(Eleven)

Remy walked casually into the Professor's office. It was late afternoon now and he'd had a good nap and another shower. He actually felt human again and was curious what Charles wanted from him so soon. He paused when he saw Wolverine seated comfortably on the Professor's couch and hoped this wasn't going to be some kind of personal ambush. It wasn't typical for both him and Logan to be called here at the same time without it being something personal. This he did not need on top of everything else.

"Sit, please," Charles said, beginning. He gestured to one of many comfortable chairs he had in his office. The office was well decorated and made to be as relaxing as possible. It wasn't working on the nervous thief however.

Remy shook his head, feeling a bit stubborn. " 'M fine, t'anks."

"Rest easy, my friend," the Professor said. He was seated behind his large desk as usual and tried to sound as reassuring as possible. "There's nothing for you to be defensive about."

Gambit looked at Wolverine and did not believe. "What's up?"

The Professor sat back in his chair and decided to just say what was on his mind. "I've been speaking with Henry and Logan about your last mission."

This time Remy crossed his arms, already getting pissed off. He knew this was going to be bad just by the strange gleam in Logan's eyes. He thought for sure he was going to be benched or set aside because of what had happened with Kimble, the filesharing. He knew it had been freaky and they hadn't had time to sort it all out yet, but it would be unfair to have him left behind because of it. He couldn't stop the scowl that crossed his face.

Charles sighed with some impatience, seeing it. "Remy, please. This isn't what you think. Logan here was telling me how well you handled yourself on that mission and I would like to officially place you back on a squad again."

Remy blinked at that, more than a little surprised. That he had not expected in the least. The X-team was quite large and the only sensible thing to do was to divide all that talent into squads. This wasn't the first time Gambit had been on an squad, but since his return from his punishing exile in Antarctica, Charles had kept him sidelined, using him for private missions or filling in temporarily like he had been when they'd been taken to Cerise.

At first Remy had thought he had been on hold for health reasons. While he hadn't discussed much of what had happened to him in Antarctica with anyone upon his return, his first workout sessions had been pretty shabby indeed. The X-men claimed to be a team working for peace, but their workouts more resembled those of high intensity search and rescue teams or even military special forces. The physical demands were quite rigorous and certainly not for everyone. When Remy had first come here he had embraced those physical demands with joy, loving to push his body to its limits, but after his exile, he was struggling almost right from the start and suffering for it. He had been cornered by Beast after only a couple of days and had been forced to admit that he was still recovering from the from dual pneumonia and mild frostbite he had acquired from being left out there on the ice. Between starving for almost two weeks and being so ill when he had finally been rescued, he had lost close to a quarter of his body weight. Being a creature with a high metabolism that kept him a bit underweight to begin with, that hadn't been a good thing. It had hurt to admit it, but the exile had hurt him worse than when Sabretooth had slashed him, he wasn't bouncing back nearly as fast in spite of his youth.

What hadn't helped was later discovering that he hadn't been placed on a squad upon his return not because he was struggling, but because he had been so despised once his role in the Massacre had been found out that no one would take him on their squad on a permanent basis. Instead of using all that as an excuse to bail, Remy hardened up emotionally and worked all the harder at both his assignments and his physical conditioning. He passively punished those around him by simply refusing to leave. It had taken him many months, but by the time he had been taken to Cerise he was back on top of his game physically, perhaps not as quick as he had been in the past, but well enough to pass the Professor's rigorous physical requirements. It seemed that now, all that work had just paid off.

Back in the Professor's office, when Remy didn't immediately say anything one way or the other about his offer, Charles went on to explain, "There's been some rearranging of some members of our staff and I'm thinking that I'll place you with the newly reorganized Blue squad."

Logan grunted and said, "That's Scotty, me, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Jean, Storm, and Rogue."

Remy nodded, lowering his eyes. Of course. It was the one squad that was comprised of the few people that could remotely stand him. A sensible choice if one were a leader of such a complicated group of people.

"Your role will be assisting with any new mutants as is standard, but I'll also be using you to find out more about this Jael fellow. This terrorist who has been giving us such a bad time lately."

Remy was quick to accept that with a smile. Seek and Find was right up his alley and a lot easier to accept than being benched. "Bien. What you want?"

"While you were gone, there was an increase in the mutant violence. You remember Jael? We discussed him over dinner last night. He was just getting geared up before you left for Cerise, now he's up and running. We've got ourselves a local terrorist and he must be stopped before things get out of hand. Normally, I would give you some time to...decompress... after such a difficult mission, but I'm afraid this can't wait. If he continues his actions, innocent people will suffer."

"I'm wit you, 'Fessor. What you need Gambit to do, eh?"

"I want you to find him - now. Use whatever means you have at your disposal."

Remy grinned, always happy to have free rein. He had a large number of contacts, both legal and not so legal. He would make good use of them. "All right. I'll go poke around a bit, see what I can dig up."

"Take Logan with you."

Remy immediately began to complain. "I don' t'ink so, man. He scare away all my informants. Mebbe de next time, non?"

The Professor scowled with mild impatience. "You're back on a team now, Remy. I know it will be hard to get used to again, but you'll all have to work together."

Logan just snorted. He knew Remy all too well, at least the Gambit he knew after a blowout with Rogue. "That ain't it, Chuck. You were plannin' on takin' off on account of Rogue, weren't you, boy?"

Remy just grinned his most charming smile. It was a lie that left his mouth, at least it had been before the promise of being promoted to a team had been tossed at him. "No worries, boss."

The two men stared each other down. Remy lost.

"Gambit ain't goin' nowheres, really. Rogue ain't nuthin' Gambit couldn't handle and besides, 'e got de Kimble ta look after, d'accorde?" That at least was the truth. When it came down to it, he wouldn't leave Kimble here on his own to fend for himself.

Charles nodded, pointing his finger at the playful thief. "I'm holding you to that. Now, as long as you're going into the city, I want you to pay this woman a visit." He handed Remy a business card. "I took the liberty of making an appointment for you."

Remy looked at the card and couldn't hide the angry flush that reddened his face. It was for Karen Richards, a psychologist friend of the Professor. Oh sure, like the promise of being put on a team hadn't been the lube before this fuck happened. It would be so typical of this place to pat you on the head and then send you off to a shrink.

The Professor was quick to reassure, the smooth tone of his voice maddening to the thief's ears. "I know what you're thinking, Remy, but understand this. You've all had a tough time out on the last mission and things are worsening here. I've set up appointments for all three of you, not just yourself."

Gambit glanced at Wolverine who just shrugged and looked away. Yeah, like Wolverine was going to go along with this as well. Uh, huh. Right. P'etere when de pigs start flyin', non?

"Sure, whatever you say, patron," he said with his best charming smile. He had absolutely no intention of going. Not now. Not ever.

"Remy...I'm concerned about what happened with you and Kimble. This sharing of his memories. Logan tells me Kimble may be...disturbed. I want to be sure there haven't been any serious side effects."

"Kimble ain't disturbed," Gambit snapped defensively. He wasn't sure what upset him more, the fact that he had just been proven right that this was all about that thing with Kimble after all or that once again, he was the only one standing up to speak for the poor Siskan. "He jus' fine. Jus' fine. De only one 'ere disturbed is dat asshole right dere on de couch. Leave Kim alone."

The Professor said nothing but steepled his hands under his chin and looked at his resident thief with the smallest of smile on his lips. "You're quite taken with him."

"Quoi? What's dat supposed to mean?" Remy asked defensively, taking a step back towards the door. All of a sudden he felt cornered.

"Tell me about him."

"Read 'im y'self."

"I can't."

"Pourquoi?" Remy asked in confusion. He knew Charles was an omega telepath, but he had never known of anyone that the Professor couldn't read.

"I can't 'read' him. It's like he's not even there."

Remy smiled, relaxing. He cocked his head with playful arrogance. "Sucks, huh? 'Avin' ta figure a guy out just like de rest of us. Why don' you talk to 'im y'self. He ain't so bad once you make an effort to get to know him." Remy made his way to the door and opened it.

"Remy."

Gambit turned back to the Professor. He knew he wouldn't get out of here that easily and had expected this. "Oui?"

"Would you at least write up a report and hand it into Henry? The more we know about Kimble, the easier it will be to deal with him. Logan tells me he responds to you. Well, what if you're not around? Do this for me, please?"

"All right."

Remy left.

"Tough little bugger," Wolverine grunted from the sofa.

"No more than you. I am curious though. Why is he so defensive of Kimble? It isn't like Remy to care about someone that much."

"They're a lot alike. Both pains in the ass."

"You don't like him? Kimble, I mean."

"He's gonna be nuthin' but trouble, mark my words. He's got powers he's got no clue about and the mind of a three year old on Viagra. He's gonna be a handful."

"I know you'll keep watch. I've no fear. Have an eye on our thief while you're at it. I want to know if he has any more long sessions in the Danger Room. I want to know if he starts falling down."

"I'm on it."