A/N: Hey-O! Guys. I seriously love your reviews but you can stop asking me if I'm quitting the story. I'm not quitting the story! In fact, I've got the ending laid out already, and we're approaching it. I'm gonna say maybe three to four more chapters from here, give or take.

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! :)

Remy's Diabolical Plan

Chapter Twenty Two: Two Diabolically Emotional Females Can Be A Good Thing

~X~

The sound of the ocean making it's way onto the shore and then back again never ceased to have a calming affect. A butterfly fluttered into Rogue's line of vision and she closed her eyes as it flew past, focusing on the sound of the water feet away. Focusing on that, and keeping her breathing under control was the only way she could do it. It was the only way she could manage to drown out the Aussie's voice next to her.

He was animatedly going over his plan to win back his 'lady love'. It was probably better that she listen so as to be prepared for the horrors that awaited her. But the sound of the ocean and the soft breeze were almost enough to lull her to sleep...

Pyro's voice suddenly cut through the fog in her mind. "An' then I figure when she thinks we've been boinking-" Rogue's eyes snapped open, "she'll be so jealous that she'll-"

"Kill me?"

The redhead's look of contemplation made her uneasy. "Eh'...she might wanna."

Normally this was something she would argue with. Pretending to date Pyro was bad enough, but pretending to date Pyro while also pretending to sleep with him, and possibly getting herself killed because of it was farther than she was normally willing to go.

But over the past few days, Rogue's outlook had changed. Before they had started this mission and started to live in the Professor's beach house, she and Remy had discussed how they could make this vacation of sorts last longer. She didn't want to leave the beach; Rogue had really come to love it here. What she really wanted was to distance herself from Remy. Her heart ached at the thought of it, but at this point it had become necessary. It hurt too much to be near him so much, all the time, in that one house.

At least when they were at home she could avoid him easily. Here, she was stuck. Which was why she was now determined to actually do her job and finish this mission. It was time to go home.

"Fine." She conceded. Pyro grinned. "But you have to do something for me."

"I've already done somethin' for you."

"Sure, but tellin' people that's we're 'boinking' as you so nicely put it," she rolled her eyes, "counts as an extra favor."

The wind whipped the hair out of his eyes. Crossing his arms, he set his sights on the butterfly. "Alright. What ya' want?"

Rogue sat up, brushing sand off her arms. Determined to get answers out of him, to get back home, green eyes settled onto him. "I want you to tell me why you're here, in this town, right now."

Honestly, she didn't expect him to answer her at all. But answer her he did, and without a care for discrepancy.

"Hired for a job, I was," he spoke casually, his eyes following the butterfly's every move.

She stared at him in disbelief. "What kind of job? Who hired you?"

"Eh..." he scratched the back of his head in thought. "Not sure o' the bloke's last name but his first is Adam."

Rogue visibly deflated. Adam. That was a very common name. Damn Pyro, if only he could remember his last name, she might have something. There were millions of Adams in the world. Really, how were they supposed to pinpoint one Adam who might or might not live in this little town...

Suddenly she remembered. There was an Adam that they knew. But she wouldn't remember that, not when she had her own nickname for him.

She gasped. "Jeepers Creepers!"

"Right." John nodded in understanding. "He is a frightening fella."

"No, I mean...never mind. What does he look like?"

John turned, his mouth open, giving her the impression that he was about to answer her. But then his eyes settled on something behind her and he froze. Then slowly, both corners of his mouth lifted upwards.

Her brow furrowing in question, she moved to turn and look, but a hand on her arm stopped her. "Don't look, love." His eyes lit up, and not in the crazed excited sort of way that she had become accustomed to seeing from him. This time they lit up in an entirely different way that she couldn't properly describe. "My girl's walkin' her dog."

Of course she was. John had chosen this spot on the beach because he knew that she walked her dog here every morning. At least that was what he had told Rogue a little while ago over the phone. The curiosity to turn around and look was overwhelming. But John had told her not to look, so while she still needed him to answer her questions she would listen to him. Even though she was really, really curious about who that woman was.

John giggled in delight. "She looks right mad!" Before she could blink he was an inch from her face. "An' from her angle, now she thinks we're kissing."

"Lovely." Odd how John being so close had zero affect on her. Her expression didn't change as he continued to giggle. "While we're here, do you think you could tell me what kind of job you were hired for?"

One shoulder lifted in answer. "Not sure why, but my employer's got it out for some fisherman."

"He's got it out for him but you don't know why?"

"Right."

"What's the fisherman's name?"

"Not sure. He was tellin' me once-"

"He?"

"Adam. He was tellin' me once but then there was this big seagull-"

"Oh my God."

"I know, it was really big."

This was most definitely the same fisherman. The random, screeching seagull was enough to confirm that. Scott was going to have a conniption when she told him all of this.

"John," she grabbed him by the collar but he didn't pay her any mind, instead he started peaking around her head. "You have to tell me what Adam is planning next."

Completely unconcerned by her tone, he pushed her hand aside and stood to his feet. "Nah, she's gone so the date's over." Waving goodbye to the butterfly, he started to sprint off.

"What-" Rogue scrambled to her feet and ran after him. "Wait, you jerk, I-"

Under the impression that she was playing some kind of game with him, the Australian laughed and laughed like this was good fun as he hopped into a bright orange car and sped off. And Rogue cursed and cursed under her breath as she contemplated the many ways to kill him. Growling in annoyance, she stomped off down the sidewalk.

"That looked fun." Remy fell into step beside her. "Why'd he run off like that?"

"He said the date was over." She rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you try to catch him? You said you were comin along to watch out for me."

"Yeah, you, meanin' I stay hidden and make sure nothin' happens to you." A little smirked made his mouth quirk. "Where are we goin'?"

"To get somethin' to drink. That buttmunch didn't even pack a picnic for our so-called picnic. Really, what kind of date was that?"

"A fake one?"

Rogue answered him with a glare. How dare he try to speak common sense to her when she was this annoyed. And really, how dare he oh-so-willingly come along and watch them from a distance so as to look out for her. At first she was thought it was sweet. Now it only served to grate at her nerves. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. And this only put Remy closer to her while all she wanted was to create some distance between them. But it wasn't like she could just tell him (or anyone else) that. That would cause suspicion. The last thing she wanted was their suspicions.

As they walked in silence down the sidewalk, her eyes cast him a sideways glance. She had never felt so trapped before. No matter what she did at this point, she was going to hurt. If she did nothing and continued to be his friend, she'd have to see him with Jessica and hear him talk about her. That would hurt. If she told him how she felt he would turn her down because he loved someone else. That would hurt. If she left and didn't see him again for a long time, she would hurt. But that at least was a hurt that she could deal with. They'd be separated and she'd know he was happy without having to see it. It was already planned out in her head. Rogue knew where she'd go, she knew what she'd do. The only thing she needed was the means to get there and she knew without a doubt that as soon as she asked Logan for help he wouldn't hesitate. Anyone would help her, but Logan would ask the least questions.

She would be gone and Remy...her eyes darted his way and then away again before he could notice. Remy would be happy. He would confess to Jessica, maybe get married, maybe go back to Louisiana to live, maybe have a couple babies. Her throat clenched tightly. Breathing slowly through her nose, Rogue forced herself not to cry. Crying now would only display her weakness and more than anything Rogue hated for anyone to see any weakness in her. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't, she wouldn't, she wouldn't...

The sound of shattering glass split through the air, accompanied by the screams of pedestrians and the sounds of running feet.

"Hey, you!"

"What?" she snapped, really, really not in mood. Getting the sense that the angry voice must be talking to her, Rogue turned to regard this person. Remy copied her movements, conspicuously slipping a hand into his back pocket.

Instantly Rogue knew that she knew this person, but couldn't quite place her right off. Black hair, red highlights, really baggy black shirt and red pants...Rogue definitely knew her, remembered seeing her, though she did look somehow different from the last time. Something was off about her appearance that Rogue couldn't figure out right away.

"Oh wait," Rogue paused, her eyes narrowing in thought. "I know you. You're uh...uh..."

"I don't think you know her." Remy smirked.

"Shut-up," she waved him off. "I do know her that's...uh..."

"The Scarlet Witch." Remy answered for her.

"Right." Rogue nodded. "And her name is...uh...um..."

"Wanda."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinkin'."

Remy halted in the process of pulling out his cards, turning to her, irritation evident in his expression. "No you weren't!"

Rogue growled. "Yes, I was, Gambit, now shut-up."

Remy poked her in the arm. "You shut-up!"

"Ow!" She touched a hand to her arm. "No," she jabbed a finger in his chest, "you shut-up!"

Remy poked her back. "No, you!"

Poke. "No, you!"

Poke. "No, you!"

"No-"

"Both of you SHUT UP!" Wanda roared, causing the windows of several parked cars to blow out, prompting all of their alarms to start blaring. Remy and Rogue half expected steam to shoot out of her ears, she looked so angry. With a casual wave of her hand, the cars flew hundreds of feet away and landed with an almighty splash in the ocean.

Both southerners stared.

"Maybe we should call for back-up." Rogue suggested.

Without responding Remy pulled his phone out of his pocket and started dialing.

"That won't be necessary." Another flick of Wanda's hand had the phone flying in the other direction. "I came to 'talk' to you." Her eyes found Rogue's.

That was weird. Rogue had no idea why Wanda, whom she couldn't really recall ever having a conversation with, wanted to talk to her. Or why she seemed to be mad at her. Or why Remy suddenly had a look of understanding. Rogue didn't have time to think over any of that, though. So instead she responded with the most intelligent answer she could think of at that moment. "Uh...ok."

"YOU!" Wanda yelled. "What do you want with him? In case you haven't noticed, he wants me, not you, and you're-" she looked lost for words for a moment, "-you're not even his type! I mean, I don't really know you, but I don't like you, and I know that you are not his type!"

"Um-"

"So stay away from him!" She pointed a threatening finger in Rogue's direction. "He's mine and you can't have him!"

Right then it all dawned on Rogue. Wanda attacking them, Wanda warning her off some guy, Wanda pointing right at them. It was all so clear. The cat was out of the bag! Wanda had spilled the beans. Everything had been brought to light! All was revealed! Everything was so OBVIOUS now!

Wanda wanted Remy.

Something inside of Rogue snapped. Her eyes going wide in rage, there was an aura of unequaled fury that even Remy felt as he slowly backed away. Every one of her muscles tensed. Her hands turned to fists at her side, her legs took on a wider stance, her body readying itself to attack.

"The hell he is!" Rogue exploded. "Back off BITCH, he's MINE!"

All reason ceased to exist in her mind at that moment. All she knew was that first Jessica was going to get him and now Wanda wanted him and she didn't have him at all. What was it with these women? What was it about Remy that made all the women want him? Had it always been like this? This thought only served to anger Rogue even more. Those other women needed to back off Remy too!

Wanda's temper was nearly a match for her own. Rogue could feel the weight of her wrath making the air heavy as the woman stepped closer. "He's only using you to get to me!" she snarled, tearing a phone out of her pocket and jabbing at buttons so hard that it was a wonder it didn't break in half. "Listen to this!"

Rogue threw her a dark look. "I don't wanna listen-"

"Ey' Wanda Love!" John's loud, accented voice coming out of the phone in Wanda's hand cut her off mid-sentence. Finally Rogue actually understood. Wanda attacking them, Wanda warning her off some guy, Wanda pointing right at them. John telling her that 'his' girl might want to kill Rogue. Wanda was the woman John was trying to make jealous. And she was the one stuck in the middle. And she, Rogue, had said something along the lines of: Back off he's mine.

Disgusted with herself, she face-palmed. As much as she would have liked to melt into the road beneath her, John's voice just kept talking, making everything worse.

"I've got a girlfriend!" And worse. "I hope yer not mad, but I feel I gotta tell ya, we've been, ya know, doing the dirty, the beast with two backs, that whole deal." And worse. "An' I just found out that's she's preggo." And somehow worse. "And we're getting' married." And so much worse. "Tomorrow." Even worse than that. "But I ain't sure if I'm the father, seein she kind of gets around." And to top it all off... "But she says I'm the best lay she's ever had so I said, what the hey? Let's get hitched. So, what do ya think? Will ya be my best man? Call me back."

As the message ended and Wanda crushed the phone in her hand, Rogue idly wondered if John really expected her to fake marry him tomorrow. No way in hell was that going to happen, no matter how much Scott might support the idea.

And so much for the, 'Your fights are my fights' comment from Remy. He was too busy doubled over laughing to jump to anyone's defense. But with a satisfied mental smile she ignored him. She would pay him back for laughing later.

"Alright fine." She pretended to concede. Part of her was hopeful. Maybe if she was able to convince Wanda that she didn't care one way or another about John, she wouldn't have to deal with the pyromaniac anymore. Obviously Wanda wanted him as much he wanted her..."Look, the truth is-" she was cut off by the sound of many approaching sirens.

It didn't appear to Rogue that Wanda actually wanted to leave. A look that was half annoyance and half panic crossed her face. She muttered something about, 'not going back there, they can't make me', before pointing that same threatening finger at Rogue again. "Meet me at Fat Bob's tomorrow at noon." Then she spun on the spot with a very impressive twirl of the cape that Rogue had just noticed and marched off.

Rogue turned to Remy with a look of disgust. "Are you done yet?"

"O' course." Remy smirked. "So, did you notice it?"

"Notice what?" She asked confusedly.

He stared. "You really didn't notice."

This was becoming annoying. "Notice what?"

"Wow. You really didn't notice."

"Remy!"

Sighing, he slung an arm around her neck and pulled her along as he led them away from the scene of Wanda's crime. "I'll tell you later."

~X~

It didn't matter how many times Wanda told herself to forget him. Nor how often she tried to deny having any sort of feelings for him. No matter what she did to get John out of her mind, or more importantly, her heart, it simply did not work. How had this even happened, anyway? How had she gotten to the point where John Allerdyce, of all the people in the world, was the one that mattered to her most? It made no sense. He was loud and boisterous and nauseatingly happy. She was always angry, hated talking to people so she was mostly quiet, and her heart didn't melt for anyone. At least not until John showed up. Hell, the only thing they had in common was that they were both certifiably insane.

"Ugh!" Frustrated with her own stupid, mushy thoughts, she punched the steering wheel in front of her. That was enough of the lovey dovey thoughts. She wasn't that girl and refused to become her. There was no way that she and John could be together. Why? At this point she was having a hard time remembering why, exactly, but she was certain that there was a reason why. Somewhere in her head there was a reason why. Somewhere...

A wet canine nose rubbed consolingly at the back of the hand on the steering wheel. Rolling to a stop at the red light she turned to regard the round brown eyes that stared up at her. She brought her hand up to scratch behind the dog's ears, unafraid to show affection to this man in her life.

"Ralphie, you're all I need. Am I right, or am I right?"

Maybe she was crazier than she thought. But Wanda could have sworn that the dog shook his head at her. She paused in scratching his ears in surprise, tilting her head in wonder at him.

"Did you seriously just answer-"

BEEEEEEEP!

Was the sound of a car horn blowing behind her. Casually she flipped the offending person the bird and proceeded to drive as slowly as she could across the intersection. Today was not the day to blow car horns at her. Normally she might consider blowing up all four of their tires but after her display earlier she was feeling drained and nervous. Blowing up like that was not something she had planned on. It had just happened. Seeing John with that girl had done something unpleasant to her brain and completely fried all of her reason and common sense.

Part of her knew that he was only doing it to mess with her. Of course he was. His ridiculous message on her phone was enough to confirm that. But even so, when she heard that, this silly little part of her brain placed herself in Rogue's shoes. She could see herself wearing a white dress and walking down an isle with John standing at the end of it. How nice it would be to be normal. Wouldn't it be fun, if she could let go of all her hate and all of her fears just for a little while and be happy? She had done it once, one night on the floor of a cabin in front of a warm fire.

The knuckles of both hands turned white as she gripped the steering wheel as hard as she could. More than anything she wanted that stupid Aussie. Without warning she braked and swerved into the parking lot of a fast foot restaurant. The angry driver behind her laid down on the horn the rest of the way down the road, yelling a few choice words at her as he went.

Moving into an empty parking space, she barely noticed it. Numbly her fingers fumbled around to shift the car into park. Only when it was safely turned off did she finally break down into tears.

The dog by her side knew the drill by now. Months of her raging hormones and mood swings were enough to prepare him for this moment. He nudged at her arm until he finally squeezed his way onto her lap where he then proceeded to stare at her. The weight of him on her legs was slightly comforting as she cried into her hands. If she had nothing else and loved nothing else in this world at least she had her dog.

There was a reason that she had decided that she couldn't be with John. Like any normal person, Wanda hated ever having to admit that she was wrong about anything. The reason she had pushed the pyromaniac out of her life in the first place was because she was certain that he only wanted her so that he could use her and then leave her—just as everyone before him had. He had said 'I love you', and she had run the other way, not because she hadn't felt something for him also, but because he had to be lying.

But then, everyday for seven months he had called her. She'd never answered, never even bothered to listen to the voice mails, so there wasn't any way for her to be sure of what he was saying or feeling at the time. And now here they were, months later and miles from home and he was (she was pretty sure) concocting some kind of scheme with one of the X-men in order to what? Make her jealous? Make her angry? Cause her so much grief that she lost it like she had earlier, harm innocent people, and end up in jail again? Wanda would be damned if she ended up locked up somewhere again. Unfortunately now she had just a caused a scene and it was imperative that she get out of this town now, before anyone could id her.

Or, it could be that, after all, he might have been telling the truth. The thought was unsettling to her. What was she supposed to do with that? Really, the question was, did she love him back.

Of course she did but that wasn't important.

The real concern here was whether or not she could trust him enough to not be like every other man in her life...

To be continued...