Good evening! I want to say Thank You! to everyone who added this story to their alert list and/or favorite list. I really appreciate your interest! And thank you to those of you who left reviews. Feedback and encouragement are always welcome. I actually managed to get all caught up on grad school tonight (probably the only time this semester it will happen), so I figured it was a good time to post another chapter. If the dog will let me stop petting her long enough, I might even post two. Again I have no beta, so please bear with any grammar goofs or typos I missed. Let me know what you think, and enjoy!

Layla

With a glare at her now empty mug, Rogue forced herself to leave the little café across the street from the jazz club she'd been staking out all day. The taxi had left her on a nearly empty Bourbon Street just after seven am. Other than a few café's serving breakfast, she'd had few options at that hour of the day.

Her eyes felt like sandpaper and no amount of mild scrubbing was going to get rid the mascara smears beneath her eyes. She desperately wanted a shower and nap. Thirty-six hours without sleep and airplane funk in her hair weren't doing good things for her temper. But she was at the mercy of Murphy's law. Aside from trusting her mental Julian, a personality that made her uncomfortable on a good day, she was stuck waiting at the only place she knew from experience Gambit liked to go.

Not for the first time that day, Rogue grumbled at her power's inability to absorb more than the very surface of Gambit's thoughts. Not that she wanted another distinct personality in her head, but it would have made this much easier.

No one was sure why she absorbed him differently, but Hank McCoy had a theory. Absorbing anyone gave Rogue a burst of energy in addition to taking a part of their mind and powers. But with most people, the energy surge was overshadowed by the presence of a new voice within her mind. As with computer games requiring multiple installation disks, the length the absorption and the number of times the person was absorbed dictated the definition the new personality possessed.

Two fairly long absorptions of Julian Boudreaux resulted in a well defined and strong personality. Since she had absorbed him with the intention of knocking him out both times, she'd copied a fair amount of his mind in the process. Unfortunately.

Berserker and Logan were both accidental absorptions. Ray was present but mostly indistinct, a mere shadow of the boy himself since she'd only gotten him once. Logan, on the other hand, had been helping her with some attempts at control, and as a result she had absorbed him several times even before the battle in Essex's lab. Each absorption was short, but frequency had resulted in a well defined mental copy of the man. Like Julian, his psyche was able to converse independently with Rogue, not just pass on disjointed memories and emotions.

But Gambit's personality was by far the vaguest of her collected psyches. She'd pulled his most immediate thoughts when she'd accidentally absorbed him but little else. There were no remnants of strange memories or the passing of emotions from him. But he'd left her system buzzing with energy like she'd just consumed several gallons of pure caffeine. Only Berserker came close to the same level of energy transfer, and it was a very distant second place.

But that was what had given Beast the idea. His hypothesis was that Remy's ability to change potential energy into kinetic energy left a kind of energy residue in his system, and that was what Rogue primarily absorbed. Beast also suspected that the residue, for lack of a better term, was what made Gambit's mind so hard for Professor Xavier to try and read.

But theories were no help to her now. There was no way the X-Men didn't know she was gone at this point. And she seriously doubted that Logan would let her stay gone for more than one night without dragging the team after her (if he even gave her that long). So she had just tonight to find and warn Gambit. And hopefully not cause any major issues with the Rippers. Her mental Julian kept hissing at her that his fellow Assassins would just love to use her to get to the Thieves.

The sun was starting to set as she stepped on to the street. Wednesday night in early November brought a mixed but medium size crowd, and Rogue moved anonymously between the people. She crossed the street, briefly pausing to gaze inside the jazz club before continuing on.

A rowdy group of college aged men headed for the club, one of the men brushing against her arm as he turned to speak to another. "Y're kiddin' y'self, LeBeau, if y' think dis is gonna go down smooth. Le Diable Blanc got his name for a reason."

Rogue's head snapped up and she spun back around. Without pausing to consider the risks, she blurted out, "You're a LeBeau? Does that mean you know Remy LeBeau? Gambit?"

Although she'd clearly startled them, surprise was only visible of men's faces for a fraction of a second before they looked her up and down, collectively taking her measure before answering. They didn't look impressed.

One of the younger ones broke out laughing. "Apparently we got one of his girls huntin' him down." He addressed Rogue. "Remy can't come out to play tonight, petite, but we be more'n happy to take his place."

Raising her hand to her hip she snarled back. "Ah ain't one of his girlfriends. Ah have some information for him, that's all. Once Ah pass that on, Ah'm leaving."

The dark haired man in the center of the group raised an eyebrow, clearly humoring her. "Information, you say. And just what is your name, petite?"

"Rogue," she said flatly.

That got their attention. "Rogue? De same Rogue dat helped Remy get mon pere away from de Rippers four months ago?" the same man asked.

She glared, trying to look nonplussed that they knew who she was. "Yeah. That was me."

"Well, well. We've heard quite a bit 'bout you, Chérie," he extended his hand for her to shake, a smooth smile gracing his features. "Name's Henri LeBeau. Gambit's mon petite frère."

Rogue took it cautiously, only half surprised when he turned his grip to place a kiss on her knuckles.

She didn't like the idea of Gambit telling these men anything about her. She could still remember the surprised but cunning tone in Jean-Luc LeBeau's voice after she took down Julian and Marius Boudreaux. 'She can do all that with just a touch of her finger?'

Gambit had warned his father not to go down that path, but she didn't have much faith in the leader of the Thieves' Guild given what little she knew.

"Look, Ah don't have much time. Just tell me where to find Gambit, and Ah'll be gone."

Henri smirked at her. They might not have been brothers by blood, but Rogue could see enough similarities between the two to make her edgy. And she definitely didn't like him calling her 'chérie'. "If y' want to see Remy, you'll have to come with me. It ain't safe for him to be walkin' de streets just now."

Rogue snorted. "You have no idea."

Henri watched her for a moment assuming she was joking, before he nodded, taking her words at face value. "Den come with me." He turned to the others and he gently took hold of her arm, careful to avoid the sliver of bare skin between her gloves and the sleeve of her shirt. "You hommes can enjoy de evening if y' wish. It seems I have a surprise to bring to Remy."

With a snort, one of the men spoke. "Y fou if y' think we gonna miss dis."

French words I might have used correctly:

homme: man
fou: crazy
frere: brother
pere: father

So she's accosted Henri and is on her way to met Remy...hmmm