene?
"Remy?"
"Yea chere?"
"Do you know who you're parent's were?" Rogue asked.
"Non. Remy just know the people that adopted him." Remy replied, seemingly unphased by the change in topic.
"Me either." Rogue said, before adding quietly, "I guess ah never really...cared...until right now."
"Why's that chere?"
"I'm not sure. But I wonderin' if they ever loved me and why they gave me up. Where they are now. That kinda thang."
"Remy's pretty sure that his parents gave him up wit out t'inking too hard about it. De amazin' thin' is dat de just didn't kill 'im when de first saw his eyes." Remy said, trying to make it sound light hearted but Rogue heard the old pain in his voice.
"Ah can't understand that. Ah love your eyes. They make you, you. And you were their child. All the more reason to love 'em."
"Rogue, people count der chill'en's fingers and toes just to make sure dat de be normal. Remy doubt anyone'd want a child wit eyes like Remy's."
"What about your foster-father?"
"Jean-Luc? He be special, non? It be a miracle that Remy ever meet his pere. Remy probably still be livin' on de streets if Jean-Luc hadn't found 'im."
"Ah doubt that. Ya got a way of charmin' yourself into anyplace ya want t' be." Rogue said with a small grin.
"Remy learned dat from his pere though, non? De streets are not dat easy to escape from." Remy said, shaking his head solemnly.
"What was it like?" Rogue asked hesitantly.
"Dat be an awfully personal question chere."
"Ya don't have to say if ya don't want."
Remy glanced at her quickly before looking back out over the sea, "De streets were bad. Remy was cold an' hungry all de time. And der was always someone bigger and stronger, ready t' take anyt'ing you might have. Livin' like dat ain't good for anyone. Remy done a lot dat he's not proud of in his past and a lot of it was on de streets, tryin' to survive. Jean-Luc seemed like a godsend t' Remy an' most o' de happiest times of my life be while livin' under dat roof. Remy almos' wish he could go back der."
"I'm sorry." Rogue said, knowing enough from previous conversations with Remy to know that for some reason New Orleans was closed to him.
"Non. Not'in' for you t' be sorry about."
"Ah shoul'n't have brought it up."
"Remy didn' have to answer your question, chere."
Rogue looked at the man sitting next to her. He was that same dashing flirt of a Cajun that everyone else saw, but she knew that it was just a mask. Underneath, peaking out was a lost and frightened little boy. She could see that little boy more clearly as he talked about his days on the street than ever before. There were things going on behind those enigmatic eyes of his, memories of pain that he wasn't willing or able to share with her. Things that were making his confident mask slip a little and show more vulnerability than ever before.
Rogue knew that for anyone, Remy's life would be a hard one to live but for him, with his empathy, it had to be so much harder. To actually feel the full extent of the hatred and loathing others felt for mutants, to feel all the pain and anguish in the people around him. It was amazing to her that he was still sane.
In so many ways they were two sides of the same coin. They were unwanted by their biological parents, fostered by criminals that tried to pass of their sins to their adopted children. And both of their powers allowed them insights into humanity that others were lacking. With a simple touch, Rogue could know a complete stranger more intimately than her oldest friend. And no one, no matter how hard they tried, would ever be able to fool Remy about how they really felt, no matter what pretty words of eloquent actions they put out for the rest of the world to see. He would always feel the truth.
She had thought once, back in England, that this was the reason he flirted with anything that moved. Where Rogue pushed others away, Remy had pulled people closer, desperately seeking acceptance and love from those around him. He flirted with girls, and even the occasional guy, and had all sorts of casual flings so that he could feel that acceptance, if only for a moment.
It scared her to think of him as a child of the streets. There were too many people who would not hesitate to prey on a child like him. She had a feeling that someone had, at least once, in his past. She wanted to kill the person that had done that to him, that had broken some part of him so badly that even now she could tell it wasn't completely mended.
Rogue looked away from Remy to stare beck out at the sea. Silently she sent out a prayer, like she had done every day for the kids she had back in England, that she would not be the one to fail him next. That by helping her, she wasn't going to dump all her problems in his lap and add any more pain to his life.
Together they sat and watched the sun come up over the sea.
Another day.
AN: Okay, first of all, I'm going to send out a HUGE thank you to Mercural1 who voluteered to beta for me. She is super awsome and made this chapter so much better. All mistakes are totally mine, probably cheerfully put in by me after she spent all the time taking fixing my old ones.
Blink182dbzluver - not sure this counts as a fast update. But hey, its an update.
khay - hee. Glad you liked that scene there. I kept having this image of Remy and Rogue yelling at each other and ignoring the bad guys while writing it.
sweet-chick3 - thanks! I love fan fics but it seems that occasionally the only way to find what I really want to read is to write it myself. Which sucks, because I don't want to do all the work. sigh Oh well, at least other people seem to be enjoying this too.
ishandahalf - ooh, you know, you keep waving those stars at me and I'm going to take a lesson from Remy and just steal them. I think that would be easier. As for a Remy POV...you'll just have to wait and see evil laughter
Katrina5 - thanks! I love it when people are enjoying my stories. Glad you like the characters so far!
Panther Nesmith - Dude! So I just realized that you are the author that had me crying the other night! Your story 'Gone to the Movies' was brutal. Anyways, I think you are now on my favorites list
Rogue4787 - um...the Collosus power thing. I didn't think of it when I was writing it. And then your comment got me thinking. Collosous's clothes don't rip when he changes. Why do Rogue's? And I definaltly remember her clothes being all torn up in the show...Male sexist plot? hee hee. Sorry, too more Feminist Political Theory for me lately.
snow queen2 - Thank you!
JerseyGirl03 - I will try to update soon. But, as much as I love this story, I promised myself I would finish my SM fic someday so I have to write a chapter of that before I can write another chapter of this.
Mercurial1 - Once again I grovel at you feet and say thank you.