X4: The Queen Of Hearts

Disclaimer: X-men is owned by Marvel Comics and 20th Century Fox. I do not own X-men, nor am I making a profit from this work of fan-fiction. So don't sue me! Not that you'd get a whole lot from me anyway ;)

A/N: Hey guys, back with the next one, thanks for the reviews.

To DrunkenScotsman: LOL, thanks for the catch – it is indeed supposed to be Jane and not Diane – I’ll have to change that. And yeah, Dust is a great character in the comics and I hope I do her justice here.

To Anonelbe: No prob, I know how that is when I think about reviewing stories and then see other people already said what I wanted to say. Glad you like the story, and yes, the Cure does offer potential for them, although whether they take that route or another will be seen. ;) Yeah, I felt it was better to build up their relationship before things really got very intimate, but believe me, they will slowly but surely in the coming chapters.

To Scorpia: Thanks! Glad you’d liking it!

Could be a week or two for the third chapter, with thanksgiving coming up. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Rescue

Remy sipped slowly at the hot coffee he had just poured, trying to knock the sleepiness from his head as he walked over to one of the tables in the hotel breakfast area.

He sat down in front of his plate, complete with bacon and a warm bagel, and inclined his head toward the woman across the table. “Carol.” He greeted, yawning slightly. “Rogue restin’?”

Carol nodded, very used to his ability to tell between which of the two of them was in control of Rogue’s body, by merely a glance. “I think you’re a bad influence on her, with this aversion to waking up before nine in the morning,” she said with a wink.

Remy smiled slightly, glancing over to the countertop on which the complimentary breakfast was set up, where Sarah was loading up her plate with pancakes. She not looking nearly as tired as the rest of the group that had taken open tables scattered around the room.

“Maybe, but I think it’s jus’ all de work,” he said. “Still more to do today, hope a few hours of sleep will keep ev’ryone goin’.”

Carol took a sip of orange juice. “Yeah. I think we got to the worst of it yesterday, though.”

Sarah joined them moments later, and both he and Carol looked amusedly at her towering pile of pancakes – soaked in maple syrup.

“Sure you got enough dere, petite?” Remy asked.

Sarah grinned, and dug into the pile with her fork. “Yep!” She said, shoving a forkful in her mouth.

“How’re you feeling, Sarah? You look full of energy this morning.” Carol said.

Sarah’s eyes snapped up to her, and she looked at her for a moment, calculatingly. “Carol?” She asked rhetorically, although she received a nod from Carol. “I’m okay. I slept last night in the van when you guys were workin’ really late. It’s been kinda boring. I wish I had some sort of powers that could help,” she said, the tone of her voice somewhat disappointed.

“Hey, you’ve been helpin’ a lot, petite.” Remy said gently. “Jus’ cuz you ain’ been usin’ your powers to do it doesn’ mean you haven’ been helpin’. You’ve been talkin’ to all de kids, keepin’ dem calm for us until de paramedics can take a look at dem, or until we find de rest of their families.”

Carol smiled at her. “Not everything’s about how much you can use your powers, hun. I used to have all the powers Rogue has now, but my dad used a collar to shut them down. I could have been out there helping people, doing things with my powers, but by dad made it so that I couldn’t. That doesn’t mean I couldn’t still help people out – I loved volunteering in soup kitchens. I could feed people, even if I couldn’t stop bullets for them.”

Sarah’s eyebrows furrowed as she continued to eat, and then she finally looked up. “Guess you’re right. Just sometimes I feel like I’m not doing anything, while all you guys are.”

Remy reached over and ruffled her hair up, earning him an indignant look. “I know, petite, jus’ remember what I said, when you feel like that.”

Lorna, who’d been sitting at a table with Annie and Carter, had stood up and made her way over to their table. “Morning,” she greeted them. “Ready for another fun day of clearing out debris?”

Remy rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Once we’re done eatin’ we’ll head out. You get a hold of Warren?”

Lorna shook her head. “Nope, just that short talk yesterday, and I’m not even sure how much of it he caught. I talked to one of the recovery workers a little while ago, but he couldn’t say when they’d be able to get coverage back up, and the stuff they do have is getting overwhelmed by everyone calling into and out of the area. Most of the land lines are down too.”

Remy nodded slightly. “Well, not much we can do ‘bout that other den help out here, an’ den head back to de mansion.”

Lorna nodded. “I know.” She smiled then. “I was watching the news before you guys came down for breakfast – we’re on it. They had a few clips of us working on that one office building, and mentioned what we said in the interview. There’s a few other individual mutants out and helping, I guess, but we were the talk of the morning news show on the channel that was on.”

“Well, I’m sure Warren’ll be happy,” Remy said, looking knowingly at Lorna, who blushed slightly.

“Hey, don’t start,” she said, rolling her eyes, “or I’ll make it my mission to tease the two of you the rest of the summer,” she said, inclining her head at Remy and Carol/Rogue.

“Anyway,” she continued, “most of us are done and headed up to get ready. When you head up, can you make sure the Cuckoos come up when you do?” Lorna asked.

Lorna had, over the course of the summer given the Mindee and her sisters that nickname. The girls, after watching Village of the Damned with Lorna, rather enjoyed the nickname and thought it suited the trio, and took to using it themselves.

Remy nodded. “Oui, I’ll get dem going when we’re done,” he said, eyeing the speed that Sarah was eating her pancakes and estimating it wouldn’t be very long before they would go to get ready for the day themselves.

***********************************************************************

Rogue blinked rapidly as she stretched, trying to clear wake herself up all the way. She glanced around, and realize she was in her mindscape, and remembered giving control over to Carol before slipping into a deep sleep after well over 18 hours straight of rescue efforts.

She decided to give Carol more time in her body – she knew the girl needed it, needed time out of her mind to keep from getting restless. Rogue tried to do it as often as possible for her: although Carol had let herself be absorbed purposefully, Rogue still felt stabs of guilt when she was reminded that Carol would be forever trapped in her mind. She didn’t know how she’d handle that if it had happened to her.

Rogue shook her head and then glanced around the forest that made up her mindscape. The trees were well on their way to recovering from the blasting that Jean’s dark psyche had done months before, and the bramble-pile of psyches – although grown since placed in a clearing – was still well maintained by Carol and herself.

She’d already felt the improvements over the summer. While she hadn’t been able to stop her pull any longer than the minute or so she had when she’d started working with Remy, she had been able to slow down the rate of absorption, making it possible for just over two minutes of contact before she’d drained him enough to make him pull back.

And with his work on pulling his energy back through their lips that he’d shown her months before, they’d been able to be more intimate than she’d ever dreamed since the day her powers had emerged. Sure, it was basically just passionate kissing and little more, but it was something she’d never have believed would be possible before he’d entered her life.

Until she gained control, she knew it wouldn’t be more than that, but that didn’t keep the thought of more than that from her dreams, or times when her imagination ran wild…..

She blushed slightly. These days they were getting even more vivid, she thought to herself, and it was becoming a bit frustrating. She strolled slowly through the forest of her mind, her hands running absently along the trees as she thought.

She hissed out a curse when pain stabbed through her hand. She looked down and frowned when she saw a long, thorny vine beginning to grow up one of the trunks. She rubbed her finger across the scratch one of the thorns had caused on the back of her hand. The vine itself was the same color as the trunk, and blended in rather well. Had she not been touching the trunks, she’d likely never have noticed it.

She let her eyes run across the trunks nearby, making sure none of them had similar growths, and then she stooped down, grasping the vine near the base where there were few thorns. Every once in a while she or Lorna would catch these trying to grow – small bits of psyches or memories from people she’d absorbed. Often-times new arrivals, but occasionally hardy survivors of the Phoenix’s firestorm across the mindscape.

She bit back a cry as a thorn she’d not seen pierced the palm of her hand, and she tightened her grip, yanking the vine out by the roots to take over to the mound of psyches and memories.

As the thorn entered the skin of her palm, she felt herself fall into the fragment: it was definitely a memory, not a psyche. She found herself in someone’s body, in a room – a bar? - With cigarette smoke hanging in the air in front of her.

When she looked down, she recognized the hands of the person – Remy. They were clenched into near-fists, wrinkling a large picture that they tightly gripped. The vision focused enough for her to see what the picture showed: a beautiful blond-haired woman wearing absolutely nothing, in a rather compromising position with a handsome, equally naked man.

As the memory came fully into focus she felt rage and betrayal and sadness wash over her in an overwhelming wave. Rogue gasped, and let go of the vine, breaking out of the memory. She breathed heavily, trying to bring herself back to reality, and remind herself it wasn’t her memory.

She carefully picked up the vine – not wanting to experience it again – and carried it over to throw it with the others while she thought about what she’d seen, and more importantly what she’d felt.

She’d had an idea of how he’d felt after finding out about the events in the pictures, but now she’d felt it herself.

Her hands trembled slightly. She knew exactly who the girl in the picture was, as she’d been rather surprised to find out earlier in the summer. Her eyes closed as she recalled that evening.

***

Rogue looked up from her laptop, which rested in front of her on the bed, when Remy knocked softly and pushed the slightly-open door inward, entering the room. She smiled. “Hey, Sugah.”

A small smile flickered across his face. “Chére. Can we talk?”

Rogue nodded, and closed the screen on her laptop before moving it to her right side, and then she patted the bed next to her, and Remy slowly moved over and sank down onto the mattress.

“Ah was hopin’ you would, Remy. Ah was startin’ to think Ah’d have to tie yah down an’ drag it outta yah,” she said, smiling as she poked his arm.

She’d noticed he’d been rather out of it for most of the day – every time she saw him he seemed to be distracted by something, much like he’d been after the Sabretooth simulation in the Danger Room. Even now his face was tense, expression guarded – even when she’d phrased her comment to leave it wide open for him to tease her about it.

“Yah havin’ nightmares ‘bout the Purifiers again?” She asked, carefully watching his reaction.

Remy shook his head. “Non, dreams aren’ too bad after we talked,” he said.

A week after they’d rescued him from the Purifier base, he’d been having trouble sleeping every night without waking up from nightmares about his time there – the worst were when he was a viewer, and not a participant, of the dream, forced to watch Rogue tortured in his place. He’d finally taken Xavier’s advice and talked about his time there with Rogue, and that had helped greatly with the dreams.

“Then what is it? Yah’ve barely said a word all day. Sarah’s worried about yah, an’ so am Ah.”

Remy looked over to her, and she saw the same tortured look in his eyes she’d seen several times before: when he’d told her about the tunnels, and later about Genevieve and Sabretooth, and recently the horrors he’d experienced in captivity with Maldrone.

She reached out and grasped his free hand firmly in her own. “No secrets.”

Remy nodded. “I know, Rogue,” he said and then sighed. “Sorry I been so out of it. It’s jus’….. t’day woulda been my fourth anniversary with…..” He stopped for a moment.

She squeezed his hand, and his other reached up and rubbed at his forehead. “Chére, dis is ‘bout de only big thing I ain’ told you yet, ‘bout my past. Everythin’ else is cake compared to dis…… Four years ago, ‘bout dis time of de day, I woulda been getting’ married.”

Rogue’s jaw dropped, and she looked at him incredulously. “Married? Yah……You’re married?”

His empathy picked up the spike of tense jealousy that coursed through her as she asked that, and he shook his head quickly. “Non, non, not anymore, Chére. Jus’…… let me tell you ‘bout it…. It’s hard for me.”

Rogue’s eyes widened in understanding. “Th’girl that broke y’heart…. It was her?”

Remy nodded. “Her name was Belladonna Boudreaux.”

“Pretty name,” Rogue said softly.

Remy grimaced. “Yeah. Also another name for nightshade – pretty flowers an’ berries, but deadly an’ poisonous. Dat’s what it always was like wit’ her.”

“She was beautiful, an’ I think I fell in love wit’ her de moment I saw her. We were jus’ kids den, didn’ really know what dat was. Bella was de daughter of Marius Boudreaux, de head of de Assassins’ Guild. Dere’s a bunch of criminal guilds in N’awlins – Forgers’ Guild, Smugglers’ Guild, dat sort of thing – de politics of it all is really twisted an’ complicated. The N’awlins Guilds are some of de oldest criminal organizations in de country – dey were born right along wit’ de city in de 1700s.”

“But de two biggest are de Assassins’ Guild an’ de Thieves’ Guild. Dere’s always been fightin’ between the two, backstabbing, even all out wars. Marius an’ my pére – de heads of both guilds – saw a chance at uniting de two, stoppin’ all de fighting: Bella an’ me getting’ married.” Remy shrugged. “I certainly wasn’ gonna complain.”

“So we got married, at St. Joseph’s – biggest Catholic Church in N’awlins. It was a great ceremony, an’ it was de same church my pére got married at, an’ his pére got married at. All our friends were dere, though dat pretty much meant de Assassins’ Guild an’ de Thieves’ Guild: we didn’ associate much wit’ people outside de Guilds.”

Remy shook his head. “Den Julien had to show up. Julien was Bella’s brother. He’d always hated my guts – didn’ even come to de ceremony or de reception, didn’ want to see his sister marry me. He showed up de next day – I was at a meetin’ with Marius an’ some of de other Assassins, tryin’ to hammer out de details of de peace treaty dat was put in place wit’ de marriage.”

Remy‘s free hand tightened into a fist, and the other gripped hers tighter. “He challenged me to a ‘Duel’. It was an old tradition, from back when de guilds started out, when N’awlins was founded. Anyone could challenge another person to a Duel of Honor, an’ they’d have to accept, or be expelled in disgrace. He challenged dat since I wasn’ Jean Luc’s blood, I didn’ have de right to marry Bella. De fights go on ‘till one can’t stand, an’ den de winner gets his way.”

Remy sighed. “Julien was a maniac – I know he was tryin’ to kill me. He didn’ care if it got him expelled, ‘long as I was gone. I defended m’self, held my own, but de Assassins got some damn good trainin’. Finally I had t’use my powers, blow up a chair between us, t’keep him back. He’d pulled a knife, an’ I had nothin’, so I set it to blow….”

Remy looked over to her, grasping her hand even more tightly. “Didn’ mean to kill him. It was a freak accident – one of de legs of de chair splintered an’ went through his chest.” Remy shook his head. “I was pretty shaken up over it – first time I’d killed someone.”

He smiled grimly. “Of course, Julien got his way. Killin’ in a Duel of Honor is forbidden, an’ grounds for expulsion – grounds for war if it was between two Guilds. Marius tol’ me dat if I left an’ never came back, he’d let de Peace Accord stand. I’m never allowed back in N’awlins.”

Rogue leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Oh, Remy. But… that wasn’ Bella’s fault, it was her brother’s……”

Remy smiled slightly and placed a finger to her lips. “I’m gettin’ dere. So, I was given de rest of de day to say my goodbyes, pack my bags, an’ leave. I went home first, tol’ Jean Luc an’ Henri, an’ Tante what had happened, dat I was gonna find someplace to live, away from de Guilds. Den I found Bella, an’ we said our goodbyes. For de Accord to work she’d have to stay. It was… hard, leavin’ her.”

“Found out later, by chance, dat she was cheatin’ on me before de weddin’. Havin’ one night stands. An’ still doin’ it after I left. I… dat hurt so much.

Rogue smiled sadly. “Ah understand, Sugah. Y’really loved her, didn’t yah?”

Remy nodded. “Findin’ out about it…. Tore out my heart. I threw away my ring. Never been back, never seen her again. My pére took care of de divorce, stood in for me, even though that ended de Peace Accord.”

“Thought she was de one. I gave everythin’ to her. Since den, I’ve never loved someone like dat again.”

“Until you,” Remy said, smiling slightly as he reached up to stroke Rogue’s cheek with his fingertips. “Dat’s why it took me so long to say it. You reminded me of her, ‘specially the way you made me feel. Y’were beautiful, funny, spoke y’mind, just like her, but I realized you don’ have dat dark, poisonous side Bella had.”

He glanced down at where her white-gloved hands were gripping his own hand. “This day still gets t’me though, so dat’s why I’ve been so moody t’day. Sorry, you don’ deserve dat.”

Rogue smiled sweetly and moved closer, wrapping her arms around him. “It’s alright, Sugah. We were just worried ‘bout yah.” She shook her head slightly and chuckled. “So, married. Wasn’t expectin’ to hear that. So that’s your last deep dark secret? Or yah got more?” She asked, kissing his neck softly.

Remy sighed. “Yeah. Dat’s about it. Jus’ a messed up life ‘till I met you an’ Sarah. Sorry I didn’ tell you ‘bout de whole bein’ married thing before….. it’s just, a bit to drop on you, an’ hard to talk ‘bout for me.”

“Ah understand,” Rogue said. “But yah have a new life now. Yah aren’t made up of bad things from y’past – you’re your own person – the one Ah fell in love with. Yah know it doesn’ do yah any good tearin’ y’self up over things yah can’t change.”

Remy moved his hands to cup her cheeks. “What would I do without you, Chére?”

Rogue smirked. “Yah’d just be mopin’ around all the time. Probably climb up on someone’s roof an’ sit there for awhile.” She said, her eyes twinkling. “But Ah think th’ far more important question, Mr. LeBeau, is: now that yah’ve got me, what’re yah gonna do with me?”

Remy chuckled, and pulled her closer, his lips hovering over hers. “You’re right, Chére. Dat’s certainly de best question. Guess I’ll jus’ have to show you,” he said, and slowly pressed her down on her back as he slid a hand into her hair and kissed her.

***

Now, feeling what he’d felt, it was a wonder he’d ever trusted someone else, but she wasn’t going to complain that he’d chosen her. She moved away from the pile of psyches and memories, and spent another few minutes searching to make sure there weren’t any more hidden ones.

She stopped as she felt Carol connect with her subconscious again, and appear in front of her.

“Hey,” Carol said with a smile, “Thought I felt you thinking up a storm in here.”

Her expression changed to one of concern when she saw Rogue’s bloody palm. “You alright?

“Hm?” Rogue said. “Oh, this. Yeah, Ah’m fine, just found a memory tryin’ to grow, and it put up a bit of a fight when Ah yanked it up.”

Carol nodded. “Well, we’re in the van and we just got to the rescue center, and I figured I’d let you take over – you get to do all the hard work,” she said grinning.

Rogue smiled slightly. “Yah sure yah don’ wanna keep goin’?”

Carol nodded again. “Yeah. Besides, Remy’s gettin’ a little grumpy – I think he misses his Roguey.” She said with a wink.

Rogue rolled her eyes. “Not you too! Bad enough with Remy an’ Lorna with their nicknamin’ everyone, Ah don’ need yah startin’ too.”

Carol pouted slightly. “Oh, fine.”

“Carol….” Rogue started, reaching forward to grasp her friend’s hand. “Ah was thinkin’ before… sometimes Ah forget how much yah need to get outta here. If you’re ever feelin’ cooped up, jus’ ask, an’ Ah’ll let yah take over like this. It doesn’ just have to be when Ah’m exhausted.”

Carol smiled, and leaned forward, pulling Rogue into a hug. “Thanks – I’ll remember to do that. You’re…. great. I’m glad it’s your head I ended up in. See you for another session when you’re done with the cleanup?”

Rogue felt her eyes mist over slightly, and she slowly stepped back and nodded. “Sure – Ah’ll see yah then.” She said, and began to concentrate on the link to her conscious mind.

Moments later she found herself back in her body, sitting in the front passenger seat of the van, with Remy opening her door for her. The other doors were already opened and Sarah and the others already mostly out of the van.

She smiled at Remy and stepped out. She tugged on the front of his shirt, pulling him into a warm kiss.

“Mm, Carol, you shouldn’ be doin’ dat – y’might get Rogue jealous if y’keep kissin’ me like that,” he said with a grin twitching at the corner of his lips.

Rogue swatted him on the arm. “Very funny, swamp rat.”

“You have a good sleep, Chére?” Remy asked, turning as he slid his arm around her shoulders to pull her close as they followed the others toward the large series of tents set up in an open park.

“Yeah. Yah ready for another day of hard work?”

Remy nodded as they neared the main tent. The tents had been set up by the various emergency responders as a sort of command post, and they were surrounded by numerous ambulances, fire trucks, and smaller vehicles belonging to the local police and fire departments.

They entered through one flap of the main tent, and saw a group of people clustered around a long collapsible table, looking at a map that had been laid out on top of it.

A short, slightly balding man glanced over to them, and then quickly finished speaking to the woman he was discussing with before he straightened up and walked toward them with a relieved smile.

“David,” Remy greeted with a nod.

“Mister Lord,” David said, addressing Remy. “I’m glad to see you and your people. Things have gone pretty slow around here without you.”

Much of the morning the previous day had consisted of them trying to find a place to volunteer. Many of the places they’d stopped at had given them cold shoulders, the supervisors telling them they had no need for mutant assistance and in once case even threatening to arrest them for interfering with rescue efforts if they didn’t leave. Even in such a dire situation, they were letting their prejudices color their decisions.

Just as they were beginning to give up the whole idea, they’d met David Henry. He was the fire chief for his district, and in charge of the rescue efforts there. He’d been more than happy to get their help.

There had been a bit of grumbling amongst some of the men at first about working with mutants, but that had ceased very quickly when they saw what Remy and the others could do. They’d sped up the rescue efforts considerably, especially with the triplets’ telepathic powers giving them an excellent idea of what buildings to work on, and which ones didn’t have living people and could be put off until after everyone was rescued.

“I really need your help on this apartment complex, he said, tapping a small area on the map. “These were a set of apartments built in the ‘60s and refurbished. They weren’t built for the kind of winds and rain-loads we had during the storm, and they’ve all mostly collapsed.”

He gestured toward the open tent flap on the side opposite the side they’d entered, and they could see several piles of rubble being swarmed by rescue workers. “The dogs are alerting to living people down in there, but these things were three stories tall. We’re thinking people tried to ride out the storm in the basements. But,” he said, tapping an area of the map showing a large subdivision, “we’re getting reports of people trapped all around here, and I need to respond to them.”

“These people in the apartments are under two floors of rubble, and it’s going to take far too long to dig them out ourselves. If you guys could take over here while we go to these houses, you’d be saving us at least a day in rescue efforts, and I think you could dig them out much faster than we could.” He said, nodding toward Rogue and Lorna, who’d been the main debris movers of the group yesterday.

“Alright,” Remy said. “We’ll get to it then. Could you leave a few people to help us out with injured, so Annie’s got some help?”

David nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll leave a team of paramedics here. Thank you for your help, all of you. If you hadn’t come along,” he said, looking out over the damaged buildings of the surrounding city. “I think it wouldn’t be until tomorrow that we’d even be starting on this area. You’ve helped save so many lives.”

Remy smiled, and shook David’s hand. “No problem. It’s what we do.”

David smiled. “Well, you’ve definitely changed a few of my men’s opinions on mutants – I hope you can change others too. That reminds me – some of the people you rescued wanted to get into contact with you and thank you personally once we’re done picking up the pieces here,” he said gesturing out the open tent flap. “So my supervisors were wondering if you’d be willing to give us an address, or phone number, some way for them to give the people something to contact you with…..”

Lorna frowned for a moment, and then moved forward to grab a small note pad off the table where the maps sat. She scribbled down an address, and then handed the pad to him. “This is the address of our office. We’re just starting out, and haven’t really done much yet. We’re going public in a few days – we had already planned a press conference before this storm hit. Just tell your supervisors to give us a few days to get fully up and running at the offices, and get our announcement out there.”

David nodded, smiling warmly. “Sure.” Then he sighed slightly. “I’ll start rounding everyone up and we’ll head out to that subdivision and start working. If you guys finish before I get back to the post here, just head over and find me – I’m sure we’ll have plenty more work for you.” He said, before turning and moving toward several of his aides, issuing instructions to them, and they scurried off toward the group working on the apartment building.

“Well,” Remy said turning to the others. “You ready?”

Mindee spoke up. “The dogs are right – we can sense some people in the rubble. It’s dark and they’re scared. There’s…. ten – no, eleven – in different buildings. One…. We have to start in the building closest to us,” she said gesturing toward the one that had had the most workers around it. “There’s a man, we almost didn’t sense him at first, he’s very weak, nearly dead.”

“Alrigh’ then, let’s get started,” Rogue said, leading the group toward the first building.

***********************************************************************

Logan rolled his head around until he got a satisfying pop as he stood up, getting out of the passenger seat of the car. The movement helped ease the soreness in his neck from the ride.

The driver got out and stretched as well, shutting the door of the beat-up sedan behind him. The sedan itself blended in well with the somewhat run-down neighborhood they’d parked in.

“Not that I’m complaining about getting out of the mansion for a bit, but mind tellin’ me what the hell we’re doin’ in Memphis?” Logan asked.

“It’s a boys’ night out, Logan,” Jamie Madrox said with his ever-present grin, “we’re going to a bar.”

“An’ we couldn’ do that in New York?” Logan asked incredulously.

“Well, first off, we would have never had that wonderful car ride from the safehouse, and you wouldn’t have been able to complain about my driving if we’d stayed in.” Jamie said.

Logan rolled his eyes. While X-Force had gone through no major missions since Remy’s rescue, Fury had still dragged them in at least every other weekend for training together, and everyone had gotten to know one another much better. He was now quite used to Jamie’s sarcasm and sense of humor.

“And anyway,” Jamie continued. “this is a special bar. We’re meeting someone here. Me, actually.”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “You serious?”

Jamie nodded. “I can make dupes of myself that are completely autonomous, and don’t need to remain close to me. It takes a lot of energy, but once I make ‘em, they can head off into the world and work on their own. I had one with Magneto, before Alcatraz. I have one over in Moscow – he’s a Russian mobster, and another who’s in San Francisco training to become an expert in martial arts. I even have one off studying to be a pastor. And when I touch them, they transfer everything they’ve learned back to me. Sort of a memory dump. Takes a while to process everything, but it lets me learn things and do things I’d never be able to do just by myself,” he said as they walked down the road toward the bar.

“This one is infiltrating the local Church of Humanity, trying to get something we can use, any sort of intel that could be useful to us. He sent me the signal for us to meet – a silent call using a disposable cell phone.”

“So why’d you drag me along?”

“Well,” Jamie said, “Wouldn’t be very good for his cover to be seen meeting with mutants. With Louisiana and his girl out on vacation in D.C., that leaves you. None of the others can easily pass as human, other than you. And besides, if this is something hot, we might need to act right away on it so I wanted some backup.” He said as they neared the bar.

“This is the place?” Logan asked skeptically, looking up at the half-burned out sign of the ‘Laughing Lizard Lounge’. “Guess you can’t just download the info from a distance?”

Jamie nodded. “Right – only physical contact. Can sometimes be a pain, but what can you do?” He said as they entered the bar. “Let’s go, he’s in the back,” Logan heard him say – likely only his enhanced hearing allowing him to hear Jamie over the sudden increase of noise from the music and the loud conversations in the crowded bar.

They moved toward the back of the bar, where a series of dimly lit booths had been set up against the back wall, and found the dupe they were looking for in one of the corner booths.

Logan was impressed at the difference between the two. The man had dyed his hair blond, and had a similarly colored goatee, and much more of a tan than Jamie. Anyone who didn’t know who they were looking at wouldn’t even notice a similarity between the two men. And even if someone was very observant they’d most likely come to the conclusion that they were distantly related, perhaps cousins.

The dupe nodded to them as they slid into the booth across from him. “Good to see you. Who’s your sidekick here?” He asked, looking toward Logan.

“Name’s Logan,” Jamie answered. “Got some new members of the team over the summer, and he’s one of them. So, James, I got your message.”

‘James’ nodded, and lowered his voice, looking around the bar to make sure no one was paying attention to their table. He leaned forward, causing them to automatically do the same.

“I’m in,” James said. “All the way in, not just in the front that they use the Church for. I’ve gained the trust of several of the elders, and they’ve started letting me in on the real meetings.”

“I can’t say too much and I can’t stay long – walls have ears and all that jazz. I’ll dump it all to you before I leave. They’re associated with Friends of Humanity, I think we already knew that, but they’ve had me go to a few FOH meetings already. And they’re connected to the Purifiers. Nothing hard on that one, but they’ve talked about it.”

“There something big going down in about two weeks. They’re not saying anything about what it is yet, but I got a general location. It sounds like the Purifiers might be involved with it, so it can’t be good.” James said, and then lowered his head slightly when he saw someone out of the corner of his eye.

“Damn,” he muttered. “That’s someone from the Church – I better leave. I’ll try to contact again if I learn anything more.” He said, and tapped his hand against Jamie’s before standing up and carefully weaving through the crowd to avoid being glimpsed by the person he’d seen.

Jamie stiffened at the contact, sitting almost ramrod straight up in his seat. His eyes were closed, and Logan could see his eyelids moving rapidly, looking similar to someone who was dreaming.

He finally relaxed, and slowly opened his eyes. “It’s a bit to process,” he said when he saw Logan’s questioning look. “I’ve got the basics right now, but I’ll need a full night’s sleep to assimilate it all and get everything. The thing he was talking about is happening in somewhere in Houston, in about two weeks. I’m sure we can narrow it down back at the ‘Carrier with our intel on all these groups, figure out where they’re meeting.”

“I’m gettin’ sick of playin’ catch-up to these pricks,” Logan muttered. “We’ve gotta find something on Creed to take him out of this. The Dems seem to have picked the worst election possible to have this infighting, and I get th’feelin’ that if we don’t knock out Creed, we’re going to have him as President in a few months.

Jamie nodded. “Well, I’m sure we’ll get something. Fury’s got everyone on the ‘Carrier workin’ on it, heard it’s top priority for all agents. ‘Sides, we can always sic Dom on him before the election. Bet she could blow his brains out from a mile away with that rifle of hers.” He said, grinning slightly.

Logan made a noncommittal noise – he knew Jamie was sweet on Dom, even if she didn’t return the favor. Almost every conversation they’d had inevitably ended up bringing her into it in some way.

Logan stood up from the booth, and looked expectantly at Jamie. “Well, we met him. Now what?”

Jamie smiled and got up as well, moving toward the bar. “Well, we can have that boys’ night out. Might as well get some drinks while we’re here.”

“Y’know, maybe you aren’t so bad, kid.” Logan said, following him through the crowd.

***********************************************************************

Graydon Creed took a sip of the glass of Riesling his wife had handed him as they sat down together in the couch of their small West Virginia house.

It had been over half a year since they’d been back here together – campaigning to become the President while also still serving in the Senate and being there for at least the important votes left little time to even visit their home.

He had hoped there would be plenty of time in the summer to take a few breaks, but until now the summer had anything but calm.

The fiasco with Maldrone – being dubbed “AssistantGate” much to Creed’s annoyance at the overuse of that meme – had hurt him, badly. The day after the surprise interview where he found out about Ron’s capture and arrest charges, his numbers in the polls dropped by twenty points.

The entire summer had been spent trying to re-image himself, distance himself from Ron and his actions. It had been difficult, especially with the constant press coverage of the story. But eventually, with a constant barrage of town hall meetings and small rallies in which he focused on issues like the economy and foreign policy, he’d manage to pull off the image of a man hounded by a relentless press that sought his downfall, and managed to turn that into sympathy, along with the ‘I really thought I knew the man, and it feels like I’ve been betrayed now’ image with respect to Ron.

Just a few days ago, his numbers were back up to where they were before Ron had been arrested. There was a slight lull, and he and Mikaela had decided to take advantage of that, taking a long weekend by themselves at their home. He knew that soon enough he’d be struggling once again, especially in a few weeks when the first court hearings would be held to determine how Ron’s trial would proceed – followed, of course, by jury selection and the trial itself.

His improved numbers weren’t entirely due to his campaigns work to repair his image. The Democrats were currently in what amounted to an in-party political civil war. The last few primaries had seen some exceedingly vicious attack ads between them, and now neither of the leading two candidates had received enough delegates during the primaries to secure the nomination.

With the Democratic National Convention rapidly approaching at the end of August, leading to the back-room give-and-take of a brokered convention. They had to decide which of the two would be the candidate before the Convention, and then the other would give his votes in return for an important position – likely Vice President, or a seat on the Supreme Court when an opening was available.

In addition to that, both were trying to woo the third candidate who had received far fewer delegates, but just enough to secure the victory for either of the two. If they got her endorsement, they would no longer need to barter with their rival, having enough to get the nomination.

While Ron’s arrest had caused a media flurry, by the end of the primaries and the approach now of the Convention, the media had begun to focus most of their time on the conflict between the Democrats.

Graydon took another sip of wine as his wife set her glass down to pick up the remote control and turn on the television. The first thing that flashed on the screen was a person Creed was growing to dislike. It was a news story on a Greg Johnson rally for his Senatorial election.

Johnson was a Senator from Colorado, and Creed was both puzzled and relieved at the fact that Johnson had decided not to run for the Democratic nomination. The man was very well spoken, and charismatic, and had a growing base of supporters that were convinced by his positions on improving mutant-human relations and preventing laws that might discriminate against mutants. And some of his views on other issues appealed to a large portion of the Independent voting bloc.

He knew, had Johnson run for the nomination there would currently be no fight in the party, and he would have posed a very serious threat to him. Likely even won the upcoming election. Creed had no doubt in his mind, though, that Johnson would be, barring any sort of scandals, running for next presidential election.

Mikaela switched channels as he began to praise the mutant rescue effort in D.C..

“That man is going to be dangerous to us. Even if he’s just in the Senate – he knows how to get people to listen.” Creed growled.

Mikaela leaned to the side, resting her head on Graydon’s shoulder. “I know. Why don’t you just get Eli to handle it? Didn’t you say he had certain…. projects…. going on that he uses to take care of getting rid of people like Johnson?”

Creed stared down into his wine glass, and slowly began to nod. “Yes, that’s a good idea. If we eliminate him now, there will be enough time for mourning, and for them to replace Johnson with a much weaker candidate that might get beaten in November…….” Creed kissed his wife’s hand. “I’ll get him on it.”

Mikaela smiled, and continued to flip through the channels, briefly passing another news station discussing the recent victory for Proposition X supporters. Yesterday they had officially submitted the signatures to their petition, and Proposition X, which would if passed would set up Texas as the first state to make genetic counseling mandatory and give parents the chance to Cure their children, had been placed on the November ballot.

It had hit a slight bump with the announcement that the Cure wasn’t permanent, but Humanity Now, the Texas based human organization, simply adjusted the message, comparing it to prescription drugs that some children had to take as they grew up, simply doses every once in a while to keep their mutation in check.

Creed frowned, and he heard his wife sigh. “Now you’re thinking about this too, aren’t you?”

Creed smiled slightly. “I’m sorry, this is supposed to be our break, but… this is the worst timing we could have come up with to get this pushed through. The announcement itself is going to be dwarfed by this hurricane, and anything that does get heard, they’re going to play that against these damn mutant humanitarians that showed up out of the blue, and make the Proposition look bad.” He said, frustrated.

“I know, honey, but we didn’t have a choice. Yesterday was the deadline and it had to be submitted by then. We did try to hold it off, milk as much news out of it as we could to get more support for it. There was no way we could have predicted that storm would change course and hit D.C. and do so much damage, or that these freaks would try to help out.”

He rubbed his forehead. “I know. There’s nothing that can be done. We’ll pull through this just like we pulled through the last few months.”

“I’m glad you agree,” she said, giving him a stern look. “Now, that’s enough politics – remember we came here for the weekend to get away from all of this crap. No more work-talk the rest of the weekend.”

He smiled slightly. “Sorry, honey. You’re right, we agreed no work. Let’s keep the TV off unless we’re watching a movie, okay? Less chance of being tempted.”

“You have a deal, love.” She said, kissing his neck softly. “Now, let’s actually relax, and have fun. God knows we haven’t been able to for months!”

Creed laughed at her eagerness, and grabbed her waist, pulling her closer, shoving his nagging thoughts about work to the back of his mind, and focused on his wife.

***********************************************************************

“Get out of my bar, mutie! I don’t want to see you in here again. All you people do is bring trouble to this place – deal with your little spats somewhere where I won’t have to pay for the property damage.” The burly bartender said, shoving the young, blond-haired woman out into the street before turning back and walking back into his bar.

The girl tripped as she was shoved and managed to barely catch herself with her hands as she sprawled out on her stomach, her face scraping the cement sidewalk as she did so.

She pushed herself up from the ground, already sweating in the warm Miami night air, and then froze when she saw the four men from the bar exit and begin to move toward her.

“Not so fast, you little freak. Larry back there is a softy, an’ he just kicks your kind out. We’re not so nice, and you need a lesson, so you learn to never come back here again,” the largest of the men said, pulling out a large pocket-knife and flicking it open as the others surrounded her, caging her in.

“Please,” she pleaded quietly, not begging the men, but rather trying to get her powers to respond to her wishes. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to draw them out, although the situation wasn’t very conducive to her ability to concentrate – she usually did this in her apartment, alone by herself.

Just as she started to feel the tingle of the powers, she heard a meaty crunch, followed by the sound of a body dropping to the floor. She heard two more seconds later, and she opened her eyes to see the fourth. An object blurred through the air slamming into the last man’s head, dropping him instantly. The next second the object dropped, clattering to the ground, and she saw that it was a metal baseball bat.

She heard footsteps to her left and turned to see a well-dressed man with long grey-white hair step into the light of the street-lamp. His hair seemed quite at odds with his youthful face, but in a way it seemed to fit him – she wasn’t sure how exactly, but it did.

He smiled at her warmly, and his manner immediately brought forth a feeling of relaxed trust and contentedness. “Are you alright?” He asked softly as he approached her. “I hope I got to these brutes before they hurt you.”

Her eyes widened, and flickered to the bat and then back to his face. “That was you? H-how?”

He nodded. “You aren’t the only one with gifts, I’m sure you know that. I’m a mutant, just like you. My name is Joseph.”

She stuck out her hand to shake his. “Thank you for helping me, Joseph. I-I’m-.”

He grinned. “Yes, I know who you are. Sarah Ryall.”

“I – don’t use that name anymore. It’s just Scanner. But…. How do you know that name?” She asked, taking a hesitant step back, her eyes skimming over him, wondering if they’d met and she just didn’t recognize him.

“I know your name because I’ve been looking for you. You’re quite a difficult woman to find, Sar – sorry, Scanner.”

She took another step back, now feeling uneasy. “Why are you looking for me?”

“I need your help. And I think you could use mine. I own an island in the Caribbean – more than one, actually – a place called Genosha. I’m building a refuge there, a safe place for mutants to come and live in peace. I have a few mutants helping me put the finishing touches on it, but now I need to get people to come to it.”

“So… you’re inviting me to live there?”

Joseph chuckled and shook his head. “No, you’re already invited – all mutants are. What I’m here for is to get your help publicizing Genosha, letting people know about it, letting mutants know where they can go to be safe.”

Her eyebrow rose skeptically. “You want me to be your PR agent?”

“Not exactly. I know you have a certain talent in…. entering computer systems… that has frustrated many a FBI agent from what I hear. I need your skill to do the same for me.”

She paled slightly – very few people knew about that. Her ability to transform into a pure energy form allowed her to travel almost instantaneously to any point on the earth, but that same form allowed her to enter systems that functioned using the same energy. Like computer networks. She had often challenged herself by pitting herself against the FBI secured computer systems – once she’d even basically hacked her way through the NSA’s mainframe. And since she didn’t use a computer that the hack could be traced to, she’d never been caught.

“I’m…. are you blackmailing me?”

She watched his eyes widen in genuine surprise.

“No! No, I’m not blackmailing you. I won’t force you to do anything, and if you say no, I will leave you alone. I just need your help – the kind of assistance that you alone can give me.”

He raised a hand as she started to speak. “Please, hear me out. You’re unique, just like each and every mutant on this planet. Your power can allow me to spread the word about Genosha. People like you and I are sick and tired of living like this. Living in countries where we’re treated like second-class citizens, where our rights are stripped from us, where we spend each and every day listening to bigoted insults hurled at us by ignorant brutes,” he said, “all because one of our genes is a little different.”

“I’ve built a place – an island, a paradise, where mutants can come and seek shelter from the cruel world. A sanctuary for people who are tired of living in this manner. A place where things like this,” he said gesturing toward the men he’d knocked out, “never occur, and are nothing more than a bad memory of what life was like before they’d come.”

“Please – I don’t ask that you agree with me now. Just come with me to Genosha, see for yourself what I’ve built, and then decide if you want to help me, and help your fellow mutants.”

Sarah bit her lip slightly. “I…” She heard one of the men begin to stir, and she thought about her apartment, the tiny apartment owned by the landlord that only tolerated a mutant living there because she needed the money, who constantly insulted mutants when she knew Sarah was nearby. She thought of the jobs she’d lost, and experiences like this with the men in the bar.

And then she nodded. “Alright, I’ll go with you, and decide after I see this place of yours. But it better be good.”

Joseph smiled and offered her his arm. “I think you’ll be quite pleasantly surprised.”

***********************************************************************

Sooraya closed her eyes as she heard the cries of a mutant in a cell across from hers, as they were dragged off by several Purifier guards. She’d heard them mention ‘processing’, and she knew that mutant would not be seen again by the prisoners. Four had been taken for processing since she’d been captured, and each time their cell was filled within a few days by a fresh mutant.

She tightened the grip her arms had around her knees, which were pulled up to her chest as she sat on her bed, whispering a soft prayer as footsteps neared her cell, praying that she or Alex would not be taken as well. She let out a soft sigh when the man – one of the regular patrol guards – glanced into the cell and continued on.

She rested her chin against her knees, and wondered how Alex could sleep through all of this. Her gaze traveled over to him, and she almost jumped when she saw his eyes were open.

“Can’t sleep?” He asked quietly when he realized she’d noticed him.

She shook her head. “They are processing her, they said. She’s gone.” She said softly.

“I know,” he said.

“How long will it be before it is one of us?” She asked, almost rhetorically.

Alex sat up on his bed, and turned to face her. “I don’t know. But… we’ll escape, somehow. We’ll find a way. Or someone will find us, figure out how we were taken.”

She smiled wistfully. “I pray that you are correct, Alex, but I fear that no one will come. We can only count on each other, now. And God.”

He nodded, and leaned forward, looking earnestly at her. “Sooraya, they won’t take us without a fight. I’ll do everything I can to keep us alive and together here until we find a way out.”

She smiled, and reached out to pat his hand. “I will do the same.”

She sighed and looked out the bars of the cell over to the now-empty cell across from theirs, and reached up absently to touch the nullifying collar on her neck. “Why does such evil exist in the world?” She asked, unsure if she was asking her God, herself, Alex, or all three.

“Without evil, how would we know what good is?” Alex said softly, and she glanced up at him in surprise.

“That…. Does make some sense.”

Alex shrugged. “It’s something my dad used to say. I don’t really know, though. People like these… they live off of our suffering – it’s like our pain feeds them. Maybe my dad’s right about the reason that evil exists, but I don’t know the reason why people can become so twisted and sick.”

Sooraya shook her head quietly. “Perhaps someday we’ll discover the answer to all this. But we still have to live with this,” she said, tugging on her collar.

Alex ran a hand across his face, wincing as he touched his slowly healing cut.

Sooraya eyed him with concern, and moved forward off of her bed, taking his face in her hands. She turned his head so she could look more closely at the cut in the dim light of the cell, and frowned. “It is more… what is the word you used this morning – puffy? I think it is getting more infected.”

He grimaced. “Figured it was. I’ll just have to keep washing it out more often,” he said, “and hope I fight it off, because they don’t care about something like this. I’m glad you do,” he said smiling slightly.

She moved back, sitting back on her bed, blushing slightly. “You’re my friend Alex. The best I’ve ever had – of course I care about what happens to you, especially if you’re hurt. I-I think I will try to go back to sleep,” she said, somewhat flustered.

He watched her quickly throw her blanket over herself and turn away from him, and felt like slapping himself on the forehead. After getting to know her he tried his hardest not to make her feel uncomfortable with their situation, but from time to time something came up in a conversation that somehow reminded her of how she’d been taught, and raised, and she’d get flustered like this and close herself off for the rest of the day, only to apologize the next day, and explain why she’d acted in that manner.

It was occasionally about family or religion in general, but most of the time it was about the giant change she’d been thrown into, stuck in a cell with a man without the clothing she was used to wearing.

He stared at her back for several minutes, trying to figure out what it had been this time, and he figured it was likely them talking about their friendship – perhaps the way he’d talked about it himself. From what he could tell, a close friendship with a male that wasn’t her father, brother, or husband, was definitely frowned upon where she had lived under the Taliban’s rule, and that part of her upbringing likely had something to do with why she’d just closed up once again.

Alex raised a hand, touching his collar much like Sooraya had done minutes before, and he ran his fingers along the underside until he found the small indentation in the metal near what he thought was likely the electronic controls of the device.

He reached down under his mattress for the tiny, sharp sliver of metal he’d surreptitiously taken with him from one of the interrogation rooms after he’d fought and struggled and eventually caused an entire group of guards to come in to subdue him, the ensuing struggle damaging some of the equipment in the room.

Alex brought the sliver of metal up to the indentation, which he had made over the course of the past two weeks, and began lowly scraping at it once more. He hadn’t told Sooraya, not wanting to get her hopes up when there was such a large chance of being caught doing it, or of the ever-growing indentation being noticed during one of the ‘interrogations’.

But maybe, he thought as he lay back on his bed - his tired fingers scraping at the indentation with the small piece of metal - if luck was on their side he’d manage to get into the inner part of the casing and disable the collar, and lead an escape with Sooraya and the other mutants. It was a long shot, but they both were desperate to get out before they ended up like the mutant across the hall, and he was willing to give anything a try.

***********************************************************************

“Are we there yet?” Sarah asked from the back of the van.

Remy glanced across to Rogue and exchanged a grin with her before he looked back at Sarah with the rearview mirror. “Almost, petite. Jus’ a few more miles – see, we’re already at de edge of town,” he said, nodding at a sign welcoming them to the city limits of North Salem.

“The vacation was fun, but I think we’re all eager to get back home,” Annie said softly.

Remy nodded – he had come, rather quickly, to think of the mansion as ‘home’, and it seemed that others felt the same. In fact, to him it was more of a home than any he’d had for years. The next closest was when he stayed over at Henri’s house.

Remy weaved through the streets of town, passing those who seemed more interested in window-shopping-by-car than driving.

Soon enough, the tall gates in front of the driveway of the mansion came into sight, and Remy reached over on the console to tap a button, making them open automatically.

The van was barely in park in the garage, when the doors in the back swung open, and people began to pile out.

“You girls go in, get supper goin’,” Remy said to Sarah and Rogue, passing them the grocery bags they’d picked up on the way back. “I’ll take care of our luggage.”

Sarah nodded, and grinned up at Rogue. “C’mon, I’ll beat ya,” she said, grabbing an armful of groceries and dashing off toward the door.

Rogue leaned forward and kissed a chuckling Remy’s cheek. “See yah inside, Sugah,” she said, grabbing the rest of the grocery bags, and following Sarah into the mansion.

Remy slung his duffel bag over his shoulder, then Rogue’s, and then leaned over to grab Sarah’s suitcase when his phone began to ring in his pocket. He shifted to the side to let the others grab their bags, and moved the suitcase to the arm that held the duffel bags as he slid his hand into his pocket to fish out his phone.

He flipped it open and tapped the ‘talk’ button as he lugged the bags toward the door to the mansion. “H’lo?”

“Remy, how you doin’?” Came Dan’s voice over the other end.

“Dan! Been a while, y’ol’ dog. What, three months or so? How’re things at de shop?”

“Can’t complain, my friend. Summer tourists are makin’ me a pretty penny. Lookin’ for cheap deals, trinkets for their girlfriends or their kids, that sort of thing. How ‘bout you, you still at that mansion?” Dan asked.

“Good, glad t’hear dat. I’m doin’ good too. Y’know Rogue, de girl y’saw me wit’ when I stopped by for de apartment key?” Remy said, climbing the stairs toward the third floor – the elevator liked to cut off calls. “We’re datin’ – gettin’ pretty serious.”

Dan chuckled. “That’s great, Cajun. You need a good girl in your life. Speakin’ of that, how’s little Sarah?”

Remy smiled. “She’s doin’ great. Adjusted pretty well, getting’ past de tunnels an’ all dat. She likes de school.”

“Well, I’m glad t’hear that. Listen, Cajun, I was wonderin’ if you could spare some time tomorrow, come see ol’ Dan in the mornin’. I finally found that fella you had me lookin’ for.”

Remy stopped in his tracks, a slow smile coming over his face. “Really?”

“Really,” Dan said. “Still right here in state.”

Remy took a deep breath, and nodded to himself. “Alrigh’, Dan, dat’s great news. I’ll be over in de mornin’. Thank you.”

“No problem. I also… finally got together that paperwork you wanted. Took a lot of strings to pull that.”

“Well, you are de best puppet master when it comes to strings in de government,” Remy said with a chuckle. “Glad you got dem.”

“Remy, you sure ‘bout this? It’s an awful lot of responsibility t’be takin’ on.” Dan asked hesitantly.

Remy sighed. “Yeah, Dan, I’m sure.”

“Alright, jus’ wanted t’make sure y’were thinkin’ this through.” Dan said. “I’ll have them ready for you. See you tomorrow?

“Seeya, Dan,” Remy said, hanging up the phone as he set his duffel bag down on his bed. He put Sarah and Rogue’s bags on the ground – he’d take them to their rooms later.

Remy sighed, and sat down on the side of the bed. It was unexpected news, though not unwelcome, he thought to himself as he glanced with a smile at the picture frame resting on the night stand.

It was a print of a picture Lorna had taken of them earlier in the summer. The four of them had gone down to the lake to swim, and Lorna had decided to bring her new camera – a gift from Warren – along with them, and she had snapped the shot for them.

Remy, wearing a pair of swimming trunks, his hair unruly and wet, stood grinning in the center of the picture, his arms around Rogue and Sarah on either side of him. He chuckled to himself, remembering how Rogue had tossed him into the lake moments after the picture.

He reached out and ran a finger down the glass frame, and sighed once more, before standing up – they’d need his help making the dinner for everyone and he didn’t want to meet up with an unhappy Rogue wielding a frying pan.

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A/N: Hey again everyone hope you like this chap, we learn a bit more of what people have been up to over the summer, including a bit about how Remy really became Remy (Bella’s actions being the catalyst). We may very well find out some more in future chapters, but he revealed the most pertinent stuff to Rogue now.

Thought I’d add in a bit to introduce the “Cuckoos” nickname to Mindee and her sisters, but decided to just go with Cuckoos instead of Stepford Cuckoos, because then that brings in two movies (The Stepford Wives is where “stepford” comes from, and “cuckoos” indeed does come from the film I mentioned – very creepy psychic kids, those Midwich Cuckoos) and it’s easier to explain them being nicknamed after just one.

Anyway, Thanks for the great reviews last chapter!