Chapter Fifty-Eight:


It was almost noon by the time that Remy stumbled downstairs into the kitchen the next morning, dressed in a pair of loose fitting black pajama pants and a faded gray Linkin Park t-shirt, his hair disheveled and a sleepy expression on his face.

"There's still some coffee in the machine," Tessa informed him from where she sat at the table, not even bothering to look up from the newspaper she was reading. "Mercy made some more for you and Emil in case you wanted any."

"T'anks," Remy yawned, padding barefoot across the kitchen floor to open a cabinet and pull out a coffee mug. "Y' wan' any, p'tite?"

"No thank you," Tessa replied with a small smile. "I've been awake for quite some time."

"Oh?" Remy asked, raising an eyebrow as he poured himself some coffee. "How long is some time?"

"I woke just before sunrise," Tessa answered, flipping the page of the newspaper absently, no doubt absorbing the information she was reading and filing it away inside of her supercomputer brain. It never ceased to amaze him how much that woman knew, and what she didn't know she could pull up a file on within minutes.

Remy blinked groggily, peering over at the clock on the microwave. "An' dat was at..."

Tessa shot him a slightly exasperated look, but there was a hint of amusement in her voice when she spoke. "Six o'clock, Remy, which you would know if you ever decided to get out of bed before noon."

"S'not noon yet, p'tite," Remy pointed out, smirking at her over the rim of his mug. "Still got a few minutes t' spare."

He didn't get a reply, which didn't reply surprise him, so he took a long sip of his coffee and then settled down into an empty chair across from the telepath, rolling his sore shoulder tenderly. He'd bruised it during the heist the night before, when an extra guard had taken him by surprise and thrown him into the hull of the ship. Theo and Henri had taken the guard out quickly and without drawing any attention to themselves, and his shoulder wasn't hurt that bad, but his ego had taken a beating worse than anything else.

Of course, he supposed he did have an excuse, he'd been rather distracted worrying about Rogue after she and Tessa had veered off to rescue some mutant kid from a bunch of Trask's soldiers, and once the gunshots started to fill the air it hadn't exactly made him feel any better.

Even when yo' wife's jus' 'bout invulnerable, Remy thought to himself. It's still hard not t' worry sometimes.

Besides, to be honest he'd been more worried about her emotional state than any physical injury she might sustain. Rogue had taken the latest mutant hazing hard, and the distant look in her eyes that day still haunted him. He'd seen her like that before, back on Magneto's island, those first few days after she'd found out that the Institute, the X-men, her whole world, was gone.

It frightened him the way she could vanish into the past like that and forget everything around her, more than he was willing to admit out loud. He hated to see her hurting, it felt like someone had stabbed him in the chest, but he knew there was nothing he could do for her but there to support her and love her unconditionally.

There were some things, he knew, that she wouldn't let anyone help her with, not even him. They were alike in that way, horribly stubborn till the end, even if it killed them.

"Will Marie be coming down soon?" Tessa inquired, flipping pages once again, her eyes scanning the black and white print rapidly.

"Oui," Remy grunted, taking a swig of his coffee. "She's gettin' dressed right now." He paused, eyeing her suspiciously. "Pourquoi?"

"Do I need a reason to ask, when she is usually up much earlier than this?" Tessa fired back, not looking up from the paper.

"She had a long night," Remy said with a shrug. "Y' know dat."

"Yes," Tessa replied evenly. "I do."

It had been late when Rogue finally returned home from dropping the kid off at the train station, it turned out that she'd decided to hang around until the train left, just to be sure he got out of town safely. Remy had intended to wait out in the courtyard for her, but Henri had surprised him by sending him on upstairs, saying he would wait up for her instead.

It hadn't taken much thought to realize that Henri wanted to talk to her in private once she got back, so Remy had contented himself with watching from the balcony of the suite he shared with his wife, which overlooked the courtyard. When Rogue returned, dropping out of the sky to land lightly on the cobblestone pavement, it had brought a small smile of relief to his lips. A part of him had been concerned that she might run into more of Trask's soldiers, and though he knew she could take care of herself, he couldn't help worrying.

She was his wife, after all.

Henri had greeted her with a smile, gesturing for him to join her at the table, and with a sigh Rogue had agreed. It wasn't hard to figure out why she hadn't been eager to do so, she'd been expecting a lecture of some kind, so it was amusing to see the surprise on her face when she got the complete opposite.

Instead, Henri had taken Rogue's hand in his, squeezed it gently, and told her that he'd meant every word he'd had Tessa tell her earlier. He didn't blame her for what she'd done, he couldn't be mad at her for doing what she knew in her heart was right. He'd even asked how the boy was doing, which had gotten a grateful smile from Rogue. The two of them had talked for a good fifteen or twenty minutes before Henri finally said that Remy was probably impatient to see her, and looked directly up at him on the balcony.

Remy had smirked down at them, unabashed at being caught, and Rogue had leaned over to kiss Henri on the cheek before floating up to join Remy on the balcony. It meant a lot to her, Remy knew, that Henri understood her irrational, albeit righteous, desire to protect her own kind.

But Remy knew better. It wasn't so much that Henri understood, as it was that he was scared. He was scared for Remy and Rogue, and for Tessa and Lucas. Scared that one day the soldiers might come for them, too. It was the silent fear of their whole family, really. No one talked about it, but it was always there, in the back of their minds, and the thought that someday they were bound to be found out scared them.

Sometimes it scared Remy, too.

And seeing the soldiers chasing that boy, who Rogue had later told him was named Matt, only gave that fear new life.

"You were correct to be suspicious," Tessa said suddenly, jolting him out of his reverie. "I did have an ulterior motive for asking about Marie."

"Oh?" Remy asked.

Wordlessly, Tessa reached into her pocket and pulled out a small disk, then slid it across the table. Remy picked it up, running his fingers over the gray material thoughtfully. There was no label on it, no markings that could give him any hint as to what its significance might be, so he looked over at Tessa expectantly.

"I appropriated it off of one of the soldiers we encountered last night," she explained. "I spent several hours this morning analyzing the data stored inside."

"Can' y' jus' say y' stole it like de rest o' us?" Remy rolled his eyes. "What's on it?"

"Quite a bit of information," Tessa answered. "I would prefer to wait and discuss it further once Marie has joined us, so we only need to have this conversation once."

"Then talk away," a new voice said from the stairs. "Ah'm here."

Remy turned to see his wife descending the last of the steps, dressed in a pair of jean shorts and a red tank-top, her long hair pulled back into a ponytail. He grinned at her, pulling out the chair next to him for her. "Have a seat, chere."

"Thanks, sugah," she said, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Yo' sweet."

"Don' I know it," Remy retorted.

"So what's this about a disk?" Rogue asked, turning to Tessa as Remy handed her the disk he'd been inspecting.

"I found it on one of the soldiers last night," Tessa told her. "I took the liberty of looking through it this morning, and I found some interesting things on there."

"Such as?" Rogue asked, reaching over to grab Remy's coffee and taking a swig before making a face. "Needs more sugar, sugah," she told him absently.

Remy got up and made his way over to the counter to get some for her, listening carefully to what Tessa was saying. "From what I've gathered, it seems that several of Operation: Wideawake's bases have been targeted in the past year."

"Magneto?" Rogue mused aloud.

"Most likely," Tessa agreed. "There were little or no casualties, but several of their weapon arsenals were completely destroyed."

"Less toys fo' dem t' chase us wit' den," Remy murmured.

"And at least a dozen mutant prisoners were freed during the raids," Tessa continued. "The operation has been unable to locate them since."

"Magnus always was big on the whole mutant brotherhood thing," Rogue sighed. "But at least he's helpin' some o' the people who need helpin', even if he's still goin' around playin' the mutant terrorist."

"T'ink he should put some horns on dat helmet o' his?" Remy asked, pouring a spoonful of sugar into his mug, and stirring it slowly. "Den he'd really look like de devil de news makes him out t' be."

"Ah think he scares them enough wit'out 'em," Rogue replied dryly, taking the mug from him with a grateful smile.

"True," Remy conceded. "He's one scary homme, non?"

"He has his moments," Rogue muttered, sipping her coffee.

"The disk mainly reveals information about base locations, protocol, procedures and Trask's connections around the world," Tessa informed them, folding the paper and setting it down on the table in front of her. "But there was something that caught my attention, and I thought that you might find it relevant, as well."

"What is it?" Rogue asked.

"I found Carol Danvers," Tessa said, and Rogue nearly choked on her coffee. Remy blinked in surprise, looking over at his wife's stunned expression. He knew that she was still in communication with Carol's psyche occasionally, they had little get-togethers inside of Rogue's head once every week or so, but for the most part Carol was living inside of her own mind, in whatever illusionary world she and Rogue had been able to create in there.

"Ya what?" Rogue rasped, coughing to clear her throat. "What do ya mean, ya found Carol?"

"Precisely what I said," Tessa replied. "It seems that Trask didn't have much use for a comatose mutant, so he had her placed in a military hospital under armed surveillance."

"So we can get t' her?" Rogue asked eagerly, and Remy groaned to himself, knowing that nothing would deter her from going in after Carol now, not even if she had charge in with her fists swinging.

"Yes."

"Can Ah use Jean's telepathy?" Rogue asked breathlessly. "Can Ah use it t' wake her up?"

Tessa hesitated a moment, then shook her head. "No," she said softly. "I don't think you can."

"Oh," Rogue whispered, her expression sullen.

"It would take a telepath of enormous power, and with a very high degree of control and practice to perform such a task," Tessa explained gently. "Otherwise, there could be serious damage to Carol's brain, and to your own."

"So we need someone stronger," Rogue said, biting her lip. "Like the Professor."

"Did y' ever absorb him?" Remy inquired.

"No," Rogue sighed, shaking her head. "Ah never had a reason t'."

"Then it is best if we wait," Tessa said. "I will continue to monitor Carol's condition now that we know her location, and I will keep you informed of any developments. Hopefully someday we will have the resources to wake her."

"Yeah," Rogue murmured wistfully. "Someday."

"I did not mean for this information upset you," Tessa apologized. "Perhaps I should have kept silent on this matter."

"No," Rogue smiled, reaching across the table to squeeze her hand. "It means a lot, thank ya, Tess. This is a step in the right direction, we jus' hafta be patient, that's all. Ah can' wait t' tell Carol. She'll be thrilled t' know that she's outta that base, at least."

"We're glad t' hear dat she's outta dere, too," Remy assured her, draping an arm around her shoulders and kissing the side of her neck softly. "Got kind o' fond o' dat fille, when she wasn' tryin' t' drive y' outta yo' mind, chere."

Rogue chuckled softly. "Yeah, Ah know what ya mean, sugah."

Heavy footsteps reached his ears, and Remy turned his head just as Lucas appeared in the doorway, holding a stack of books in his arms. "I got the texts that you requested," he told Tessa, who was rising to her feet.

"Good," she replied. "Thank you, Lucas. If you'd take them to the study for me, I'll be there shortly."

"Of course," Lucas said, offering a nod of greeting towards Remy and Rogue as he passed.

"Lot o' homework, sugah?" Rogue asked.

"I decided to do some reading on the island of Genosha," Tessa explained.

"Why Genosha?"

"It was mentioned in one of the files on this disk," Tessa said, as she picked up the disk from the table and slid it into her pocket. "I found it curious and decided to investigate further."

"Y' ever get sick o' all dat readin' an' researchin' y' do, p'tite?" Remy asked dryly.

Tessa shot him a level glare, dark eyes amused. "Knowledge is power, my friend," she reminded him as she left the room.

Rogue smirked, resting her head on his shoulder. "Ya ought t' know better than t' try an' change her by now, Remy. Tessa's set in her ways." She elbowed him gently, waggling her eyebrows playfully. "Kind o' like someone else that Ah know."

"Who? Moi?" Remy feigned innocence. "What are yo' plans fo' t'day, p'tite?"

"Ah think Ah'm gonna head over t' Bella an' Theo's in a li'l bit," she replied, taking a long sip of coffee. "Bella wasn't feelin' too good yesterday, mornin' sickness an' all, so Ah told her Ah'd rent us a couple o' movies an' we'd have us a girl's day while you boys were out an' about."

"Maybe I'll stop by an' see de deux o' y' later, den," Remy said, stretching his arms over his head as he yawned. He leaned over for a quick kiss, the taste of coffee lingering on his lips. "I better get cleaned up b'fo' Henri has himself a heart attack, oui?"

"Oui," Rogue agreed, running her fingers over the stubble on his chin. "Ya need a shave, swamp rat."

"Mebbe I'm t'inkin' o' growin' a beard," Remy snorted as he stood up.

"Maybe Ah'm thinkin' o' cuttin' mah hair," Rogue shot back with a smirk.

"Dat's jus' diabolique, chere," Remy said in mock disgust. "Y' know how much Remy loves dat long, gorgeous hair o' yo's."

"Mmm," his wife smiled, rising to her feet and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Ah guess ya hafta find a way t' convince me then, won' ya?"

"I don' t'ink dat's gon' be a problem, chere," Remy murmured huskily, tilting his head down to capture her lips in a long, slow kiss.

When Rogue broke away a few moments later, she was grinning wickedly. "Keep that in mind until later, sugah. Ya hafta get goin'."

And with that she disappeared out of the room, leaving Remy breathless.

"Merde," he sighed. "Dat femme's gon' be de death o' me."


Translations:

Moi- me
deux- two
hahn?- huh?
pourquoi?- why?
diabolique- evil
merde- shit