A/N: Hmmm? WHAT!? No reviews! Oh come on! ***goes and sobs in a corner***
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Chapter Twenty Eight- A Unrest in CalmnessBuffy was tired. Bone tired. She was had done nothing but train ever since Willow had explained to her what the blood moon meant. Her dream had been right, Jake was getting stronger and his master was rising.
Blood Moon Rising…
Buffy shuddered and leaned herself against the wall. Her mind was so full of worries. Worries about Jake, Lord Deltoramina, the Slayers, the Brotherhood, Colossus, the X-Men, her friends… but especially about Rogue.
She should've been awake hours ago…
That was killing Willow. Buffy could see it in the Wicca's eyes. She was worried that Rogue wasn't going to ever wake up. And then what would Gambit do? He seemed to have a very strong connection to the girl and he wasn't training until she awakened.
Buffy drew in a deep sigh and tried to relax her aching muscles. Sometimes she wished she didn't have to be the leader, the strong one, the Slayer. Sometimes she wished she was still that naïve high school girl whose only concerns were boyfriends and proms. But then she thought about how helpless she had been back then and was glad she had become the Slayer. Glad that Merrick had found her and trained her that very first time.
"Buffy?" Looking up, Buffy smiled weakly at Colossus. He looked as weary as her. He had trained hard as well.
What would he say if he knew what I had been back then? Back when I was sixteen? Buffy wondered and then was disgusted with herself. Why should she care what he thought? At one point wasn't he on the evil side?
Without a word, Colossus slid to the floor next to her. Silence lapsed between them and it was the most wonderful thing she had ever felt. That was why she cared what Colossus thought of her. He never judged and never asked questions, he just accepted. Buffy sighed once more and leaned against him.
"I'm worried about Rogue." She admitted finally, unable to keep quiet. With Colossus you wanted to tell him your problems.
"I know." Colossus answered and attentively placed his arm around her shoulders, "We all are. Gambit especially. I've never seen him like this before and I've been around him a while."
Buffy nodded, "I don't know if she'll make it through the night. Willow says that chances are slim because her mind has been so fully invaded. What will Gambit do if she dies?"
"Let us hope that we do not find out." Colossus said, "Rogue is strong. She will survive and then they can both train. I hear that Willow has a spell that will help Rogue control powers more?"
"Yeah, Willow's been working on it all day in order to keep her mind off it." The Slayer frowned, "Willow's blaming herself for Rogue's condition. She feels she should've done more… but she just can't."
"Your Willow should not blame herself." The large man said, "She has done more then anyone else. If Rogue does die tonight then it was her fate, not the Wicca's fault."
Rising her blue eyes to meet his, she smiled slowly, "Are you always this wise or is it just to make me feel stupid? I gotta tell ya, it's working."
Colossus shrugged, "I tell you what I believe. Nothing more, nothing less. And you understand it. I can see it in your eyes, though you try to hide it."
The mutant stood, surprising Buffy, and looked back down at her with patient blue eyes, "And it is not your fault as well, Buffy. Whatever is making push yourself so hard when training is not your fault. This is destiny. Try to get some sleep."
Buffy watched him leave with wide eyes. Wow, he definitely knew what he was talking about. As she watched him go, Buffy's lips curved. She felt better thanks to that little tidbit of information. Maybe she should listen to Colossus more.
And maybe she should go to sleep.
Pain. Almost unbearable pain. It swamped through her, forcing her to feel it and tried to drag her to the blackness of death. And for an instant, for a moment, it had succeeded. She could feel the still of her heartbeat, the ice in her blood, the organs shutting down, muscles relaxing… she knew them as steps towards death.
But then she was brought back. Something white and gold at the same time had grabbed her wrist and pulled her from the certainty of death. It had hurt at first, her heart felt like it was going to break, her blood veins explode, her muscle spasm, but then air flooded into her lungs and then pain dimmed.
Now she was skimming the surface of consciousness, still stuck in the void of coma. On the other side she could almost feel something draw her away unconsciousness, away from death. And she wanted to see what was on the other side. She wanted to see it so badly it hurt.
Rogue's eyes slowly opened…
All round her was darkness. The bed beneath her was not her own, it was too hard. She felt the IV needle in her arm and her head was pounding. The room she was in was silent, save for the liquid dripping down from the bag and into her arms. For a moment, the screams of the people she had seen in her dreams started to come back to her.
But then a gloved hand brushed across her temple and the screams were forced from her mind. She felt herself relax and she gave a sigh. She lifted her head and saw an arrogant, grinning Gambit looking down at her.
"Welcome back, mon chere." Gambit said in a calm voice, "You've been out of it for almost four days. You had us worried for a bit. But I knew you'd be okay."
Rogue, not feeling up to her full stamina, didn't retort back. Instead she placed two hands on the sides of her head and groaned, "Oh, ma head. It feels like it's about ta explode."
Gambit nodded, thankful Rogue didn't seem to notice how tired he was, "Yeah, Willow said dat might be a side effect of the potion she gave you." He didn't mention that both he and Willow had feared she'd never wake up.
"Willow did this?" Rogue repeated, "Wow, Ah never thought she was this strong."
"How do you feel, ma petite?" Gambit asked and Rogue blinked.
"Fine. Ah feel fine." Then she frowned, "But Ah can still feel them, ya know? Those people the Tora-Kone killed. Ah can still hear their screams… Ah saw a Slayer die… it's horrible. Ah don't think Ah'll be ever to rid myself of those images."
"I'm sorry." Gambit said in a rugged voice, finally letting his tiredness, guilt and pain into his voice. Rogue, surprised by that new tone, looked up at him.
"What?"
"If I can been more careful
fighting, if I had been less cocky then I would've been caught by that vampire.
You wouldn't have had to absorb dat vampire and dis wouldn't have happened."
Wearily, Gambit plopped himself in his seat.
"Gambit…" Rogue said softly, a new emotion taking over her. She suddenly wanted to reached out and cup his face in her hands. She to wipe that guilty look away from his face. She wanted to kiss him… something she had never wanted to do before. But when that Tora-Kone had tried to kill Gambit a new emotion had taken over and now everything was different.
And Gambit saw it reflecting in her eyes. He knew what she was thinking, what she wanted to do and knew she couldn't. Sighing, he reached out and took her hands in his own, careful not to make skin contact.
"I'm sorry about dat too, chere." He said softly looking deep into her eyes.
Something passed between them, something odd and new for both of them. The silence around them became intimate, passionate. Their joined hands tightened on one another. Their eyes never left one another. Lips parted to whisper those words only lovers shared; the words of love and passion…
But then Sidney was running into the room, her eyes wet. Rogue pulled away from Gambit just as Sidney stood at her bed. Sidney, so happy to have her friend back, didn't notice the thickness of the air. Her face broke into a smile.
"Rogue!" Sidney said, throwing herself into Rogue arms, her arms wrapping only around the clothed part of her body, "I'm so glad you're okay. I was so worried."
"It's okay, Sidney." Rogue said soothingly. She was still looking at Gambit, who was looking at her. Gambit smiled his Gambit smile and stood.
"I'll leave you two alone." Gambit said softly and smiled at Rogue, "I am glad you are okay, chere." And then he turned and walked from the room, boots clicking together.
Rogue watched him leave with an odd look on her face. Sidney raised her head and watched Rogue stare at the now empty threshold. Sidney pulled away, feeling suddenly shameful.
"Did I interrupt something?" She asked.
Rogue sighed and turned her tired eyes to Sidney and smiled softly, "Ah really don't know, Sidney." Was her answer, "Ah really don't know."
"Do you… ah… want me to… leave…?" Helplessly, Sidney wrung her hands together, feeling awkward. Rogue smiled at her gently.
"No, that's okay. Ya can stay. What's on ya mind, Sidney?" Rough asked.
Sidney looked wearily at Rogue, as if deciding in her mind if she wanted to talk, then she sighed, "It's about Jack, Rogue. I'm having problems…"
Rogue smiled softly, "Oh, Ah see." Something inside her heart twisted. What would Sidney do if she knew that Rogue was envious of Sidney's problems with the ghost Jack? At least she could touch Jack without the fear of putting him in a coma.
But Sidney must have seen something in her eyes because she was standing quickly, "Do you not want to talk about it right now? Because if you don't then I can just leave. It wouldn't be a problem."
"No," Rogue said instantly, "stay. Ah want to talk. It has been four days since Ah've had a conversation. Ah'm actually getting kinda lonely for a talk."
Sidney smiled and sat back down in the chair, "Do you wanna talk about Gambit?"
"Tell about me Jack."
Sighing, Sidney said, "Jack and my relationship has been on edge ever since the day I went out with a real popular guy in school…"
Rogue smiled. Sometimes it was easier to be helping someone who their problems then fixing her own.
Faith watched Buffy beat the punching bag to nothing more then a rag. It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out something was wrong with the blonde Slayer.
But Faith didn't ask B what the problem was. She wasn't really a 'friend' of Buffy's. That was Willow and Xander's job. Faith had seemed to become the third wheel of the Scooby gang. Not only that, Faith could see it in their eyes every time they looked at her. They still labeled her as 'murderer'. They would probably never forgive her for what she did when she was working for the mayor and the thing with Dawn… she wasn't sure if she even forgave herself. But she knew that this made her feel like she was compensating a little. Maybe if she kept fighting the good fight she'd find that forgiveness she was looking for.
Probably not.
Faith glanced around her. She saw all the mutants sparing with one another. They were all so young and innocent. Do we really have the right to take that away, B? Faith thought wearily. Truth was, Faith was envious of the children before her. They still had the innocence of youth that was ripped from the Slayer without question. No matter what they said, the X-Men and Brotherhood were innocents in all of this. They didn't know of the things that went bump in the night until Buffy had shown up. Now look at them, thrown into a war they're not even beginning to understand.
Groaning, the Dark One looked away and wished desperately she had a cigarette. Or Robin. Faith grinned. Robin would be a lot better then a cigarette. Once that guy got going there was nothing to do but stand back. Faith licked her lips when she thought about the last time they—
She forced her thoughts to halt abruptly. She shouldn't think about sex with Robin like that. She got this stupid grin on her face and it was obvious to anyone she was thinking about doing the dirty with her principal boyfriend.
But boy, oh boy did he ever put the pal in principal for her.
Just as she thought of this Colossus walked up to her. Faith allowed herself to enjoy his long strides towards her. Muscles pushed against his white shirt and it was stained with sweat. Faith almost groaned in pleasure. Just because she was Robin's girl didn't mean she couldn't appreciate, right? Robin was just dandy and Faith didn't want anyone else, but she couldn't help looking. Old habits die hard.
But it wasn't only the whole 'monogamy' thing that held Faith back, it was also the fact that her mind had labeled Colossus as Buffy's 'boy toy'. It was obvious to Faith, who liked to think herself a leading expert on lust, that there was something going on between the mutant and Slayer leader.
Ohhh, matchmaker time!
"Yo, Metal Man," Faith called to which Colossus turned and glared at her, "I gotta talk to ya. Come over here!" She added a little New Yorker accent to her last sentence just for good measure.
Colossus made his strides over to the Dark Slayer slower then they had been. It wasn't that he hated Faith so much as he hated her attitude. He supposed the I-don't-give-a-shit attitude was due to what she had been through. Murder, fighting, evil, jail… but it still annoyed him that she had nicknames, not necessarily nice ones, for everyone.
"What do you want?" Colossus asked when he finally reached her.
Faith grinned and looked back over at Buffy, "Doesn't B seem a little angry lately? More then her usual up-tight self? Maybe it's just me…" she trailed off purposely. She fluttered her sex-goddess eyes back up at him.
Colossus watched as Buffy, sweat working down her forehead and bare arms, and then turned back to Faith, "No, she is upset about something. Do you know what it is?"
Faith shrugged, "Hey, I don't ask B those things, but if I was too have any guess in this I would say she needs to get laid."
"Get la…" Colossus pulled his head away from Buffy and stared at Faith in horror, "What!?"
"She needs to get her freaky on. Commit the dirty deed. Rumble in the jungle? Walk on the very wild side. Roll in the hay. Get herself-" Faith grinned when Colossus held up a hand to stop her.
"I get it! I get it!" Colossus said in horror, "Buffy is right, you have a sick mind. Why would you say that Buffy needs… why would you say that?"
Faith stretched, "I know these things. I mean, I happen to enjoy the dirty very well and it relaxes the muscles. Makes 'em fell like warm liquid goo. Ah, the feeling of satisfactory… that aftermath… the feel of skins… Robin's hands… so rough… so powerful… GOD I miss Robin!" Realizing she had trailed off and Colossus looked like he was about to be sick, she turned her thoughts back on track, "If B got herself relaxed like I do, maybe she wouldn't seem so put out."
"You think…?"
"This is just Faith talking and her opinions. She happens to enjoy sex a lot, but she's also freaky and lust driven. Can't count on what she likes. It was just food for thought." Feeling like she had done some great deed, the Dark Slayer walked away with her hips swinging.
Colossus turned her eyes back onto the Slayer. For many moments he just watched. The movement of the muscles in her arms, her legs, her bare abdomen. Slowly, a smile curved around his lips.
"Get laid, huh?"
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Oh, Faith what you done!? Putting thoughts like that into Colossus's hands… we may have a lemon on our hands, boys and girls. Anywho, please, please REVIEW! I really can't write unless I'm reviewed (you give a little, I give a little right?) so please just take a few minutes and review! Thanks!
"Word to yo momma!"
-Lizzy Rebel