Chapter 4

(A/N: This chapter can be a bit heavy, read at your own discretion)

There was this awkward moment of silence before Rogue made a move and came back into the house. Her beautiful hair cascaded over her shoulder as her head hang low, Remy felt his heart squeeze a little harder at the scene. He knew her so well, he knew she felt shy. Anna Marie wasn't playing the role she was so used to, a role that usually got everyone fooled, everyone but Remy LeBeau. The super confident and determined Rogue, the usual smart mouth that she was, all that poise and sass, all of it was gone. She was still feeling embarrassed at the situation, being there, uninvited, not knowing why exactly she was there or what she wanted to accomplish. Try as she might, she couldn't hide the discomfiture, even if her life depended on it.

As she walked past him and her shadow crossed his, her heart beat faster, and her breathing quickened. There was this unexplainable knot strangling her throat, she looked up for a second and their eyes met for a brief moment. She even felt foolish and ashamed as a child caught playing with fire. Her cheeks burned fiercely. Rogue could feel the weight of his stare when he came closer and then, to her utmost surprise, he narrowed their distance. He reached out with his fingers, and they delicately brushed hers. That was their unique way of communication, his way of declaring a truce to their silly love wars. Finally, his hands came up and he delicately touched her face, his knuckles gently brushing her cheeks. Rogue closed her eyes at the marvelous splendor of his touch, savoring every bit of his token of affection.

"Sorry," he whispered softly. "I didn't mean to sound so harsh before, I appreciate that you cared enough to follow me here," he added.

She didn't say a word in reply, words were unnecessary at that point and she feared the words would choke in her throat. Besides, those pink cheeks of hers told the whole story anyway. She had a kind of blushing that showed her soul, a sort of compliment to his eyes. It was a delicate sweetness that was usually well hidden within. It showed a connection, the little smile that eventually adorned her lips was proof. She cherished and loved that man in front of her. That unexpected shyness came from some deep emotion, and he knew it. Remy LeBeau understood that was a beautiful thing they had for each other, whatever it was that they felt. No matter how complicated things could get between the two, no words could ever explain how intensely they loved each other. Their friends would never be able to make sense of it, but the two of them could. Sometimes they were madly in love, sometimes they hated each other, wanted to knock some sense to the other's head, but if either of them was in any sort of need, the other was there. If there was a constant in their crazy lives, the reliability of their friendship was it.

Maria was mesmerized by the two afraid and unwilling lovebirds. She watched their interaction in awe. It was obvious none of them wanted to love the other as helplessly as they did. Being free and unattached in their line of business was much more than convenient, it was a necessity. Having no emotional attachment and dependency could surely make their lives much simpler. However, those two were in it so deeply, that there was no escaping that reality. They made their best attempt at denial, but it was a lost battle. Deep inside they both were very aware of the fact they loved each other, despite Rogue's foolish attempts to dismiss her feelings.

"So, I have to go now," he said to both women, but his eyes were still glued to Rogue's. "I gotta take Stephanie to someone that can care for her." Maria shot him a startled glance and he offered the explanation she didn't need to request. "I wasn't any luckier than you, Maria. She flat out refused to go to the hospital, to seek the police. But I have my tricks, you see. Let's just say that thieves don't see a doctor who can report them either, so..."

"Your friend here had told me I could help. I want to go with you. Maybe I could comfort the lady.."

"You stay here, my dear. I'll tell you Steph's story and when Remy is back, and the urgent matter of her health will have already been dealt with, then we'll talk, the three of us, and discuss our plan."

Remy watched the older lady with guarded curiosity, he couldn't help the smirk that spread on his lips while Rogue wasn't looking. They had no plan. What was Maria talking about? Before he could ask and delay his departure even longer, Maria urged him to hurry, and take the poor lady upstairs to a medical provider who could help. He did as he was told. When he climbed down the stairs accompanied by Stephanie, Rogue watched the woman, who would have been beautiful was she not disfigured. She felt truly sorry for her. When her injuries could be seen, Rogue had to try her best not to wince at the vision of the battered woman. What kind of bastard could do something like that to a woman who had his children?

As soon as the two were out of the house, Maria sat Rogue down for a friendly chat. She was a professional social worker and a very good one at that. She knew just how to ease her way into a conversation, touching smaller subjects until she finally reached the points she really wanted to discuss.

"So, you and Remy, you guys go way back, right?"

"Yeah, we do. About that," she paused. "What was that thing you said about me being the only woman who would make him walk down the aisle?" Rogue asked curiously, feeling comfortable to do so after half an hour of small talk with that lady who sounded so wholeheartedly genuine and reasonable.

"He told me so himself. I asked him if he didn't have a significant other in his life. You know, he is a gorgeous man, generous, kind, saving damsels in distress and fellow mutants, but always showed a certain hint of sadness. I always thought he looked so lonely, his eyes impregnated with deep longing. I was curious, I knew there had to be someone he just wouldn't tell me about. As it turns out that someone was you."

Maria's soft voice laid out the truth so simply, that it didn't even hurt to hear it. Even so, Rogue let out a nervous little laugh, and looked away, she tucked her hair behind both ears, suddenly not knowing what to do with her hands.

"Well, what can I say? Remy and I, we... we are complicated," she tried, but couldn't really elaborate a better answer.

"Same thing he said," Maria offered with a smile, making Rogue smile back at her. "Which brings me to why I said we could use your help."

All of a sudden, Maria was serious and meaning business, catching Rogue a little off guard. Rogue wanted to have asked her more about Remy, how he and Maria met, and why he was working with her, but Maria went straight to the matter at hand.

"You see, Stephanie has always been the kind of victim that blames herself, that finds excuses for her abuser of a husband, but this time around, she confided in things she never did before."

Rogue watched her intently, while Maria started to open up about Stephanie's darkest secret. To begin with, her real name was not Stephanie, she was Carla and she had been trafficked into the United States. Her marriage was a scam, but she didn't know about it until it was too late. Her husband was a member of a secret men-only club who had a fetish for helpless Latina women that they can use as they please. All sordid sex games were on and consent was not necessary. They knew just how to break their prey, they were not reluctant to spend years in the pursuit of their ultimate victim, building insecurities and fear. When they were done with their goal, they were all holders of the ultimate convincing tool.

There was a whole scheme in place. The more Rogue heard about it, the more terrorized and nauseated she felt. According to what Stephanie, aka Carla, shared, and also from other sources Maria had, these men preyed on young inexperienced girls from Latin America. They found them on social media, befriended them, and took their relationship to the next level by pretending to be their long-distance boyfriends. They made undying love promises and sold ideals of the American dream, big houses, a bright future, and nice family life. They made their naive unsuspecting victims fall for them, even going as far as to visit them in their home countries, meet the families, and gain their trust.

After that step, their plan was well set in motion. Just when the ladies came over to the US to be with them, they would get married. The women would be able to sort immigration documents via wedding, getting their green cards. These men also made sure their wives would have their babies as soon as possible and once that happened, their dreamy crystal palace would shatter into pieces and the poor deluded women would be trapped in more ways than one. That's when the nightmare began. They threatened them, using the prospect of making them lose their immigration legal status and when that alone wasn't enough to break them, ultimately even their children would be used. The fear of a mother losing a child was the main trump card they would play.

If they were to escape, they would never be allowed out of the country with their American children, and no travel authorization from their fathers. It would constitute kidnapping, punishable by international laws.

The girls' profiles were carefully hand-picked, they all came from a family-oriented background. Those were to be the kind of mothers who would never, under no circumstances, decide to leave their children behind. No matter how ugly things would get. And ugly things did get.

Once they reached the stage when the husband had full control of their wives, they started taking them to sex parties where they were subjected to all kinds of humiliation and games. They would be having sex with people watching, then, depending on the husband's preferences, they would also be handed over to other men. Any attempt to refuse to comply would guarantee a session of spanking, the non-sexy kind. Just being brutally hit either in private or publicly. Violent slapping or punching was not uncommon in front of the kids either, if the woman tried to humiliate her husband by saying 'no" in front of other men in their infamous sex parties.

Lately, things got much worse for Carla since her husband started handing her over to other men, which went against her morals and beliefs. That night she had refused to have sex with a stranger in front of her husband. She ended up getting punched in the face and gang-raped by three men while her husband watched gladly. That's what she could never bring herself to tell Remy and the reason why she was so desperate to leave that situation that just jumped out of the car on the way home and ran for her life. She sought help from Maria and ended up leaving her kids behind.

By the time Maria finished telling Remy LeBeau's love flame the horrific tale, the young woman had to excuse herself and hurry to the bathroom. Once alone, she broke down to her knees and vomited into the toilet bowl until there was nothing else to come up. Tears ran down her face uncontrollably while memories of her time in Genosha flooded her mind. She relived her ordeal when she was powerless and the guards had a good feel of her breasts, fiddling with them, laughing at her as she cried in despair. While two of them held her, the others would take turns pinching and even biting at her rosy nipples. And that was their sordid game, they could have taken her virginity that day, but for some miracle, they didn't. She got to keep it and lose it with the man she loved in a cave in Antarctica. Still, knowing what it felt like losing the right to her own body, she could very well imagine the continuous pain that lady who left with Remy was immersed in. How does one bounce back from something like that?

A timid knock on the door woke her up from that trance.

"Rogue, are you okay?" The lady's amazingly sweet voice could be heard. She had a well-practiced talent for soothing people scarred by abuse and neglect, people like Carla, Remy, and Rogue.

Noticing the sobbing had subsided when she called out to the pretty lady, she pressed on the matter.

"Rogue, my dear, do you want me to give you time alone, or would you prefer to come out and let me explain how you and Remy can help?"

Maria frequently used that technique, offering people a simple choice to make, and in many cases, giving them back their right to choose usually had a positive outcome. Soon, Rogue was outside the bathroom, her face was washed, and the makeup she had been wearing was mostly gone, revealing an even prettier and fresher face. Even her puffy eyes from crying didn't steal much of the splendor of her bright green eyes.

"What can we do, sugar? How can we help? I swear to God, if I see the man who did this to her, I could end his life and feel no remorse."

It was not like Rogue to lay out death threats, killing was not an X-Men thing. It was frowned upon. But a special rage consumed her, she never wished she could kill someone like that. Maybe because it took her years to heal from the Genosha incident, she made herself believe she had forgiven her abusers and moved on, but the hard cold truth was, she never did. She thanked the stars above for having someone like Remy, patient and loving who had been able to show her how real physical loving could be, otherwise, she would have stayed a virgin for reasons other than her powers, because of trauma.

"I've been doing my research ever since she came here tonight and baffled me with her whole story. Her husband is used to hitting her and making her have sexual intercourse with him in front of his friends. Whenever I or Remy helped her in the past, she would never tell us this much. In the end, she would even defend him, saying it was just a phase, that he was a good man deep inside, and went back to him. I believe that's why she gave us a fake name, not to be traced. And of course, we don't ask questions here, nor do we judge, we help. But what happened tonight tipped her over the edge and she finally decided to share her ordeal. I guess she finally realized enough was enough."

At the mention of Carla's latest misfortune, Rogue's eyes welled with tears again but she didn't allow them to fall. Maria noticed and patted Rogue in the arm gently, and continued.

"We need proof. For years, I've known the system. For a conviction to happen, for that man to lose all rights to his children and set Carla truly free, we need that man in jail. We need proof of his questionable character so he will lose his parental rights. We need him arrested."

"Or dead," Rogue said before she could stop herself. "I mean, preferably in jail. Gosh, what was I thinking?" She corrected herself.

Maria went on to explain how a parent can lose their parental rights after being convicted of certain felonies, like a sexual abuse scheme in which he currently had an active role. Also, if a parent commits a crime of violence against their child or another family member, the court has the option to remove their rights and terminate the child-parent relationship.

"And that's what we want! But wait a minute, the termination of parental rights, is that something that could be undone easily?"

"Most states don't allow reinstatement of parental rights once they've been terminated. I have some dedicated lawyers, keen to help on the cause, who worked pro-bono for us before. Now we have to make sure we get a good case and get this man convicted."

"Such conviction could open a precedent, make others aware of what is happening, and hopefully stop these criminals from doing that to other women," Rogue said enthusiastically.

"Hopefully, yes. We would have to expose their whole modus operandi and that's where you and Remy come in."

Rogue stared at her wide-eyed, she was very well suspecting what the social worker turned hero was going to suggest. There was no reason to fear humans with the power she possessed, not their guns, not their hands, but confronting her past demons would hurt, she knew it.

"So, you would want us to..."

"Infiltrate, yes."

Just as she said the words as if on cue, Remy LeBeau came in through the door. He was carrying Carla in his arms who was seemingly asleep. Her wavy brown hair rained down Remy's forearms while he cradled her head carefully.

"She had to have some tranquilizers to be able to rest. She begged for it, we couldn't deny it. Better deal with the trauma tomorrow after her body had the chance to recover for a night. I'll put her up upstairs," he spoke softly, avoiding to wake Carla up.

Maria simply nodded at him. Still shocked at all that she had learned during his absence, Rogue remained immobile, eyes somewhat vacant, staring blankly at him. His eyes met hers momentarily and he instantly knew something was off. He trusted Maria not to share his secret with his ex-girl, that was not it, it was something else. Besides, she didn't look at him as if she pitied him. That was a good indication his secret remained safe. Rogue sighed heavily, her unwavering stare begging him for something he didn't know what could be. When he finally joined the two of them downstairs again, he was met by concerned looks.

"What is it, chére? You look off."

"Remy, there's something you need to know and something we have to do, together."

"Of course, chére. For you, anything," He replied charmingly.

Remy LeBeau was in for a long night.