The long trip home

(The Landing Hanger; Xavier School)

The team was dressed and ready to go in exactly 15 minutes as ordered. Forge was under the hood of a newly repaired helicopter, singing along to 'Boogie Shoes' blaring from the old transistor radio, his face was covered with grease and complicated looking goggles. He smiled ear to ear in satisfaction at his handy work, for the first time in months every single vehicle, water craft, air craft, and blender engine in the school was running perfectly. He proudly thought of what the Professor would say once he returned home from Washington, not that he was holding his breath, he wouldn't be surprised if he didn't see him until the holidays.

"Forge, have you seen Gambit?" Scott looked around at his team. He was annoyed that Wolverine had kept his promise and had been hovering over every order he gave. Logan had been afraid that Scott was becoming overwhelmed with authority, and losing touch with his team. Scott refused to believe he had any problem at all, perhaps he came off a bit cold at times, but he felt it was worth it if the job got done. Logan's chaperoning was infuriating.

"Oh yeah. Took off about 15 minutes ago." Forge said wiping his hands with rag.

"What?!" Scott said, his annoyance gave way to anger. Gambit had openly defied his order, even though this seemed to be his personal issue, Scott saw it as an open threat to his team; that made it his business and being denied the chance to handle it was infuriating.

"He said you "was sendin' him on ahead" or, something equally as colloquial, and took the mini-jet. What's going on?" Forge asked flipping the dark lenses of his goggles up and turned down ' K.C. and the sunshine band'.

"I'm going to kill him…" Scott thought, but before he was able to regroup and give new orders Bobby's voice interrupted.

"Got another problem here, Scott!" Bobby said pointing to the smoking engine of the Blackbird.

"What now!" Scott said visibly angry. Forge sprinted to the Blackbird as he saw his precious jet beginning to smoke.

"Looks like he really didn't want us around on this one." Bobby said as he opened one of the Blackbird's engine flaps to reveal burnt and blown hardware. Bobby even retrieved a small corner of blackened playing card.

"What did he do to my bird?!" Forge yelled, and protectively hugged the plane's wheel.

"We take the helicopter then." Scott tried to put anger aside for the moment as he struggled to keep his team on schedule.

"What?! No way! I just got done with her!" Forge protested, he then ran over to the helicopter and outstretched his arms to block anyone from getting in to it. "She's too young! Too small!"

"Sorry Forge, we need to get down south now." Scott reasoned.

"He's right, Scott. The helicopter only fits four." Bobby said, "Going to have to cut your team down." Scott's patience continued to grow increasing thin as he named off his shrinking team.

"Fine, Bobby, Rogue, Kurt, and myself-"

"I'm jumpin' in. Kurt stays I go." Logan corrected him, he knew Scott was going to try to shake him and he wasn't going to, no matter how hard he tried. Scott's eyes immediately narrowed.

"Logan, again, I do not need a chaperon." Scott knew Wolverine was going to try to challenge him and try to take over his mission. At least, that's how he saw it.

"This ain't about what you think you need. Let's get going." Logan tried to be as concise and un-engaging as possible. He said he would watch over Scott's leadership, but this time he really wasn't trying to step on his toes. Wolverine knew Gambit had a history, and none of it was good. He couldn't imagine that the place where all that history happened could be anything less than dangerous. He was going to see to this one personally.

"I lead, I make the teams, Logan. Not you!" Scott demanded in the lowest tone possible, however, everyone knew what was happening. Not even Jean intervened, she knew if she did Scott would just feel as though everyone was ganging up on him. She prayed this was a temporary phase, that Scott's behavior was just growing pains to his new responsibilities but she feared it was lasting too long to be a temporary.

"Flap yer damn lip all you want kid. This is how it has to go!" Wolverine wasn't nearly as hopeful as Jean. He knew this fight was going to be difficult and ongoing. He made it his business to monitor and cut Scott down to size until he learned.

"I'm not a "kid" anymore-" Scott demanded, we would have willingly continued the argument if Rogue hadn't placed her fingers in her mouth to blow a high-pitched blast of a whistle.

"Will y'all just shut up!? Gambit's headin' inta god knows what and he's got a jump on us! Can we just move already?" Rogue demanded, they had to deal with enough without inter-team arguments. She would have taken the time to consider both sides of their arguments if she thought it was worth considering, but after the look in Gambit's eyes and seeing how hard he was working to keeping her out of New Orleans she just wanted to get there and understand what was going on.

"Fine…let's get into the air." Scott said, swallowing his pride and again accepting the fact that no one was following his orders. Wolverine was becoming an unrelenting pain in his side, and being disrespected in front of team was getting very old. It was a bitter send off as the team boarded the helicopter.

(~*~Translated from French~*~)

Remy tried to focus on keeping the jet level. He knew that the others wouldn't be far behind, and he had only flown a plane a handful of times. Every mile he put behind him in the direction of New Orleans made him sweat all the more. He had avoided that city for years and he had been back more in the last few months than he ever thought he would, the tension in his chest was painful. He felt like he could have a heart attack at any moment and not a second went by that he didn't think about turning the plane in any other direction and running away again. He could have went to the Bahamas, he knew people, he could sell the plane for fast cash and start running all over again; but he couldn't let the X-men pay for his actions. The threats the boy-Assassin had made against them were real, and though the X-men could probably handle themselves, this wasn't their problem. The X-men had only done right by him, and he would gladly risk his life for one X-man in particular. Rogue didn't need to see this ugly part of him and he intended to finally deal with this head on. The first step would be finding his father, to distract himself he tried to recount their last conversation.

(Six months ago...)

~*~"So, you going to tell me how this all happened?"~*~ Remy asked. This was the first time he had sat down with his father in over 4 years, occasionally he would hear from him trying to tell him to come back home; that it was safe for him to take over the family business alongside his father like he should. Remy cared for his father but he avoided speaking with him, he always wanted to ask if he knew of Belladonna's whereabouts and was terrified of the answer. He had no idea if she was alive or dead or perhaps she had just run away with the rest of the Assassins Guide, he didn't know and he avoided finding out the truth. The truth was never good, and for his own well being he felt that avoidance was his only and best safety mechanism against possibly the worst news of his life.

~*~"Is that all you're going to say to your father?~*~ Jean-Luc said. A proper visit with his son would not be complete without a proper guilt trip, he had been waiting for this day for a long time. He had waited years for his son to meet him face to face, it was sad that he had to be kidnapped for this reunion to happen, however, it came and he was grateful. ~*~"Get your ass over here."~*~ Jean-Luc ordered. Remy grudgingly walked over to his father and accepted his enthusiastic hug. Something Remy had to give his father credit for: he never had problems showing affection and there was no doubt in his mind that the affection was always genuine. There was also no doubt in his mind that his father needed him more than he needed his father. Jean-Luc needed his son alongside him to run the organized crime syndicate his family had built. He had sent his son away the day that the Assassins Guide were slaughtered and the Thieves Guide had taken power. He made sure that his son was safe and had sent him away for his own good. Once Jean-luc was sure he had cemented himself on top, he called his son to come home but Remy refused. At the time, it broke his father's heart, but he could not stay mad at him for very long, he knew he could wear his son down if he just had a chance to see him. However, the longer it took the angrier he became, not angry with Remy, but with the Assassins and especially that Assassin daughter! It was Jean-Luc's deep-set and instilled hatred that he had lived with his entire life, so he couldn't' necessarily understand his son's feelings. He came to accept that his son had developed feelings for the girl, but he foolishly underestimated her. To him, the girl was as useless as her Father, the now dead Assassins' leader, Marius Boudreax. Jean-Luc saw her as Marius's little princess, a pampered southern belle with more blonde curls on her head than she had brain cells. And he was convinced that it wasn't her brain cells that lured in his son. Jean-Luc was coming to realize that Remy was having difficulty facing her, dead or alive. After the slaughter of the Assassins, he let the girl live, not as an act of mercy, but rather as his own brand of personal punishment for the girl and her dead father. First, Jean-Luc had turned her into his pawn for fraternizing with his son, and then he transformed her childhood home into an isolated prison; he uncaringly thought the girl would die. He figured that she was weak and being surrounded with the rotting bodies of her dead family, she would blame herself and would most certainly commit suicide. He could picture it now, women like that were weak, she would hanging herself perhaps. Gently swaying back and forth from the crystal chandelier in their grand foyer, just above the red-brown bloodied floor, and blaming herself for everything. It would be a dramatic and fitting end to the Boudreax bloodline. Jean-Luc was sure his son would get over it, after all, a dead Assassin was something to celebrate, and there were plenty more girls in the world.

Remy groaned, ~*~"I'm happy to see you and I'm glad you safe." ~*~ Remy hadn't seen his father in a long while but he was already so sick of this, and it never changed. His father would always run him through a guilt trip and melt him with a little bit with some fatherly affection, then he would try to avoid talking about anything serious. And of course he would never apologized. Remy had picked up the same bad habit, he never apologized either, it felt so foreign to even consider it, but he was never taught how to.

~*~"Don't hurt yourself trying to be concerned."~*~ His father smiled that same grin that Remy, himself, subconsciously emulated. It was that Lebeau charm. Even though Gambit and his father were not blood related, they copied each others mannerisms as if they were twins. Jean-Luc LeBeau loved both of his sons equally but he identified most with Remy. His older son Henry was very different than everyone in the family, Henry was his own man, an intelligent serious type of man, whom lacked a sense of humor and was interested in global business. Henry was someone who was happy pulling strings behind the scenes to further the 'family business', rather than being out front like his father. That was almost the opposite of his father. Jean-Luc was more irresponsible, warm, cunning and always wanted to be the center of attention; he never turned down a chance for a good time and was seldom serious.

~*~"Father please I'm tired playing these games with you, just tell me what happened. How did this all happen? Are... are the assassins back?"~*~ Remy would never appreciate the irony, the frustrating and annoying reasons why he had trouble speaking with his father were the same problems that everybody had with him.

~*~"Hell no, this was just some fools to be trying to play Assassin, they are not real thing."~*~ Jean-Luc was clearly playing down the severity of the situation. This was very well-planned out this had all of the cunning and expertise of a professional job that Marius Boudreaux would have used to kidnap him. Only it was better in the sense that they were far more discreet than he ever remembered. They were smart and they had even effectively flushed out his son, which be believed was their intent all along. It went so smoothly, that for a moment, he thought Marius was back from the dead, but that was impossible, it must have been a fluke.

~*~"Real enough to get the drop on you"~*~ Remy observed, he was familiar with his father's tendency to play down any kind of mistakes he made. Remy, himself, he did the exact same thing, but he could not deny that his father looked shaken, but, as always, he was quick with an excuse.

~*~" Lucky break! I got comfortable, that was stupid of me but you were good to come for your old man." Jean-Luc said thoughtfully, but the truth was he was scared. He had appreciated that the Thieves had been running the City of New Orleans organized crime, unopposed, for over a decade now and he was not willing to relinquish the power without a fight, but he would need his son's help in order to keep it that way. He could feel the tides of power turning and he knew it was coming soon.

~*~"Don't see how I had much of a choice.~*~ Remy thought, ~*~" That was really damn lucky to not be something bigger."~*~ Remy knew his father too well to know this was just a line, but he so badly wanted to believe it. He tried to fight it but his mind immediately went to Belladonna. She had occupied his thoughts ever since he knew he had to go back to New Orleans. He didn't know if she was alive, dead or just waiting for him; it kept him up at night and it kept him on run.

~*~"It's being handled, and if you want to come and give your opinions you're going to have to come back permanently."~*~ Jean-Luc was taking this opportunity to bring his son back home. Undeniably, he missed and loved his son, but now he feared he would lose control of the city without him. He needed what is son would bring to the Guide, his mutant ability alone was a powerful asset, but most importantly, he knew he could trust his boy. He had trained his son to be a fantastic thief, whom surpassed his own skills by the time Remy was 14, the natural agility his mutation warranted him made him a master escape artist and his almost hypnotic-like charm gave him an incredible edge in the con-game. Proudly, Jean-Luc could say his boy was the best he had ever seen.

~*~" Please, do not start with this again father. I'm not coming back, there's no place for me here. And you know why."~*~ Remy assured him, and he decided to finally ask about Belladonna, he had been building up the courage to ask. Fear held him back, all the while, from when he got word that his father was missing, to when he knew that he would have to come home and then to right this moment his thoughts were of Bella. The only time he wasn't searching or thinking of Bella was when Rogue had his attention, that alone made it easy from him to promise Rogue that he would always look out for her. After this night he would find himself thinking of Rogue as often as he did Bella.

~*~"Going to need to sooner or later."~*~ The anger in Jean-Luc was boiling in the pit of his stomach, anger not for his son's response, but the hatred of Assassins. They were the reason his son wouldn't come back, and it was that girl! The Assassin daughter, he didn't and wouldn't try to understand his son's apprehension. It never occurred to him that it could be guilt, he had never taught his son guilt. Just like how Jean-Luc wouldn't feel guilt when he would fantasize about the weak little princess hanging herself from the crystal chandelier that hung in their grand foyer; in front of the white marble stairs with the polished black banisters, in her wedding dress. That's what women like her did, rather then give up her gilded and spoiled lifestyle, rather than face the blood soaked cage that was once her childhood home. It was the making of a perfect haunted ghost story. None of this, of course, would he share with his son

~*~" Yeah well we'll see about that." ~*~ Remy smiled, despite his exhaustion. ~*~"Ask! just open your damn mouth and ask!"~*~ Remy thought, he had never been so thankful of his ability to pull off an unwavering poker-face, as he screamed at himself inside his head to stop acting like a damn coward and inquire about Bella.

~*~"Stubborn just like me, it's okay though time will tell on that."~*~ His father's poker-face was just as good as his son's. He hid his fear, he hid his anger. Soon enough he would be out of patience for his son's return.

~*~"Father, something I've been meaning to ask you is... is Henry around I haven't seen him in a while?" Remy nearly asked about Belladonna and if she was alive, or if she had run away with the other surviving Assassins. If she had run away maybe she was happy, maybe she had made that life she had always wanted. He was too terrified of the answer, he just couldn't bring himself to ask the question. He was running away from the problem, running away from one of his biggest regrets and he hated how okay he was with that.

~*~" He's in Spain, but you know what I really want to know? Tell me something about that pretty white steak that pulled our asses out of the fire..."~*~