AN:

Gris Gris, Fifolet, Questa and Singer are all comic-canon. I read somewhere that Fifolet's first name is Marcus, but I don't actually recall reading this in any of the comics, so yeah. Likewise, there's nothing to say that he's actually the head of his clan or some such, assuming the Assassins even use clans at all. They really do have powers. Questa's first appearance was as a woman, but his second appearance was as a man. Gris Gris is 'First Kill'.

Chapter 9

Claude completed the final test of his Tracts of Passage and became a Master Thief barely a month after he was given the assignment. They had a celebratory lunch the day of the official promotion, but afterwards, like any guy his age, Claude went out to celebrate with his friends. The very next day - after the hangover had worn off - Claude perused the Master-level jobs available and signed up for one of them.

"Told you, Maman," said Claude as he packed up his things. "I want to break the record for youngest Thief to make the Top Ten. I've got to get started."

"Oui, but is it necessary for you to go all the way to North Carolina?" Mercy asked, plaintively watching as her eldest baby shoved his clothes in his suitcase.

"That's where the job is," Claude replied.

"And why do you have to leave so soon?" she persisted. "You've been working so hard, you should stay for -"

"Maman, you know why. I just told you why," Claude said irritably.

"Just because your oncle has set a few records doesn't mean you have to," Mercy said firmly. "Not that I wouldn't be proud of you if you did, but most Thieves never set any records and -"

"I don't want to be 'most Thieves'," Claude said, pausing in his packing just long enough to throw his mother a glare.

"No one wants to be 'most Thieves'," Mercy countered patiently. "I'm just saying that you've been working very hard and there's nothing wrong with staying home and relaxing for a little while before you take off."

"And now long is 'a little while' Maman?" Claude demanded. "Until I'm thirty?"

"The thought had occurred to me," she replied, only half joking.

"I'll be fine, really," Claude insisted as he zipped up his suitcase. "I have to leave sometime."

Mercy sighed. "I know, but that doesn't make it any easier."

Silence followed as Claude gathered up the last of his things he had to take.

"You sure you've packed enough clothes?" Mercy asked.

"Oui, Maman," Claude replied impatiently.

"And what about your toothbrush?"

"I was just about to get it."

"And you've got all your fake IDs?"

"Oui Maman," Claude said, sounding exasperated. "I'm not stupid."

"Of course not," Mercy said, paused and then asked: "Do you have enough underwear?"

"Oui!"

"Don't get impatient with me," Mercy said with a slight frown. "Oh, and if you decide to sneak into a club, don't forget condoms -"

"Mère!"

"Don't drink too much," Mercy went on blithely. "And don't forget to eat your vegetables."

Rogue officially received her first Tracts of Passage job when Olivier was six weeks old. When he went down for a nap and Rogue finally had some time to herself, she got on the computer and started researching her mark, Danielle Thibodeaux. She wanted to pull off this job without using her powers. Her powers made her a natural thief, but Rogue wanted to prove that she had the skill to go with the talent.

It didn't take long before Rogue developed a good deal of disdain for the woman; a daddy's girl, married two years with a seven month old child. She went to college but - as far as Rogue could tell - never actually worked a day in her life. Rogue was going to enjoy ripping her off.

Over the weeks that followed, whenever she had a spare moment, Rogue continued her background research on her mark. Rogue was delighted when she found out that her mark was on Facebook. Although she had setup certain privacy settings, Rogue noticed that Farmville was advertised on her main page as one of the applications she used. Rogue created a dummy account and then messaged her with a request to be neighbours in Farmville. Only a couple of hours later, Rogue had been added as a friend. To top things off, she was also a frequent updater on Twitter, providing Rogue with a mildly entertaining and convenient way of keeping tabs on her.

Danielle's favourite topic was her daughter, Kayla, and quickly became Rogue's too. Many was the time when Danielle would tell everyone what Kayla had just done, or said, or gotten another tooth and Rogue would look over at Olivier with anticipation of the days when he would start talking and teething. Her mark's second favourite topic was her maid, whom she seemed to enjoy complaining about. Her husband got an occasional mention, but nothing really telling.

Rogue had completed her background research the best as she could by the time Olivier was three months old and finally sleeping through most of the night. It had been a rather time-consuming and tiresome method of learning about someone, but different and even refreshing from her usual MO, which involved absorbing them.

The next phase involved actually seeing the house and preferably getting into the house in order to case the place before the actual robbery. Being in a residential area, there were no security cameras in the vicinity for her to hack into, so an actual physical appearance was required.

"So, what's the plan then?" asked Gambit.

"Well, she drops Kayla off at day care on Thursdays so she can go to the country club with her little friends," Rogue said. "As far as I can tell, her maid – whom she never even bothers to name – has the day off. She's out of the house anyway. Her husband's usually at work, so Thursdays would be a good day for the break in. I just need to find out what security I have to bypass."

"And how were you planning on doing that?"

"I haven't the faintest idea."

Gambit chuckled.

"I'd like to get in there, or at least get a camera in there and have a look around," Rogue said. "It's a family home so I doubt there's anything earth shattering but that doesn't mean I couldn't still trigger an alarm."

Gambit grinned at her. Rogue rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't asking for suggestions," she said. "I know I'm supposed to do this on my own."

"I'm just wondering if you're going to decide to absorb her after all," Gambit said, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

"It's the method of last resort," Rogue replied primly. "If I take short cuts all the time, I won't learn anything."

"I didn't realise this was 'Take Your Children to Work Day' today," said Henri as he stepped into the office and noticed Olivier in Gambit arms.

["It's always take your children to work day,"] Gambit replied, not looking up from feeding Olivier one of the bottles of breast milk Rogue had previously organised. ["You and I are here with our father, aren't we?"]

Jean-Luc laughed.

"Where's Rogue?" Henri asked as he sat down.

["She's busy casing her current job."]

"Ahh, right. No babies allowed huh?"

["Wouldn't want to attract any unnecessary attention."]

["Indeed,"] said Jean-Luc, his hands steepled as he sat back in his chair. ["Now, we've received word from the Assassins that Marcus Fifolet has taken over as clan leader."]

["Belle's sure going through those clan leaders,"] Gambit mused. ["That's been what? The third Clan leader she's disposed of in less than a year."]

["Fourth,"] Henri said. ["And the sixth council member, including First Kill and Minister of Tome."]

["I'm getting the impression she's kind of mad,"] Gambit said gleefully.

["Mad's putting it lightly,"] Henri said. ["She's obviously well aware she's making enemies and had stopped caring... Why are we speaking in French?"]

["Oli needs to learn,"] Gambit said.

["Oh, right. What was I saying?"]

["Belle not caring about making enemies."]

["Right. She's basically doing everything within her power to remove Marius' council, excepting any allies she might have within that group, short of walking into the council room with an automatic machine gun,"] Henri said seriously. ["She's exposing all sorts of embarrassing secrets and controversial decisions. My contact isn't sure if this is information she's picked up out of the archives – the Minister of Tome was the first one to go after First Kill – or if it's things she picked up on her own. Or both."]

["Probably both, knowing Belle,"] said Gambit.

["Fifolet left voluntarily though,"] said Henri. ["Well... theoretically he could have been blackmailed, but as the Assassins usually consider that to be a Thief thing, it's unlikely. It's more likely that he saw the way the wind was blowing and decided to get out while the going was good. Don't know how many will follow his example, but at the current rate, Bella Donna should have a whole new council in two years."]

["You'd think they'd know better than to make her mad,"] Gambit said with a snicker as he pulled away the now-empty bottle.

["And of the general populace of the Guild?"] Jean-Luc inquired.

["There's a lot of division, but it's hard to say which way it's going to go,"] Henri said. ["It's not just who likes the members of the old council, and who allies themselves with Bella Donna; just about everyone in the Guild is being directly affected by the changing positions, and there's also a number of people within our generation who are... who object to her decision to rescind Remy's exile."]

["Knew that,"] said Gambit while he rubbed Olivier's back in an effort to burp him.

["The only people whose allegiances I can be sure of are Bella Donna's core group of friends,"] said Henri. ["Gris Gris, Fifolet - Marcus that is - Questa and Singer."]

["Okay Gris Gris and Fifolet I know,"] Gambit said. ["Questa and Singer ring a bell but I can't quite place them."]

["I think Singer joined after you left N'Orleans,"] Henri said. ["Don't know too much about her. Got black hair, can fly, has some kind of message channelling power thing."]

["Message channelling? She wouldn't happen to be your contact, would she, Henri?"] Jean-Luc asked.

["Yeah, right,"] Henri replied with a snort. ["As if one of Bella Donna's best friends is going to talk behind her back to Thieves. Now, Questa you'd probably remember as this silver-haired teenager."]

Gambit snapped his fingers.

["That's right,"] he said. ["Can't she do some sort of... pseudo shape-shifting thing?"]

["Yeah, she manipulated synaptic signals or something to make you see things that aren't there. So, more illusions? I don't know all the details."]

["I'd doubt they'd be inclined to give them. What's she up to these days anyway?"]

["Well, for one thing she's now a man with black hair."]

Gambit blinked. ["Sex change, huh?"]

["Either that, or it's more of that pseudo shape-shifting going on,"] Henri said.

"Hmm," Gambit said. ["Fifolet can go intangible, can't he? And Gris Gris is still into the voodoo?"]

["Yes."]

["Well, I don't think we have too much to worry about from the Assassins at this point,"] said Jean-Luc. ["Their troubles are internal and as such are unlikely to spill out onto us at this time. Now, onto more pressing matters..."]

["Right,"] said Henri, and just as he was about to move on, stopped and glanced at Olivier with a merry twinkle in his eye. ["You know Remy, technically, Oli shouldn't be here. I mean, he's not even a Master Thief, let alone a council member. These are sensitive matters we're talking about here, and he's a potential security leak."]

Gambit was about to retort with something scathing, when Olivier chose that moment to burp. Milk was spat over the small towel which was laid over Gambit's shoulder closest to Henri. Henri cleared his throat and Gambit merely looked at him.

["And that's all Oli has to say about the matter,"] said Gambit.

Olivier stayed home with Tante Mattie that night while the LeBeaus went out to dinner to celebrate Gambit's 40th birthday. It occurred to Rogue as they walked into the restaurant that this was the first time she'd gone out to dinner with the family; all the special occasions so far had been celebrated at home.

"We have a reservation for LeBeau," said Henri as he approached the host.

"Oui, of course, we've been expecting you," the host replied quickly, not even checking his book. "Right this way. We have a private room set aside for you."

Rogue raised an eyebrow as they followed the host to their private room. If she didn't know better, she'd say he was afraid. Although... Gambit wasn't wearing his sunglasses tonight, so maybe he was (if that was the case though, she had nothing but disdain and contempt for the little coward). The room was quite elegant and came with a magnificent view of the Big Easy. There were already menus on the table and the host assured them that a waitress would be around soon to get their order, before hurriedly departing.

The menus were passed around and the first few minutes were spent more or less in silence with, what little conversation there was focused on the meal ahead of them. Before too long the waitress arrived and she looked just as nervous as the host had been. Given that Gambit had his face in the menu at the time, Rogue came to the conclusion that whatever had the staff on edge didn't have anything to do with her husband's sexy eyes.

Rogue had to admit, she loved being with the LeBeaus. Marriage aside, they actually felt like family to her, even more so than the X-men had. She felt like she really and truly belonged. It was wonderful. Now if only the insidious voice - unrelated to her psyches - in the back of her mind would quit whispering to her about how it was all going to blow up in her face, she'd be happy.

Dinner was uneventful. The waitress was friendly, polite and stopped being quite so nervy partway through the evening. After the main course, the waitress and two other staff members came in with a chocolate birthday cake, the words 'Happy 40th Remy' written on top. They'd started to put it in front of Henri, and Rogue grinned at the surprised looks on their faces when Henri directed them to Gambit instead. He looked more late twenties than forty. The staff sang 'Happy Birthday' and then departed while the cake was cut up and served out.

Later, when the bill arrived, Rogue picked it up and wrote in what she deemed a good tip for the waitress. Henri grinned at her as she passed it back.

"Don't trust me to give her a good tip?" he asked when he realised what she did.

"I know what it's like to have to live off your tips," Rogue replied.

"What? We're paying for this?" asked Jean-Luc. "I thought we were going to do a runner."

Henri laughed. His father hadn't 'done a runner' in years.

"And just how were you planning on doing that, old man?" asked Mercy. "Climb out the window?"

"Why not?" asked Jean-Luc. "Remy can open it for us."

Gambit laughed. "I don't know, Père. Some of these guys seem a little... anxious. I bet we could just walk out without paying and no one would try and stop us."

"Forget that," said Mercy. "I want to see Jean-Luc get out the window to the ground floor without breaking a hip."

"Bite your tongue," said Jean-Luc with a frown.

Rogue laughed and Henri pointed his finger at Gambit.

"I actually want to try that walking out thing, there's just one problem," Henri said.

"What's that?" asked Gambit.

"They already have credit card details – they needed a deposit on the room."

"So... they could just let us walk out, and then charge us later?"

"Oui."

"That's a bummer."

"We'll have to try it some other time."

"And then come back again and see if they bring it up or even let us dine."

"I like this scheme."

"How was he?" Rogue asked Tante Mattie when they returned.

"Good," Tante Mattie replied. "I just not five minutes ago put him to bed."

"Great. Thanks so much for looking after Oli, Tante."

"My pleasure, child," Tante Mattie replied. "And how was dinner?"

"Good," Rogue said.

"Their chef has nothing on you," Gambit added with a grin.

"Hmph. Charmer," Tante Mattie replied.

She patted his cheek and then departed. After checking in on Olivier, Rogue and Gambit headed to bed.

"I can't believe it's been a whole year," Gambit said as he wrapped up Rogue in his arms. "A whole year since my exile got lifted. You know, Roguey, for the longest time I despaired of that ever happening. And now look at me. I'm back in N'Orleans. I've got you and Oli. Life is good."

Rogue smiled, remembering that it was only a few months ago he'd been freaking out because 'his life was over'. Those words had stuck with her, floating to the top of her mind at all the worst moments.

"Are you happy then?" she asked.

Gambit kissed her forehead. "Very happy."

"Even though you're in line to be the next Patriarch?"

"You know something, chére? If having a desk job is the price I have to pay for all of this... I think I can deal with that."

Rogue laughed softly and snuggled into him.

"I'm glad you feel that way," she said.

"What about you?" he asked. "Are you happy?"

Rogue was silent and Gambit lifted her head with two fingers under her chin. "Chére?"

"I think so," she said finally.

"You think so?"

"Yeah well... I am. Everything is going well. I have a family. I... I guess I just keep thinking everything's too good to be true and it's all going to blow up in my face."

"If I let a card blow up in your face, will that make you feel better?"

Rogue laughed.

"I think," she said, "I just need some time to get used to everything being this good."

"Not going to happen, chére," Gambit said gravely.

"Oh?"

"Oui. Sooner or later, Oli's going to grow up and we're going to have a teenager on our hands."

Rogue laughed again and Gambit grinned at her.

"So Roguey," he said slyly. "I don't happen to have another birthday present do I?"

"Umm, no..."

"You sure? I don't have one more present?"

"I'm pretty sure you got all of them earlier, Swamp Rat."

"Not even a sexy present?"

Rogue smirked at him as she cottoned onto what he was referring to.

"Oh you want a sexy present, huh?" she asked coyly.

Gambit grinned mischievously at her.

"Well," she said. "I'm sure I can arrange something."