1Remy staggered downstairs the next morning at eight thirty, which was early for him. He poured himself coffee, drained it, and poured another. Then he sat down at the table with Jean-Luc, Henri, Mercy, and Storm. Mattie was frying eggs at the stove.
After a few more sips of coffee, the sleep cleared from his eyes and he let out a resounding yawn.
"Bonjour, all."
"'Ello, Remy."
"Morning, Remy."
"Watch dat coffee, Rem!"
"Help me serve this up, boy."
Remy pushed himself away from the table and took the full plates from his Tante. As he was eating, he remembered what happened last night.
"Dat Rogue femme woke up."
Storm looked up sharply, the fork halfway to her mouth.
"When, just now?"
"Naw, last night I was headed up after a midnight snack-"
"Remy, did yo' eat my jambalaya?"
"After a midnight snack an' outta de goodness o' my heart I wen' ta check on her an' der she was, near collapse, askin' me where she was and where were you, so I told her and put her back to bed.. She don' know her powers're turned off, dough."
Storm was up and out the door. Mattie hustled the King and Prince of Thieves out after her.
"Come on Jean-Luc, and you too, Remy, another familiar face will be good for her. We best check on her right now."
Henri checked the giant fridge, and turned to Mercy.
"Il a mange3 mon jambalaya!" and burst into tears.
On the next floor, Rogue was just starting to wake up. The room looked a lot different in the sunlight. It was not like the medlab at home, in all stainless steal and white. The walls were green, and the furniture was white, but aside from the far side where there were sinks and some cabinets, it looked more or less like a guest room. She sat up, and heard footsteps in the hall.
"Hello, Rogue," said Storm. "I'm happy to see you awake. I've been so worried."
Rogue hesitantly returned the hug, before breaking away so quickly. Why was Storm being so- so careless about her skin?
"Storm, Ah don't understand. What's goin' on? How'd we get outta that place? Where is everybody?"
"Hold on dere, liddle one. Lemme give yo' a quick check up b'fore dey get you all excited. Remy, run downstairs and ask Mercy if we can have some clothes o' hers for de fille. Go on, get."
Mattie checked her blood pressure, her temperature, her eyes, everything; had her walk around the room a bit to clear her head, and gave her another glass of water while Jean-Luc and Ororo consulted in the corner. Remy returned with the clothes, and Rogue changed into the jeans (a little big) and the black sweatshirt in the small bathroom. She had to roll up the jeans to walk in them. Mercy must have been tall.
"Now. What's goin' on, Storm?"
"You had better lie down."
It was uncomfortably silent for a moment. Unexpectedly, Jean-Luc broke it.
"My name is Jean-Luc Lebeau. Dis is my house, an' yo' been here about t'ree days now. When we came outta dat mutant prison, yo' were real sick. Dijou remember any o' dis?"
"Ah remember that prison place. They put things in our heads so we couldn't get out. People started disappearing, and the guards... the guards started hittin' meh when Ah wanted to know where they went. An' one day Ah was sick at mess. That's all Ah remember."
"You remember the Supreme Court's descision?"
"Yeah. Leech v. New York. O' course, if them Hydra people hadn't attacked Washington, nobody'd know about mutants."
"After the government started taking mutants into custody, they decided to sell off the ones they could not use. I've known the Lebeaus for quite some time. Apparently, they saw me on the news and came to get me. I persuaded them to bring you along as well."
"Storm, did you say sell?"
"Yes."
Rogue began to breathe quicker. "So what, we're slaves? Not even. Slavery was outlawed. We're not human anymore. They sold us like cattle."
"Rogue, calm down. Calm down, child. We are nobody's slaves. And we are still human. A court can't take our humanity from us. It's ok. It's ok."
"No, it's not ok. They can't do this."
"They already have, child."
"Ah'm not anyone's posession!"
"Whoa, chere. We don' even t'ink we own you. Dat money was jes' a- a ransom, ta get you outta dere. We don' own you."
Rogue began calming down. "Storm, what happened to everybody else?"
She shook her head. "I do not know. The Lebeaus got us out, but there were few of us left by then."
"So we don't know where everybody else is? Kurt? Logan? The Brotherhood? The newbies? No one?"
"We will help de two of yo' find yo' comrades, when we can, Rogue. I'm sorry we could not get anyone else out." Jean-Luc checked his watch. "I have some t'ings to take care of. Storm, Henri and some o' de oders are goin' ta get you started on your search. Remy- yo' gonna watch out fo' Rogue for us. Explain some t'ings. Yo' gonna have ta lay low for awhile anyway, after dat museum stunt yo' pulled."
Tante Mattie fluffed the pillows before heading out. "Yo' recovered real quick, dat's good. Mebbe tomorrow we'll let Remy take you shoppin'. Mercy's stuff is to big for yo'. Behave yo'self, Remy. I'll be up soon with some food for yo', Rogue."
Remy pulled a chair over to Rogue's bedside, and reached into his jean's pocket for some cards, and adjusted his sunglasses. He began shuffling.
"So, petite. What do yo' wanna know?"
A/N: Sorry this one's so short guys, but I just had to churn out another chapter. And I'm still working on how the whole "welcome to the theives guild!" is going down.
A bit on the setting of this story: pre-Day of Reckoning.
It's basically just after Wanda gets out of the asylum. How Rogue knows Kurt is her brother and etcetera will be explained, but mutants were revealed in an attack on Washington D. C. By Hydra, a terrorist organization, (with X-23, but she won't come in, until later, perhaps), before Magneto could get his crew together. Then our dear Mrs. And Dorian Leech faced some discrimination problems, and that went to the Supreme Court. Never fear, all will be explained...
I think.
And my dear reviewers!
Simba317, bored247, Roguegal, grenwich, and enchanted light- thank you! Also thanks to my friends moth and empress for reading it and threatening me so I wouldn't delete it.
Don't worry- next one will be longer.
