At first, shuffling cards was practice. After that it became a nervous habit or a way of coping with the extra energy. Now, it just happened. The action was as simple as breathing, to the point where he rarely even noticed it anymore. On a good weather day like this one, everyone else was outside. If someone wanted to be alone, all they had to do was stay in, which was why he sat back on a couch now, in one of the empty living rooms. He didn't bother to watch as cards in his left hand shuffled and spun, always falling back into place. It was the object in his other hand that really drew his gaze. The screen of the phone he held wasn't even on, but captured his full attention. With a sigh, he looked away from the blank screen, sticking the deck from his hand into one of the inside pockets of his jacket. From the other side of the coat, he pulled out a single card from a deck that had long since been lost or destroyed - all but two.

The ace of spades he flipped casually between his fingers, revealing the numbers written on the face everytime it came around. He paused to look at the digits and the name written neatly above them. "Belle" the name read clearly. A small smile grew on his face as he read it, before his attention turned back to the phone. After far too long a pause, he dialed the number. A second before pressing the button to call, he let out a deep sigh and, after cancelling the call, stuck the phone and the card back in his pocket.

It was an unfortunately short walk across the ground floor to the professor's office, not giving him nearly enough time to come up with what he wanted to say. His false confidence that told him he'd figure it out when he got there only went so far. It was almost a relief when the door wasn't open, signifying that there was already another meeting in progress. The most likely event, in his mind, was that he would plan out a great, airtight reason for being late so many times, only to walk in, accept the disappointment, and apologize as sincerely as he could. At some point, he knew, being late or not around moved from the realm of "just a bit of fun" to letting down the only few people whose opinion of him mattered. That aside...sometimes curiosity still taunted the cat. It didn't take long for him to get close enough to the door to hear the conversation inside.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Scott's voice sounded inside of the office, "But this has to stop. We're doing what we can, but we've all got enough on our plates without always covering for him. We know he's not going to show up. What happens when it really matters?"

"I understand the problems it creates, Scott," Xavier's voice chimed in, "I can discuss it with him personally and come up with a solution. Until then-"

"With all due respect, sir," Scott cut in, "If you talk to him about it again, he'll do what he always does. He apologized for letting everyone down and is right back to it the next day! I don't understand why Storm and Logan still keep him on the team at all."

"He really seems to want to be part of the team," a third voice joined in, namely Hank's voice, "But...Scott might have a point. If something ever goes wrong, there's a pretty high chance he won't even be around to help."

"Logan was just the same," Xavier reminded them, "In some cases, it takes time and patience. After all, both he and Logan have become important parts of this family."

"Family?" Scott scoffed, "People care about family. Gambit's only ever out for himself. Everyone knows it. How do we know he's not just using us?"

The room fell silent for a tense minute, before Hank spoke again.

"Charles, I hate to say this, but...what if Scott's right? I mean, we've never really known much about him, and the things we do know aren't really comforting. Even you can't even see what he's really thinking. Can...can we really trust someone like that?"

"See?" Scott added on, "Even Hank's worried about it and he's almost never wrong. You asked me to lead this team and I can't do that if I can't even trust them."

"When it mattered," Charles started thoughtfully, "When it really mattered, has he let the team down?"

There was another pause, clearly caused by Scott and Hank stopping to think about the question carefully.

"From what I've seen," Hank sighed, "He somehow always manages to pull through for us. Any mission where we really needed him or asked him to be there, he was there."

"What about you, Professor?" Scott finally asked, "Do you trust him?"

Silence. When Charles didn't respond, Remy knew he'd heard enough. He stepped away from the door, staring at it in disbelief. It was one thing for the others not to like him. He'd put up with that his whole life. But this had been the only time where he thought someone would be able to see him as something other than the selfish criminal the world seemed to love telling him that he was.

"Guess ah was right about the friends," he sighed to himself, turning to walk toward the stairs and anywhere that wasn't there, "Don't have those."

As he climbed the stairs toward the staff rooms, he pulled his phone out and redialed the number from the card. It rang a few times.

"Hey, you," Belle answered happily, "Did you forget something here?"

"Not callin' about that," he answered.

"What's wrong?" Belle asked more seriously, recognizing the tone in his voice as a familiar, bad sound.

"Ah'm sorry to do this," he sighed, "But ah need a favor from you, Belle. For ol' time's sake."

"Anything."

Gently knocking against the door was a simple task, but, this time, it was easily one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do since he came to the school. The door slowly opened before the nine-year-old brunette looked up at him from the crack between the door and the frame.

"Hey, petite," he smiled, "Can ah come in?"

The girl nodded and walked back across the room, leaving the door open behind her. She sat on the edge of the bed in the small single room, watching intently and waiting for him to talk more. Remy walked over and sat next to her.

"You trust me, Laura?" he wondered, always keeping a calm tone to his voice when he spoke to her.

At first, she gave a vague shrug in response, but, after a bit of thought, she nodded.

"Thanks."

He took a deep breath before hesitantly saying more.

"Listen...ah'm goin' away for a little while," he admitted, "Ah need you ta do a favor for me while ah'm gone, okay?"

Laura didn't say anything as she looked down at her hands and away from him. Watching the way she fidgeted with her hands, Remy could tell that she was trying not to get upset.

"Laura, ah need you to look after Logan for me," he continued, "He gets in over his head and he needs your help. Can you do that? For me?"

"M-hm," she mumbled out quietly.

"Good girl," he smiled, "Ah'll come back and see you soon as ah can, alright?"

He paused for a moment before leaving, just in case there was something she wanted to say. Laura wasn't much of a talker, but he was still hopeful that one day she'd be comfortable enough to talk more - if not to everyone, at least to he and Logan. He walked out, leaving her alone in the room once more.

Slinging a duffel bag over his shoulder, he made his way down the stairs toward the front door. He wasn't sure what to think when no one seemed to care that he was leaving, not there there was anyone in the entryway to notice anyway. As he opened door, he heard fast light footsteps charging down the stairs.

"No!" Laura screamed out angrily as she ran toward him.

With a bittersweet smile, Remy dropped his bag on the ground and knelt down, allowing Laura to run straight into him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck as she did. She wasn't an overly affectionate person - or even one that wanted to be anywhere near people - so, when the rare hugs happened, Remy would never turn her away. He wrapped an arm around her snugly.

"No…" she muttered out through her teeth quietly.

"Hey, you gotta stay here and take care o'your daddy, alright?" he reminded her, trying to reassure her, "Ah got some things ah gotta take care of...but ah'll come back. Jus' for you. Ah promise."

Laura released her iron grip, taking a step back and nodding again. Making sure to keep his movements slow and obvious, Remy leaned forward and placed a kiss on the top of the girl's head.

"Be good, okay?" he smiled, before walking out the door.

On the way to the garage, he allowed himself the mistake of looking back over his shoulder. Laura still stood in the open doorway, watching him go. He knew that his promise wasn't a lie though. That girl had been abandoned enough. He'd be damned if he didn't do everything in his power to keep his promises to her. She deserved that much. Hell, they both did. As for the rest of the school, he thought, he'd be shocked if they noticed that he was gone.

If the X-Men didn't want to trust him, that was up to them. That wouldn't change the facts. The facts were simple. He cared about the school and the kids there. He'd have done anything for them, but they didn't need him. It was time to focus on the other facts. The most important one being that Remy LeBeau always had unfinished business. Life was just more interesting that way.