DISCLAIMER: The X-men do not belong to me, but Gambit's sippy cup does.

Rogue was still in the rec. room, trying to explain to Jean all that they knew. Gambit, having finished his juice, went with Marie back to the kitchen to clean up. As they were loading the dishwasher, he tried to make conversation.

"Y'know, I went back in time once, too."

"I know."

"Remy had t'...you know?"

"You've told me before."

"Oh."

"Uh, I ever tell you about my friend, Jake1?"

"You mean Jackie?" Marie laughed.

"Ha, Oui. I guess dere ain't much dat Remy can tell you dat you haven't heard b'fore."

"I'm sure there's some stuff. There was a lot that you wouldn't tell me 'until I was older'. That kind of thing."

"Remy don' know if he should tell you dat stuff."

"Come on, I'm the same age as mom!"

"She's too young t'know, too."

"Right."

They went back to doing the dishes in silence, until Rogue and Jean entered the room. Jean, who seemed to have composed herself fairly well, walked up to Marie and offered her her hand.

"It's nice to meet you. I look forward to watching you grow up."

Rogue rolled her eyes, and Marie laughed.

"Uh, thanks, Aunt Jeanie."

"Any good news about the future?"

"Um... you age very gracefully."

"That IS good news. Wait. Any deaths? I mean, as far as--"

"I believe you die twice more. Sorry."

"Oh. Well, you get used to it."

"Speak for yourself, sugah." Rogue shuddered.

Gambit took that opportunity to charge a small piece of napkin and stick it down the back of Rogue's shirt. Even though she barely even felt it (due to her invulnerability), she definitely heard the loud bang and smelled the burning fabric.

"You have five seconds t' get the hell outta the kitchen before ah kick yer sorry Cajun ass."

"Right... adieu." He leapt out of the window, grabbing onto the drain pipe and climbing up into Rogue's bedroom.

Down in the kitchen, Jean was assessing the damage, Marie was laughing hysterically, and Rogue was plotting revenge.

"Ah swear, if it wasn't for th' fact that ah like you, Marie, and he needs t' be around in order for you to exist, Ah'd kill him."

"Glad to give you a reason"

Rogue walked over to the chair, where Gambit had a habit of leaving his duster, and threw it on.

"Oh, come on, Rogue. You wouldn't kill him"

"Wanna bet, Jean?" She reached into the coat pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"If ya'll will excuse me..."

"You don't smoke." Marie, for one, would know.

"And from now on, neither does he." She walked outside and flew to the edge of the lake, where she hid the cigarettes in a tree, deciding that throwing them into the lake was probably a bad idea. Sitting on the limb of the tree, she tried to decide not only what she was going to do to Remy, but also what exactly was going on. She picked up the pack of cigarettes and examined it.

Inside, Jean was leading Marie towards the room that she was going to use.

"I'm sorry if it isn't your, uh, old room, but It's the only one open in the adult wing."

"That's ok, I'm sure it'll be...that's strange."

"What?" If something was amiss, and Jean didn't notice it first, she got worried.

"My memories... they're different now."

"In what way?"

"I think mom just took up smoking."

"Oh. Uh... here we are."

On the one hand, Jean was relieved that it wasn't anything too drastic, but on the other hand, she was worried about her friend. She reminded herself to look into it later. She opened the door and Marie walked in.

"Heh, I should have known."

"Known what?"

"This was my Aunt Anna's room."

"Um... oh, oh. Right. Well, I'm going shopping in a little bit, if you want to come along. If you need clothes or whatever."

"That sounds great. When you're about to leave," she tapped her head. "Give me a call."

"Will do." Jean left the room and ran off to find Scott and fill him in. Outside, Rogue had just finished her cigarette and removed her shredded shirt from underneath the large coat. Examining the burned hole in the back, she shoved it in one of the coat pockets, muttering something that involved the words "swamp rat". As she started to pull her hand out of the pocket, it hit some kind of thick paper. She pulled it out and looked at it. It was a picture of her. She smiled as she put it back in the pocket and took off towards the mansion. Instead of simply flying in through her window (which she left open for that very reason), she decided to go in through the front door, so she could see if Marie was still around with Jean. She checked the kitchen and the rec. room and decided that Marie was upstairs already. She headed towards the empty room in the adult wing, and knocked on the door.

"Yes?"

"Hey, Marie... its, uh, Rogue."

"Come in"

She walked in, making sure that the coat was buttoned. Sure, Marie was her daughter, but she was still basically a stranger. Marie was sitting on the bed, reading a book that she had found on the dresser.

"You know, mom, when he gets older, dad starts to cough from smoking those things." She put the book down. "But you don't. Hank says that it's because of your invulnerability."

"Ah'll have t' rub that in Remy's face next chance ah get."

"Heh, yeah."

"Sorry ah cut out like that downstairs. Ah... well, mah shirt was on fire."

"It's ok. Is it alright if I go shopping with Aunt Jean later?"

"Yer askin' me permission?"

Marie blushed a little.

"Old habits die hard. Let me rephrase that. I'm going shopping later with Jean."

"Sounds fun. Don't let her go near th'—"

"Gourmet chocolate store, I know."

"When you get back, Ah'm gonna make you tell me all about this control thing, ok?"

"That's fair. Oh, Jean just let me know she's ready to go... Guess I should meet her out in the garage."

"Alright... Come find me when ya get back."

They both left the room, Marie heading for the stairs and Rogue heading across the hall and around the corner to her room. She opened the door and was surprised to find Remy curled up on her bed, hugging her fuzzy pink teddy bear. She walked over to yell at him, but realized that he was fast asleep and smiled. She closed the door and walked over to her dresser, grabbing a clean shirt and starting to change into it.

"Remy t'inks he should have burned your pants too, non?"

She whirled around, holding the shirt up against herself.

"You..." she couldn't even think of words to fill in the rest of the sentence, so she just winked at him and pulled the shirt on over her head, making sure that he got an eyeful. Remy started to whisper things to the teddy bear, as if he was filling it in on what he had just seen. She walked over and sat down next to him, snatching the bear away.

"Don't listen to a word he says, Pinky."

"De bear got eyes too, he knows what he saw, Chere."

"He didn't understand any of it until ya started talkin' to him."

"Remy don' like seein' little misinformed bears, dats all."

She hugged the bear and leaned back, against Remy.

"So, what d'ya think?"

"Dat dat bear could prob'ly use some councelling."

"No, ah mean about Marie."

"Oh. She seems nice."

"Not nearly as screwed up as ah'd have thought."

"You sayin' Remy got issues?"

"At least."

"Well, dat goes for you too, Chere."

"Don't ah know it."

"All t'ings considered, she did turn out pretty well."

"Ya mean she DOES turn out pretty well."

"Dat too."

"Hmmh."

"What?"

"Ah was just thinkin', ah wonder what momma's gonna say about all of this..."

"As if dat woman don' hate me enough as it is."

FOOTNOTES:

1 Jacob Gavin, Jr., codename "the Courier", is a mutant shape-shifter, who, through the help of our good friend Dr. Essex, became trapped permanently in a female form, although he was male. For the complete story, check out the Gambit series from 1999 (I think). It's actually really really funny...

A/N: Took me a little while, but it's up. I was going to try and put a little more French in it, realized that I don't speak French, and gave up. So... Review!