Chapter Seven
Upon hearing that his brother needed help, Remy caught the first flight and was at the Guild's New York apartment not three hours later.
"So, mon frère, you ready to admit that your little brother is better than you?" he said as he sauntered into the apartment, draping his coat over the closest chair. A job was just about the only thing that could lift his spirits at the moment, so for once he wasn't biting Henri's head off.
"Actually mon petit frère, I have someone who wants to speak to you."
Rogue came out of a side room as she heard the voices, and Remy's expression when he saw her was all the proof she needed that Henri had been right; he did love her. He looked like he'd just seen an angel.
He quickly replaced it with his poker face, but she knew what she'd seen.
"You just can't stay away from the Ragin' Cajun, can you, cher. Looks a little desperate if you ask me."
"Cut the bull, Remy, I'm here to help you."
"Remy don't need no help from the likes of you."
Rogue had hoped that he would hear her out, not that she had anything concrete to tell him, but she had been hopeful that she could convince him. Still, she had learned that sometimes it was hope over experience, which is why she had removed her gloves before she came through. Her hands were currently in her pockets so he had no way of knowing.
Remy wasn't showing much skin himself, so Rogue had to keep her eyes open for an opportunity.
"Remy, will you just listen-"
"Non! Time for you to leave, I think." He grabbed her arm to try and drag her to the door, causing his sleeve to ride up. Rogue took her opportunity, since it might be the only one she got, and grabbed his wrist.
His shocked expression hurt her, but she knew he'd understand eventually. At least she hoped he would.
"What did you do to him?" Henri asked as Remy fell to the floor.
"He'll be fine, Henri. He wasn't going to come willingly but now at least he'll give me a chance to explain when he wakes up."
"You sure, petite?"
"He won't have a choice. Look, if you're worried, you can always come back to the mansion with me."
"I really do have a job to do here," Henri said. "I gotta keep my cover in place, especially if Remy goes missing. Maybe I can stop by tomorrow and see him?"
"Sure. So does anyone else in New Orleans know where he went?"
"Just our père, but he'd die before he'd sell Remy out."
"But will you be safe?"
"Once I'm home, sure. The guild has New Orleans sewn up, ain't no one gonna get to us there. You just take care of Remy, we can take care of ourselves."
"Okay, well call if you need anything, okay."
"Same to you, petite."
With surprising strength for someone so small, Rogue put Remy over her shoulder, then made her way to the elevator. Thankfully she had thought to come in the blackbird, which she had parked on the roof, so she wouldn't draw any stares as she carried an unconscious Remy over her shoulder through the city.
Remy woke up to find himself strapped to a bed, not a situation that helped to relax him at all. He bent his fingers around until he could touch the straps to charged them, only there was no charge. His powers were gone!
His first instinct was to panic, and when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he twisted his head to try and bite it.
"Easy, Remy, it's just me." Rogue came into his field of vision. "Relax."
"Let me up, now!"
"I will, but not until you hear me out, okay?"
Remy strained against his bonds. "I can still get out of these, you know. I am a thief."
"Probably, but I only need to keep you still long enough to listen to me. I'm trying to help you."
Remy sighed and stopped straining, but only because he was trying to contort his hands and make them small enough to slip through the padded leather cuffs.
"Okay, I spoke to Henri, Remy, and we think we can help you. Hank has degrees in almost everything and he's already working on trying to fix Angel. He's done a CT scan of you already but he needs you awake for the PET and functional MRI scans. He thinks that we can undo, or redo or... well, basically he thinks that we can keep your powers lowered so that you aren't dangerous any more, and so that Sinister doesn't have a hold over you."
Remy didn't stop trying to get free, but he was listening more closely.
"Let me guess, Henri told you?"
"Yeah, but he was only trying to help you."
Remy sighed.
"Forge has been working on the inhibitor collar too, and that's safe for a week of constant use now, so we figure even if Sinister finds out what's going on, we still have a week to find out what he did to you, so that we can replicate it if we ever need to."
"Non, it's too dangerous, if-"
"We have top notch security, thanks to your break-ins," she couldn't help a wry smile at that. "And we have two X-Men on watch around the clock. We're keeping you as safe as we can-"
"No such thing as safe when it comes to Sinister."
"Maybe not but if you'll give us a chance, we'd like to fight by your side. You don't have to be in this alone any more, Remy."
She touched a gloved hand to his cheek.
"I know you were lying on that rooftop. Someone had already shown me the truth but when I absorbed you earlier, I knew he was right. I'm not saying that we have to become a couple or anything, I'm just saying that I know you were trying to protect me, and it hurt you as much as it did me. I'm not mad any more."
"How mad were you?" he asked, cringing slightly.
"I was pretty fuming. Your name was taken in vain quite a few times around here, but I understand why you did it now. And for the record, I don't blame you and I don't hate you, for anything you've done."
He stopped trying to free himself for a moment. "You mean that, cher?"
"I do." He could see that she was sincere. "We already have some good news; Hank thinks he's discovered how Sinister tracks you. He found a very small tracking device when he looked at your CT scans, no bigger than a grain of rice, and by the amount of tissue that it's fused with, he thinks you may have had it since you were a child. It doesn't have a huge range, so if Sinister doesn't know roughly what area you're in, it'll still take him a while to find you, but we've found a way to block the signal until we can take it out."
He was impressed but-
"And I only have one last thing to tell you before I set you free."
"What's that?"
"If this doesn't work, if we can't free you from Sinister's hold, I can set you free."
"Cher?"
"I'll absorb you, Remy, I'll do for you what you couldn't do for yourself."
Remy was silent for a few moments as he contemplated what she was offering him.
"'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished," he said in a whisper.
"Hamlet," she smiled forlornly.
That soliloquy had had a special resonance for Remy ever since he discovered the truth about his deal with Sinister.
Rogue made her way to the foot of his bed and began undoing his cuffs.
"You'd do that for me?" Remy asked, sounding awed.
"I'd do anything for you." She stopped what she was doing and looked up at him with a guileless expression. "And besides, at least that way I'd get to keep you with me, a part of you anyway."
Remy didn't know what to say to that. One way or the other, he'd might finally be free. But he didn't want to dwell on that right now, because his freedom could come at the expense of her sanity, and that wasn't a sacrifice he was sure he could allow her to make.
She dropped her gaze and continued the task at hand.
"Why didn't you take this tracker out?" he asked.
Rogue looked up again, surprised by the question. "We'd never do anything invasive without your permission, Remy. Hell, Hank only did the CT scan because we're on a time frame here." She had nearly finished the first ankle cuff. "Once I have these off, you're free to go, so please don't kick me in the face or anything."
Although that was his instinct, he didn't, but only because he couldn't stand harming Rogue.
"And if you do take off, make sure your brother knows or he's probably gonna think we killed you and buried you under the azaelia bush or something," she on chattered as she moved onto his wrist cuffs. "He's coming by to check on you tomorrow, by the way, before he goes back home."
Once freed, Remy sat up on the bed, while Rogue stepped back, wary.
Remy rubbed his wrists. "I'm not gonna hurt you, cher," he assured her.
"You're in here now, Remy," she tapped her temple. "You hate hospitals, tests, doctors and all kind of similar things. You're first instinct is to flee and sometimes your fear is so great, that I think you'd hurt anyone who got in your way."
Remy couldn't argue with that. The pain of some of Sinister's procedures was unbearable, and he had no choice but to submit and endure, lest Sinister made him a walking bomb again.
"I swear to you, Remy, we mean you no harm. None of us."
"What about the Wolverine?"
"Even he was appalled by what Sinister did to you." She picked up a small box from the desk, about the size of a cigarette packet, and tossed it to him. "If you do leave before we get the tracker out, take that that with you. It blocks the signal."
Remy leapt down from the bed and Rogue flinched.
"Look, Rogue, I make no promises about staying, but I truly ain't gonna hurt you." Seeing her flinch was more than enough reason to hold his fight or flight instincts in check.
Rogue looked over at him but her expression was hard to read and his empathy was switched off, thanks to the collar he was wearing.
"Aren't you mad at me?" she asked in a small voice.
"Mad?"
"For knocking you out." She hung her head.
He supposed he was annoyed at not being given a choice, but now that he had heard her out, he could see that he was being unreasonable before. He should have listened to her.
"Non," he assured her, reaching up to the inhibitor collar in his neck.
"We just wanted you to see that it works," she explained. "Push the buttons on the sides and it'll pull off easily.
He did so and almost instantly felt the thrum of power flowing through his body once again. He left the collar on the bed.
"So, you want to show me around this place, or am I stuck in this hospital?"
"Of course not," she said. "There are some tests that you'll have to be down here for, but I told Hank how you feel about these places and he's gonna do his best to see you upstairs or in your room, if he can."
"So what now?"
Rogue gestured behind him. "Doors over there. There's no security on it, it'll open when you get close."
Remy jumped off the bed, grabbed his trench coat which he noticed sitting over a chair, and headed out into the hallway. It still looked pretty clinical in the hallway, but not hospital clinical as such, so he calmed down a little as he pulled his coat on. Rogue followed him out a moment later, though she kept her distance.
"So, you gonna show me around?" he asked.
"It's three AM, you sure you don't want to sleep?"
"Already been asleep, cher."
"Okay," Rogue shrugged and headed down the corridor towards the lift.
Remy reached out to put his arm around her shoulders, but Rogue jerked away and assumed a fighting stance.
"What, you got a no touching rule in this place or something?" he asked.
"You- you want to touch me?"
"Gonna be hard to resist, cher."
"But... I mean, I absorbed you!"
Suddenly he understood, she hadn't been wary of him trying to escape, well not only that, she thought that he would hate her for absorbing him.
"Cher," he stepped closer, backing her up to the wall. "You can absorb me a thousand times, and I'll still come back for more." His eyes were gazing at her lips and his expression was positively hungry. "Besides, I guess I had it coming after what I did to you."
"I didn't hurt you?"
His eyes flickered to hers and he smirked. "Non." Not quite true but he didn't want to upset her. "I don't know what kind of cowards you have around here, afraid of a belle femme, but Remy ain't afraid of you, cher. Not now, not ever."
She looked into his eyes, trying to read the truth. Apparently liking what she saw, she suddenly enveloped him in a crushing hug. Remy put his arms around her, happy to hold her for as long as she wanted. He wondered how long it had been since someone had hugged her, or touched her in any way really. He had a bad feeling that the answer was nobody, not since he'd sent her away at least. Well, before that really, unless you counted him shoving her at the MRD base.
He kissed the top of her head, content just to be here, with her. He still couldn't say for sure that he was staying, but if life here continued to feel this good, he might just stick around, at least for a week to see what they were able to do.
Finally Rogue pulled away.
"Thank you," she smiled up at him, and his heart soared.
"You know, cher, if you keep being this easy to please, Remy might get lazy. You got to make me work a bit harder to please you."
Rogue laughed. "Okay, so what should I be demanding?"
"Well flowers definitely, probably roses, champagne, candlelight dinners, compliments so you know how great you are, and the occasional date to remember, just so you keep me on my toes."
"What kind of date?" she asked.
"You know, anniversaries and stuff. Did you know it's been just over five months since we met?"
"You're keeping count?"
"Not exactly. But how could a man ever forget meeting you? Especially in that dress."
Rogue blushed. She didn't ask if he'd still be around for their six month anniversary, because she wasn't sure she could handle the disappointment if he said no.
"Come on, let me show you to your room."
She showed him the security codes to get into and out of the basement area, but smiled as she told him it was probably pointless. He couldn't help but smile back, mostly because she was right.
Remy's room was sandwiched between Logan and Rogue's room. It was pretty nice, but nothing like his rooms in his fathers mansion, they were truly opulent, though not tacky. Still, Remy thought he could be comfortable here, after all, he had spent part of his childhood living on the street, until his father found him and adopted him. This was certainly a huge step up from that!
The bed was comfortable, the closets spacious, and there were enough drawers and shelves that he could make himself at home here, once he had a few more possessions with him, that was. For now all he has was what he'd brought with him New York, which was exactly one change of underwear and a spare T-shirt.
He settled on the bed and lay back, staring up at the ceiling. Rogue had said that he was welcome here but he couldn't quite believe her. He supposed he'd get to see that for himself soon enough, but no matter what she said, he just couldn't see Logan and Kurt forgiving him that easily. And maybe that Forge guy would be a little pissed that he stole the collar too.
He took the box that Rogue had given him from his pocked and opened it. He was fairly technically knowledgeable, after all most security was electronic these days, so he recognised that this was a dampening field, designed to suppress electromagnetic signals over a specific area. He couldn't tell what frequency this one was set to but he guessed he had to trust them. They didn't want Sinister showing here up any more than he did.