Three Weeks Later

The situation was bad, a lot worse then she could have imagined. It was her fault he ended up the way he did, her fault. They thought to use him to get to her, thought to use the man she loved to get to her. The woman smirked as she climbed down the support beams of the warehouse, her hands griped at the edges of the steal beams as she carefully estimated her drop. Her hands slowly slipped from the steal, and soon she found herself dropping to the cold cement floor. She caught herself, hands and bare feet spread beneath her to support her weight. The woman sighed and quickly padded across the cement floor, her bare feet keeping the clicking sound of her footsteps to a minimum.

The woman smirked when she rounded a corner, dodging a sharp edge of a steal beam as she passed by. She snorted at the metal object, and continued onward. She hated warehouses, hated the smell of metal and industrial stench. The woman sighed.

Thank the lady I didn't decide to shift, She told herself looking about her.

She came up to another corner, another corner she easily passed with a simple twist of her body. As she turned the corner her body came to a full halt. Only a few feet away from her tied up with chains and hooked to an X shaped metal beam, was Nightcrawler. The woman halted her approach, eyes wide to the sight before her. She felt her heart tighten as she gazed down on the wounded and blooded creature.

"Nightcrawler!" She exclaimed quietly rushing quickly to his side. She knelt down beside the blue furry teleporter and placed gently a single hand on his shoulder.

Nightcrawler stirred softly beneath her touch, his bruised eyes strained to open themselves. He looked up at her through slits, a small smile formed on his cut lips.

"Vulf," he said his accent heavy with his German roots.

Wolf felt her heart sink, felt anger rise to the pit of her stomach. She slowly lifted her hand to cup the side of his face, "I'll get you out of here." She encouraged dropping her hand to her hip and carefully sliding a knife from its sheath.

She carefully lowered the blade toward one of the many knots within the chain, and slowly began to push the strong blade within one of the knotholes. Before she could twist the blade and hope to break the iron loops, Wolf heard booted footsteps from behind her. Quick like a striking snake she pulled her blade away from the chains, twisted her body upon her toes and faced the stranger approaching from behind her. Before she could recognize the being before her, Wolf had placed herself into a defensive position in front of Nightcrawler. Her knife was held at eye level, while her other hand protected her mid section.

She stood in front of Nightcrawler, a growl slowly forming within her throat. The man who would be her shadow stepped closer to her, his hands gesturing friendly motives in front of him. Wolf gasped, smiled, and instantly lowered her guard.

"Gambit," She said happily to her friend. "Thank the lady you are here," she said turning her back on her friend so she could attend to Nightcrawler. Wolf put her full trust in Gambit, "Gambit, be my look out while I…"

She had been watching Nightcrawler's movements from the corner of her eye while she fiddled with his chains. She had seen Nightcrawler look behind her hopelessly, saw the anger, fear, and loath creep into the man's gaze. Wolf blinked, sighed, and heard the whisk of air. She quickly lifted her blade up above her once again, blocking the incoming pole from hitting the side of her head.

"Gambit!" She exclaimed glaring at the man attacking her. She pushed with her blade against the steal fighting stick Gambit had used to fight in close combat. She growled up at him as she forced him back. "What are you doing?"

Gambit smirked, "How do you think Kurt got here?" He asked coldly, "Why do you think he was unable to teleport before it was to late?" He continued.

Wolf stared at him in disbelief.

"Trust." Gambit grinned sadistically, "Trust in a friend."

"How could you?" Wolf growled.

"Magneto is paying me a lot to capture you and elf boy there," He laughed.

"You would betray your friends!"

"Oh chère, who ever said you were my friend."

She was stunned, Deirdre looked up at her friend and she was simply stunned. "Remy…" She whispered lowering her head and dropping her blade to her side. Her blade arm went limp as she forced back her tears. "No…" She moaned.

"Yes," He laughed. "I was only pretending to be your friend to get close to you, to get you to trust me."

Her gaze whipped up to lock with his, anger flared in her grayness.

"What about Rogue?" She asked harshly, "what about everyone else!" She took a step forward.

Gambit laughed, "Rogue, well I have her wrapped around my finger. She can't believe I'd do anything bad," he smirked. "She believes I've changed my ways." He sighed, "as for the others, I could care less…"

Wolf growled as she continued to step closer to him, "So you'd just throw away our friendship, my trust…for money?"

"Yes."

"Bastard!" Deirdre howled propelling herself forward, her blade flashed in front of her and her arm lifted and then lowered to strike at Gambit.

Gambit gasped and quickly placed his fighting stick in front of him, countering the blade aimed for him. Deirdre growled and striked again, and again. Gambit danced back, she danced forward. Arms parried and hammered. Weapons clashed. Deirdre pushed and Gambit fell back, he tripped and fell into a stack of metal beams.

He gasped and leaned into the support beams, "Ow…" He moaned slowly attempting to push himself off from the steal beams.

Deirdre stepped closer to him as he struggled to regain his balance, "How could you?" she growled flipping her blade in her hand so that is rested against the back of her arm, "how-"

Splurge!

Pink paint splattered in front of her and all over Gambit. The two combatants blinked and then stared at each other. A snort rose from behind Deirdre, she quickly glanced behind her to see Nightcrawler shaking with laughter. She smirked and then looked back at Gambit covered in pink paint. Soon, she too was giggling nonstop.

"That's for eating my last pudding, Suger." The intercom announced from outside the warehouse.

"What a way to end a training simulation," Deirdre said sheathing her blade back to her hip. She covered her mouth as she continued laughing, "What a way to lose Gambit." She stated with a big grin.

The warehouse vanished around them, revealing to all a semi empty room. Deirdre walked over to Gambit and offered him a hand, he took it, and she helped him stand.

Gambit sighed and shook his head, "I didn't know it was yours, chère." Gambit replied to the intercom's speaker.

Rogue answered him on the other side. "Of curse you did, I even said: Don't touch my pudding!"

Deirdre shook her head as she begun to witness a back and forth conversation between Gambit and Rogue. She was standing idle, watching the conversation heat up between the two lovebirds, until an arm came to wrap around her waist and gently pull her close to a body. She looked up to meet Nightcrawler's gaze.

She smiled, "Those look waaay to real." She said turning to face Kurt and reaching a finger to gently trace the fake bruises.

"You can thank Kitty for that," he said with a smile.

"I don't think I'd thank her for making my heart sink," she explained gently raising on her toes and placing a small kiss on the teleporter's cheek. "I don't ever want to see you in that situation…out of our training simulations."

Kurt smiled and wrapped both his arms around her, pulling her close to him. His tail softly brushed against her leg. "I'll try not to get myself in trouble."

Deirdre smirked and shook her head, "Kurt…" She called to him softly as she nuzzled his chest.

"It's like a damn love nest in here," A husky voice boomed from the open doors of the training simulator room.

A small group of four walked into the room, three sets of eyes glanced and smiled in greeting to their fellow teammates. Deirdre and Kurt pulled a part, their hands entangling at the end. Gambit stopped arguing with Rogue, and Rogue... The intercom buzzed off, and ten seconds later Rogue was seen walking in behind Logan, Storm, Jean Grey, and Scott.

Storm greeted her teammates with a respectful smile, "That was an excellent demonstration." She announced halting her progress half way into the room.

"What can we say," Gambit began with a grin. "We're excellent actors."

Rogue marched in toward Gambit, and hit him.

"Ow, why you do that?"

"For eating my pudding, sugur." Rogue explained smirking up at him.

Deirdre laughed, "Gambit you seem to be getting yourself, more and more in trouble these days."

Gambit sighed, "I just don't understand…"

Kurt shook his head, smiled, and then turned his gaze toward his fellow teammates that had just entered the room. "Despite the paint incident, I thought we did pretty well in that situation."

Deirdre snorted, "I still don't understand why Kurt had to be the one tied up, and Gambit the traitor…"

"Logical choices, Deirdre." Jean Grey announced.

Deirdre snorted again, "Ok, so I can understand tying Kurt up, and forcing my mind to train in that situation…but Gambit as the traitor?" She sighed and rubbed her temples, "he would never betray me."

"You never know, kid." Logan said as he came to stand beside Storm.

"Wow Logan, thanks for your friendly confidence in me…" Gambit announced as he clutched Rogue in his arms, she trying to escape his hug. He laughed, and the two were left to roughhouse while the others spoke.

Deirdre sighed, "Is there anymore training simulations you want us to try?"

Scott moved forward, "none, we actually came in here to tell you all to go have a break."

Logan snorted, "also we need this room now, so how about you love birds go smooch someplace else."

Deirdre laughed, "Aw, are you sure Wolverine?" She asked smirking, "does our affections for one another rub you the wrong way?" She growled, and the two began to stare each other down.

Kurt swallowed hard and pulled at Deirdre's hand, "Libeling…" Kurt pleaded using the German term for darling.

She glanced toward him, her features softening slightly. She sighed, shook her head, and then smiled up at him. She then turned to face Logan and the others, and gave them all a soft smile.

"Alright," she began. "Have fun with your training, oh!" She smiled over at Scott and Jean, "if it's at all possible." She smirked, "try tutoring Wolverine with the power of you two's love."

There was a loud snort of laughter from Gambit and Rogue as the two heard the suggestion given to the other couple. Scott and Jean blushed, looked at each other, and then offered Deirdre a warm smile.

Scott smirked, "We'll try our best."

"That's all I ask," Deirdre said taking a step forward.

Kurt followed behind her, his hand still entangled with hers.

"Have fun, guys." She announced before leaving the training simulation room along with Kurt, Rogue, and Gambit.