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. I do claim the non-Marvel characters, such as the Williams family and the new offspring of the LeBeau and Summers families. Thanks!
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.
[[Text in these brackets denotes French.]]
Through the Years
Part V
Chapter Nineteen: Smoke and Fire
Life with a baby made time seem to fly by. Life with two babies in the X-men's ranks as well as the children of their neighbor and ally made time to seem to almost spin out of control. Holidays and birthdays were celebrated, everyday events were made even more special. First words and first steps surpassed any other events that could have pleased them in the past. The Xavier Institute of Education now had doubled its numbers from thirty to sixty and was preparing the first class for graduation and college. The 10 person graduating class made Xavier so proud because they finally were able to enjoy school and flourish personally without worrying about whether fellow students would persecute them for being mutants. With increasing numbers in the school it was getting harder for Hank, Jubilee, Bobby, and the Professor to keep up with the demands of the students as well as other responsibilities around the Mansion. To help with the mechanical and maintenance needs of the school as well as the upkeep of the sensitive equipment the X-men used, such as the Blackbird, Rogue and Wolverine were hired as the resident mechanics. Rogue was thrilled with the idea of getting back into the mechanic business. She had thought of looking into local garages, but when Xavier proposed this idea, she jumped at the chance. She could make her own schedule and didn't have to worry about being revealed as a mutant. Of course, the X-men had not lost its original purpose. Many members still were sent on missions. Some were on special assignments that kept them from the base for months or even years at a time. With family life changing Cyclops's life, Storm was given more responsibilities than she had in the past, not that Scott Summers would ever give up is role as leader of the X-men. Gambit also wanted to be considered part of the team, but did so as filling in as a teacher at the school when a substitute was needed, instead of going on life or death missions. Sure, it wasn't as heroic or as glamorous as his old missions were, but substituting would almost guarantee him getting home safely at night, depending on how rowdy the classes were.
During one lazy, spring, Saturday afternoon while putting the laundry into the washer, Rogue noticed something was different. In fact, she had noticed it for a while, but hadn't really had a chance to think about it. Usually laundry was done later at night while she was too tired to care, or done in a rush while Jessica was crying in the back round. In fact, more often than not, Remy was the one to do the laundry. But now that Jessica was spending the day with Logan and Remy, Rogue was able to get the things done around the house at a leisurely pace. Something about Remy clothes, something that suggested he was hiding something from her. There was something different about the smell on his clothing. She knew his scent and there was something different about it. And he may have been hiding this little secret of his for a while. And she was going to confront him about it. Tonight!
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Remy walked through the front door of the house carrying a giggling three year old on his shoulders. He thought that spending the entire day with him and Wolverine would have worn the youngster out, but it only wound her up more. Rogue wasn't going to be happy with that; they already had a difficult time getting their rambunctious child to bed as it was. She never wanted to go to bed, opting instead to stay up with her parents so that she wouldn't miss anything. Oh it didn't matter, they had a great day together.
It started off with a little father-daughter pancake breakfast in the morning while Rogue slept in. Next came the hard part, getting dressed for their day out, after all, as Bobby put it once, "Trying to put clothing on an exciting, squirming little child is like trying to put clothing on a live fish." After putting her in a T-shirt, jeans, and pulling her hair back with a red bandana, which was similar to the one he used himself to pull back his hair, which had grown longer lately almost to the length it was when he first joined the X-men, they were ready to go. Rogue might have been the professional mechanic in the family, but as a motorcycle owner, Remy LeBeau did know a thing or two about fixing them. Long ago when he still lived in the Mansion, he and Wolverine would spend hours just tinkering with their bikes, not only fixing problems, but doing anything they could to give them more power, or sometimes they'd fix up an old bike that they got from the local dump. That was what they were doing today. Logan had found a prime specimen ready for them to work on. Hand-in-hand, Remy and his daughter walked down to the Mansion garage where Logan was waiting for them. One would think that working in a garage on a motorcycle would be hard with a little girl under foot, but it wasn't. She seemed to enjoy holding the tools they gave her, sometimes Remy would hand Jessica a wrench and send her across the garage to Logan, who would pick the toddler up, and hold her in the air, thanking her for bring him the needed tool. When she seemed to get bored with this task, Logan brought out a surprise for his goddaughter: a tricycle and a plastic tool kit. Now she could fix up her bike "Just like Poppa an' Uncle Wolvie!" A few hours passed while the two men worked on their restoration and the little girl "fixed" her trike. At lunch time, Ororo walked in to tell them that the meal was ready.
"Time to wash up for lunch," she announced. "You boys can handle yourselves, and I'll take the child," she said as she took the little girl's hand.
Logan was at the door as Ororo was walking out of the room and whispered in her ear, "Yer sure you don't wanna help me wash up, 'Ro," he asked seductively.
She just glared at him as she left the room.
Logan turned around to face Remy who was trying to stifle a laugh.
"What are you laughing at Gumbo," he asked gruffly.
"Oh nothin' mon ami. It's just dat your method of tryin' to woo Stormy is…well…" he tried saying but ended up snickering instead.
"Look, Gumbo, there's nuthin going on between 'Ro and me.."
"Obviously"
"Ok look, we aren't women, I ain't gonna sit around and talk about relationships with the likes of you."
And with that, Wolverine stormed out of the room, leaving Gambit sitting there shaking his head in disbelief, trying not to laugh.
The rest of the afternoon was fairly uneventfully, and after dinner Remy walked back to his house with a little biker babe proudly riding her trike beside him. After putting the trike in the garage, he put her on his shoulders and walked into the house.
Sitting in the living room, Rogue heard her daughter's giggles and she got up to meet them.
"MOMMA," the little girl squealed upon seeing her mother. Gambit put her on the ground and she went crashing into Rogue as she hugged her mother's legs.
"Well, hey there baby girl, did ya have a nice day with Poppa?"
"Oui!"
"Well that's terrific Shugah! Listen, Momma's gotta talk to Poppa for a minute, why don't ya go upstairs and get ready for a bath ok? That's a good girl." The little girl ran upstairs as if the faster she made it up there the quicker her mother would be joining her.
"What is it Chere," Remy asked once their daughter was upstairs.
"Why didn't ya tell me," she asked while poking him in the chest with a finger.
He look of shock appeared on his face. He hadn't done anything lately that he should be ashamed for. Well, there was that time he let Jessica have ice cream for dinner when Rogue was out with the girls, but that was weeks ago. "Tell you what?"
"When did this happen?"
"What," he asked looking genuinely perplexed by his wife's accusations.
Who else knows, you could have told me yah know."
"Rogue, I…"
"Ah had to find out from your laundry Remy! It was all over your clothing! Or should Ah say it wasn't all over your clothing."
He looked at her with a perplexed look on her face. She stepped towards him and wrapped her arms around him.
"Yah quit smokin', Ah am so proud of ya!"
"Chere, you didn't know dat?"
"No Remy, ya didn't say anything about it. Ah mean, ya always make your trips out to the porch all the time after meals and whatnot. Ah just assumed it was for a cigarette break."
"It's just a force of habit. I'm so use to goin' out there dat I still do so when I need a few minutes alone or I need to t'ink.
"Ah realized it today when Ah was throwing some of yoah shirts in the wash. Usually they smell like your spicy cologne and cigarettes, but Ah noticed Ah just smelled the cologne. Now Ah've been trying to get ya to quit for years, what changed yoah mind and when did this extraordinary event happen?"
"Well Chere, you know how you are at work all day and I am home wit' t' fille. Well I was out on t'porch keepin' an eye on David an' her playing in t'yard one day a few weeks ago and she come runnin' up to me wit' tears in dose lil' eyes of hers. She says to me "Poppa stop" and I ask her "Stop what?" and she points to t'cigarette in my hand and tells me about how one of those puppets on those kiddie shows she watches said how smokin' was bad and she didn't want me to "go to sleep forever." But lookin' into her eyes I thought of all dose times you always asked me to stop an' I realized that I'm not Logan. I don't have any healin' powers dat will keep me on dis earth for a long time. I want to see her grow up, I can't make her cry like dat. So except for the occasional cigar wit' the guys when we play poker, I'm done wit' it."
"Remy, Ah don't know what to say. Thank ya, from both me and Jessica."
"MOMMA!!! I'm ready," shouted a little voice from upstairs.
"Ah better get up there before she decides to start her bath without me and floods the bathroom again." She gave her husband another hug. "Thank ya."
"Anytime Chere, anytime," he said as he watched her make her way upstairs.
Once she was out of sight he went outside and pulled out the packet of cigarettes that he had been holding onto just in case. Then he opened the lid to the garbage can, threw them in, and closed the lid again. He knew he wouldn't need them. As he headed into the house he noticed that the sky was growing overcast. Storm had mentioned that a thunderstorm was headed their way that night. "Better get t'petite to bed 'fore it happens" he thought to himself noting that the last time there was a thunderstorm their daughter refused to go to bed until it was over.
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After putting Jessica to bed, Rogue cuddled up with Gambit on the couch listening to the thunderstorm rage outside. Suddenly they heard a crash upstairs, as if a lightening bolt hit the house. The first thoughts that went through either of their heads was to their little girl upstairs whom was heard crying the second they heard the explosion. They ran into the nursery where Gambit picked up the toddler out of her bed and Rogue leaned over her to make sure she was ok. After they checked the child over they noticed the hole in the wall by the window where the strike must have hit and the remains of a teddy bear that must have been lying by the wall.
The next morning Wolverine was brewing some coffee before he went over to the LeBeaus to help fix the wall in the nursery. As he was pouring himself a cup he noticed Storm had entered the room and prepared a cup for her, just the way she liked it. She thanked him as he sat down next to her. When she asked him about his plans for the day, Wolverine told Storm about how the lightening came unusually close to the LeBeau house the night before and how he was going over to help Gambit with repairs.
"Odd," said the weather goddess. "As you know I am in tune with Mother Nature and I can assure you that the storm, as close as it was, was not close enough to hit the house, at least not without my knowledge."
Suspicions aroused, Wolverine's mind automatically went to plan B. "Well if someone is messing with that family, they'll have these to answer to," he growled as he unsheathed his claws.
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Author's Notes- Again, for those of you who haven't heard the icky rumors about Marvel's plans for Gambit and Rogue breaking up, please check my profile for more information. There is a link with information as well as contact info and a second link which is an online petition I came across courtesy of ishandahalf. If nothing else, please drop Marvel a letter voicing your opinion. The more voices heard the better! Ok, that's the end of my public service announcement.
PS: I renumbered a few of the chapters to divide this story into the segments I planned out. I just stuck in a "Part #" in certain chapters that I felt divided into almost separate stories themselves. Anyway, it makes it easier for me when referring back to stuff so don't worry I didn't change anything else.
Star-of-Chaos- I know, I tried to explain to someone how many times Jean Grey died, and it just got confusing:-P With all the rumors floating around about the future of Gambit and Rogue, I think you are right about Marvel not liking our favorite couple.
Ishandahalf- You weren't kidding when you said that they grow up so fast! I didn't want to drag anything out and I want to get into the next plot arc, so you can see this chapter started a rapid age progression. As for Wolverine as Santa, I can just see him doing something sweet for the children, after all, there is a heart of gold under that rough exterior :-). As for insulting Scott in French, I'm sure they'll do it in English as well, but when he is not in ear shot of course:-P
Le Bibliothecaire- Thank you again for your kind words! :-)
Tammy- Yeah, I really hope the fans get through to Marvel too! I was so upset when I heard the icky rumors that I wrote an email to both email addresses, wrote a letter, signed a petition, and sent a postcard from when I was on vacation this past week. Ok yeah I have issues, but I don't want to see Marvel break them up again because I have a gut feeling that if they do that, then they won't be getting back together this time. I hope I'm wrong!
T- Glad you liked it! Hope you found this chapter just as cute!:-)
Kitsu Lebeau- Like I said to Tammy, I agree with you about Marvel's latest rumored plans for Gambit and Rogue. Why they would do something to mess up a perfectly good combination is beyond me! Yeah about Scott and the Emma Frost thing, I still can't believe they did that, I mean I don't like Scott, but I can't believe he'd be sleazy enough to make-out on his wife's grave with another woman. I mean it's one thing to move on, but it's another thing to move on in such a disrespectful way!