Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters; please don't sue me I am a poor college student. I am not making any money off of this and I am just writing it for the benefit of my own entertainment as well as the entertainment of the other fans out there. Also, this is a story from my own imagination, any resemblance to real life events, or even those in fiction is completely coincidental. As an additional note, there are so many fan fiction stories out there on this site as well as others, so any similarity is coincidental or great minds just happen to think alike
Note: I apologize for the spacing and random indents and anything of the sort. When the pages are loaded onto this site everything seems to get a bit messed up. I noticed that single lines get double spaced randomly. Sorry about that.
Through the Years
Part III
Chapter Nine: Family Gatherings
After her talk with Remy, Rogue found the strength to go back to work. She had to go. Not for economic reasons, Destiny had certainly left her enough money as an inheritance, but she loved what she did. If anything could help her get back into her daily routine, it was working at something she loved. The guys at the auto shop were saddened by the news of the miscarriage. The boss even told her to take a few more days off, but she insisted on starting up again right away.
Life eventually went on as usual for the LeBeaus. Hank went back to New York after Rogue was doing better, Rogue worked at the auto shop all day and Gambit made an effort to do better around the house. In fact, for the first time in a long time, life was actually normal for Gambit and Rogue. They were just two newlyweds who went about their daily lives, no signs of anything out of the ordinary.
The months came and went fairly uneventfully. Thanksgiving was spent at the Mansion with many of their friends. Both Gambit and Rogue secretly said thankful prayers for having each other, for their friends' safety, and being together for the holiday. During the meal the conversations were as lively as always. Bobby made one joke after another, some met by laughter and others by groans. Jubilee talked non-stop about the adventures she was having in college. The Professor had encouraged her to expand her horizons beyond life at the Mansion, so the young woman had started college a few years ago. Now at 21, she was nearing graduation and planned to become an instructor at the Institute. Jubilee couldn't imagine herself in command of a class, and up until more recently, neither could anyone else. But she had proven herself time and time again to be a responsible adult. Of course, the mutant scanning technology was a hot topic of conversation around the Thanksgiving turkey despite the fact that it hadn't made headlines in months.
"It's ironic to think that this technology comes as a blessing to some humans and a curse to all mutants," Beast mentioned during dessert. "As Ralph Waldo Emerson said 'To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.'"
"Oui mon ami," Gambit nodded in agreement while passing the plate of cookies, "but as Jean-Paul Sartre said 'Hell is other people' and t'mutant haters are creatin' our own personal Hell." The other people at the table starred at their friend for a minute, no one thought of Gambit to be the type of person who was familiar with the works of Existentialists such as Sartre. He noted them staring at him, "What," he said with a smile, "Gambit not allowed t'read big books like Beast?" Rogue had to keep herself from laughing; she knew exactly what Gambit wasn't telling them. She always encouraged her husband to tell the others his secret but she knew he had to do that when he felt the time was right.
But even Gambit's surprising knowledge of Existentialist works wasn't the most talked about event around the Thanksgiving table. After dinner Jean-Grey and Cyclops made an announcement. They were going to have a baby! They had known since earlier in the month, but they wanted to wait until everyone was gathered before sharing the news. Her due date was in July. Everyone congratulated them on their happiness, but Gambit knew that hearing their friends' announcement was killing Rogue. She hugged Jean and Scott and expressed happiness, but Gambit knew that if the news of their friend's baby made him a bit jealous and sad, then it must be tearing Rogue apart.
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Just as Thanksgiving was over, the weeks of holiday gift shopping commenced and before Rogue could call Gambit "Swamp Rat," Christmas had arrived. For Christmas, Wolverine, Iceman, Storm, Beast, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, Jean-Grey, Cyclops, and Professor Xavier spent the holidays in Valle Soleada. Jubilee was probably the most excited about getting away from all the snow in New York, and spending the holidays basking in the sun instead of shoveling snow. Wolverine reminded her that she never shoveled anyway; rather she used her pyrotechnic powers to melt the snow whenever it was her turn to be part of the snow removal crew. He also said that if he really wanted a white Christmas like what he was use to from his homeland of Canada, he could probably convince Storm to give him a hand with that. Whenever he saw Jubilee grab her towel and suntan lotion he would tease her by telling her that he was going to have Storm make it snow on the beach. The constant bustle of activity kept everyone busy and happy. Food was devoured, cards were sent, gifts were exchanged, but nothing beat the gift of love and friendship that filled the walls of that little house on the beach in Valle Soleada.
The mutant scanning technology still had not made any advancements since its initial announcement in March, but that did not stop Professor X, aka Charles Xavier, from thinking about the future. Because of the impending threat of anti-mutant groups gaining DNA scanning technology, he wanted to set up an actual school system on the Institute grounds. Many outspoken anti-mutant leaders, especially those involved with the Friends of Humanity which was the largest, most bigoted anti-mutant group of all, were lecturing about how with this technology they would one day be able to eradicate the "mutant threat from all aspects of daily life." Those words stung the X-men: how were mutants a threat to daily life, all they wanted was to be left alone to live out their lives just like everyone else? Buzz around Washington DC and other places of power suggested that the scanning technologies, once perfected, would be used in school systems to prevent mutant children from receiving an education. It was easier for these groups to weed out children than risk going head-to-head with full grown adult mutants, such as the X-men. When that time came, Charles Xavier wanted to make sure that the children barred from a regular education had someplace to go.
The Professor made a passionate speech at the table during Christmas dinner on this subject: "It is imperative for them to be educated. If the regular public school system could find a way to prohibit mutant children from receiving an education, then we HAVE to be ready for that. If we are to be ready for that, we must have a plan of action NOW, before it is too late. It is our duty to not only educate young mutants about their powers, but feed their minds as well." His idea was to expand the operations of the Institute into an entire enclosed school system. Since the original concept of the Institute was that of a school for "gifted youngsters," a diploma from Xavier's School was as legitimate as a diploma from any other school. Why not find away to expand operations from a small training facility to larger private school system for mutant children? This was very close to the original concept of the school, but with a small catch; not all the children in the school would be X-men, at least if they did not want to be. Young mutants could just attend the school if they felt uncomfortable in a regular, predominantly non-mutant school system.
All the X-men who lived in and near the mansion were ready to start the ball rolling. He already had enough X-men to serve as teachers, now it was just a matter of seeing who was certified to do what. After all, Xavier did not want to lose operations of the school if word leaked out that unqualified teachers were giving instruction, whether he fell under private school status or not. Xavier was ready to go above and beyond with this project. Both he and Hank had PhDs in genetics, perfect for any advance science instruction; there was no questioning their credentials. Over the years some of the other X-men had gone to college, many had never completed their studies due to their superhero activities, but a number of them did hold degrees. Xavier's plan was that since it would take a few years to get the school where he wanted, he would have any of the X-men interested in teaching go back to school and receive the necessary training. When the day came that mutant haters prevented young mutants from going to school, Xavier would be ready for them, and all bases would already be covered. Knowing that mutant powers didn't usually manifest until puberty, the bulk of the students would be between the ages of 13-18 or mostly high school aged kids. This age range was younger than that of most of the X-men when they came to the Institute. Most were in their late teens and early twenties when they first came to the school. Of course there were exceptions, Rogue was 15 when she left the Brotherhood to join Xavier and Jubilee had been younger still. Xavier asked Gambit and Rogue to come back to join their mission in New York, but the LeBeaus has turned the offer down, despite the Professor's offer to pay for any college classes necessary. Rogue said that the offer was very generous, and Gambit's face revealed some sort of expression that Xavier couldn't decode. No one saw this look but Xavier and he planned to corner the Cajun about it later.
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Author's Note- Wow, I thought that people might stop reading this story after the last chapter. I was afraid that no one would give it a chance to continue to build and eventually explain things. So thanks for sticking with me! :-) I'd like to thank you all again for reading this, it really means a lot to me:-)
T-Yeah, I can't imagine them not being there for each other either, especially after surviving all the other drama they've seen in the past.
Tammy- Well Beast is one of the most brilliant scientific minds of all the X-men, at least in my opinion, so you never know if he might come up with something… ;-)
Star-of-Chaos- EEK! Don't mind me; I am hiding from your glare :-P That "Remy residue" phrase came out of nowhere, I really don't know where in my brain that came from.
Ishandahalf- Ok, magic acid it is! So we have a few members, a tree house, and a moat with magic acid. Sounds good to me!:-) And since I am hiding from Star-of-Chaos's glare, I am also hiding from your threatening shaking fist! Also, I am glad I was able to lift the mood a bit in the last chapter, I couldn't just leave it all depressing like that, it would be too sad! And I can totally see Gambit doing something like that with the names, he seems like the type of guy to do anything he can to make his Rogue feel better.