Disclaimer: Any characters previously mentioned in a Marvel Comic, I do not own. Marvel does. I'm not making money off of this.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Part Six

It was late sunset when Remy walked through the door of the mansion. It was very dim and very quiet. No one had turned on any lights and he didn't feel like raising a hand to do it himself.

He heard the low murmur of quieted voices and followed them to the kitchen where he found most of the X-Men seated around the large table. Two pots of coffee sat shakily in the middle of the large group.

A few cast him small glances when he entered. Jean managed a weak smile.

"Hi, Remy."

He only nodded slightly in response. He cast his eyes around the table, stopping at the blue doctor.

"Where is she?" He asked quietly.

"In her room." He said in the same tone. "She wanted to be in her attic. She said there was no reason for her to stay in the med lab any lo—" His voice broke off, and after a moment, he returned to his coffee.

The room was still. Remy turned to leave.

"The Professor's with her."

It was Rogue. Remy paused on his way out, his hand on the doorframe. Again he nodded, but Rogue didn't see it, as she'd never looked up from her cup on the table.

Remy went back out into the hallway, but stopped at the foot of the main stairs for a second. He looked up. No one had turned on any lights up there either. Only the last rays of sun set a gray light around the area.

Remy quietly hopped up the stairs.

He knocked before hesitantly entering the apartment.

Charles turned his head, his hover chair resting next to Storm's bed.

"Hello, Remy."

"Uh—sorry. I—I could come back…"

The Professor smiled. "Don't be silly. I was just on my way downstairs anyway."

He turned back to Ororo who was sitting up, aided by several pillows.

One hand clutching hers, the other reached up to touch the side of her face.

"Take care, child." He said softly. He pulled her forward slightly and kissed Ororo on the forehead.

"Keep on your path, Ch—Professor."

He smiled sadly and reversed his chair. He hovered past Remy and nodded with as much sadness. Remy touched the Professor's shoulder as he passed but didn't move otherwise until he heard the door close.

"All such long faces." Ororo said with a genuine smile. It made the room brighter.

"Yeah." He responded, clumsily. "Uh—you want me t'turn on a light?"

"No. There is enough." She said, still smiling. And indeed there was. At this highest point in the house, the last rays of sun through the skylights were casting a beautifully dim glow of oranges, yellows, pinks and even a beautiful shad of light gray, although Remy had never before considered gray to be a beautiful colour.

He stood there awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Ororo suppressed a small laugh. It was not often Remy LeBeau was uncomfortable—or rather, it was rare that he showed it.

She patted the space to beside her on her right.

"Come. Sit."

He did so and immediately felt more at ease. He and Ororo, unbeknownst to the others, often spent long evenings talking together just like this. He even brought his feet up on the bed.

"Dere clean." Remy said, anticipating the next question that was always asked of his shoes. And indeed they were. It didn't do a thief well to leave dirty footprints behind. A master thief such as Remy never had dirty shoes.

"So, how is Danielle?" Ororo began… and the conversation went from there. They talked for over an hour about everything normal – everyday things, as they always had. When the sun went away, Remy lit a candle that was resting on a dish on the nightstand. Lounging back in a mutual type of hug, neither wanted him to get up to turn on a light.

Finally, there was a slight lull in the conversation. Ororo stared silently at nothing with her own thoughts. Remy chewed on his top lip with his.

"…You're breakin' your promise, ya know."

"What?"

"Your promise. Your vow—t'me. D'one we made…"

"…Oh." Ororo said softly, finally realizing what he was talking about.

It had happened during that year they spent together in New Orleans when they'd first met.

They had a plan to repossess some paintings one night, but had decided to spend a relaxing day at the city zoo before going to work. Animated vegetables, they spent the morning being--well-- stupid. --Making faces at the animals, laughing at the tourists, playing pranks on "Joey" the mascot – who was never quite quick enough to spin that giant kangaroo head around in time to see who was tormenting him.

For some reason, over a couple of ice cream cones, they got it into their minds to go and look at the snake pit.

Smooth concrete walls looked down fifteen feet into a venomous snake quarry. There were hundreds—maybe thousands of them.

Just when the two thieves had just about completely creeped themselves out and were going to leave, there was a heart-wrenching scream.

They turned back just in time to see a small boy of about four or five, rolling down the narrow incline into the pit.

Like a shot, Remy was over the side rail and caught the boy just inches before he would have landed in a swarm of the slithering bodies.

The other piece of good new was there were not as many snakes in that particular area as in others. The bad news was that in order to save the boy, Remy had to land right in that area and the snakes, few as they were, were now attacking Remy's legs as he held the small boy up above his head.

The incline of the wall was too steep for him to climb up. There was a short latter affixed to the wall a few yards off. Unfortunately, he would have to walk into a deeper sea of them to reach it. All Remy could do was lean close to the wall kick off the odd serpent and hold the now screaming and wiggling boy up to safety.

Storm, at the time trapped inside a child's body, had tried to use her winds to lift the two out of there. But in her panicked state, they failed her. She dared not try to use her lightening on the serpents. She might hit Remy of the boy.

Desperate, Ororo climbed one leg over the rail but looked down just in time to see Remy send her the most serious, angry look, she had ever seen on his face. The message he was sending her was fiery clear: "DON'T – YOU – DARE!!!"

Ororo climbed back frustrated.

A moment later, a man with a fire hose tied around his waist climbed over the edge. The other end was tied to a cement bench and held on to by three other men.

Remy handed the screaming boy to the man then kicked away a snake that was trying to climb up his leg. After dropping the boy up top, the man climbed back down and helped Remy climb up.

When they were both at the top, the crowd exploded in thunderous applause, heightened by the fact that Remy was still on his feet. --Sort of. His arm across Ororo's shoulders, she was partially propping him up.

"Le's go home, petite." He'd said, his voice ragged.

"But Remy, the paramedics are here." She protested, very aware of the blood covering the legs of Remy's jeans. The paramedics were just arriving.

He shook his head. "Home." And he started to walk indicating that he would go without her if he needed to. So she helped him.

Hours later, Ororo sat fidgeting on the couch of their little apartment while Mama Dac, (Note: see "Academy" for her identity), her daughter and Tante Matte tended to Remy in his room. When they finally emerged, they said they had done all they could for him. (Meaning herbs, medicines and words you wouldn't find on any drug store shelf. Things few people in the modern world knew about.) The rest would be up to him.

For three days, Ororo kept vigil as Remy tossed and turned in a fitted fevered sleep. She'd never been so glad to see a pair of black eyes as she was as she was when he finally opened his. But even then, his recuperation took over three weeks.

One morning, he came out of his bedroom with Tante Matte. She gave him a clean bill of health before leaving.

The small Ororo turned her back to Remy.

"So you are okay now?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yup!"

"One hundred percent, tip top shape?"

"One hundred percent." He confirmed clapping his hands on his chest.

"In that case…" she started quietly. She turned suddenly and began pounding Remy in the chest with her fists.

"Do not ever, ever, ever, ever do that again!" she yelled.

Remy laughed slightly, thinking this was a playful sort of punishment. He stopped laughing when he saw the angry tears on her face.

He grabbed her hands to stop her tear-blinded assault and sat on the arm of the chair so that they were eye to eye.

"Hey now, Cherie… What dis all about?"

Ororo angrily wiped away at her own tears, but said nothing. She turned away again.

"Stormy…?"

"You do not get it, do you?" she yelled, the tears starting up again. "You cannot die! You cannot leave me!" she sobbed.

"Do you not understand, Remy? You are the only family I have got in this world. If you died…"

Remy dropped his head sadly and put his hands on her shoulders. He knelt in front of her.

"Stormy…"

"No!"

"…I sorry I scared you, Cherie. Remy won' do it again."

"Promise! Swear it! Swear you will not die on me!

"…I swear it petite… But only if you swear d'same."

The young Storm nodded and smiled. "I swear it."

Then she hugged him. Similar to the way she was holding him now.

"Oh, Remy… You know if there were any way… one that I could live with…" She pushed back to look at him.

"Even if your own soul were not at stake, I could not take Sinister's cure. It would be liken to using treatments developed in Nazi Germany. …I hope you understand."

Remy hugged her close again. "Aww… my mind does, Cherie, but my heart…" He shook his head. "You got any idea how much you mean t'me, Stormy?"

"If it is half as much as you mean to me…"

"…Okay, getting' a little t'ick in here." He said with a laugh. "New topic."

"Alright." She said joining the laugh.

"…So… You gettin' any lately?"

"Remy!!!"

* * * * *

He wasn't sure what woke him, but he quickly looked around the room startled. The clock on the stand beside him said it was just before six—too early for his taste.

Ororo and Remy talked themselves to sleep. He wasn't that certain sleep had stopped them as he recalled incoherent murmuring while his eyes were closed.

Remy yawned and looked up through the skylight. Early dawn. Storm's favorite time of day. She had been missing it lately because of fatigue.

Still lying beside Ororo, Remy stretched slightly and his left arm the one her head was resting on became awash in pins and needles. He ignored them.

He kissed Storm on her temple.

"Hey, Stormy…" He shook her shoulder lightly.

"…"

"Stormy wake up. You missin' d'mornin'."

"…"

"Stormy?" Remy slowly pulled his left arm free and propped himself up on his elbow.

"Stormy? …Storm?"

He gently touched the side of her face. She had a peaceful kind of smile on her face. He skin was warm—but not as warm as it should have been.

'Non!' "Non, Stormy."

He put his ear to her chest and listed intently.

Remy closed his eyes as he fought back the flood of hot tears he felt welling up.

"God, Stormy, no."

He sat back up partially, looking down at her. He brushed his hands along her face again.

"Not yet. It too soon, Stormy—it too soon." He said in almost a whisper. He moved a lock of white hair from her face, tears now freely running down his own.

"Please." He begged in a whisper. "Jus' a little while longer…"

"…"

He placed his head on hers. He was now shaking with silent heavy tears.

A sharp gust of wind came up suddenly and shook the glass of one of the closed skylights. Remy took a deep breath and leaned back. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and leaned back against the headboard. He nodded sadly to himself then cast his eyes up to the still rattling skylight.

'Okay Stormy. I get it.'

The rattling stopped.

Remy rubbed his eyes slowly then picked Ororo up in a hug. He held her head under his chin, rocking slowly. Closing his eyes, a couple more tears escaped.

He took another breath and released something between a sob and a sigh.

He wanted to remember everything of this moment: what she felt like, her scent. He trapped her voice and laugh from the night before in his head. The memories they shared he would never allow to leave him.

Remy gave Ororo, one final squeeze. His throat tight with grief, he spoke softly to her a final time.

"T'ank you for bein' my friend…"

The End