Gambit opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, and started to sit up only for a wave of dizziness to cover him. He waited out the dizzy spell, and then moved his head slowly to look around and figure out where he was. Some sort of medical facility was his best guess, but where? He had been living Xavier's. He would have assumed that, had he needed medical attention for something, he'd end up in their med lab.

He cleared his throat experimentally, and then called out "hello?" There was no immediate response, and after a few minutes he tried again. When then was still no response, Gambit looked down at the medical apparatus attached to him. There was a monitor to the side which beeped periodically, so Gambit started removing attachments until he found one that made it flatline.

Gambit waited and a moment later he heard footsteps, then the door in the corner of the room came flying open. A man with blue-grey fur entered and the two stared at each other in shock.

"Hank McCoy?" Gambit asked the same time Hank said: "You're awake!"

"What happened?" Gambit asked while Hank hurried to silence the machines and get his check up underway. "Did Bobby douse yo' in flour or somet'ing?"

"Douse me in..." Hank began, puzzled. "Oh. No, I'm afraid the grey hair is just that, Remy. Grey hair. You've been in a coma a long time."

"Coma?" Gambit repeated, remembering who he'd last remembered being with before waking up here. "How long?"

"Sixteen years."

Gambit swore.

"I'm afraid the condom broke while you and Rogue were, ahem, being intimate," Hank said seriously as he ran his tests. "Rogue was... caught up in the moment, and didn't realise what was happening straight away. You're very lucky to still be alive."

Gambit didn't reply. He was still trying to comprehend sixteen years.

"I'm sure you'll be happy to know that Rogue has since gotten her powers under control."

Hank continued to talk while he worked. He assured his patient that everything seemed okay, but he'd have to stick to soft foods for now, and use a wheelchair in between therapy sessions to get used to walking again. He told Gambit that he would noticed a lot of changes in the mansion; the most notable being the population boom that had occurred in the meantime.

Once Hank was satisfied, he departed to alert the others and make arrangements.

For the next few days, Gambit stayed in the med lab (sixteen years explained why he hadn't recognised the place). He had the occasional visitor; Piotr, Scott, Storm, Professor Xavier. Logan – who hadn't aged a bit - popped in briefly. The best – and the worst – visit was from Rogue.

"Hey," she said softly, walking to the side of the bed.

"Hi," he replied, his eyes running over her face. "Yo' don't look sixteen years older."

Rogue chuckled lightly.

"Thanks," she said, and held out a bare hand to him, although she didn't touch him. "Ah'm so sorry, sugah. Ah never meant for this ta happen."

"It still doesn't feel real, ma chere," Gambit said, eyeing her hand. "I feel like dis is all just a really bizarre dream."

Rogue smiled faintly. "Ah wish Ah could tell you it was."

Slowly Gambit reached out and took her hand. His fingers slid over her smooth skin and at that moment, it wasn't the lost sixteen years he couldn't believe, it was the fact that he was actually touching Rogue's skin he couldn't believe.

The day after, Gambit got into the wheelchair Hank provided for him, and finally left the med lab for some fresh air, and the chance to actually see the rest of the world again. Hank hadn't been kidding about the population boom: there were teenagers everywhere! Not just on the grounds, but in the danger room as well. Gambit was allowed in the control room where he got to see a battle simulation in progress between "The Pack" and "Team Gambit".

"You named a team after me?" Gambit asked.

"The kids chose the name," Logan said gruffly from behind the desk.

Logan and Hank weren't the only ones in there with Gambit. Also watching were Rogue, Kitty, Storm, Jean, Tabitha, Jubilee and Rahne. Gambit wondered about the crowd, but figured they were just happy to see him up and about again.

"The Pack" turned out to be a good name for the team in question. The six members were ferals; two of them were in wolf form, two were covered in fur and had claws, another had extra long ears (Gambit was amused to see a number of piercing through those ears) and the last looked completely human. A couple of them had red eyes.

"Team Gambit" was more diverse. There was a white-haired teen girl who could shoot rapid fire chain lighting. She looked enough like Storm to make Gambit wonder if she was her daughter. A boy was busy tangling hand to hand with one of The Pack, and Gambit was so sure he'd gotten hit so many times, that he wondered if he might have a similar ability to Kitty's in phasing through things. Two other girls seemed to have similar abilities; both could create magenta lights with their hands, although one of them actually blew things up with hers, while the other just seemed to make a light show. If it weren't for the fact that one was Caucasian and the other was Chinese in appearance, Gambit would have thought they were sisters.

There was a red-headed boy in the group, who had a glowing red eye to match. It was hard for Gambit to guess what his powers would be, but going on appearances, he figured the boy was probably Jean and Scott's son. The two had married since Apocalypse and Gambit remembered that the two had been trying for a child when he and Piotr had joined.

The sixth member of the group was Rogue's son, without a doubt. At first Gambit didn't want to focus on the white-streaked boy, who was probably about fifteen years old. That boy meant that Rogue moved on and found someone else, and quickly too, if he was right about the boy's age.

Then the boy turned and Gambit got a glimpse of his black and red eyes.

Slowly, Gambit turned and looked at Rogue, who was sitting next to him. He licked his lips nervously.

"Rogue," he said cautiously. "Is umm... I'm not sure how t' ask dis but... well..."

Rogue smiled at him.

"Yes, Remy," she said. "We have a son. Let's just say Ah had a whole lot of incentive ta get muh powers under control."

Gambit swallowed hard and looked back at his son. His son!

"His name is Olivier," Rogue added.

"We have a son," Gambit said, as if saying it aloud would make it real.

"Uh huh."

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Well," Rogue said hesitantly. "Ah wanted ta, but it's a little complicated. Uhh, Oli has a few, umm, half brothers and sisters."

Gambit's face fell. Right, of course Olivier did, and he was back at not wanting to dwell on the fact that Rogue had moved on.

"Oh," he said plainly.

"Yeah," Rogue drawled. "You're looking at them."

Gambit frowned. What did she mean, he was looking at them? The kids in the danger room were all in the same age group. There was no way Rogue could have had all of them.

"Congratulations, Casanova," said Tabitha, taking it upon herself to lean on the back of Gambit's chair. "You're a father."

Gambit was about to point out that, yes, he just found that out, when he realised what she meant. He even remembered thinking two of the girls could be sisters, and now he knew they were; the girl in the magenta jacket who commanded a magenta lightshow was Jubilee's, the magenta bomb-thrower was Tabitha's. Now that he was looking, Gambit could see that the boy who could phase – obviously Kitty's son – also had his eyes.

Gambit swallowed hard and looked at Storm's daughter. She didn't seem to have any of his traits, but physical appearances didn't always mean anything.

"Stormy?" Gambit asked nervously.

"Medea is yours too," Storm replied.

This wasn't a bizarre dream, it was a nightmare! Yes, it was true Gambit had gotten around a bit since joining the X-men, but he hadn't realised that any of them had actually gotten pregnant by the time he had that night with Rogue. Well, at least he could be certain of one thing:

"So, uhh," Gambit said, turning his head to look at Jean. "How does Scott feel about his son hanging around with, umm... all my kids..."

Gambit felt sick.

"Actually, if you want to be technical, Nathan's isn't Scott's," Jean replied.

"Scott's sterile," said Tabitha with a slight smirk.

"I mean, Scott loves Nathan as his own of course," Jean went on with a glare at Tabitha. "Gee, I hope you don't mind, Remy, it's just that with all the other girls pregnant with your kids all at once, and you were the, umm, closest match to Scott, biologically speaking, I didn't think you'd mind."

Gambit looked back at the kids in the danger room – his kids – and gave a slight whimper.

"Personally," Logan spoke up, "I was all for castrating you. I'd be more than happy to arrange one for you right now, if you want."

Gambit didn't reply, although now that he was looking at his six kids (six kids!), a vasectomy (as opposed to Logan's suggested castration) was sounding like a really good idea.

"By the way," Rahne said, standing by his other side, "just so everything's clear, there's something else you need to know."

"Mon dieu... yo' too?" Gambit asked, and then gestured to the members of The Pack with resignation. "Which one?"

"All of them," she replied. "I had a litter."

End!

Just a quick shout out to coup fatal, who originally asked me about the "what if the condom broke while Rogue was having sex" scenario.

Also, Medea comes from a Millennial Visions comic that Marvel put out some years ago.