………………………………...
Rouge awoke from the not so gentle nudge of Wolverine, fallowed by a grunt. She opened her eyes and looked up at him realizing they were in her bed room back at Camelot. She sprang to her feet, eyes wide with fear.
"Remy?!" She choked, running to the door. Logan caught her by the arm and spoke in a soft, calm voice.
"Easy Darlin,……it's ok, he's home!……..Beast has him in the med room. Fixing him up,…….you'll see, he'll be as good as new!" Logan seemed more trying to convince him self then her. "Come on, meeting in the lounge." The two X-Men walked together in silence, feeling sick with dread. Every one was already in the room, looking exhausted and worried. Hushed whispers fell silent as they entered, all eyes were on Rouge. She didn't seem to notice or care as she took her seat next to the Professor, Wolverine remained standing. A moment later, a very tired and emotionally distressed Henri Mc Coy entered the tense room, laying back against the wall and removing his glasses as he rubbed his eyes. He let out a sigh that seemed to hurt his heart, before cleaning his glasses and opening his eyes, to gaze upon the small crowd of troubled faces. He smiled weakly, but it offered no assurance.
"Henry?" The Professor spoke in a calm but insistent voice. Beast cleared his throat.
"In all my years……." He began but stopped as a sudden unexpected sob broke free from his throat. This seemed to suck the air from the room, confirming the worst. They knew it was bad, just not how bad. Jean wrapped her arms around the Blue doctor and he smiled at her effort, resting a hand on her own. He sighed and began again. "In all my years as a medical professional,………….I have never seen a human body that has sustained so much damage!" His voice grew in strength as anger gripped his heart. "The pain and suffering he has gone though is simply inconceivable!………How any one could posses such immense cruelty is beyond…….." He shook his head, tears finding their way back to his eyes.
"But you can fix em' right?…….You can make em' better Beast!……..He'll be okay right?……He'll be okay!" Rouge felt the tears in her own eyes and a lump formed in her throat. Beast looked at her with sad, discourage eyes, then away.
"I……I don't even know if he can walk anymore!……….They hurt him so badly Rouge,………If I had the Shiar equipment still, maybe, but…………They have……..he's been tortured." Henry closed his eyes again as the realization of his words began to sink in. Every one in the room was in shock. Wolverine released a cry of anger and punched threw the wall. Every one was silent except for deep sobs and angry grunts.
"There,……..there has to be a way!……..Professor?" Jean looked pleadingly at her mentor with eyes full of tears. He returned her stare with a look of failure and grief.
"I can help heal his mind but not his body." Never before had Charles spoken with such despair.
"There is a way." Magneto spoke in a soft whisper, his gaze hard and fixed on the floor. Every one's attention was on him as he stood in the door way, deep in thought. A look of desperate hope was worn on every face, eyes wide and shining with tears. "There is a mutant,……Jonathan Armos,……..aka, the Surgeon. He has the gift to heal all physical injuries and cure sickness………..However,………..He is currently in Federal Prison, serving a life sentence." Eric looked up at those around him. After a pause, Jubilee spoke up.
"Well we are the United Mutant Liberation Force!…….What are we waiting for? Lets bust him out!"
"It's not that simple Jubilee. If he's in a federal prison, it's not for being a mutant." Cyclops stated with a frown.
"What did he do?" Kitty asked with a gulp.
"He is a serial Rapist with homicidal tendencies, and he has been labeled a sociopath!" The room was filled with sighs grunts and murmurs of what to do. Eric looked directly at Charles to gage his reaction, but the man remained silent, his eyes closed and his chin prompt up by his elbows, resting on folded knuckles.
"I don't care what he is!……If he can help Remy I'll bust em' out my self!" Rouge announced with determination.
"Rouge, we can't be rash here!……….How would it look if the X-Men started freeing mutants guilty of crimes under the law?…..We'd have the Government's attention right back on us!" Cyclops rose his voice in frustration.
"We don't have to go charging in all obvious!………..Night Crawler can teleport in during the night, grab him, he repairs Gambit, we dump him back off before morning! Simple." Bobby clapped his hands.
"Oh,…….and how pray tell do you convince a sociopath to help, "repair" as you so eloquently put it, Gambit?" Mystique raised an eye brow.
"By speaking his language!" Wolverine grinned as three blades popped out of his hands.
"We can't just force some one to use their mutant power! What if he dose It wrong,…….what if he causes him more pain?" Multiple Man commented.
"I assure you,……..it is impossible to inflict any more pain then what has already been done to our dear Cajun comrade." Beast said bitterly, in a tone not commonly heard from the man so found of humor.
"It's worth a shot at least!" Cable shrugged.
"What if he'll only do it in exchange for his freedom. We can't put him back out on the streets!" Wolfsbane asked in mild protest.
"Then we lie to him!……….We tell him we'll set him free after he heals Remy, then we'll send him back instead……….or, I could absorb his power and do it myself." Rouge's voice was hallow and empty, her stare endless.
"Rouge, listen to yourself!……." Before Cyclops could finish Jean spoke up, with the fire of Phoenix in her eyes.
"I would do absolutely any thing in my power to help you Scott!……..Can you not say the same for me?…….If it was one of us in their, would the other not be desperate enough to do anything,……..even brake the law or lie to a rapist?" Jean relaxed a bit as she walked up to her husband and wrapped her self in his embrace. "But Rouge, you mustn't try to absorb his powers because you know that with it comes all the hideous memories and thoughts of a sociopath rapist." Rouge let out a sigh and nodded.
"There,……..there must be another way!" Cyclops stammered.
"Cyclops,……If you do not want the good name of the X-men tarnished, then allow me to form my own team of willing volunteers to extract the Sergeant from his cell and bring him back here." Magneto offered. Scott hesitated, than looked to Xavier for his opinion. All eyes turned to the silent man in the hover chair. Charles rubbed his temples, than sighed. "We must do every thing in our power to help Remy, even if it means sacrificing our honor, for he has sacrificed much more then that for our sake………You are the leader of the X-Men Cyclops,……it is your decision, but if you would like my blessing,……..then you have it." With that said he turned to leave, heading for the med lab, and the X-Men he could not save.
………………………………...
The decision had been made, and a small team consisting of Magneto, Rouge, Wolverine and Shadow Cat were on their way to Tennessee to bring back the mutant known as the Surgeon. Storm was in the med lab with Beast, the Professor and Moria Mctaggert. She stood by a bathtub of warm water and emptied the contents of a small leather pouch into the water. They were healing herbs, given to her by Tantie Mantie on the day she went to tell the voodoo priestess of Remy's capture almost two months ago. They would be good for soothing bruises and burns and helping to clean infectious cuts. But other then loosening sore muscles and calming sprains, the herbs would do little good for his broken bones, torn ligaments or his inflamed organs. There was swelling in his brain, and a fever was reeking havoc on his system. Starvation had broken down his immune system and it was as if his body had given up on healing it's self, over worked and exhausted with just the effort it took to breath and keep his heart beating.
The weather goddess was dressed in a tank top and shorts. Her long hair pulled back. She looked over to Henry and nodded as he gently picked up the comatose Cajun and brought him to her, laying his naked body into the water. Storm and beast helped support his head as Charles handed her a soft wash cloth and some soap that would not sting or irritate his cuts and burns. Ororo gazed down lovingly at her thief brother, a man who she would lay down her life for in an instant as she knew he would do as well. Remy looked so pale and fragile in her arms, covered in filth with scares and wounds of his abuse. His hair was just down to his chin in the front and curled under his ears in the back. Those normally beautiful silky locks were stringy with grease or dreaded and matted with dirt and sweat. She pushed them out of his eyes that were closed and sighed to herself, wondering if this is what he looked like when he was ten and Jean-Luke took him in off the streets. Undernourished and treated like trash, starved for love but terrified to trust any one.
Slowly and with a gentleness of true love, she began to run the warm wash cloth over his battered body, washing away dirt and dried blood as the herbs settled on his skin. Beast had agreed to let her bath Remy because he knew the Cajun would not mind. Often they spoke of their closeness and referred to each other as siblings. When first hearing that the Cajun sometimes crawled into her bed at night he was puzzled and a little disconcerted, but after talking to Storm about it, she explained about his need to touch, his need to feel a body next to his. It was a comfort to him and helped deter his nightmares, of which he had many. She had also told the doctor, in confidence, that she would rather let him climb in bed with her to feel safe, then into the bed of a stranger. It was true he was a sexual being, but sometimes he did it just to be close to some one, just so he didn't have to sleep alone. This idea sadden Henry but he promised not to bring it up with Gambit or any one else. He often wondered if the root of this need for physical contact was stemmed from a childhood spent alone and desperate for affection, but finding it only in the cruelest and most deprived ways. Henry had only asked Remy once about his scares, the ones in places no one but a doctor would see. His question was met with a stone wall, constructed to hid Remy's shame and humiliation. He knew, as did Wolverine, Storm and a few others, that Gambit's sexual preference was a bit more flexible then others, but scares like the one's Remy hid, were much to old for one so young, and were more then skin deep.
Moria placed a comforting hand on Xavier's shoulder as he watched his X-Men tend to their injured team mate.
"It'll be ok Charles…….The boy is strong, he'll pull through." She whispered softly. He set his own hand on hers.
"They always do." He answered in a calm but sad voice. Moria left his side as she handed Storm the Johnson's baby wash shampoo. There was a sudden knock at the door and Beast lay a towel over the tub to cover Remy's lower body as Moria opened the door. Boom Boom was on the other side waiting as the door slid open, she opened her mouth to speak when the sight of the Uncounsious X-men caught her eye. Like many of the others, she had not yet seen him, and even from the door way she gulped as her jaw drooped.
"What,…….what are those marks on his back and torso?" She asked in a small voice. Storm Wrapped Remy in a tighter embrace defensively as Beast rose with a sigh.
"They are electric wipe lashes Samantha,………is their something you came to tell us?" She kept her eyes locked on Gambit, unable to look away. Moria set a hand on her shoulder and used the other to guide the girls face back to her own.
"Samantha?" She gulped again then spoke.
"Their back,………the Surgeon is with them in the lounge waiting……….You might want to hurry cuze Wolverine's having trouble restraining Rouge." With that she bolted out the door and far away from the image of the broken man in the tub.
………………………………...
Xavier entered the crowded lounge where a large, balding man, with thick arms sat hand cuffed and blind folded with a smirk on his sleazy lips. Magneto was holding onto Rouge as fire shot from her eyes at the prison inmate. The other women were all equally furious and the men looked ready to kill. Wolverine stood next to the man with one hand gripping his thinning hair. He was growling something low into his ear, and was shaking in anger. Charles felt overwhelmed by the negativity of the room and had to take a cleansing breath before going any further. Wolverine backed away, releasing the man's hair roughly. Charles cocked an eyebrow at Logan who just gave him a weary look. Charles cleared his throat as he began to speak to the man.
"Hello Mr. Armios,……..I am sure you know why you have been brought here." His tone was polite but cold.
"Yhea, I fucking know!….Ya want me tah use my powers on yer friend. Kiss his boo boo's and make em' feel all better!……Well what I want to know is,….what's in it fer me?!" He grumbled.
"I suppose the satisfaction of knowing you've helped some one is not enough?" Xavier sighed. To which the man laughed, causing every one to shift uncomfortably.
"What the hell kinda satisfaction is that?……….I'll tell ya what would satisfy me,…….…shoving my cock inta that little striped hair bitch's pussy till she screams like a whore!" He licked his lips and fluttered his tongue as Rouge screamed in rage.
"I'll make you scream you fucking pig!" She hollered as Colossus helped Magneto restrain the southern bell. Wolverine had one hand gripping the man's throat and the other was balled in a fist, claws out and ready to strike. Xavier quickly took control of the situation by freezing both Rouge and Wolverine in place, then mentally shutting down their minds until they fell asleep. Cyclops and Havoc picked up Logan and set him on the couch with Rouge. The room was filled with mumbles and angry tension, as the Sergeant regained his breath once Wolverine's vice grip was released from his throat.
"Mother Fucker could have crushed my wind pip!" He shouted angrily.
"We should have let him!" Jubilee scowled. The Professor held up a hand to silence them all, as he refocused his attention on the man.
"Mr. Amois,……..I can not and will not offer you any compensation or payment for your services other then a good meal before you return home."
"If by home you mean that fucking prison cell, then you can forget it!…………..I ain't going back!.…Not when there's' plenty of nice pussy right here!……You want me tah fix up yer buddy, then I'm staying here!" He grinned, his gray crooked teeth showing.
"I'm afraid that cannot be arranged.……You will either help us on your own account,……..or I will gain control of you mentally, and work through you!" Charles voice was deadly serious and the others all looked at him in shock. He knew that by forcing the Surgeon mentally, he would be braking the oath he swore never to invade a person's mind uninvited. All the telepaths in the room looked at one another in slight disbelief, but understood his decision. The Surgeon was silent for a moment in contemplation, then he spoke.
"Fine!……I'll help your fucking friend, but I better get the best damn meal I'm ever gonna eat!" He huffed angrily.
………………………………...
Storm and Beast had just dried off Remy, when the Professor telepathically asked if they were ready for the Surgeon .
In a moment please Professor, let us cover him up. Storm answered. They lay his limp, beaten body on the bed, and placed a thin sheet over his lower body. Charles entered with the man, still handcuffed and blind folded. With them was Logan, Rouge, Scott and Jean, the others had been asked not to come, as the room was to small to accommodate them all, and only those very close with Remy should be there. Iceman, Psylock and Arc-Angle waited out side the room, and Shadow cat, Bishop, Night Crawler, and Collousus, were just down the hall. Jubilee was the only one who protested not being allowed in, but Wolverine promised her that he would sneak her in later.
Rouge's eyes filled with tears as she gazed down at the man she loved, wanting so badly to hold him tight and tell him it was almost over, even if it wasn't. The Professor had already explained to them all, that once Remy's body was fixed, and the Professor brought him out of his unconscious state, his mind would still need time to recover and he would not be him self for a long time. Yet still she hoped, that he would just open his eyes and call out to her, remembering all the good and forgetting all the bad, but she knew that was only a dream. Cyclops unlocked the hand cuffs as Jean removed the blind fold.
"About Fucking ti………..HOLLY SHIT!………What the hell happened to this poor fucker!" The Surgeon's jaw dropped as he looked in disgust at the thin, broken man on the bed. He walked closer to the bed as Wolverine grabbed his wrist instinctively protective of his injured friend. "Look I gotta put my hands on him to heal em' up!……So back off fuzzy or the deals off!" Wolverine released the man with a low growl, warning him.
"He was held and interrogated at a Military base for about two months." Charles spoke calmly answering the Surgeon's first question.
"Got news for you Mr. Clean,……this kid wasn't interrogated,…….he was fucking tortured!……I mean, Jesus,………look at him!……….I ain't seen nothing like it, and I've seen a lot!…………Healed up this poor bastered once after the mob got done with him,…….fixed every thing but his dick,…….got cut off and his bitch couldn't find it no were……….But damn,……..this guy got fucked up!" He was standing over Gambit now with an expression composed of both amusement, shock and maybe a little compassion. "Bet this guy was a real looker, ehe?" He laughed as he looked up at Rouge. "Good thing he ain't in prison or he'd have every guy on his block punking out his ass,…….including me!" He laughed again, but stopped when he felt three claws press against the side of his neck.
"Gambit ain't nobody's punk!………Shut yer trap and heal him or I'll slice that pretty head off…….Got it!?" Logan growled again. The Surgeon gulped and nodded before placing both hands on Remy's chest. He closed his eyes and concentrated as those around him held their breath. Slowly the thick red burns and lashes on his chest began to fade as the unsettling sound of bones mending echoed through his rib cage. Scares and bruises started to shirk, while his body filled out slightly, enough for him to look too skinny but not skeletal. Open gashes closed and torn ligaments and tendons healed. Dislocated joints and shattered bones pieced them selves back together until, the fragile figure on the bed, once again resembled the handsome devil Remy LeBeau. Rouge covered her mouth in a happy shriek and Ororo wrapped her arms with Henry, both smiling with tears in their eyes. The Surgeon stopped and stretched, seemingly exhausted, his breath heavy. There was still more to be done to the lower half of Gambit's body, and he was still burning with fever, but the man was out of practice and was growing weak. He glanced up at Wolverine, who just unleashed one hand of claws and nodded. The Inmate sighed, and grabbed the sheet to pull it down.
Rouge flew forward pushing the man back and covering Remy, her cheeks flushed.
"What in tarnation do ya think yer doing?" She yelled, hovering over Remy defensively.
"Hey,…….I gotta fix up the rest of him, or he ain't gonna be able at walk!…….Knees are torn up and smashed in like piñatas but if that's the way you wanna leave it fine by me! He smirked.
"No, please continue Mr. Armios." The professor nodded as the others turned away to respect Remy's privacy. The Surgeon went back to healing the X-Man. When he was done, only the Cajun's fever remained, but he was too tapped out to fix it, and the others were too desperate to get rid of him that Beast said, he could treat it with antibiotics instead.