Remy knelt beside Psyc, Non, he thought. Dis can' be 'appenin'.
"Remy?" Jazzes voice came over the radio. "What do you mean?"
"She isn' breathin'" he told her. "An' 'er 'eart stop'."
"Remy," Jazz paused. "Do you know C.P.R.?"
"Oui."
"Well, do it you idiot!" Jazz screamed.
Remy dropped the radio and leaned over Psyc to breath in her mouth. He pulled away, placed his hand right blow her sternum and have three quick, firm pushes. He blew more air in her lungs, and then repeated the process. After a minute, Psyc took a ragged breath, but didn't open her eyes.
Remy picked up the radio.
"Jazz, she's breathin' 'gain bu' she still ou' col'."
"Okay, get her back here however you can, screw the plan of not being seen. Just get her back here."
"Bien. My t'oughts 'xacly."
He slipped one of his arms under her back and the other behind her knees, and then stood up cradling her to him.
"Righ', now say good-bye t' our gracious 'osts?"
He turned and started for the door, which he had left open. Once they were in the hall, Remy shifted Psyc to where he could hold her with one arm. He did not, however, cease or change his stride. He continued to walk as if he wasn't afraid of anything and he wasn't. He was willing to blow up the entire complex if it meant getting Larla-Rose out of there. He hadn't gone more then ten steps when the power came back on, and shortly, the alarm sounded.
"Ge' out o' my way," he said with steal in his voice and his eyes glowing so you could see the red even behind his sunglasses. "I don' wanna hur' yo', ac'u'lly I do bu' i's'a waist of my time. So move!"
"Hey!" one of the people in front of him said. "You're from New York! You used to go to meetings with Logan!"
Goo' ting Logan pull' ou' las' nigh' Remy thought before flashing them his most charming smile.
"Oui, I am, and unfortunately fo' yo' I been deal' a killer 'and."
Remy turned his fan of cards around to show a royal flush of hearts, right before he launched one at each of the people in front of him.
"Well, de knock-ou' 'and a' leas'."
Remy continued down the hall. He ran into a few more people here and there. Most had the sense to run when his eyes and his cards start to glow…those who didn't? They go to meet first the cards, then the wall.
When Remy finally got out in the open he looked around. He and Jazz he taken the bus to get here so they didn't draw attention, now he needed a faster way back to the motel. His eyes fell on Logan's motorcycle.
Pr'ly no' de mos' legal way, bu' it be de fas'es'."
Remy rode at top speed for the motel. It was quite a sight for those who saw it. Remy was flying by at 120 with a battered Psyc seemingly asleep sitting sideways between his arms leaning against his chest. When they got to the motel, Remy stopped so suddenly that the bike swung sideways in the spot.
"Jazz!" he yelled as he dismounted.
"Over here," Jazz called as she stepped out of a vehicle. "Good, you brought the bike. Put Psyc inside and help me put the bike in the back."
Remy nodded and turned toward the room. He laid Psyc down on the couch that for the past two days had been his bed and then he knelt there for a minute, and then tucked the hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear.
"Yo' gon' be 'kay, Lar," Remy said placed a gentle kiss on her lips. "Remy make shore of dat."
As he stood up, the door to the second room opened.
"Remy?" an unsure voice whispered.
Remy turned to face Sherry.
"Oui, cherie. 's Remy."
Sherry grinned and ran toward him. Remy dropped down on one knee and pulled her into a tight embrace. Unfortunately, this made it where Sherry could see Psyc laying on the couch. Sherry gasped at the sight of the person she had come to think of as her new mom laying on the couch. Sherry pulled away from Remy and went to stand by Psyc. What she saw scared her. Psyc's clothes were torn and now didn't even deserve the term 'rag'. Her skin, which normally ranged from fair to golden brown, was now a myriad of colors that all melted together as if someone had dumped paint on her. Her hair could no longer be described as obsidian with fire bangs, now it looked more like lave, black, with red that was not her bangs, swirled in. Silent tears began to fall down Sherry's cheeks. She crawled onto the couch and snuggled as close to Psyc as she could. She never even noticed when Remy left.
"An' wha'," Remy asked, "do yo' call dis monstrocity?"
Jazz looked at him.
"It's a school bus Remy."
"I know tha'. Why d' yo' 'ave it an' where di' yo' get it?"
"I have it because we have eighteen little kids, you, me an unconscious Psyc and my brother's bike to get back to New York. I got it from the school bus yard. Xavier want us back as soon as possible so I'm gonna go call in a few favors so I can have this thing modified by morning. I put the kids to sleep, which was way too easy; by the way, they're in my room. With my luck they won't wake up 'til I get back so they don't drive you inane…"
"Jazz!" he interrupted. "I'm the one who takes care of kids, remember? Remy knows wha' he doin' so go get dis ting ready."
"Sorry, I'm stressin', I mean I hate kids, you know I hate kids! But the way they lived, when I opened the door, Sherry was the only one who didn't scream and cower away. She reminded me of Psyc, she just jumped up and turned to face me. It was like… I don't even know how to describe it…"
"Jazz!" Once again Remy interrupted her. "'f yo' wanna leave in de mornin' yo' gotta go."
"Right. I'll be back at dawn."
Remy turned and went back inside. Sherry had fallen asleep where he left her, curled up next to Psyc.
Dat would be a kodac mom'nt 'f it weren' fo' Lar bein' so beat up.
Jazz got back just before dawn. She and the other people had been working since 11:30 to get the bus how she wanted it. They had taken out all but the first four seats on either side. Then they had turned the rest of the bus into one huge bed. The bike was securely held in place in front of the rear door with clamps that released with the tough of a button that was located under the dash.
Just in case, she thought.
Jazz walked in the room and stopped. Lying on the couch was Psyc, with Sherry curled up next to her. They were covered with Remy's blanket, (Jazz didn't know it was the same one Remy had used to cover Psyc when she had fallen asleep in Sherry's room) and Remy himself had fallen asleep sitting on the floor next to the couch. He was still sitting but he was slumped over and his head was above Sherry's right next to Psyc. Just then Jazz did something she had never done before in her life—she gave up.
What am I doing? She asked herself, they're practically a family, and here I am trying to break it up just 'cause he's cute.
Jazz covered Psyc and Sherry better then went to check on the kids. She opened the door and was surprised to see al the kids sitting quietly wide awake and watching the door.
"How long have you been awake?" Jazz asked.
"We get up at five. Those of us that had been there for an extended period of time do it out of habit. We wake up the others so they don't get hit when the members show up."
The girl who spoke looked to be about ten tears old. She had short silver blond hair, sapphire blue eyes and pale skin.
Jazz looked at her for a moment then asked, "What's your name?"
"Michelle," the girl replied, "but you can call me Shell."
"Okay. Shell, can you help me?"
When Michelle nodded, Jazz went on.
"I need you to take the kids and get them on the bus, and it needs to be quiet, people are sleeping in the other room. Once we're all on the bus we'll have breakfast."
As Shell took the younger kids to the bus, Jazz packed everything. When she was done she woke up Remy.
"It's time to go," she told him.
Instead of waking up Sherry, Jazz picked her up and carried her to the bus. Remy followed and placed Psyc by Sherry.
"Remy," Jazz said quietly, "I'll be right back. Judging by the way the kids reacted when I said breakfast, we're gonna need a lot more than one small ice chest of food."
"Alrigh'. Remy'll take care o' de rent an' mee' yo' at de store."
Remy turned and walked back on the bus. He looked around and noticed how young the kids were. As he walked back to check on Psyc, the oldest of their charges spoke up.
"We won't go back," she stated.
"Wha'?" Remy asked confused.
"We won't go back to that place or another place like it."
"Wha's yo' name?" Remy asked.
"Michelle," she said and nothing more.
"Well, Michelle, Remy jus' spen' t'ree weeks trackin' dose people to get Sherry back. He don' tink he gon take her or any o' yo' t' 'nother place like tha'!"
"Your Remy? And is that girl that found us Psyc? Sherry talked about you non-stop and how you guys were going to save us."
"Oui, I'm Remy, bu' de girl tha' found yo' wasn' Psyc, dat wa' Jazz."
"So where's Psyc?" Michelle asked.
"Righ' here," Remy said as he used a damp cloth to clean Psyc's face.
"What happened?" Michelle gasped.
"She try to get Sherry by 'ersel'. She didn' wait fo' me to ge' back. She got caught an' dis is 'ow we found 'er."
Remy stood up.
"Eve'yone buckle up," he said in a raised voice and sat behind the wheel. "We gotta pick up Jazz."
Jazz was waiting outside the store when the bus pulled up.
"Remy," she called, "I need some help."
Remy climbed out of the bus.
"Merde," he swore, "di' yo' buy de whole store?"
"No, but I don't want to have to stop more then we have to."
"Alrigh', bu' yo' migh' wanna ask de kids t' help or we be here all night."
With all the kids except Sherry helping, it took them five minutes to get everything on the bus.
"Okay," Jazz told Remy, "you get to drive first, and I'll see if this 'idea' of mine will work to get the munchkins more relaxed."
Jazz walked to the back of the bus. She spent a few minutes going through the sacks that had just been loaded on the bus, finally she stood up holding two black garbage bags.
All right, she thought, if this works, I will be amazed.
"Okay," she said, "in a few minutes I'm going to make breakfast."
The children's faces lit up.
"But first, we have to do something, shell I might need your help for this. I need all of you to get in two lines, bots in front of this bag, girls in front of this one and you in order from youngest to oldest."
When they had stopped moving and stood in two orderly lines Jazz continued.
"Here's what we're gonna do: one at a time you step up to the bag, close your eyes and pull something out then go sit along the wall and wait for everyone to get done."
Remy laughed from behind the wheel, "Dey jus' petit fils, Jazz, no' soldiers."
"I know this," Jazz said, "but I don't want things to get chaotic, besides they listened."
Jazz stood back and watched as the kids drew stuffed animals from the bags. The younger ones hugged the object in a death grip as soon as they pulled it from the bag. While the older ones did not show their appreciation so openly, they did sit hugging them in their laps or if it was more a dog or cat than teddy bear, they would subtly stroke it as if it were alive. Sherry woke up in time to pull the last toy. She giggled when she saw it was a black panther with red eyes and promptly dubbed it Remy. She went to show it to the person Remy.
"Okay, these toys are your insurance policy, or promise rather."
I really don't know how to talk to kids.
"As long as you have them you never have to go back to a place like that and if you do, you know we'll be there to get you out as soon as we can."
After a moment she said, "Now, lets eat."
Once all the kids had eaten and were lying down, lulled to sleep by the motion of the bus, Jazz went to the front of the bus. After a moment of silence Remy spoke.
"Have yo' though' 'bout 'ow we gonna feed Lar?"
"Yeah, I've been thinking about that a lot. What we need is an intervenes fed, but since Psyc and my brother haven't gotten around to teaching me that kind of fiend first-aid and neither of us are qualified doctors, and even if we were we don't have the proper equipment…"
She trailed off, and then snapped back.
"The best we can do is prop her in a half sitting position and let liquids slide down her throat."
Remy had no response to this. After another brief silence, she asked, "How fast are we going?"
"Si'ty, dat's twen'y o'er de speed limit," Remy told her. "Why?"
Jazz starred straight ahead out the windshield, "Double it."
Remy looked skeptical.
"I don' tink 't c'n go dat fas'."
"I told you we were up all night working on it."
"Righ'," he said sarcastically, "yo' an' a han' full o' people took a bus dat c'n barely hit eighty, an' da's pushin' it, t' w'ere 't c'n top 120? In less den eigh' hour'? Along wid de body change'?"
"No," Jazz said, "me and almost sixty people completely rebuilt the engine so it's as good as any race engine out there. At the same time a dozen other people worked on the body modifications and it took us exactly seven hours, forty-five minutes and fifteen seconds so will you go already. If we go steadily, one of us driving at all times, then we can get there in two days instead of for. So hit it already!"
Remy did hit it then asked, "'ow di' yo' get all dose people t' help?"
"Me an' Psyc have been around in the seven years we've known each other. I just called in a few favors all I had to do was let 'em know Psyc was hurt and this was how I had to get her to where we needed to go. That and a smile, please, and I had most of the people we'd done more then say 'hi' to begging to help."
"Dere still a lot dat I don' know 'bout you two ain't dere?"
"There's a lot about me and her that no one knows."
Jazz fell asleep in the seat. She woke up at nine that night and traded place with Remy. The kids were all asleep, bunched up on the other side of the bus from Psyc and Sherry.
"Have they been asleep all this time?" she asked as she sat behind the wheel.
"Non," Remy replied with a grin, "dey woke up. An' fo' 'bout half an hour you were covered in a half dozen stuffed animals."
"What? Why?" Jazz asked puzzled.
"Dat wha' Remy asked," he told her. "Turn out most o' de chille's were taken in dere slee' an' dey didn' wan' yo' t' dis'pear."
"That's riduculious. How could I disappear with all of you right there?"
"Jazz, dey jus' chille's who know how dere mind work?"
Jazz looked over about to argue when she saw how tired he looked.
Instead she said, "Remy, go get some sleep, you have to drive again tomorrow."
Remy gave her a slight smile, "Okay, Remy can take a hint, he know when someone tryin' t' get rid o' him," he teased before going and lying down beside Sherry and Psyc.
Jazz watched in the rear view mirror as Sherry snuggled into Remy's side and thought once again how much they seemed like a little family.
Jazz stuck to freeways and went around cities hoping to avoid the police. Her plan worked fairly well until late the next day.
She and Remy had traded places again and they were less then an hour away from the institute.
When the sirens started, Jazz swore, "Damn it! I knew I would have to do this."
She turned to the kids, "Sit down, act like you're on a normal car ride, just stay in your seats and sit still."
They all listened and she went to work. She pulled the sheet draped over the motorcycle, put her helmet on and got on the bike.
Then she raised her voice, "Remy, when I say now, push the button under the dash. When I'm out the door, take the next turn and slow down to regular speed and hit the red button next to the radio."
She revved the bike and yelled, "NOW!"
Remy still looked slightly confused but he hit the first button. The rear door burst outward, the clamps released the bike, and Jazz flew out the back of the bus…straight at the police cars.
Remy watched in the mirror as Jazz landed on the leading car, causing it, and those behind it to stop. Remy tore his eyes away and took the next turn. He slowed his pace to the speed limit and hit the second button. The door snapped shut and (unknown to anyone but Jazz) the license plate holder flipped, revealing a New York plate in place of the California one. A few minutes latter, half the number of police cars rounded the corner and sped right past them.
Remy breathed a sigh of relief, then said over his shoulder, "Don' none o' yo' chilles try dat stun' at home!"
The children laughed and retold the story all the way back to the mansion.
Less then a minute after the got there, Jazz pulled in, fishtailed the bike and killed the engine thinking, Well, that was fun.
She removed her helmet and went to the bus. Remy was already carrying Psyc off the bus with Sherry close behind. Jazz motioned for the other kids to follow and they all went inside.
Please reveiw. Any comments welcome.