MAGNETIC ATTRACTION
Part Thirty-Three
** Authors Note: again, warning of triggers which some people sensitive to sexual situations and/or mentions/situation of suicide may find offensive or upsetting.
Remy awoke at 3am in Rogue's room. They'd gone to her room following her melt down over her period and lay down together to watch a movie. She'd fallen asleep long before he had, and he'd fallen asleep halfway through 'Halloween 2'. Rogue was still curled up against him, tight beneath her blankets and he looked at her, wondering when would be the time to take the step and start sleeping under the covers with her if this was going to be a regular occurrence.
Would this be a regular occurrence? Or was it going to stop until Wanda was cured? He couldn't stand the thought of all this waiting. He was fine waiting for sex...would have even been fine if they never fooled around again. But he didn't want to wait around forever to get on with his life, he didn't want to wait for Wanda to get over her issues.
If not for the urge his full bladder was pushing him with, then he would have stayed on the bed beside Rogue. Unfortunately, a full bladder wasn't going to be easy to ignore, and so reluctantly, he pulled himself up and staggered tiredly out of her room. The warehouse was quiet, perhaps eerily so. Other than the near silent hum of the heating system, it was so deathly quiet.
Why did something feel vaguely wrong?
As he got to the bottom of the stairs, he noticed there was something on the floor, a gross looking splash of something. He stopped, rubbed his tired eyes and tried to focus on it. What the hell was it? Soup? No...not soup.
Vomit. He moved closer to inspect, and he noticed a mix of half dissolved pills in the mess of it.
Waves of terror rushed through him, and his blood ran cold. The need to pee no longer was the forth most important thing on his mind. Instinctively, he knew at once who had been sick with the half-dissolved pills. There was only one person in the whole warehouse other than Magneto who would have access to that amount of medication.
Wanda! he realised with horror.
Immediately he ran towards the girls bathroom, the splashes of vomit trailing there and the puddle of it in front of the step told him he was definitely heading in the right direction.
His heart was suddenly pounding and his fingers felt strangely numb. He pushed the door open and stumbled inside, stepping over the mess of vomit splattered over the floor to reach the open stall. There she lay, her pale and sweaty body half dressed in a t-shirt and a black thong. One hand was trapped between the toilet and the seat, the rest of her was pressed against the puke splattered tiles face down.
"Wanda!" he gasped, he dropped to her side and turned her over, her face was pale and damp with sweat. He grabbed a handful of toilet paper and wiped the vomit from her mouth then shook her desperately. "Wake up, come on!"
Why?! Why would she do this? Is she so fucked up in her head that suicide was better than just attempting to deal with it?! He thought frantically. He shook her more violently, "Wanda, wake the fuck up!"
Drawing his breath, he administered a rather deft slap to her right cheek, one that left his hand stinging and burning hot, but still she did not move. Hit her harder! You have to get her to wake up! He tried again, harder this time, hoping it would shock her awake but the girl did not respond, she just lay limp in his arms like a beautiful rag doll.
What else are you supposed to do? he asked himself desperately gaping down at her in panic. Gotta get whatever she took out of her system, he realised, trying to think straight. Having not long woken up and still being tired was not helping his response time. Quickly, he hauled her to lean her over the toilet and put his fingers down her throat but there was very little reaction. She seemed to momentarily choke, and cough, and flail for just a moment, and then she was still again. He checked for her pulse but had a hard time locating it. He knew very little about first aid and had never tried to properly learn any techniques that may save her life.
Why are you fucking about here trying to help her when her father is a fucking doctor? Remy wondered at himself as he put her down, pushed himself up and dashed towards Magneto's room. He slammed his hand hard against the door after throwing it open.
Magneto was in bed, and through the iron curtains, Remy could see the man waking up and switching on the light, looking groggy and confused, his hair sticking up every which way as if he spent most of his sleep tossing and turning. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked, his voice slightly hoarse, his eyes blinking.
"Get up, your daughter took a fucking overdose," Remy said quickly and bluntly, before taking off back to the girl's bathroom to attempt to help the girl. He wasn't sure what he should do.
Magneto appeared not two seconds later, "How long has she been unconscious?"
"No clue, I just got here and she was like this."
"Do you know what she has taken?"
"How the fuck would I know?! She has a whole cabinet full of anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety pills! She should have never been left alone with that much medication! Why didn't you-"
"She has never shown suicidal tendencies before!" Magneto hissed, as he leaned to check her vitals, Remy stood looming awkwardly, trying to stay out of the way. "I need to get her to a hospital. Fast. Wake up Pietro," he ordered.
Remy rushed off to do as he was asked. He barged into Pietro's room, yanking the pillow the boy had had his head under, and yelling, "wake up!"
Pietro leaned up, looking bewildered and shocked, "what the-?" he asked groggily; Remy noted the boy hadn't even bothered to change into any night clothes. He'd simply gone to bed wearing the clothes he'd had on all day before.
"Girls bathroom, go now, use your powers," Remy commanded.
"But-"
"Your sister is dying," Remy hissed.
"What?!" Pietro looked at him through blank sleepy eyes.
"Your sister took an overdose, now go!"
Pietro took off, his vision a mere blur as he disappeared out of the door. Remy sighed and ran his hand through his hair frustratedly.
What am I supposed to do now? What can I do? Jesus Christ, is this my fault?
He moved back to the main warehouse area just as Magneto was leaving the room instructing Pietro on what to do and what to say. Pietro was struggling to carry his sister, the girl dangling haplessly from his arms.
Remy listened, he could hear the strain in his boss's voice, the fear, the frustration. He must have been terrified. For as stoic as he was, it was impossible or the man to hide the pain that his little girl may die.
"I'll be going to the hospital," said Magneto quietly when Pietro left at top speed. Remy stood there, feeling awkward. "I will get dressed and shall go, I do not know how long I shall be gone."
"Okay," said Remy, giving a careful nod.
"Regardless of anything said between us, you are still the leader I chose. And while I am gone, your word is law here."
"Of course," Remy nodded, "I'll do my best to keep things under control."
Magneto nodded, and went back to his room. Remy supposed he should go find a bucket and mop to try to clean up the mess Wanda had left all over the place. It wouldn't be good for the others to see this. He wondered what he should even tell the others when they finally did awaken.
Should I just be honest or...lie about it? He wondered. He supposed when the time came and people asked where Wanda and Magneto were, he would have to say something. But was it fair to tell them the truth? Maybe Magneto wouldn't want the others to know. Knowing Magneto, he'd feel ashamed of it, Remy decided.
God this is all my fault. Maybe if I hadn't slept with her in the first place, maybe she wouldn't have done this...maybe...
He supposed maybe was a terribly strong word. Trying to force the frustration and confusion out of his mind, he went to clean up. It was all he could do for now.
An hour passed quietly. After cleaning up all of the mess, Remy showered and dressed, and slipped his phone into his pocket and waited patiently for any kind of update on Wanda's condition, but no calls or text messages were made. Remy was unsure if Magneto had even thought to take his phone in the haste to go to his daughter's side. Feeling slightly uneasy, he went into Wanda's room to clean up any mess that might be there, there was no vomit, but the packets of her pills and the empty bottles were strewn about the floor, some of the cardboard boxes from the prescriptions were torn up, as if she'd sat there ripping them apart waiting for the effects to occur.. On the floor, her MP3 player lay, and a rather dark gothic rendition of 'Gloomy Sunday' was playing on repeat.
Must have been the last straw, he thought as he tidied up the packets, but kept the labels and pocketed them just to make sure that if Magneto should call, he had the list of everything that she had taken, although Remy was positive that the man probably already knew exactly what medications his daughter was on regardless.
Better safe than sorry, though, Remy thought. He bent down to pick up a random pill that had been dropped on the floor, and something underneath her bed caught his eye. Frowning, he shifted the faux fur blankets back a little to examine more closely.
"You gotta me kiddin' me," he uttered under his breath as he pulled out what turned out to be the engine of a car, further inside, he could see a battery. He understood right away where they had come from, the only thing he couldn't fathom was when Wanda had gone and taken them from Rogue's car without so much as anyone even noticing her leave. How had she even gotten away with this without help? It was mystifying. Even Remy who had limited knowledge about cars knew that an engine couldn't be removed as quickly as the battery could have.
Probably paid a mechanic to come do it. She could have taken the keys from my room, made out to be the owner and asked for it to be done. Or maybe she just got some guy off the street to do it for her...paid him in the best way she knows how, Remy thought.
Guess the mystery of Rogue's constantly breaking down car is solved. Wanda would be furious if she found out that her plan to make sure Rogue didn't get home that night was what drove me right into Rogue's arms. Plan backfired...no wonder she attacked me the minute I got through the door. Wasn't me she was mad at, was herself that she was pissed with.
A further inspection through Wanda's things revealed something else that Remy hadn't expected to find. A flyer the staff had been handing out at the convention centre during the horror movie event in the parking lot. Remy picked it up and looked at it, it'd clearly been crumpled up.
Now I get it...she was there that night. She must have been there...she was the one that broke the van. Why would she do that? Why not just confront us there and then? Wondered Remy. At least the bad luck that had been on going as of late was making sense now. Wanda had been doing far more than they'd given her credit for.
Unhappy, Remy left the room and hoped to get these things out of his mind for the time being. The strain of it all was already giving him a headache.
When five thirty am came around, he went to the kitchen and made a large pot of coffee. Sitting there for half an hour driving coffee, obsessed with why neither Pietro nor Magneto had called to give him any information was driving him mad, and so he forced himself to do some cooking, things that could be kept warm in the oven for when any of the team awakened.
Rogue and Piotr were the first to awake, both coming down sleepy eyed, Rogue's face makeup free and her pyjamas looking crinkled from the way she'd been sleeping. She seemed much paler than usual and he wondered if that was due to the period or just from having woken up. Her puffy eyes and tangled hair made him want to smile, but he suppressed it. Now wasn't the time to be happy about being with Rogue.
Not while Wanda was unhappy, and gravely ill in hospital. It was insensitive wasn't it? He was supposed to be miserable and stoic while all this was happening. He had no right to an ounce of happiness at least until he knew the girl had survived.
Remy supposed he should make some kind of announcement. But what should he say exactly? He wondered if perhaps it might be too soon to say anything at all.
No. They would notice Wanda wasn't around eventually and that Magneto wasn't here. I'm going to have to say something. Best do it now, get it out of the way so I don't have to make up excuses.
"Why are you up so early?" Rogue asked tiredly as she wandered over to the tray of bacon and sausages he'd just pulled from the oven, and started picking up food to dump on a plate for herself.
"I had to pee and couldn't get back to sleep," Remy responded, he pulled a plate from the cupboard for Piotr, "Pete...hungry?"
"Famished," said Piotr, who due to his large size and muscle mass, seemed to be forever hungry.
Rogue sat down to eat the food she'd chosen, she picked up a fork and pushed the stuff around her plate, still not quite awake.
"Are you okay?" Remy asked of her as he passed Piotr a plate of sausages, bacon and scrambled eggs.
"Ah'm fine," she quietly responded. She had that strangely shy expression that told him she was still feeling awkward about the night before. Whether it was due to her actions, or the untimely period that had interrupted his, Remy was unsure.
"You look a little off," he admitted softly.
"Ah said Ah'm fine," she spoke in that stern tone that told him he should drop it. He watched as she gave up with the fork, her co-ordination seemed to be a little off in her sleepy state, and she picked up a sausage with her gloved fingers and put it to her mouth. He couldn't help but be reminded of sex and he winced a little inwardly as the yearning began again. Why? Why now of all times?! Wanda is in hospital, and here I am thinking of sex...
"Why does warehouse smell of bleach?" asked Piotr, digging into his food.
"Oh..." Remy responded, not realising the smell had been quite so severe still. He supposed he might have used a little too much of it, but after a while of scrubbing, the smell seemed to have gone. At least bleach was more tolerable than the smell of vomit.
"Yeah the smell is really strong," Rogue chimed in, "practically choked me when I got to the bottom of the stairs."
"Well...Wanda felt ill during the night..." he began. He noticed Rogue's head snapped up to look at him, her eyes dangerously suspicious already. "She threw up. Magneto and Pietro took her to the hospital. I stayed behind to clean up the puke," he explained simply.
Yes, that sounded quite fine. It was even true. He'd left out the part about the suicide attempt of course, but in all fairness, perhaps it really wasn't either Rogue's nor Piotr's business anyway.
"Is she all right?" Rogue asked, her expression suddenly concerned.
"I...don't know," Remy answered truthfully, "neither been in touch."
"What was wrong with Wanda?" Piotr asked curiously.
"I don't know, just...bein' sick. It's winter now so...you know, it's probably just a bad cold or something," Remy lied quickly.
"You don't take a girl to the hospital with a bad cold, Remy," Rogue pointed out, he noted she had one hand rubbing her stomach, her expression pained. He couldn't help but be horribly aware that while they sat there, she was leaking blood. The same blood that'd been on his hands. Now that he'd had a night to get over it, and had spent the morning cleaning up Wanda's vomit, a little blood didn't seem nearly so bad as it had.
"Well I don't know," Remy shrugged, trying to maintain a calm voice and a rather fixed expression, "I'm not a doctor. She was ill...she's in the hospital...I'm sure we'll hear what the problem is eventually."
Rogue seemed quite suspicious of this, but if she was going to question it, she said nothing. Remy had the distinct feeling it was because Piotr was there.
After chewing thoughtfully on a slice of bacon, Piotr stated to Rogue, "you are needing ride this morning?"
"Yeah, my car is still fucked."
Remy noted the unhappy expression on Piotr's face that always seemed to occur whenever a girl cursed. Boy is far too innocent to be in this place, he thought dully as he picked up a sausage and took a small bite, not even feeling remotely hungry any more but forcing himself to chew all the same.
"I will take you – and pick you up," Piotr offered kindly, he gave a little yawn.
"That's sweet of you," said Rogue with a smile.
"Is no problem. This afternoon, I go to art shop on way home for paint," he stated, he picked up the last two items of his plate, dumped the dish into the sink, and said "I go shower, meet you at van in half hour?" he bit a sausage in half.
"Sure thing," Rogue nodded, rubbing her stomach still.
Remy watched as Piotr left the room, and felt a little relieved that he could be alone with Rogue, and that he wouldn't need to keep up pretence any further. He poured Rogue a cup of coffee, although she hadn't asked. He put the sugar and cream in for her, just as he knew she liked it, and placed it in front of her, much to her surprise. She raised her eyes to him.
"You remembered," she said.
"Kinda thing I should know, right? How you take it..." he sat down slowly with a cup of his own, sighing. Knowing she was going to ask about Wanda and waiting for it to come. "She tried to kill herself."
Rogue's expression fell a little, although she said nothing.
"Found her at three am, covered in her own puke in a toilet stall...I don't know how long she'd been there, or...how much she'd taken."
"Her medications?"
"I took a look in her room, all the bottles and packets were empty, but...I don't know how much of any it she had to begin with. They could have been all mostly empty for all I know...no one ever got asked to run and pick up prescriptions for her so..."
Rogue drew her breath, "Ah had a look through that cabinet yesterday when Ah went to give her something for her anxiety...most of it was all full...bottles that hadn't even been touched...boxes with full packets."
"Jesus," Remy responded, running his hand frustratedly through his hair, "I was afraid of that."
After a moment, sitting with her hands around her mug of coffee, Rogue sighed, "maybe it's my fault..."
Remy turned to look at her, confused.
"Ah rejected her...she was obviously screwed up...Ah should have done more..."
"You did what you had to," Remy sighed.
"All Ah did was give her pills and talk to her dad...told him that she needed help. Why didn't he? Why did he just...leave her there? Why did Ah just leave her there? Why didn't Ah think to take those pills out of there?"
"You can't blame yourself," Remy decided, "If anyone is to blame, it's me...I'm the one who led her on for a month...decided to leave her, didn't try to help her properly...wasn't honest with her..."
"Remy, don't," Rogue sighed, "you're know that's not true-"
"You said it was the other day...You told me I encouraged it..."
"You maybe encouraged it, but in her sick mind, she was probably gonna do it eventually whether you had been involved with her or not. Ah just don't understand why her dad didn't do anything. How could anyone let their child suffer like that and not try to help?"
"He's not. At least not in his mind he's letting her suffer. He's convinced it's going to cure her when the machine is finished...once you've tested it."
Rogue didn't seem to be sure of this.
Remy wanted to plead again that Rogue not go through with this procedure, but right now, it was even more likely to make her determined. Especially with Wanda so ill and over the edge.
Remy stared down into his cup, it'd already grown cold. "I want to hate the girl. She manipulated me...was mean to me...hurt me...violated me. I really want to hate her. Really I do."
"But you can't?"
He sighed and put his head in his hands, "How can I hate her? How can I? She's insane...she's totally lost her mind. You know she was the one who stole the battery and the engine from your car."
"She did? How'd you know?"
"Found both of them under her bed..." Remy admitted.
Rogue frowned, "Ah thought it'd been some street thug..." she admitted.
"I think it's been her messing with our phones, breaking the cars...starting to even wonder if maybe your period started because of her powers..."
"Remy!" Rogue admonished, she flushed pink. It seemed she'd been quite determined to have him forget about what was going on with her cycle at this particular moment.
"All I'm saying is...she's got this habit of hexing things...you know?" he asked, "isn't it possible that maybe she could have hexed you somehow when she put her hand up your skirt and tried to touch you?"
"Remy, my period was due. She didn't hex me...she didn't break anythin' down there. It's just...a period, okay? There was nothing in the look on her face that said she was trying to hex me..."
Remy sighed, "okay, so maybe I'm out of line with that assumption, but I know the other shit is her fault. She's been creeping through my phone contacts and stuff – I found that out," he explained. He deliberately withheld what Wanda had learned when she'd done so. "Pete's van – I think that was her fault, too. I found a flyer from the convention in her room...Remember they were handing those out in the parking lot?"
Rogue thought about these things. "So you think she's been doing this stuff deliberately? How could she have done that to the van? She didn't even know where we were that night."
"She must have followed us...she told me Lance had told her about it...she gave no indication she'd known already..." Remy explained, "I don't know how much she saw...but it must be how she knew there was something between us."
"But before that there wasn't," Rogue reminded.
Remy sighed, "I was always...attracted to you...you know? I didn't figure out I had feelings until after that..." he admitted, "anyway, are you forgetting the conversation before you ran off to the bathroom?"
"I...uhm..." her cheeks flushed.
"It was pretty...intense," he reminded, "if she saw that...well...I wouldn't blame her for breaking the van. Least it wasn't our necks."
Rogue smiled wanly, but looked away.
"Hopefully in the hospital she'll get the help she needs," Remy said after a moment.
Rogue chewed her lip, "Ah don't think they can treat her kind of problem there..." she sighed as she held her stomach, her face tight. He could see she was in pain.
"You okay?"
"It's just..." she began, stopping herself and looking thoroughly embarrassed.
"Cramps," he finished for her.
"Sorry," she uttered under her breath.
Confused, Remy leaned towards her a little, "Why? Why should you be sorry? Why are you apologising to me because you feel ill?"
"Ah...Ah...uhm..." she thought for a minute, "Ah dunno...Ah'm real sorry about last night is all," she explained, now flustered.
"Why are you sorry?" he asked. Why would she be apologetic about it? She did nothin' wrong?
"For uhm..." she paused.
He leaned a little closer and smirked a little, "I got nothin' to be unhappy about. Did you forget what you did for me?"
"No..." she responded, still seeming down, her eyes fell shyly to the table. "But what happened after couldn't have been much of a turn on..." she managed, thoroughly embarrassed.
Why was it embarrassment on this girl was incredibly appealing and arousing. He couldn't fathom it. "Doesn't bother me," he replied carefully.
"Of course you'd say that," Rogue snorted unhappily, "doesn't mean you actually mean it."
Shaking his head at her and smirking just a little, he leaned closer still, and murmured near her ear, "put your hand on my lap."
"Huh?" she asked, her eyes raising to his in slight alarm.
"Go on...you've done it before, don't be shy now..." he urged. He tried to put thoughts of Wanda's suffering and attempted suicide out of his mind. It still almost insensitive of him but Rogue was clearly also suffering with dismay and embarrassment. If he could at least put one person's mind at ease today, perhaps he'd be able to relax a little too.
Rogue chewed her lip, looking at him questioningly, not sure how to read this at all, and so without a word, he took her hand and led it beneath the table so she could feel the hardness there that had grown nearly the instant she'd started eating the sausage.
"Now..." he said after a moment, breathing in deeply trying to control himself, "does that feel to you...like I'm having any kind of problems with bein' turned off about a little blood?" he asked. It's bad timing, I know that but at least if I can remind her we can have some kind of relationship without her needing to control her powers, maybe she'll ease off on the idea of going through this evolution shit for a while...maybe it could buy me time to talk her out of it completely...
Her eyes fell to the table and she gave a slight shrug, her cheeks incredibly crimson.
"Does that feel to you like I'm sorry about last night at all?" he asked, his voice lower now, he glanced towards the door in case anyone should barge in.
"No..." she whispered.
Sliding the chair a little closer, he murmured, "how does it feel?"
Her eyes shifted to him, her face so incredibly beautiful when free of makeup and not stained with tears. And her innocence showed, which only seemed to make him all the more swollen beneath her fingers and the cotton of his jogging pants. She said nothing, her eyes looking all around the room suddenly as if she were trying to work up the nerves to speak at all.
"How's it feel?" he squeezed her hand around the bulge.
"Hard," she breathed, her voice so barely audible.
"Remember that night at the pizzeria? The morning at the diner? In the car on the way home from the diner?" he breathed near her ear hotly, "I was like this every time..." he drew his breath. "Bein' with you lately...seems to bring things up. And this...this is blood too..." he squeezed her hand, "blood pumpin' furiously right there..."
Her cheeks were still hot, he wished he could kiss each one and then kiss her lips hard until they were as red as the crimson of her blush. She managed to raise her eyes to his finally and keep them there, although it seemed to be taking some effort on her part. And she shakily asked, "right now? Here?"
"No," he shook his head, removing her hand from him, "not right now. Not yet, anyway...it's too soon. You have classes and I have a lot to do around here. But...whenever you feel...or if you feel...ready...then...all you have to do is say," he assured. "And if there's...anythin' you want of me..." he added, "you don't have to be scared to let me know. This isn't just about me...you know that don't you?"
Her eyes fell again.
"When you're ready..." he put his hand on her knee affectionately, "just tell me what it is you need..."
She breathed deeply in through her nose, listening but saying nothing.
"And if you're still too shy to say it," Remy squeezed her knee, smiling a little, "text me, or write me a note..." he suggested. "We don't have to talk about it directly if you find it too awkward...but if you want that kind of a relationship with me-"
"Ah do..." she said quickly, still quite embarrassed.
"Then find a way to communicate with me..." he took his hand from her knee and picked up his coffee cup, sipped the cold liquid and made a face at it. "If you're going to be my girlfriend then I need to know what you want...otherwise I can't provide it."
"I want you," she murmured softly.
"You already got that..." he smiled genuinely.
"So...is that...what Ah am now?" she asked, "your girlfriend?"
"Is that all right?" he asked.
"Yeah..." she nodded, almost eagerly.
"Go on, go get showered and dressed or you'll be late for school," he realised. "I'll see you when you get home."
Rogue got up and went to leave the room, stopping at the door to spend a moment looking at him as if she were deep in thought. He hoped she wasn't reconsidering being his girlfriend. If she was, she said nothing regarding it. Instead, she drew her breath and said, "Wanda's...going to be okay, right?"
"Chere...I...don't know," Remy confessed, feeling his stomach flip a little at the subject which he'd rather forget for this moment.
Rogue sighed, "feels...sort of wrong, doesn't it?"
He understood exactly what she meant. They had each other, and Wanda virtually had no one. It did feel wrong. "Also feels...kind of right, though," he sighed too.
Rogue said nothing to this, but she left to go get ready, and Remy was left to his stress of not knowing what was going on at the hospital, and not knowing what lay in store for them all.
End of Part Thirty-Three
Eek. Took a little longer to get to this update than I'd hoped (a lot of personal stuff kept cropping up making it hard to find time to write, hopefully I'll be able to get the next few parts up soon. I'm within about four chapters of writing the ending (I am looking forward to completing this story and moving onto other things even though I have sincerely enjoyed writing this one).
Thanks as always for all the support and reviews everyone has put in. When I see the regulars who always leave a long thoughtful review always makes me smile and always gives me the boost to get working on the story more. You guys are awesome. So glad so many are enjoying the story :)