MAGNETIC ATTRACTION

Part Twenty-Three

Remy sighed at the end of the film he and Rogue had settled to watch. As the credits rolled and the music begun to play, he turned to see Rogue, who for the forty minutes had been curled up at his side, asleep beneath her covers.

It seemed a shame that what had been one of the best days he'd had in a while had come to a close. Despite the car breaking down and Wanda's hissy fit resulting in a broken kitchen door, the day had gone spectacularly well.

Perhaps too well, Remy thought as he let his head rest against the headboard of her leather bed, and stared up at the ceiling blankly. It'd been the best day he'd ever spent with anyone.

I've been to so many exciting places, done a fuck load of exciting things, seen some exciting stuff. So why is this one of the best days I've ever had in my life? He asked himself as he forced himself to get up, grabbing the remote from the television and switching it off. The room fell into eerie silence other than the soft occasional sound of Rogue's breath. Remy moved to the dresser to place the remote next to the television where she always kept it. His eyes lifted to the mirror to study his own strangely serene expression.

Looking in the mirror only reminded him of standing behind Rogue at the mirror, when they'd been joking about his pick up lines at the convention. For one moment, it'd been amusing, but then, somehow, without meaning to, it'd become a strangely serious situation.

Should never pretend to flirt with someone when you're horny, he thought, wishing he hadn't spoken words about kissing her rose petal lips, or tasting her tongue. It was no wonder the girl had run off to the bathroom to cry. Making her cry had never been intentional, and he'd seen the onset of tears before she'd played it off and left him standing there by the jewellery booth. His guilt was just one of the reasons he'd bought the necklace.

Can't tell her that though, he realised. She's proud, doesn't want me to know I made her cry, and I'm not gonna take it from her. If she doesn't want to tell me why she was cryin', or that she was crying at all, then I'm not gonna make her.

His eyes fell to the necklace, which she'd left sitting on the dresser, the box was sitting open and the pendant was staring him in the face. He thought to how beautiful it had looked upon her, how it had suited her, the tiny red jewel hanging from that heart had dangled so dangerously close to her cleavage that he'd nearly lost his mind right then.

That was why it happened, Remy told himself. You got hot and bothered, and you let your mind wander and for a moment, you got ahead of yourself. You weren't thinking straight. Whenever you get that way, you never do. That's why you're in so much shit with Magneto's daughter.

His eyes fell on the reflection of Rogue as she lay asleep, she seemed to be dreaming as there was the tiniest hint of a smile playing about her lips. Despite her tears, he'd never seen her as happy as she was today. Their joking, their discussions, their sharing Indian food in the back of a transit van, and then to finish with a movie.

He thought about curling up beside her on the bed to sleep beside her as exhaustion began pulling at him. It'd been pulling at him during the whole film but he'd been reluctant to sleep.

Why didn't you just sleep too? He asked himself, he ran his hand through his hair absently. Because you want to make sure she knows you watched the film all the way through, so you can discuss it, and pretend you enjoyed the film, and so you have something to share with her. Just another way for her to feel closer to you, so you can manipulate her into giving up her ideas of accelerated evolution, he thought.

Remy shook his head at his reflection, disgusted with himself. He switched the light off in her room and left it quietly, heading downstairs through the warehouse interior instead of the fire escape outside. He didn't much like the idea of being caught in the rain again tonight, as he felt the slight onset of a cold coming on judging by his runny nose.

Can't sleep in Rogue's room again, it's getting too weird. She's gonna start asking questions about why you don't want to sleep in your own room. The mold and bad bed excuses are wearing thin, and I'm not ready to tell her about Wanda yet.

Remy had barely gotten to the bottom of the stairs when a slap so hard that he practically saw stars hit him. His head swung left, and his face instantly started smarting as if tiny firecrackers were exploding in unison. He gave a slight gasp, seeing Wanda there, as she'd caught him just coming down at the bottom of the the spiral staircase.

"Wanda...what the-" he put his hand to his face.

"You took Rogue to the horror convention?! Seriously?!"

Rubbing his smarting face, he blinked, his eyes were watering from the pain. This girl definitely knew how to hit. "Yeah...so?"

"What the fuck is this?! You're with her all the fucking time!"

"Not all the time," he swallowed what felt to be the taste of blood. What does this girl slap with? An iron fist? Curiously, he ran the two fingers along the inside of his cheek and removed them, finding blood upon his fingers. "Look at this shit, you made me bleed..."

"You think I give a shit? You're running around with some other girl!"

"Running around? Are you a fucking psycho? Rogue is my friend."

"Yeah, well according to Lance, you two looked pretty cosy together tonight."

"Since when?"

"She was wearing your coat!"

I'm gonna kick his fucking ass, thought Remy. What is he playing at, telling Wanda that shit anyway? Why is he gossiping about me?

"So...it was raining?" Remy made an excuse. "You want me to just let the girl get soaked?"

"Yes! It's not your problem if she decides to go without a coat!"

Remy leaned against the rail of the stairs, shaking his head, trying to ignore the stinging on his face. "Wanda, what the fuck is the matter with you?"

"Are you serious? You're dating someone else and you ask me what's the matter?!"

"Dating?" Remy gave a vague laugh, "seriously? You think that was a date? I went to a horror convention with her for fun, it's hardly a date. Besides...this is Rogue we're talking about...you know there can't be anything between me and her physically..."

Wanda folded her arms, "I don't know. For someone who isn't getting any, you spend a hell of a lot of time in her room."

"I watched a few movies in her room. Big deal. What's it to you? You can't tell me what friends I can and can't spend time with. And anyway, since when do you keep tabs on what I do or where I go?"

"This past week you've barely been in your room at all. You're sleeping with her!"

"Sleeping, yes, sleeping with, no. I fell asleep watching DVDs. I'm not screwing her, Wanda."

"Sure sounds like you are. I know you, you don't hang around with people unless you're getting something out of it!" Wanda yelled; her eyes seemed dangerously dark, and her face seemed that odd, feverish way that always seemed to indicate she was close to losing her self-control.

"Keep your voice down!" Remy hissed, "you want everyone to hear?"

"I don't care," Wanda responded, her powers sent the spiral staircase wobbling, and the final step bent beneath his feet, sending him falling backwards against the steps. The rails split and parted, and coiled around his arms, trapping him there.

"Wanda, are you insane!? Control yourself."

Wanda spat at him, "it's you who needs to control yourself!"

"Wanda, I never touched her, I swear!" Remy struggled with the metal rails. "I've never been unfaithful to you. Not once, not since the day we started this!"

"You're lying!" Wanda shrieked, the thin wooden panels on the exterior of the gymnasium walls began to split, the nails holding them in place began to spit out, pinging against tables, chairs, and other walls. The panels fell in sequence, one after the other. The angle grinder that Remy and Piotr had only recently purchased at the hardware store came to life with a roar and spun around crazily free of any electrical outlet; the thing spun itself into the nearby table first, cutting one of the legs and tearing it down, then flying into the support beam revealed by one of the fallen panels and began cutting its way through. Remy watched with dismay as all the hard work he and the others had put into the project began to fall apart under Wanda's influence.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Wanda and Remy both turned to look up at the third floor catwalk, Rogue was leaning over, looking sleepily confused.

"Rogue, leave it, go back to bed," Remy warned.

"Like hell...she's hurtin' you!" Rogue seemed to wake up quickly, she headed for the stairs, and at the first step she tumbled as the steps begun to twist and roll. She tried desperately to hold onto what was left of the rails but simply tumbled down and over the left edge of the stairs, and there was a terrible clatter as she did.

Remy heard the cry, but couldn't see over his shoulder as to what had happened to the girl. The others begun to appear, having been awakened by the chaos. First Pietro, standing half naked in boxer shorts, half asleep and rubbing his eyes.

"What the fuck is all the noise?" Pietro demanded, avoiding being pelted by a barrage of nails from another panel.

Piotr was the next to arrive, followed by Lance, and in unison they both demanded "what's going on?"

Tabitha arrived, screaming Rogue's name in horror. Remy couldn't see what was going on, and he tried to twist against the metal and wire that Wanda's powers had affected.

"Wanda? What the hell are you doing?!" Pietro demanded angrily, grabbing his sister's wrist, "are you crazy?!"

Piotr had Wanda's other wrist, and he and Pietro began trying to pull her away from the vicinity, as Magneto appeared finally. Having been awakened by the commotion too.

"What is this?!" demanded Magneto furiously, floating from the area of his bedroom, looking almost striking in a pair of gunmetal satin pyjamas.

"Rogue's hurt," Tabitha called out, "she's bleeding...we need to call an ambulance."

Remy saw Lance dash to the left and disappear behind where he couldn't see.

"Wanda, release him!" Magneto warned.

"No!" Wanda screamed hysterically, "He made this happen, this is his fault."

"Hey boss, it's bad!" Lance called out, "you need to call an ambulance...like...now, or she's going to bleed to death."

Remy struggled, the thought that Rogue might be dying because of him tore through every nerve within him so that he nearly broke his arm trying to get away from the grip of Wanda's insanity.

Something shot through the air and Magneto caught it swiftly before darting to his daughter; it was a hypodermic needle, and Remy watched in horror as Magneto drove the needle into his daughters neck and pushed on the plunger. The commotion began to cease almost immediately, the angle grinder, which had still been crazily cutting at the gymnasium walls dropped with a hard clatter on the floor, lifeless.

Wanda's eyes fluttered, and her body relaxed and slumped in the arms of both Pietro and Piotr, sedated almost immediately. Pietro and Piotr simply let her down upon the floor and lay her there before rushing to see what had happened to Rogue. The metal and wire holding Remy began to uncoil at Magneto's command and Remy let out a cry as the wire that had practically started to embed itself into his arm was released.

Hastily, he turned to where Rogue had fell to discover she'd fallen into a box of discarded building waste from the gymnasium project. He moved to her side and gripped her wrist. His eyes spotted the thin pipe she'd landed upon immediately, a foot of it was jutting out of her ribcage and her hand was gripping onto it.

"Oh fuck..." Remy whispered.

"Why is no one calling an ambulance?!" Tabitha demanded, near tears, "do you want her to die?!"

"We need to move her," Lance said.

Magneto moved to see the damage, his face paled, "do not move her...not yet," he instructed, he pushed aside both Lance and Tabitha to make room so he could reach Rogue's body suspended by the pipe. Remy watched in astonishment as the man reached across and put his bare hand upon her neck.

Horror ran Remy's blood cold as Magneto was not affected by her powers. It could mean only one thing. "She's...she's..."

"She still has a pulse..."

"Oh man," said Pietro, he moved back as his bare feet touched some of the blood that was spilling out onto the cement floor.

"Don't just stand there!" Remy looked at them all, "aren't you going to do something?!"

"Even if we called an ambulance, they're never going to get here before she's dead," Pietro said, sounding unusually concerned.

"So what do we do?" Lance asked.

Tabitha grasped Magneto's sleeve, "can you save her?"

Remy drew his breath. Stop panicking. Be a leader, you need to get this under control, standing here staring at her isn't going to save her! "Pietro...use your powers, run as fast as you can to the Xavier Mansion, set off their alarms if you have to but do it."

"The Xavier..." Pietro began to repeat.

"Tell them there's been an accident, and that you need Wolverine to get here as soon as he can."

"But..."

"No time to argue, for fucks sake!" Remy yelled, he tried to swallow his fear that he may very well be about to lose his friend. "Go!"

Pietro disappeared faster than a streak of lightning. The warehouse doors swung open almost as if on their own and there was a flash of lightning outside and the rumble of nearby thunder.

"I must fetch medical supplies. Do not under any circumstances try to move her. And do not touch her skin...she must not go into any kind of shock," Magneto warned them, and then took off towards his room.

Rogue's eyes fluttered open and closed momentarily as she went in and out of consciousness. Every now and then her breath would catch in her throat and tears of pain would spill down the sides of her face. The minutes seemed to pass like hours and Remy's fear grew with each second.

"You're gonna be fine, chere," Remy promised, he stroked her hair trying as best he could to not touch her flesh. "Wolverine gonna be here soon, he gonna heal you..."

"Why did Wanda do this?" Tabitha demanded, wiping her tears of distress.

Refusing to go into it while Rogue was in this condition, Remy ignored Tabitha, and kept talking to Rogue as she began to come to again. "Try to stay with us, chere. You're gonna be fine, I promise..."

"What's...goin' on..." came Rogue's strained tone, her eyes shut tightly, her body tense in pain.

"Keep still...you're hurt..." Remy kept his hand firm on her shoulder, "You need to not move...help is comin'."

"Wanda...she..."

"Don't worry 'bout her," Remy pleaded with her, stroking her hair with the other hand, "just try to relax..."

"I can't breathe..." she croaked.

Magneto returned, some medical supplies that had clearly been stolen from a hospital in his arms.

"She can't breathe," Remy said quickly to his employer, "what's happening to her?"

"The pipe has gone through a lung," Magneto said quickly, "if I remove it, she'll drown in her own blood."

Remy's breath caught in his throat.

"When Wolverine arrives, we must wait until she has begun to absorb his abilities before we move her, to ensure that the healing process will quickly begin."

"Can't you do something for her? For the pain?"

"I don't keep those kinds of drugs here," Magneto responded, he was using a stethoscope to check her heart beat.

"But you do keep sedatives?" asked Remy incredulously.

"In case of emergencies," Magneto said. He frowned in concentration, looking at the pipe. Rogue's back arched, and she cried out in agony.

"What are you doing to her?!" demanded Tabitha in fear.

"Adjusting the width of the pipe," said Magneto, "to slow the bleeding. The more blood she loses, the less likely she will survive."

"Remy..." Rogue turned towards him, her voice thick with pain, "Ah just wanted...to tell you...in case Ah die...that Ah had a nice time..."

"I did too, Chere," Remy swallowed hard, "but you are not gonna die tonight. In no way are you gonna die...help is comin'...I promise..."

"It's Wanda...isn't it?" Rogue swallowed, then coughed, and blood spluttered a little from her lips. Remy felt it land upon the very cheek Wanda had smacked only ten minutes before.

"Rogue...Chere...you mustn't talk," Remy soothed, he caught Magneto gazing at him briefly, an expression full of suspicion building upon his face.

"It's Wanda..."

"Wanda did this...yes...but it's not her fault..." Remy tried, desperately trying to appease both Rogue and Magneto by not revealing the secret.

Several minutes passed, and Remy did his best to hold himself together while watching as Magneto checked for her vital signs, noting that the man could still touch her skin without being absorbed.

"How...how...can you do that?" Remy asked, "why isn't she-"

"Move out of the way!"

Remy heard the growl of Wolverine's voice before he saw him, and he felt himself being shoved roughly out the way before he'd even known what had hit him. His hands landed in a pool of Rogue's spilled blood on the floor and suddenly he felt quite sick. He leaned up, looking at his hands stained with red and the overwhelming need to vomit came. He turned and sped off towards the open door, pushing Pietro out of the way as he did.

The warehouse door was still open, and Remy practically tripped outside falling onto the wet yard just as the first wave of vomit escaped. His stomach convulsed each time as wave after wave came up, and he could no longer even hold onto his bladder the sickness was this intense.

"Are you okay?" he heard Piotr's voice at his back and felt the large Russian's hand upon his shoulder.

"Fine..." Remy tried, wiping his mouth on his bare arm, trembling violently with the sickness. Even with the rain pouring he could feel the sweat dripping from his forehead. He had never felt so suddenly ill. "Is she...?" he tried to ask, but yet again, another wave of vomit prevented him from being able to do much else but lean over and part with his earlier meal.

"She is absorbing power," said Piotr, "and the bleeding is already stopping. She is nearly off pole now. She is expected to heal."

Remy looked down at mess his sickness had made, food that wasn't even half-digested. He wondered if it'd been the fear of what would happen to Rogue, or if it had been the meal from the Indian restaurant. Either way, he suddenly did not feel very well.

"Are you better?" asked Piotr.

"I think it's a bad curry," said Remy, he dry heaved but nothing came up, it seemed for now the sickness was over.

"You are soaking," said Piotr, although he too, was starting to get soaked from the pouring rain.

Remy realised it was probably just as well he was soaking wet from the rain, as it would hide the fact he'd been unable to hold onto his bladder. "I'm fine..."

"You should come inside."

"In a moment," Remy assured, glad that at least even Piotr knew well enough to not ask what exactly had just happened, and why Wanda had attacked both him and Rogue in this strange manner. Piotr left him and went back inside, and Remy remained outside a few more moments, determined to make sure he wasn't going to be sick inside the warehouse, reluctant to let the others see how affected he was at this moment.

Did she know what she was doing? Remy wondered. Did she want to kill Rogue? Is Rogue really in danger or...is it an accident?

Remy wondered if he would ever really know.

Rogue heard the voices in the room before she opened her eyes. It took a moment for the pain to come, almost as if it had been set on a five second delay. It seemed to shoot through her, hot, and hard, and she coughed turning to see blood splatter on the dark grey silk pyjamas that Magneto was wearing.

She was coughing blood. She could feel herself choking on it and struggled to breathe.

"Relax, Rogue, don't struggle yet, just relax, it'll be over soon," she heard Wolverine's voice soothing her, and she felt his hot hand against her forehead as he tried to hold her steady.

Opening her eyes she looked forward to see the pipe jutting out of her rib cage and she realised why she was coughing blood. Everything seemed strangely blurred, she could feel herself blacking in and out of what was going around, she could hear the voices of the others, and then nothing. She felt that pulling sensation of her powers against Logan's, of feeling like a human magnet, drawing him deep into her.

Her own memories seemed to mix with Logan's and memories of being with Remy, of being happy and unhappy at the warehouse mixed with Logan's battles, his inner demons and his inner rage.

As she continued to come in and out of consciousness, she heard Magneto warning Logan to take his hand away from her if he didn't want to die.

When she came to again, she was in her room. There was a white sheet laid over the bed and she was upon it., she saw her blood upon it when she turned her head and she coughed, seeing more of her blood stain the once pristine cotton. Her eyes moved to her almost bare torso, she was wearing nothing but her panties, and she was covered with blood. A towel had been thrown across her bare chest for modesty which she was thankful for although she found herself absurdly wondering just how much of her breasts either man had seen. Who else had seen?

Magneto's hand was pressing a wad of cotton against the wound upon her ribs. She winced at the strength he was forcing upon to it.

Coughing again and racked in pain, she asked, "Am Ah gonna die?"

It certainly seemed so. Although she'd absorbed Logan's powers, she felt none the better for it, and only felt the agony and the conflict of memories and thoughts and feelings. She felt so weak and giddy that her mind felt oddly detached from her entirely.

"Try not to cough," she heard Magneto soothe, "and no, you won't die. You're already healing. Wolverine is here and his powers will keep you alive."

Slowly, feeling that even the slightest movement was so painful it might kill her, she turned to face Logan, whom she felt holding onto her gloved hand tightly, as if trying to hold her right there to the earth. He looked pale, and his steely eyes were almost dead with exhaustion. She could see the physical effects her powers had upon him. He'd let her powers drain him nearly too far.

"I must go get some items to stitch the wounds," Magneto said, "Keep this held against her as hard as you can."

Logan's hand held firmly to the cotton swab, and Magneto disappeared out of the room. Rogue tried to focus but found it difficult to do so, she was so exhausted, but was almost afraid to sleep should she slip into complete death.

Ah can't die like this, Ah can't...not yet...

"Relax, kid, you're going to be fine," Logan said, his voice gruff, thick with exhaustion, he looked as bad as she felt, her blood was on his hands, even upon his face in tiny little specks. "You'll heal...and when you're well enough, I'll take you home..."

"Ah am home," she groaned.

"No. Your real home. Back with the X-Men. Where you belong..."

She closed her eyes and tried to shake her head in refusal, "No...Ah can't...not yet," she croaked. She tried to breathe but something felt horribly wrong with trying to do so, and she coughed once again, more blood coming up on the pillow.

"Stop talking. The pipe went through a lung, you need to let it rest and heal."

"Ah'm not goin' home..." she tried breathlessly, "Not yet, not 'til-"

"This is what you want?" Logan asked, "Your blood on Magneto's hands?!" despite his weakness, she thought he mustered up the anger rather well.

"Ah'm so close..." she closed her eyes, beginning to feel the tug of the blackness again. "So close to being-"

"Don't speak," Logan ordered again, he sighed, "Rogue...give up this stupid idea and come home..."

"If Ah don't do this now...Ah've got no reason to live..."

"If you stay here, I can't protect you," Logan pleaded with her softly.

Feeling very faint, she replied, "Remy...will..."

At this, the darkness came again to claim her.

Remy's heart was still beating quite fast as he entered back into the warehouse. He had been on his way to return to see how Rogue was but she had been moved from the box, and all that remained was the blood as evidence of what had nearly been her final night alive. Lance, Pietro and Piotr were no longer anywhere to be seen, and Remy assumed they'd all gone back to their bedrooms for the night. Wanda had been moved, most likely back to her own room.

Remy felt a pang of guilt as he stared back to Rogue's blood. As much as he wanted to blame Wanda for everything, he understood reluctantly that there was no one to blame but himself for this mess. To even think of her being close to death brought such despair on him that the happiness he'd felt only hours ago seemed like a distant memory.

I should have been honest with them both instead of keeping things and causing this stupid fight. Rogue could have died, and it'd have been my fault.

His heart sank, as he realised he would have never been able to live with himself if Rogue had died due to his mistakes.

Remy spied Wolverine, who was sitting at the bottom of the spiral staircase leading up to the third floor catwalk. The staircase was in tact again, and Remy realised Magneto had mended it immediately...no one would have guessed that only half an hour ago he'd been a prisoner to it.

Wolverine glanced up as Remy approached; he looked drained, his eyes dull and tired, his face pale, his skin sallow. Remy could see at once that he'd been absorbed so much he barely had the energy to move right now.

"You can't go up there," Wolverine said, sounding ill. "Magneto is in there stitching her up."

"How is she?"

"She'll live," Wolverine answered, sounding quite upset, "but she wasn't strong enough to absorb as much of my powers as she needs to. Powers absorbed from other mutants only last for so long for her. A wound like that would even take me a couple of days to completely recover from. She'll need to keep absorbing my powers, soon as I'm strong enough for her to take them."

Remy sighed in relief, at least it seemed as if his plan of calling Wolverine to come help had worked out.

"So...you mind telling me what the fuck happened?"

Remy looked away from the man, shaking his head, "I don't know...I-"

"I said what the fuck happened," Wolverine said again, this time more coldly, more force behind it.

"I fucked up."

"No, fucked up isn't an explanation. It's a fact. I want to know how my friend ended up nearly dying tonight."

Remy turned to look him straight in the eye, but couldn't find a way to really start the explanation.

"This isn't what I paid you for, LeBeau. I paid you to change her mind, not kill her."

"It was Wanda...she went nuts. She's unstable," Remy tried.

"And you had nothing to do with that?" Wolverine asked weakly.

"Does it matter? What matters now is that Rogue is safe."

"Safe? Is that what you call that?!" Wolverine gestured towards the pool of smeared blood. "That doesn't look safe to me."

Remy sighed. He didn't want to have this argument. All he wanted to do was go upstairs and see Rogue, make sure she was all right.

"She's coming home soon as she's able to move. Soon as her pain is eased off, I'm taking her from here."

"The hell you are," Remy frowned, "you're not walking out of here with her just because you think you know what's best for her! She's a grown woman, and you're trying to make her decisions for her!"

"So are you," Wolverine stood up, slightly unsteadily, still under the effects of Rogue's abilities. "You think you aren't guilty of that too after you made the deal with me to influence her to change her mind?"

Remy frowned, he tried to hold onto himself. At this particular moment, the stress was building again so much that all he wanted to do was lash out at someone.

"You weren't too interested in her rights when you sat there with me in the cafe, bargaining for more money to make the decision for her," Wolverine growled.

He turned away from the smaller man, his stomach was still quivering and his heart was still pounding furiously. "Yeah, well, the deal is off. I'm done."

Wolverine snorted, "I should have figured you'd stiff me."

"Oh don't worry, you'll get your deposit back," Remy sneered, "with interest if that's what it takes to get you off my back. But I'm not gonna be part of this any more. That girl is in pain. Not physical pain neither, but the mental kind. And if she wants to go ahead with whatever she thinks Magneto can do for her, then it should be her decision. And no one, not you, your professor, or Scott Summers, or even me, no one got the right to tell her how to live her life."

Wolverine held onto the rail, watching him, his expression suddenly quite knowing. "You think I don't get what this is about, don't you?"

Remy rolled his eyes, "what is it about?"

"You've fallen for her."

There was a lurch in Remy's stomach and he swallowed back the taste of vomit and unease all at once.

"You've gotten to know her, and you've grown to want her. Suddenly you figured out that you can't have her unless you stand back and let this evolution take place. That's why you've not even bothered to really work at getting her to come home to us...because you don't want her to leave. Not until you've had what you want from her, anyway."

Remy shook his head, "no..."

"Let me give you a piece of advice," Wolverine took the final step down the spiral staircase and moved across to Remy, his gait slow, the exhaustion apparent, "I know your type, I know how you operate. You go through girls like they're disposable tissues. But every now and then a girl comes along that's a challenge..."

"No..." Remy responded again, still shaking his head. "That's not it at all...Rogue isn't a challenge," he admitted truthfully, "I care about Rogue...She's..."

"She's off limits. She's too good for the likes of you," Wolverine began to walk towards the open door leading out to the yard.

"The likes of me?" Remy blinked, he turned to follow, "what the fuck do you mean by that?"

"You know what I mean," Wolverine responded, his voice weak, "opportunity arises and you would quickly deceive her for a lousy buck."

"And you didn't deceive her?" Remy demanded angrily, "you were the one offerin' to pay me to deceive her! You're just as bad!"

"Maybe I did try to deceive her," Wolverine stopped near the door, "but I tell you something, LeBeau. I didn't have anythin' to gain from it. You on the other hand...did. And that's the difference. When I made our deal, I was makin' it out of love for that girl. You on the other hand, you did it out of love for yourself."

Remy glared at the man, but could find no response. How can I argue with a comment like that?

"I'll be back in the morning so that she can absorb more of my powers. In the meantime, I don't care if you sleep or not, but you better guard her with your life, or it may not be worth living. I won't think twice about killing you myself if anything happens to that girl," Logan stated icily. "And another thing...you stink of piss."

Remy frowned.

He's right. I did take the money...I did make a deal to gain from it. But it was before I knew her...before I...

As Logan climbed onto his bike which was parked in the yard and the thing sped off at an astonishing speed, Remy felt queasy once again.

The realisation hit him. Logan was right.

Before I fell for her.

End of Part Twenty-Three

Well things picked up a bit for this part, and hopefully everyone is still enjoying. I think a lot of people saw the shit storm hitting the proverbial fan eventually, lmao. Thanks as always for the kind reviews, and I hope you're all having/have had a super weekend.