(Thirteen)

Wolverine crouched on the empty bed, looking down at Gambit dozing drunkenly in the corner. It hadn't taken him long to track down his wayward teammate, but he wasn't ready to wake him just yet. He could tell Remy had been crying and could still smell the odor of his distress. Gambit was hurting.

Serves you right, Logan complained silently to his sleeping friend, but he couldn't stay angry at Remy for long. Lord knows he'd done enough killing in his own time to make him not the proper candidate to pass judgement. He knew Remy's remorse was real and that Gambit had enough trouble dealing with his own guilt and shame without any more harsh words from him. He had watched Remy skulking around the Mansion for over a year now, always putting up a brave front to hide how much he loathed himself.

Logan understood that he and Remy were the same. They worked as X-men to make up for the sins of the past. Remy had his Morlock Massacre, Logan had a lifetime of military work and berserker rages. Logan had never pulled a number as deliberately foul as Remy's misadventure with the Morlocks, but he had slaughtered a fair number of soldiers on his way out of the military complex where they had crammed all that metal into him without so much as a by your leave. Logan's personal nightmares made Remy's fever dream look like a trip to Disneyland.

Logan knew his main role on the X-men's team was as a protector. He was the big junk yard dog that prowled the yard, keeping watch. He'd done more than his share of killing on missions and protecting the house from mutant invaders with a score to settle. He accepted it as his job and did it whenever it was necessary to spare the others. He took on the burden of guilt because he was suited for it. He swallowed it down with the rest of his emotions, leaving him hard on the outside.

He chuckled softly as he looked down at Remy again. Remy tried really hard to put up the same kind of front with his arrogance and disregard for the rules. Wolverine knew better. Remy was young, not even twenty-five. His crime had been committed as a teenager. His swagger couldn't hide just how sensitive and emotional he really was. Logan thought it was hilarious actually that Remy thought he could pull off the emotional distancing that he himself had perfected to an art form. Gambit had been devastated when Rogue left him behind in Antarctica, it had been stamped on his face like a neon sign the first time Logan had seen him after his return. Gambit and Rogue were back together now, but not as closely as before. Logan wasn't sure why Remy had even bothered, the two of them fought so bitterly sometimes. Maybe Remy figured that if he could get the one who'd felt the most betrayed by his lack of trust to forgive him, he would have that absolution he so desperately needed.

"Enough useless wool gatherin', old man," Logan grumbled softly to himself. "Time ta get this lost son back with the program."

Remy woke when he felt a heavy hand shaking him gently. He looked up with swollen, bleary eyes into Wolverine's face and snorted softly with impatience. He should have known Logan would track him down eventually.

"You all right?" Logan growled, his face betraying his concern.

"Sure t'ing, patron," Remy replied in a dry scratchy voice. He rubbed his eyes and stretched a little. He found the whiskey bottle he had set aside and drank from it.

Logan didn't stop him. "Valley says he's gonna move you around, keep you out of trouble."

"Whatever."

"We gotta get through this, Gumbo. We do this, we go home. Simple as that. We have to work together. I know you can train people, I know you can fight. What I don't know is if you can keep it together long enough for us to get this job done."

"Not even de Arctic kept dis boy down. Dis place a piece of cake," Remy boasted arrogantly, his swagger a false bravado covering his pain.

Logan's senses were much too powerful to be fooled by any of Remy's false pretenses. "You ain't here all alone. We're gonna look after you."

Remy sniffed. "Gambit can take of his'self now. Dis is 'is trouble, 'is crime, comprenez? He's de one who 'as to pay for it. What 'appens, 'appens."

"We're X-men, we stick togther."

"Not for dis. Dis 'appen before I ever come to be wit you."

"I know. I was there in the tunnels trying to stop it."

Gambit shuddered with the memory of all the blood and carnage and closed his eyes. He was much too drunk to be having this kind of conversation. He buried his face in his arms again and wouldn't look up. He was still teetering on an emotional edge and didn't want to Logan to see him cry.

Wolverine put a hand on his shoulder. "We're gonna look after you whether you want us to or not. Just do us a favor and don't make us work too hard, all right?"

Gambit raised his head and nodded, wiping at his eyes. He was a little surprised by Wolverine's gesture of comfort, Logan never touched people, the guy was too closed off. He figured Logan was just trying to get him leveled out so they could get out of this. It was impossible to believe he could ever be forgiven for what he'd done.

"You can start by comin' back with me," Logan growled, retreating. "I wanna get some sleep an' I ain't leavin' ya out here alone."

Gambit nodded again and rose unsteadily. He was still drunk and his legs were cramped from being folded under him for so long. He stretched again and followed Logan back to their room, keeping quiet. When they got back, he crawled into his bed and covered up, not wanting to look at anyone. Henry said nothing and left him alone. The next day, they didn't speak of what happened and Remy went back to work.

The first week was brutal for Remy but he made it through. He was constantly harassed by Peter and some of the others. He never left their humble cave quarters without his new bo staff in hand and was in several fights and minor scuffles. He would come home from his new job bruised and cut, but never took as bad as he gave out. Gambit was fast, Gambit was skilled. He'd been trained almost from the first day Jean Luc had adopted him in the art of hand to hand fighting, it was all part of the thievery daily fare. Flexibility and wiry strength were a must when confronted with hard to reach places and tricky entrances. His problem solving skills were just as sharp when it came to a pinch or a fight, especially when it came down to his own personal survival. Remy's inborn agility and flexibility only made him that much faster and more accurate than his opponents. He was simply too hard to catch up with and when they managed to get in close, he used every ounce of skill to punish them without mercy. It was a decidedly one sided battle.

The losers soon got tired of Remy's abuse and the fights trailed off after a while and things settled down. True to his word, Gambit had taken care of his own troubles without the others having to step in and help him.

Valentin took a moment to take Wolverine aside and compliment him on his teammate's strength of spirit. Remy's ability to keep the alphas at bay so skillfully had made an impression with the hardened warrior, something not easy to do. Valentin had been harboring some doubts about Remy's usefulness for the upcoming raid, but those concerns had now been laid aside. In a society where the strongest survived, Gambit had managed to hold his own.

Remy got into a routine of teaching classes and kept mostly to himself. As things quieted, his confidence returned and he was more like his old self, even if his eyes were a bit more haunted than they were before. Logan was satisfied with Remy's effort to get along and left him alone.