A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry that this took so long to write! It finally came when I decided to go write All's Fair instead. I've just got to get through one more day on this fic before I update that one. Sorry, sorry. The inspiration just wasn't there. I scrapped so many drafts of this chapter, it wasn't even funny.

For exact day (in relation to the slavery) and time (in 24 hr military format) will be in bold at the top of each scene.

French translation(s):

"Est-ce que je pourrais dormir?" - Could I sleep?

Thanks to everyone who read and/or reviewed! My heart is glad for all the laughs. I'm glad I didn't rush out this chapter though, so you can really laugh some more. Thanks to Laceylou76 who told me not to sacrifice quality (and that you really liked the fighting scene), to coup fatal who informed me that All's Fair could and should wait until this baby came together, to RogueOnFire who helped me with formatting, made me smile, and remember to tell y'all that a story called Asylum (currently on hiatus) inspired me to include X-23, to starlight2twilight who loves my Emma :huge grin:, and last, but definitely not least, to the ChamberlinofMusic who was inspired and laughing to my hearts content!

:virtual hugs to all:

And here it finally is. :sighs in relief:

Important information about Chess:

Chess is played on ranks and files. Ranks are numbered 1 - 8 from the White's back to the Black's back. Files are numbered a - h from the White's left to the White's right.

The Queens occupy the file of d and the Kings the file of e. Queenside pieces are on files a - d; Kingside pieces are on files e - h.

NOTATION:

b = black, w = white

Q = queenside (from player's perspective at start), K = kingside (from player's perspective at start)

Q = queen, K = king, R = rook, N = knight, B = bishop, no notation = pawn

[a]# = board position (file and rank) the piece moves to

[a]x# = means board file a pawn moves from while capturing and its final board position

x# = means board position a piece moves to while capturing

Keep this in mind for reference, please!

Spectator Sport

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All's fair in love and war.

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Chapter Three:

Fianchetto

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The White Kingside Bishop comes neatly into play,
an important addition to a pawn skeleton.

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In chess the fianchetto is a pattern of development wherein
a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent knight file,
the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward.

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Black 5th Play: bQBe6

The black Queenside bishop moves three spaces along the diagonal into a defensive position. Final board position is in front of the first white pawn and two spaces in front of the Black King.

Day One, 10th Hour, 1st Minute

Logan had fully recovered by the end of his breakfast with the shamelessly grinning and unrepentant Rogue. Then she was off to go teach a bunch of thirteen year olds how to speak their own language (a lost cause if you asked Logan) and he was off to talk to Emma Frost, a person he'd rather not talk to most days.

He didn't bother knocking on her office door, just opened it and went in.

Emma was holding a pencil, pressing the end against the corner of her mouth, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully at the piece of paper in her hand. "Looking well," she said drily.

"Very funny," Logan said as he stomped over to a chair and sat down. "She didn't even try today."

Emma sniffed. "I noticed."

He eyed her up. "And how would you notice?"

She rolled her eyes. "I can go telepathically check on you whenever I feel like." She set down the paper and the pencil and settled back. "Anything important happen?"

Logan pulled out a cigar and settled back himself. "Not unless you count me getting drained and passing out."

The White Queen's eyebrows shot up nearly to her hairline. "She really didn't try, did she?" No use giving away everything, she figured, even if she already knew about that. Especially with Logan feeling borderline homicidal.

He merely grunted and blew out some smoke. "You?"

"Oh, she tried all right." She grimaced. "I made the mistake of saying something that must have hurt a little psyche's poor feelings and was promptly and painfully evicted without warning." She rubbed her temples. "Still have a headache from that."

Logan watched Emma shake her head at the memory. "Meaning?"

"It has to be a complex. She overreacts any time I dare to interfere with the psyches." She leaned back and stared solemnly at Logan. "She probably needs to get laid."

Logan's claws came out, accompanied by a low growl.

"Seriously, Logan." The White Queen deigned to explain. "She needs to touch. And not just you. As long as she sees her skin as a weapon, that is exactly what it will remain."

"Don't know what else you could call it, Queenie," he replied flatly.

"Skin!"

"Don't know what this has to do with the psyches."

Emma frowned. "I'm not sure I do either."

"Nice." Logan stood. "Look. You figure out her head. I'll figure out her touch. Got it?"

"Unfortunately for you, Logan," Emma said with a glare, "The two are related. Got it?"

"I'll believe it when I see it."

"I think this bet will be good for her," she went on.

Logan threw back his head and laughed. "Of course, it will. But not for the reasons you're thinking."

Anything to see Gumbo bending over and actually putting in an effort to things. Rogue was perfect for the job, just the right combination of mean and sweet. He was going to enjoy this.

"But it doesn't have anything to do with her gaining control."

"How do you know, Logan?" Emma replied enigmatically. "It just might."

White 6th Play: wKNd2

The white Kingside knight moves left two spaces and back one. Final board position is in front of the White Queen and katticorner to the White King.

Day One, 16th Hour, 29th Minute

Sam Guthrie, Bobby Drake, Piotr Rasputin, and Sean Cassidy carefully gathered their ranks, swallowed their pride, and prepared to darken the entrance to an entire floor at Nordstrom's dedicated to the female shopper.

Sam shifted a little nervously. "Isn't there a better way to shop for Kitty's party?"

"This is my girlfiriend," Piotr reminded him. "And what she wants is up here."

Bobby nodded sagely, having had a girlfriend before and in process of gaining another one, namely Lorna Dane.

Sean stepped forward. "Let's just do this."

And so the four courageous males braved a purely female section of the mighty store. And stopped gaping at the women's clothes.

Gambit (Oh, how the mighty have fallen!) was in the middle of the section, being run ragged by three girls and their teacher, Emma Frost.

Rogue was carefully flipping through shirts on a rack, holding one up now and then to get an opinion. Remy would nod or shake his head and then get yanked over this way by Jubilee and another clothing item would be added to the teetering mound on his left arm. Then Kitty would shout something and Remy would go trucking around, fish something off another rack, and take it back to hand to her. Emma kept grabbing clothes from his other arm, whisking them away to the dressing room, then coming back for more.

All four boys stared in appalled horror.

Sam shook his head sadly. "I'm never getting a girlfriend."

Bobby started rethinking his Lorna infatuation.

Piotr eyed Kitty up with a little bit of worry as she blissfully hauled Gambit around and allowed him to pick her clothes and sizes.

Sean grimaced. "I wonder how he got to be there."

Bobby shook his head. "I don't think we want to know."

In unspoken agreement, the four males called retreat and walked back to Sean's waiting car.

Piotr spoke for them all. "I think they sell those things online."

"Yeah!" the other three chorused.

Black 6th Play: bQd7

The Black Queen moves forward one space to guard the King from the diagonal. Final position is in the seventh rank with the black pawns and just behind the bQB on the diagonal.

Day One, 23rd Hour, 40th Minute

Emma woke from a sound sleep to some interesting mental activity. Starting with Rogue. The girl was projecting again. The White Queen sighed and accepted that interference might be necessary and popped into Rogue' head.

Clothes.

She felt a small shock of surprise. She hadn't expected that, but Rogue was handling a certain lacy negligee and thinking about what would never be.

A small choke of fury crept up in Emma's stomach. That everyone here had allowed this friend of Emma's to feel she would never have what the other girls took for granted...Why, it was indecent!

She did a quick scour for an open mind or two and started scrounging up ideas.

When Rogue noticed the terms of the bet, Emma was positively delighted. Excellent idea. She nudged the girl in the right direction. Call Remy. She did it subtlely. Didn't want Rogue to know what she was up to.

Then she sat and listened in.

"Gambit." His voice was matter-of-fact as always, but this time, it held a hint of real irritation.

Emma felt like clobbering him, but realized that she'd have little opportunity to do so, so settled for planning an extra special field trip for him to take the younger kids on.

"Remy?" Rogue asked.

As if she didn't know who she called. Emma had forgotten why she stopped eavesdropping growing up, but it was all starting to come back.

A long silence ensued. Just when she thought Gambit wasn't going to speak at all, he did.

"Chere. You're cute and all, but phone sex at midnight isn't exactly what I had in mind."

"Gambit!" Rogue responded.

Emma laughed. He was perfect. Break her right out of that funk.

"What do you want?" he demanded with enough growl in his voice to compete with Logan.

Emma instantly evicted the thought. Logan was definitely in his own category of difficult.

"Could you sleep?" Rogue asked tentatively.

"Could I sleep?" Remy repeated in absolute incredulity.

"Could he sleep?" Emma repeated to herself in absolute incredulity. What kind of a line was that? Of course, he could sleep! Emma herself had a hand in running him around that day!

"That is what I asked," Rogue said with some annoyance.

"Let me get this straight, Chere." His voice made it clear that he couldn't believe she was asking him. "We stay up 'til almost midnight on a school night playing poker, you wake me at a ridiculous hour this morning, haul me out of bed to make your breakfast, drag me along to fifteen different stores, have me lug enough bags to make up Logan's weight again, send me to the store at 10:00 at night to pick up ice cream, then wake me up from my well-deserved rest at nearly midnight again, and you're wondering if I could sleep?"

"Yes," Rogue whispered.

He gave a strangled groan. "Est-ce que je pourrais dormir?" he muttered darkly to himself.

Emma decided to skip out on the rest of the conversation until something interesting happened. If she could just get in Gambit's head...

White 7th Play: wKBg2

The white Kingside bishop moves forward one space along the diagonal in preparation for an open line of attack. Final board position is in between two pawns and katticorner to the active white knight.

Day One, 3rd Hour, 3rd Minute

She finally managed to start hearing good snippets at a ridiculous hour, but Remy was still up and in fact was now plotting himself. Apparently, he was also aware of Rogue's homicidal tendencies regarding interference and was trying to figure out a way around them.

Emma could have cheered. It was perfect. She started a little tapping in Kitty's mind to get her up and pushing Remy to go downstairs for coffee.

He didn't hear her.

So like a man.

His thoughts stayed stubbornly on his plan and then the words, Who could I frame?

Frame?

Oh no! Emma narrowed her eyes in his general direction. Oh, no you don't, you little rascal of a swamp rat!

She put Kitty soundly back to sleep and woke up Jubilee, the only girl she could be positive would eventually spill if Remy didn't. This was a matchmaking scheme, not a therapy session. There was no way Emma Frost, the White Queen, Chess Master, was going to allow someone else to take credit for all of her own and Remy's hard work. She was matchmaking him, not some unknown framed wanna be.

Not if she had something to say about it.

Jubilee sent groggy agitated thoughts at the ceiling.

Get up!