Notes: Hey, thanks everybody that reviewed : ) Reviews make my day. Sorry, this took so long, I actually had writing done… it was my internet that was full of evil this time. And don't worry BJ, I could never make Logan a jerk, even when I'm mad at him, he always turns out decent in anything I write :P It's kind of annoying, like how even if I'm not mad at Rogue she always turns out like a self-absorbed brat…. Coincidence? I think not… anyways: On with the story. I think this is the longest chapter yet, and what's that? Actual plot somewhere? Don't worry, not really….. :P
"Vertigo is cheating" Prism stated mournfully, glaring at his poker hand in disgust and then back at a prim looking Vertigo. "I keep getting dizzy whenever it's my turn." She simply raised one beautiful eyebrow and treated him to a look.
"Maybe it's the bourbon? If I was going to cheat, I doubt I'd waste my time on you." She sniffed. The air of indifference was broken as she grinned. Prism merely gave her a hard look before going back to glaring malevolently at his poker cards and muttering.
"Gambit t'ink maybe you no playing so good because you keep glaring at de cards. It's called a poker face Mon ami." The Cajun was sprawled in a chair across the table from the pair, watching the exchange with amused interest from across his large pile of winnings.
"Harpoon thinks Gambit should shut up and play." Harpoon growled. Gambit gave him a lazy grin.
"You're not still mad at Gambit for winning all dose rounds are you?" The Cajun said in mock hurt. Harpoon growled.
"Who decided it would be fun to play cards with someone named Gambit? That's what I want to know." Gambit smiled and leaned back as the general insults and heated comments of the marauders raged on. It was just like old times. Well, minus the inhibitor collar around his neck that was gently beeping, and the fact that if he tried to leave the room they would attack him. Still, this was much more fun then poker with the X-Geeks, most of whom had no idea how to play or interest in learning. Logan was fun to beat… He sat up a little guiltily at that thought. Logan was in a cell by himself somewhere in the base now. He was probably not happy. And here Gambit the X-Man was playing poker and drinking bourbon with the enemy (the bourbon had been at his insistence; he was tired of Grey Crow's nasty beer). He sighed. Nothing he could do about it now.
He raised his head and looked at the game. Prism and Scrambler were glaring at each other over something that must have happened while he was thinking, and Vertigo was looking extremely pleased with herself. He made a mental note to watch her. He looked at his cards and allowed a small frown to grow on his face. He noticed the others surreptitiously watching him and to confuse them more, bet high. They would either assume he had good cards and was trying to fool them with the frown, or that he was trying to bluff the round on his low hand. They all watched him carefully throughout the round, as they did every other round, but could not figure out how he consistently won. He grinned at them, loving their confusion.
"Anyone for anot'er round?" He smiled as the marauders glared at him. "Awww, it's not Gambit's fault you haven't been practicing while he was away." He grinned at them as he scooped his assorted loot into his pockets. Not that he could do anything with the money, but it was still nice to win. Thank God for the bet with Sinister that let him keep his beloved trench coat. He looked over to the other side of the room where Scalphunter and Arclight were passionately making-out and raised his eyebrow. Switching tack, he asked, "Are dey always like dis?" Letting incredulity slip into his tone. To which Vertigo, unashamed gossip of the Marauders jumped into the conversation with gusto.
"Allll the time." She rolled her eyes. "Everywhere. It's gotten so we don't use most of the sofas here anymore because were afraid of what they've done on them." Gambit winced in sympathy as the rest of the Marauders scrambled to add their two cents. Gambit grinned as Scalphunter and Arclight separated and made their way over to the group.
"Something funny Cajun?" Arclight said, her heavily muscled form looming in front of him. Remy grinned, practically oozing charm.
"You t'ink Gambit would make fun o' a beautiful femme like you? Chere you wound me wit' da t'ought. Gambit was just remarking on how happy he is fo' you and Gray Crow" he quickly pacified, giving a dazzling grin. Arclight gave him a little glare and looked like she was about to say more when Gray Crow came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her (cautiously, as people who kill for a living don't generally enjoy being sneaked up on, especially not Philippa). He kissed her neck passionately and she relaxed into him. Gambit turned away and gave a small genuine smile at this. Vertigo, who was watching this with interest gave a little, ladylike snort at his expression, although she to had been smiling slightly.
The hydraulic door to the common room suddenly opened and Riptide came in. "Mission" he said, tossing a folder onto the poker table and sitting down in a vacant chair. He noticed Gambit and gave a slight frown. "You'll have to get rid of him before you open it, Boss doesn't want him seeing anything. He should have been back in a cell an hour ago." Gray Crow rolled his eyes.
"Calm down Riptide, were just going back now." He moved away from Arclight and Gambit stretched lazily and stood up.
"'ello to you to." He said, laughing a little but looking straight at Riptide, who merely rolled his eyes in annoyance. He had no idea why the Cajun was given all these privileges. He was an X-Man far crying out loud, and he wasn't even in a cell. And nobody really seemed to mind. Oh, at first they had all been annoyed at the Cajun, glaring at him and making snide comments, but somehow, in the two weeks the Cajun had been there, they seemed to have forgotten why they were even mad at him. He doubted a single one of them had thought about Gambit's prisoner status during the poker game. The damn Cajun was working his charm on them all. Gambit gave a lazy salute to the others as he accompanied Scalphunter out of the common room. Once outside Gray Crow carefully blindfolded him and the two walked back through the warren of corridors to the cell where Logan was waiting. The blindfold was more of a formality than anything else, as it had taken Gambit one walk to memorize all the necessary turns to get to the common room, as both knew, but the formalities had to be kept up.
The two finally reached the door and Scalphunter tugged the blindfold off, giving Remy's hair a ruffle as he did. Remy ducked out of the way teasingly, looking affronted. Scalphunter opened the door using a complicated scanning machine and a code he did not let Remy see and gently prodded Remy inside. He unlocked Remy's collar when he was completely blocking the door to the cell and pocketed both key and collar. "Be seeing ya, Cajun." He said and turned to exit as the door closed.
Wolverine sat, watching all this. "Back kid?" He growled, not bothering to get up. Gambit had the grace to duck his head in an ashamed manner. Wolverine sighed; yelling at Remy didn't solve anything. The kid was having just a hard time of this as he was. It had been shocking for Logan to see the marauders treating the kid so fondly, as if they genuinely cared about him. He wasn't unused to seeing villains as real people, lot's of the villains he knew were decent people, and lot's of the decent people he knew were villains. But the marauders were ruthless killers. He had seen the Morlock Massacre; he had been there and witnessed everything that happened and the aftermath. How could the people responsible for that be fond of anyone, let alone Remy? Despite all he was learning from the Cajun's cagy but seemingly truthful answers to his questions or the conversations he had witnessed between Gambit and their captors he found the entire situation still made very little sense.
The War Room:
"They've been gone for two weeks!" Cyclops cringed at Storm's angry, almost high-pitched yell. Jean placed a soothing hand on his arm and ebgan to speak in a calm, measured tone.
"We are very aware of that Storm, and we are doing everything in our power to find out where they are. Both of them are hard to find on Cerebro as it is and Sinister's base is going to be telepathically shielded. We'll get them back." Storm was unimpressed by Jean's words and told her so, storming out of the War Room.
"It seems our friend is a little overwrought." Beast supplied in the silence echoing her departure. "Perhaps if we simply went to Sinister's old bases and looked the old fashioned way?" He gave a small frown. "I believe we all worry about our noble comrades while they are in our most sinister of foe's clutches." Scott sighed.
"All right, we'll start with that. We're all very worried at this point. Hank, see if you can calm Storm down and meet us at the blackboard in 20 minutes. Bobby, could you print out a list of all Sinister's old bases? Jean, keep scanning for a few minutes than meet us in the blackbird. Everyone else, get suited up and ready to go. We are getting out teammates back." The team wandered off to prepare for battle and Scott sighed. Making sure they were alone, he turned to Jean and asked "Was that an ok speech Honey?" Jean smiled at him.
"That was very good Scott, much less corny then most of them. I'm sure the team was impressed." Scott beamed. Then, remembering what was going on, gave Jean a quick kiss on the check before he left to make his own preparations.