A/N this is the first new chapter I've done since…. I've uploaded it. Jeez I'm slow and out of inspiration. Someone other then sky reviewing might be nice.

"Chere y'can't keep doin' dis. Ah ain' worth I'" Daphine protested as Ruby snuck into the room for the fifth time that month, having only been here a month.

"You need decent food, and I got some clothes" Ruby ignored Daphine's protests. "I don't care. I need-" She was cut short as she stared at the ground in a vain hope that the sentence she started would go unfinished. But it didn't.

"Quoi?" The one word question was enough. Ruby didn't need to know what it meant- nor did she need to know French.

"I need…a friend" She murmured quietly and her nails dug into her palms as the blood flew as well as the silent salty tears cascading down her cheeks. "My music used to be my friend. I just needed music. But I can't …can't have that anymore." She said in a startled and unsteady voice.

"Why" Daphine asked. The one-word questions may have appeared rude or stupid to many people but Ruby understood perfectly. It was all she needed.

"Because It HURTS people" She said with a yell and banged her bloody fists on the floor. "It hurts people. It hurts everyone. It hurts me when I don't want it to. It just hurts" She began to cry in earnest now, not sobs not undignified bawling but gentle yet racking bursts of crying as if the whole world had settled on her shoulders.

"Petite" The spoken word for child settled over Ruby as she cried and eventually ran out of tears. "Petite" Diamond repeated and walked over in a hesitant manner. It'd been so long since she'd been close to another human being.

The last she remembered was- but it's best not to think of him.

"Ah discovered dat it ain' jus a gift like dis Xavier homme say" She murmured into Ruby's ear as the girl just lay slumped against the wall with her arms around her knees and a dead expression cemented onto her face- with no cracks were life could escape.

"It be both a gift an a curse" Daphine murmured as she put a hand on Ruby's tortured ones. "Y'can' ignore not more then y'can get rid of it Ruby" She murmured and then a crack appeared.

"You know my…my name?" Ruby asked in a hesitant voice.

"Ah doan know why Ruby but ah do" Daphine answered then reached forward to hug the small child who felt so lost and had used a Cajun queen to become her anchor.

Xavier's Office-

But of course. You don't become reputed as the most powerful telepath in the world just because you're bald. Charles knew what was going on, he hadn't approved to begin with when the young woman had screamed but…it was so hard to turn away a girl who could reach Daphine. That young woman was impregnable when it came to counselling. Just a question of "Ah wonna see gambit" But it wasn't possible.

Bayville Park-

And Gambit wanted to see her. More then anything in the world he wanted to see his baby cousin and stop Pyro from moping around like a dog that's been kicked. He was instinctively wanting to stop John from being near Daphine because it was what you did.

But they were so…right for each other that it wasn't fair to either of them And he didn't want to.

So he just kicked the bench and thought of what to do. Then it came to him like someone had whistled it in his ear.