Author's Note: I want to send my thanks to all of those reading/reviewing/favoriting I appreciate it a lot!
Courtney Summers- Haha don't going dying yet! The next chapter is here!
Laceylou76- Lol I'm glad you like Rouge and Keir's interaction there's going to be a lot more of that to come in future chapters! Special thanks to you for reviewing for every chapter!
b.a.n.h.s..oc- Your names a doosey to write out! Lol but alas thank you for the review, I'm glad you think that of the story I'm having a lot of fun writing it.
Sailormoon846212- Thank you!
Chapter 11: Pick Pockets and Photos
Elle sat on the blue comforter of the guest room Mattie had given to the girls. She'd been here for almost three days and somehow oddly it felt like home. Though it was strange at first with all of the mistrustful gazes sent her way when she roamed the halls, but after one look from Jean-Luc they all began avert their attention elsewhere.
Not that Elle blamed them, she would be suspicious too if a random set of teenagers popped up on her doorstep and claimed they were long lost family. She sighed through her nose, she was so certain that she would never see her real family but here she was spending time with them, enjoying their company. Though what shocked Elle most was the fact that they were heirs to the Thieves Guild! Talk about a shocker.
A light tapping came from the doorway, standing Elle went and pulled open the heavy oak door. Just beyond it stood a grinning Mattie with an arm load of boxes in her arms.
"Can Ah come in?" The older woman asked adjusting her load, it looked as if she was about to drop it.
"Of course, Tante," Mattie had told the girls that they could call her that if they wanted and to Elle it seemed so fitting that she took her up on the offer.
"Let me help ya." Elle had also picked up on the accent a bit in her stay at the house, though she took little notice of it, it seemed so right and she never wanted to change it. Grabbing several boxes from the bundle Elle glided over towards the bed and laid them down. Mattie, not far behind through the rest of them down next to Elle's pile. Rubbing her fingers off on her apron she smiled up at Elle, she looked so much like that fille Remy had married.
"Sorry for disturbin' ya, but I thought ya might like to see some pictures of your pere and mere, though I don' have too many of 'er." Elle's eyes widened, they had pictures. Numbly Elle nodded her head resisting the urge to tear the boxes apart just to see a glimpse of one picture, just one clue.
She had spent most of her childhood creating images of what her parents had looked like. She had always imagined that they both had been good looking people, tall and slender. She always imagined her mother having dark emerald eyes and a kind smile, much like her own, while her father had those startling red on black eyes and a cocky grin, resembling Rouge's.
Mattie smile brightly as she picked up a slender box and pocked the lock with careful fingers. Pulling out several photo's she handed them over to Elle.
Elle's eyes widened as she gasped, there before her in an old picture stood a boy around seventeen with dark auburn hair and dazzling eyes, the splitting image of Rouge.
"Dat was just before your pere up and left, he was a trouble maker if Ah ever did see one." Elle felt tears boiling up at the back of her eyes but she forced them away and turned towards the next picture. This one was of the same man but a bit younger around twelve, he was standing on a tree trunk sunglasses perched on his nose as he grinned. She laughed inwardly at herself she had been dead on about Rouge looking just like their father. She scanned through the rest of the photo's in her hand, her heart aching from the loss of her parents.
Mattie seeing the sorrow in the girls face as pulled out the only two photo's she had of the girls mother. With gentle hands she handed them to Elle and watched as unmistakable tears began racing down her cheeks.
In the first photo a woman with bright emerald eyes and a contagious smile was leaning against the same man from the other pictures, her beautiful face framed in white bangs. She could see the resemblance between herself and her mother down right to a tee. They looked so..happy. Just like she and Skye had...She felt a broken sob escape her throat but forced the rest down, he was gone.
Mattie cleared her throat and smiled sadly as she twisted a lock of her graying hair back into place.
"Ah stole dat picture from your pere," Elle suddenly laughed at the guilty look on the woman's face, "What? He never sent meh any of ya and de family, besides he has hundred's of 'em." Elle felt her heart leap, that was right her parents were still out there.
Forcing the thought from her mind she pulled up the next one, it was tattered around the edges but the image was undeniable. In the picture sat the small woman and man next to one another on a large bed, two bundles held securely in each of their arms, love written over their features.
"Those two bundles were ya and Rouge, when ya were just born." Elle's eyes widened, tears now roaming freely down her face, they were there, in that picture, alive and apparently loved.
"Ah now dat picture brings back a truck load worth of memories." The woman laughed ready to tell a story that had long remained dormant. Pulling her feet onto the bed she kicked off her sandals and began.
"See your pere had come back down her to N'Awlins to help his nit witted father out of another jam." Mattie folded her hands in her lap, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
"Well your mere was a persistent li'tle thang and decided to follow your daddy," Elle felt her ears perk up as Mattie continued on with the story, "She was about, oh Ah'd say seven maybe eight month's along with ya. He tried ta make her stay but she was hard headed and followed him anyway."
Elle felt herself grow warm at the thought of her mother and father being real beings, it seemed so surreal.
"Remy got down 'ere and got ole Jean-Luc outta another mess, but another one was brewing bout de same time," Elle knew where this story was going and couldn't help jumping slightly as Mattie's hands began to move in motion with her words.
"Your mere had gone into labor right here in de house, whilst your father was gone. We weren't able to get nowhere seeing as it was just me, ya momma and Cecile, with no car, so we ended up delivering ya here." Mattie laughed kindheartedly her round face lighting up with the laughter at the memory.
"Ah never seen such a look on your daddy's face when dey got back, he started panickin' and your granpere had to knock him out to prevent 'im from causin a ruckus, not ta say dere wasn't one already seein as your mere was cussin' him for all his worth." Elle felt herself laugh along with Mattie the mere thought of her father panicking and her mother screaming at him was just so unimaginable, the man in the photo looked so level headed and able and the woman so calm and serene.
"He woke up jus' in time ta see ya born, I swear I never seen dat boy cry like dat before dat moment, but he did. Ah handed ya too him while Rouge was born a few minute's after." Elle felt her heartache as she realized the story was coming to a close.
"He jus stood dere and held ya like ya was dey only thang in dis world dat mattered, ya and your soeur." Readjusting her apron Mattie stood and walked over towards the window a sad look growing in her eyes, "Dat was de last time I saw Remy, they staid for a few weeks ta give your momma sometime to recuperate, but as soon as she had he up and left, it broke mah heart, dough I couldn't blame 'im, not after all he'd been through." She finished the sentence talking more to a past memory than to Elle. Suddenly a loud chocking sob made Mattie jump. Turning on her heal she saw Elle's lithe form shuddering. With quiet grace Mattie walked over towards the girl and sat down. Scooting closer towards her, she wrapped her arms around her allowing for her tears to be soaked into her thin cotton shirt.
Elle had never felt such immense emotion course through her body, she was at a loss as to what to think. Had Angelina lied about them being abandoned? the looks of the man and woman, no her parents, left Elle questioning everything that woman had ever told them. She felt a sour taste fill her mouth, had she always hated those that had always loved her?
"Shh it be alright Elle," Mattie said as she stroked the girls long auburn locks. "I can't say much about dat accident ya was in but I can tell ya dat your mere and pere would never have dreamed of hurtin' ya." Elle felt her heart break more, the words the woman spoke sounded so sure. After a few moments Elle's broken voice piped up.
"W-was my name always Elle?" She could feel Mattie shake her head and pull away from her, making her look her in her face.
"Non, your name was Isabella Marie Lebeau, your momma was mighty proud of dat, seeing Marie was her name and all." Elle looked up shocked at the woman, Isabella Marie Lebeau, she felt the sobs return, she had here mothers name.
"Dough she always went by Rogue, or Chere when it came ta Remy talkin to 'er," Mattie smiled and pushed the loose strands of hair from the girls face, "Dey would be proud of ya seeing how far ya've come with all de challenges in your life, you'll be wit dem someday, soon if ya want meh to make de call." Elle whimpered and buried her head deeper into the woman's shoulder, she could have the life she always wanted and only in the mere matter of days or hours if they'd come as quickly as Mattie made it out to be.
But Rouge she thought sadly, what will she think? She'd always been so distrustful of the world and things around them, she was bond determined to reject the idea that her parents would want them back so willing. Still yet she was even still having doubts that this was their family, even though it was her own bright idea to come. Elle had to talk to her, but not until she found out what was pulling at the edges of her mind.
"Tante will you give me sometime to think it over?" Mattie kissed the girls forehead and nodded her head.
"Ah'll give as much time in de world as you need, petite." Elle felt the tears cascading down her cheeks begin to slow, maybe this hadn't been such a bad idea after all.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"And dis be the place where we hold our meetings." Jean-Luc turned to looked at the girl, he watching in silent amazement as her eyes took in every detail of the room. She was definitely a thief's child that was for sure. She had that careful eye and light steps, something that the Thieves Guild was lacking these days. Maybe after all of this was sorted out she'd join up and take the place of her missing father.
"Petite, how much do ya know about your pere?" Jean-Luc asked, his arms crossed as he propped up against the heavy oak table. He let his mind wander over the memory of the first night he had met the girls. Henri had rushed in with an unconcisious Rouge in his arms, explaining the strange events that had occured. Jean-Luc had wanted to kill their newest recruite, Felix, for acting as such to his granddaughter, but had settled for him to have to scrub the underground cells, which hadn't been cleaned in over a decade.
"Not a single thing, cept his name is Remy." Jean-Luc pulled his mind from the memory as he watched the young girl walk past him, her eyes trailing over the paintings that lined the walls.
"Lovely aren't de?" He asked mindlessly, taking in the portraits and landscapes Cecile had painted*. Walking towards the girl he noticed an oddly familiar leather object in her hands, he patted his pockets disbelievingly.
"Hey now how'd ya get dat!" Jean-Luc cried as Rouge tossed the wallet back at him, ignoring the disbelieving tone in his voice.
"I thought you were suppose to be thieves, but by the looks of it you've lost your touch." Jean-Luc growled, the girl definitely had Remy's attitude, and he wasn't sure if he liked it or hated it yet.
"You've got a mouth on ya petite, where'd ya get dat?" Rouge snorted and walked over towards one painting, it was a scene of the mansion from afar, every detail was almost scaled to perfection.
"I'm not sure, it just something that's always been there." Turning Rouge focused her full attention onto to Jean-Luc her eyes glowing in the dim lights of the room.
"Why are you so convinced he is my father?" Rouge asked as her fingers lightly trailed over the paintings surface, hazy memories playing at the back of her mind.
"You de splittin' image of 'im and got his mouth, dat be more than enough." Rouge nodded her head silently, deciding that that was the best she was going to get, and more important questions were boiling at the back of her mind.
"Jean-Luc what can you tell me about my father?" He sighed in frustration, he knew the questioning was going to start sooner or later, best get it out of the way now.
"Other dan de fact dat he left us for dose damn X-men? Not much Ah 'aven't seen 'im since you were born." Sitting down in the chair at the head of the table he motioned for Rouge to join him.
"Wat I can tell you dough is about your pere's past, dat is if ya want to know, Eclaire." Her eyebrows met at the center of her forehead as she looked at him confused, Keir had called her that same name..
"Dat's right ya don' know your real name do ya?" Rouge shook her head in response. Jean-Luc let a small smile caress his lips, the girl even had Remy's quiet way of responding when confused.
"Your real name Petite, is Eclaire Silvine Lebeau, your middle name came from mah mother, her name was Silvine*." She looked at him a familiar bell tolling in her head once more.
Jean-Luc, ignoring the startled look on her face and motioned for the girl to join him at the table. With lithe movement she moved towards the chair and sat down, silently crossed her legs listening intently as the older man let out a sigh and began running his fingers over his thick mustache.
"About your father well, hmm Ah guess I can start by sayin he's adopted, I caught 'im trying to pick pocket meh when he was around ten. I saw the potential talent in de boy and brought 'im home." Rouge let her eyebrows perk up, adopted, potential talent?
"he began trainin in de art of thievery, and got good real fast, fit into de family well too. He was never one to brag dough, he got in got out and called it good." Jean-Luc cocked his head slightly towards the side thinking of things to tell the girl.
"He was a charmer, ladies man, he could knock any girl off of her feet with nothing more than a grin." Rouge felt her stomach churn, something was going on and she wasn't sure what it was, her mind was phasing in and out of focus and she having a hard time keeping tuned in. She slammed her eyes shut as she the room began to spin.
"He also was one of dem mutants, could charge things an blow dem up. Dough he didn't tell no one until he used 'is powers to get us out of a mess. I think dat's where dey strange eye thing come's from. While we would be stubblin round in de dark, Remy could see perfectly clearly, I think he found it amusing."
"He got up and left one day aftar a mission, he was pretty upset, I'd never seen him so unstable, I think it had to due with his mutant powers expanding." Jean-Luc watched the girl, her eyes were closed tight, he opted to stop but instead just continued on, "Ah didn't see him til he came back to bail me outta one of moi messes, dat's when I first met your momma. Talented li'tle thing she was, drained de information from de man and pointed us in de right direction for escape." Rouge couldn't help but shoot her eyes open and stare, dizzyness and upset stomach long forgotten, she had inherited both her mother and father's powers?
"Once we escaped dough a group of mutants, Ah guess you could call dem her family showed up ta take 'er home. Ah thought de one with de claws was gonna rip Remy's throat out but Rogue saved 'im and turned ta leave wit them, but not before Remy could give her a memento. Ah watched as he withdrew his favorite card de Queen of Hearts and gave it ta her. Ah'd never seen him look at a fille de way he did her." Rouge had tuned out the last part of the sentence as she dug through her pockets and withdrew her only reminder that she had family.
"Would this happen to be that card?" Rouge asked almost breathlessly, Jean-Luc's eyes widened as he gently plucked the card from the girls fingers. He whistled in disbelief, it was old and tattered but definitely Remy's, he could see the small scorch marks on the card where his son had at one time charged the card, but hadn't thrown it.
"Yep, dis be de one." He handed the card back to Rouge, she flipped the card through her fingers several times before quickly pocketing it, and turning back towards the Cajun and motioning with her hand for him to continue.
"He staid down here in de Bayou for a time before he migrated back up to New York aftar de whole Apocalypse thing, lookin' for your momma no doubt. I heard from him from time ta time but never nothin' more than a hello, are ya alive, and a swift goodbye."
"Dat was until de Assassins Guild prompted for a truce, it was simple Remy only had to marry Belladonna deir heiress, whom he's know since he was eight. So in attempt to cool de risin tension I called for 'im to come home and proposed de idea ta him. He rejected de idea until some careful prodding from me."
Rouge growled in irritation, was the only thing this man did was use her father? She was getting more and more irritated by the second, but let him continue on none the less, feeling too sick to banter or point it out.
"On de day of de wedding, he kept being jumpy and not speakin, I knew he had dat damn fille on his mind," Jean-Luc spat out the words as though he had just eaten something foul, "but I assured him everythin' was fine and dat she didn't need 'im." Rouge felt her hands instinctively ball up into fist, it was taking all of her self restrain to not jump over the table and pummel the man.
"He listened for a time, and got through de entire weddin march when dat girl showed up and stopped the weddin just before Remy said 'is vows. She told 'im how much she loved 'im and dat she always would before turnin on 'er heals and runnin out, and what did Remy do? Followed aftar 'er of course."
Jean-Luc watched the expression on the girls face, he wasn't sure what she was thinking so he continued on unaware of her flaring temper and breaking mental state.
"He came back dat night, and threw de ring at Belladonna, and cussin everything in sight before leaving to go wit dat li'tle fille, I couldn't help but hate her for ruining de truce."
At this Rouge jumped up, her anger having suddenly jumped and reaching it's breaking point. Her mind had suddenly exploded with pain and her body felt as though it was on fire, but the only thing she could seem to focus on was the anger of the man before her speaking in such a way of her parents.
Jean-Luc watched in mock horror as the entire oak table began to glow a dark red, much the same way as when Remy's powers had jumped out of control.
"You have no right to say that like you own his life," Rouge murmured her eyes glowing even brighter with her sudden outburst of power, "From the sound of it seems that you only used him, then tried to ruin his life!" Lifting the table up with the kinetic energy she flipped it over, barely clearing Jean-Luc's head, and sent it crashing into the far wall. He watched as she collapsed onto her knees gripping her head, her power surge finally disappeared leaving nothing more than young girl kneeling in place of the demon that had been there mere moments before.
"I should have never come, I want no part of this family, of any of this!" Rouge cried out, tears leaking down the side of her face, her powers were going out of control, and she had no solution as how to stop it.
"No wonder my father left me to die in that building! From the way he was raised it doesn't surprise me!" Jean-Luc stopped and began running over all of the things he said and realized just how bad he had made himself and Remy out to be, and how he had put Rogue down. He swallowed hard, what hadn't the girl told him? Being left in a building? It was all getting the better of the older Cajun. He watched the girl scream and grip her head tightly again, helpless in the situation.
"Petite! Listen to moi, Ah didn't mean it like dat!" The girls head shot up as she shot daggers at Jean-Luc. "Your mere wasn't a bad person! Let moi finish!"
"Your lying." She whispered and with a swift flick of her wrist he was pinned against the wall. She could hear voices whispering, running in and out of her mind, leaving her battling trying to find herself, but to no avail.
"JUST STOP!" Rouge could feel emotions, powers, and the memories of people she had never met rush through her mind, pushing and pulling her in every direction. She looked up and saw the scared look on her grandfathers face, she had lost her temper over nothing. She had to leave, she didn't want to hurt anyone, she had to get away, just long enough to stop this.
Jumping up she held her hands up towards Jean-Luc, and tried releasing the bonds that held him, they wouldn't budge. She felt her eyes widen as another pain shot through her head, pushing off on her heal she shot off out of the office.
Jean-Luc felt the bonds around him release as Rouge rushed through the doorway, red kinetic energy surrounding everything in her path. He fell towards the floor, a sharp pain traveling up his shoulder, he hissed in pain as he watched her retreating form. What had he done? He had hurt his granddaughter just as much as his son. He cursed himself, knowing he shouldn't have let the bitterness of his son's anti-social manner towards him influence his telling of his past.
Jumping up onto his feet he followed the path of destruction the girl had left. Zipping around the corner, he saw the front door blown completely apart and left in nothing more than little splinters scattered across the entrance way. He saw the confused and worried looks of the other family members as they looked to him for an answer. He racked at his brain for an answer any answer.
"Get a hold of Remy now." He barked hoping his decision would prove for the better.
Author's Note:
*1) I wasn't sure what the name of Henri's wife was and I read somewhere it was Cecile, sorry if I'm wrong.
*2)Totally made up the name Silvine and it belonging to Jean-Luc's mother.
Yay another chapter down! Please please review. I'm currently finishing the next chapter so it should be up soon.