Ishandahalf: I've made a couple of resolutions this year, though I doubt I'll stick to them somehow. Funnily enough, I was just thinking to myself the other day "What happened to that oh so interesting fic that ish told me she was writing?" Get cracking! I want something nice to read! No pressure or anything hon ;-)
Freak87: well I'm very honoured to be the recipient of your first review of the New Year! I think '04 will go down as a general year of badness for everyone, what with war, terrorism and epic natural disasters…I really hope things start to get better for you all soon. We should email or something, though I get the feeling this is going to be one of those "you first, no you first!" situations. And don'cha just hate that?
Chica De Los Ojos Café: you and Freak87 have both been very astute with your predictions, but I can't really say more without giving away the entire gist of the chapter. But well done, both of you have a sticky star!
NiNab: I would go for both, just to be on the side of safety ;-)
Xmengirlzrule: thanks for reviewing, update I shall!
Miss Ginny: I've always thought Kitty was probably quite capable of doing both, multi-tasking if you will…
Heartsyhawk: hehe, I see it now-heartsyhawk: fortune teller to the stars! Lets just see if your predictions are right hmm?
Dreamschemer: everyone knows the rule, but every so often people slip up. I know of people who have been caught out that exact same way. But you're totally right, it's not quite right. It took a while to write that part and I'm still not all that happy with how it turned out. I'm not sure any barman; even a corrupt one, would drug a customer though…
Sweety8587: ahh ok I think I'm starting to understand now, just about…I'm glad you weren't expecting Rogue to be there, I always love it when people aren't expecting what's coming, usually my writing is so damn predictable.
Bant: haha, well I'm glad you liked it, thanks for reviewing.
Willaj: bless him, I think Remy should have some brownie points too! He deserves a break sometime…glad you like it, thanks for reviewing.
Epona04: an excellent trade off. If reviews make me happy and updates make you happy, then where's the harm in everyone being happy? :-)
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Music When The Lights Go Out
Chapter Eight (Something about the morning after)
Rogue awoke the next day with a wince; it felt like someone had hit her over the head with a sledgehammer, repeatedly. Suddenly she did a double take. This wasn't her bedroom! What the hell had she done last night? She didn't even remember drinking that much…
She pulled over the covers to get out of bed and found to her surprise that she was still wearing the same clothes she had put on the other evening to go out, the only thing missing were her shoes, which were on the floor. Sure, her make-up was smudged and her hair was all dishevelled and unpinned, but everything was in place. Something wasn't quite right…
Rubbing her temples and trying to ignore the throbbing pain that built up every time she moved, she tried to remember last night. She certainly remembered having one drink and then going to dance…then she hadn't felt so well and gone outside for some air. Her eyes widened. She'd been attacked! But then how did she end up here? Maybe this was her attackers apartment!
She got out of bed carefully and picked up her shoes from the floor, she was going to have to escape. Quietly she turned the knob of the door and poked her head outside, the coast looked clear enough. She ventured out, creeping into a kind of open plan sitting area.
As she snuck past the back of a sofa, she jumped when she noticed there was someone asleep on it, and that someone looked familiar…against her better judgement she stopped and studied the sleeping face-it was the swamprat! Rogue seethed, she knew he was bad news, she had told Kitty!
Desperate not to wake him, she started sneaking towards the door again. She was almost there when, clumsily, she stubbed her toe on the foot of a small table. This sent a vase that was balanced on it crashing down and shattering into a thousand tiny shards on the wooden floor. Rogue cursed a million times under her breath.
Remy jumped up from his sofa to find Rogue in the act of escape, holding her shoes and looking distinctly worried.
"Pity," he said calmly, "I quite liked dat vase…"
"Ok," Rogue gave up on niceties. "What tha hell did ya do ta me!? Ah wake up in ya bed with vague memories o' bein' attacked tha night before an' a splittin' headache, Ah'm guessin' a slimy, no good swamprat like ya has got somethin' ta do with it!"
She was certainly bold. Using one of her shoes as a weapon and pointing the heel at him dangerously, she was stalking towards him and backing him into a corner. He held up his hands in surrender.
"Can y' please put de shoe down an' let me explain?" She did as she was asked and backed off a little. "Some creep at de bar spiked y' drink whilst y' were dancin'. He attacked y' outside, not me! Y' woke up in my bed 'cos I knocked him out and brought y' here, I would o' taken y' t' y'rs but I dunno where y' live…"
Rogue gave him a very suspicious look as she took in the information but after a little while, her expression softened considerably. "So Ah guess Ah really owe ya a thank ya then don't Ah? And an apology…"
"Anyt'ing fo' y' chére," Remy answered with a flourish.
Rogue looked at her feet slightly embarrassed that she had just tried to attack the man who had saved her, with one of her own shoes…He feet and legs were really looking pretty grubby, well no wonder…
"Is it alright if Ah take a shower?" she asked politely, putting her shoes down calmly on the floor.
"Course, bathrooms second door on de right."
As she went off towards the shower, Remy couldn't help but laugh quietly, it had certainly been an interesting morning already….
- - - - -
A few minutes later a refreshed Rogue emerged from the bathroom, still in her party dress, looking considerably better that when she had gone in. She wet hair hung loose by her shoulders making wet marks on the back of her dress as drips of water fell from the tips. Her smudged lipstick and mascara had been washed away from her face leaving no trace of make-up behind.
"Can I get y' somethin' t' eat, I'm guessin' y' probably still don' feel all dat good after whatever it was y' took las' night…" Remy asked her, a cup of coffee in hand as she walked back into his sitting room.
"Ah dunno, Ah feel a lil sick truth be told…" was the response he got.
"Well den just have some dry toast or somet'in'."
"Fine."
He led her through to his kitchen and whilst he went and found some bread in which to make the toast with, she helped herself to a glass and poured herself some water. As he finished putting the bread in the toaster, he turned around and watched Rogue drink with her back turned to him, it was only then he noticed all the cuts and scratches over her back where she had been wrestled to the floor the previous night.
"Chere, y' backs all cut up, why didn' y' say?" Rogue craned her neck around trying to see what Remy was talking about.
"Ah can't feel anythin', Ah'm a bit sore all over really…"
"You eat y' toast, Remy'll dress 'em fo' y'."
"Look Cajun, Ah appreciate this Ah really do but Ah don't need ya ta mother me, Ah can look after mahself."
"I know y' can chére, but its hard to dress wounds y' cant see, let alone reach."
Rogue grumbled something unintelligible but eventually conceded, though not without fuss. Her stubbornness made Remy want to scream.
Eating her toast, she sat on the bathroom floor whilst Remy cleaned out all the gashes on her back. He was worried there might be broken glass in some of them, that was one thing that alleyway had in abundance, that was probably how she had gotten a lot of these…
He could feel her wincing as he put the antiseptic onto them but she didn't make much noise, at least that was something. Finally he covered over the worse ones with gauzy bandage, held in place with tape. He was no doctor but it would do.
"All done," he told her and held out a hand to help her up off the floor.
"Thanks," she smiled as she got to her feet. "Really, thank ya for everythin'."
"Pleasure chére."
"Ah should really be getting home, Kitty or someone will start ta worry why Ah haven't been back…"
"How are y' gettin' back chére, don' really like de t'ought of y' takin' de subway or somet'ing when y' still not feelin' so great…"
"Well Ah'll take a cab or somethin' then, please will ya stop worryin' about me? Ah'll be fine."
He couldn't argue with that, he didn't dare. He walked her downstairs, catching her when she nearly fell down the last flight. Finally they were outside and waiting for a cab.
"Ah really feel Ah should do somethin' ta say thanks after all ya did for me." Rogue said, after all he had saved her and taken her in for the night.
"Let me take you t' dinner chére, please, just give dis Cajun a chance." Rogue thought about it and a little smile crossed her face.
"Ah've got a better idea, how about Ah take ya ta dinner, its tha least Ah can do." Remy smiled and a cab pulled up in front of them to take Rogue home.
"Sounds good t' me chérie, call me ok?" He quickly scrawled his phone number onto a scrap of paper and handed to her through the window of the cab.
As the cab drove off, all Remy could do was stand on the pavement with his hands in his pockets smiling like and idiot. He had a date with Rogue.
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