French Translations:
Bonjour, Krys, comment a été ma belle fille?—Hello, Krys, how has my beautiful girl been?
Mon ami—my friend
Bien—Well
…
Kurt walked down the hall and stopped at Boom-Boom's door. Like it or not, he was supposed to wake everyone up, and he'd done the whole mansion except this hallway. Unfortunately for him, this hall was home to a former thief, a lunatic, and a Popsicle. Then there was Crystal and Kitty, which he didn't mind too much. "Man, I hate ziss job!" Kurt muttered as he knocked on Ms. Psychopath's door. Immediately the door knob was turned and Boom-Boom walked out in a bright green plaid jacket and bright red pants, her iPod on full blast. "Hey, breakfast call, Blue?" Kurt had no idea what she just said so he nodded, hoping that was the answer she was looking for.
It was. She kissed his cheek playfully and danced down the hall. As she did, something fell out of her pocket. "Tabitha! You dvopped somt'ing!" Kurt picked up a small dog statue. It had headphones on and an iPod in its left paw. He smirked and looked up, seeing that her door was open. "Okay, I'll just go in and veturn it den get out. Vhat's to worry?" Kurt said to himself as he walked into Boom-Boom's room very carefully.
There was stuff everywhere; on the ceiling fan, on her desk, on her dressers and in her closet, on the bed, scattered over every inch of the floor. How was he supposed to find where to put the little statue? He sat in on the desk next to her iPod charger. "Yeah, she'll find it zhere," Kurt said to himself as he teleported into the next room, only to get blasted out and frozen half to death. Dang, Kurt forgot how cold Bobby kept it in there. Oh vell, he thought as he limped over to Crystal's door. But before he could knock or even ask if she was up, a low growl followed by a powerful bark came from the room.
Kurt froze. What was behind that door? It must be hungry, because it was practically staring a hole in the wall looking at Kurt. "U-Uh, Cvystal, a-are you—vhat's g-gvowling? I-I mean, u-uh," he stuttered, shuddering violently. Another menacing growl, but then Crystal's voice came underneath the evil noise. "Oh, hey Kurt! Jake, it's okay, it's just Kurt." Jake? The growling stopped and Kurt slowly opened the door.
What he saw just about killed him. A giant Doberman was sitting in front of him, a rubber poker chip in between its paws. It stared intently at Kurt, waiting for his trainer's command to greet the blue guy. Crystal smiled. "Kurt, close the door, I don't want him to get out." She pointed at the huge dog. Kurt closed the door like she told him to, but then teleported next to Crystal, shaking madly.
She just laughed and whistled. The Doberman bounded over and, with one motion, jumped up onto the bed next to Kurt. He whimpered faintly as the dog sniffed his blue tail. "Kurt, this is Jacob. Jacob, this is Kurt the scaredy-cat." Then Jake did something funny: Kurt stuck out his hand to pet the dog, but the Doberman put his paw out and the two furry creatures shook hands. Kurt was stunned. He'd just started to relax when Jacob growled at the door. Someone was knocking loudly, but they didn't know about the dog, so they generally gave the same reaction, but with a bigger hint of curiosity.
"Who is it?" Crystal asked while doing some strange motion toward Jacob. The dog went into the closet and even closed the door behind him. The reply came rather quietly, but Kurt and Crystal heard it clearly. "It's Hank; I believe I'm supposed to be here for…Jacob?" She looked at Kurt, who understood the gesture and teleported out of the room. Then she opened the door. "Uh, hi, Hank, come in, please." Hank walked into the dead silent room and looked around. "Well, where is our friend Jacob?" Crystal had only slept for an hour and a half because she had trained the Doberman to understand her hand signals, so she answered without thinking. "In the closet," she stated with a yawn.
Beast—who ignored the impulse to question her as to why Jacob was in the closet—walked to the closet door and immediately heard a faint growl. He chuckled lightly and opened the door, only to see a dog. "Is out friend a mutant?" he asked, patting the dog's head. "No, he's Gambit's Christmas present." Hank almost chocked on the cough drop in his mouth. After recovering, he looked at her with an "are-you-crazy" look. "R-Really? Well, that's, um…pleasant," he managed.
Meanwhile, Jacob resisted his impulse to sniff Hank for a solid hour. Crystal motioned for him to come out, and he definitely came out. Jake sniffed Hank's hand for five minutes strait, which was distracting because Crystal was talking to Hank about a place to hide him until next week. Finally the pair of mutants decided it would be best to keep him in the blue doctor's office in the infirmary. At first, he protested, but Crystal had methods of persuasion that Hank would rather not see. So, tonight, Jacob would sleep in the office.
Beast left, muttering something about a test subject. Crystal was just about to jump back in bed to get a couple hours of sleep when there was a knock at the door. A low growl signaled someone Jacob didn't recognize, so Crystal got up and put him in the closet. She stifled a yawn as she muttered, "Come in." The door opened and Gambit rolled into the room. She jumped nearly a foot. Why was he here?
"Bonjour, Krys, comment a été ma belle fille?" Crystal wasn't too tired to understand what he'd said. "Eh, I'm okay, just kinda tired. What about you?"
"Bien, Mon ami; Gambit's fine. Wat you up to, chere?" The Cajun smiled, but it was weak and forced. Something was obviously wrong with him. "I, uh, I'm not doing anything, well, I was going to see If I could get some more sleep before lunch." She stuttered, failing at her attempt to remain calm. Truly, she was worried that Gambit would find Jacob. Then her whole plan would be ruined.
Crystal shook her head to get rid of that thought and asked Gambit, "So, what have you been doing lately?" He shrugged. "Not much, really. Kinda borin' 'round here, ya know? Not'in int'restin happens anymore." Gambit wasn't very loud, and his voice seemed scratchy, but he didn't seem to either notice or care. Jacob's familiar growl shot into the air, but it disappeared quickly. Gambit looked toward the closet. "Wat you got in dere? Sound like somt'in pretty big." Crystal gulped. Drat! And to think I thought this would work! She spat at herself, angry that she hadn't moved the Doberman down to the office sooner.
"U-Uh, I don't have anything, um—"
"It would be easiest to give the dog to Gambit early, because I have observed Jacob's behavior. He will get destructive when ignored, and I don't think he likes the closet very much," the Professor said suddenly to her telepathically. Crystal had no time to reply, because Xavier continued. "Besides, Gambit could use some company in the infirmary. Is he there? He needs to head to the infirmary, and if you would remind him, that would be alright, as well."
Crystal wondered what the Professor was talking about. Why would Remy need company in the infirmary? "Uh, Krys, y-you okay?" Gambit waved his hand in front of her face. She snapped back to reality just as he started coughing. "Gambit, are you okay? I'd be more worried about yo'self than me, Hun," Crystal stated, rolling Gambit out of the room and down the hall. "Where we goin', chere? Gambit ain't got nowhere ta be." She looked at him. "Yes you do, the Professor told me you were needed in the infirmary."
Gambit was going to protest, but they reached the door to the infirmary. Just as he started coughing again, it opened and Hank rolled him in. Crystal followed them in and saw the Professor sitting calmly next to a vacant bed. "Ah, hello, Crystal, glad you could join us." He said; a hint of doubt in his voice. "What's wrong with him?" Crystal muttered to Professor X as Hank put Gambit on the hospital bed and hooked him up to some machine.
"Oh, nothing Hank cannot fix, I assure you," the Professor replied simply, glancing at the blue doctor. "Yes," Beast added, to back up Xavier's theory, "Gambit is fine, but we need to see if he has caught anything major. For example, December is a cold month. He could have just a cold to pneumonia, or worse." Crystal closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Gambit sensed her nervous reaction and said quietly but clearly, "Trus' Gambit, chere, 'f dat da case, den you got not'in ta worry 'bout." He coughed and Hank said something to him that Crystal didn't catch.
"So, how is our Doberman friend? Doing well, I hope?" The Professor rolled out of the infirmary and into the hall. Crystal followed and saw Jacob sitting outside the door with his rubber poker chip. Xavier smiled as the dog walked up calmly to him and put the toy on his lap. "Jake, why are you out of the room?" Crystal yelped as the Professor patted Jake's head. "Jacob might be lonely alone in your closet, Crystal. Have you ever thought of that?" the bald man smirked and started to roll down the hall, leaving Jake sitting in the hall next to a shocked and confused Crystal.
Crystal stared at the dog and he stared back. She could tell they were both thinking the same thing: Well, what now?