Chapter 3

Gambit plugged in the code to let him back into Xaviers and drove down the driveway the moment the gates were open wide enough. He drove over to the garage and let himself in. He parked by Logan and Rogue's motorcycles, then grabbed his bags and headed down to the old boathouse. He took the long route via the greenhouse and was pleased to see that Storm was there.

"Hey Stormy," Gambit said as he walked through the greenhouse door, his bags slung over his shoulder.

"Remy, hello," Storm said as she looked up at him from spraying her plants. "Welcome back. How was your trip?"

"Good, informative. Exactly what I needed," he replied with a nod. "Spent a lot of time in casinos playing poker actually. I'm probably going to continue going out to casinos regularly. Practicing my poker face turned out to be really helpful."

Storm nodded slowly. "That does work for some people." She studied him thoughtfully. "But gambling can be a dangerous pastime. Going to the casino could turn out to be very costly."

"Only if I gamble more than I'm willing to lose," Gambit said. "Don't worry, I'm not going to get myself into any gambling debts." He grinned wickedly at her. "I'm not going to try to rip off the casino either. I could, but I won't."

She gave him a long look. "Somehow I am not reassured."

"I solemnly promise I will gamble responsibly," Gambit replied, still grinning. "But in all seriousness, it's been really helpful so far. I have definitely made progress."

"All right," Storm said. "I will take your word for it for now. You just got back now, I take it?"

"Yeah. I figure I'll stay in the old boathouse unless Rogue decides she really wants me to move back into the room next to hers," he hesitated, then said: "How is she doing?"

"She is up and about. She is not here right now, though. She has gone out to dinner with Forge."

Gambit blinked. "Forge?"

Storm nodded. "Yes. Rogue will be attending an amputees support group, but I thought it might be useful for her to spend some time with a mutant amputee. Forge agreed."

"Ah, okay, well, that's good. Hopefully I'll catch her when she gets back." Gambit hefted the bag. "Anyway, I should go unpack."

"Yes. It is good to have you back, Remy."

"Thanks."

A couple of hours later, Gambit walked into the usual rec room. The usual gang was already there and Gambit got halfway to the lounges before Jubilee spotted him.

"Remy! You're back!" she exclaimed as she bounded over to him.

"Yeah, I am," Gambit said as he hugged her.

"Yay." Jubilee pulled back from the hug and eyed him critically. "You've done something to your hair. It's shorter. And…" she scrutinised it carefully, "have you dyed it? The colour seems different."

The temporary black dye he'd used hadn't entirely washed out yet. His beard, however, was gone, and he was back to his usual light stubble.

"I had a goth phase while I was away," Gambit joked.

"And I didn't get to see it? How dare you!"

"Next time I have a goth phase, you can be there. You can even join me, if you want."

"Good!" Jubilee grinned at him and tugged him toward the rest of the group. "Look guys! Remy's back!"

"We'd noticed," Bobby said slyly from his seat. "So, where'd you go? Whatcha do?"

Gambit barely heard his questions. His eyes landed on Rogue, who was glaring up at him from her seat. Her left hand was resting on her knee, her fingers digging into her skin. Her right arm was notable by it's glaring absence.

Guilt immediately welled up within him, but he pushed it aside. He wouldn't, couldn't allow his guilt to make decisions for him.

"You left a note," Rogue said tersely.

He took a deep breath before replying: "I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice."

"So you make another one instead?" She demanded as she rose to her feet. "You blew up my arm and you just take off?"

Her eyes flashed angrily at him. He felt attracted and worried and frustrated, but forced himself to ignore all of those. He felt his poker face slip into place.

"Yes. Because the best thing I could do to help you while you were in the medlab spending most of your time sleeping, was to make sure that I could control my powers when this Cure variant wears off," he replied firmly, "so that nothing like this happens again."

She pursed her lips. "A note."

"Did you really want me to wake you while you were in a drug induced sleep?"

"Screw you."

And before Gambit had a chance to reply, Rogue whipped her left arm around him, pushed her hand against the back of his head and pressed her lips against his. Gambit kissed her back eagerly. He had no idea how Rogue had gone from being angry with him to kissing him passionately, but he wasn't going to object. He was pleased she didn't object to their touching, like she had a month ago.

The kiss went on so long that the others started saying "so what's on the TV?" and "how'd you go on that assignment?"and "okay, seriously guys, get a damn room already." Gambit ignored them and let Rogue decide when they were done.

Finally, Rogue pulled back and gazed up into his eyes.

"You said you were falling for me," she said.

He gazed down that the glorious woman before him. The one who's strength, determination, and passion ignited a fire within him like no one else ever had. He was beyond merely 'falling for her' and the thought scared him.

This was not the time to be scared.

He opened his mouth to reply, but the words failed him. He licked his lips and tried to force it, so overcome the fear that had silenced him…

But perhaps this wasn't the time for total honesty either.

"I have fallen for you," he said, finally. "There's nothing I want more than to be with you."

"Good 'cause that's what I want too," she replied, her eyes flashing once more. "This relationship cost me my arm, Remy. You get that? It cost me my arm and I am damn well going to get my arm's worth."

For a second he could only stare, and then he felt his heart reply: "With interest."

"I had better." And she kissed him again.

"Awwww!" Jubliee exclaimed. "Yay! They've gotten together! Finally! I'm so happy!"

"Uh…" Kitty said slowly. "Are you two sure this is a good idea? Getting together after going through a traumatic experience is generally a terrible idea."

"Oh psssh," Jubilee said, waving her hand at Kitty in dismissal. "It's not like they just met. I didn't say 'finally' for the fun of it, you know. Okay, well, I did a little bit. But point is, this had been a long time coming."

"If they were getting together because of mutual attraction I wouldn't have a problem with it. But Rogue just made the whole thing sound like a financial transaction. Getting into a relationship because one person feels like they owe the other is a terrible idea."

Gambit broke off the kiss.

"Shut up, Kitty," Rogue snapped, then glared up at Gambit. "You're not listening to her, are you?"

Kitty leaned towards Jubilee and gestured to Rogue and Gambit. "This is the power dynamic I'm worried about."

Jubilee looked thoughtful, like a war was going on inside her head.

"Rogue," Gambit said softly, while another war between what he felt, what he knew, and what Kitty had said went on in his own head. Judging from the way Rogue searched his face, his poker face was back in position. "If I'm going to get control over my emotions, I can't let them make decisions for me. Though, I don't see how the decision to date can be anything but emotional. I guess I have to make sure that the right emotions are influencing my decision."

He took a step back. Rogue's hand fell to her side as she shook her head, her eyes inflamed.

"No. No, Remy. No, I'm sick of this," she said. "I'm sick of all the waiting around. I'm sick of trying to get over you. I'm sick of knowing you and I could be together if you weren't afraid of hurting me. Well, I have been hurt. People get hurt. That's life. Running away isn't going to stop people from getting hurt." Tears pooled in her eyes. "Stop running away from me."

Gambit was silent as he tried to pull his thoughts together. "I'm not going to date you out of guilt or because I owe you. And believe me, I know I owe you. I owe you big time—"

"Remy—"

"I'm going to date you because I adore you. Because I care about you more than…more than anyone else in my life." Even as he said the words he was amazed at just how deeply he meant them. "I'm going to date you because I'm done being patient trying to get an handle on my powers so I don't hurt you." He smiled faintly. "And I'm done running away."

Jubilee sighed happily as Rogue threw herself into Gambit's arms and he kissed her soundly.

Kitty eyed her friends carefully. "I sure hope so. I really do."

Gambit pulled back ever so slightly, just enough so he could move his lips by her ear. "I think we should perhaps continue the discussion we started in the medlab, away from the peanut gallery."

"I think so too."

Gambit followed Rogue into her bedroom. His nervousness had been growing with every step away from the rec room. He closed the door behind them and watched for a moment as Rogue walked in the direction of the bed, then stopped and stepped back, and fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. He supposed she was just as nervous about this long overdue talk as he was.

Her radio was already on and playing softly in the background, which told Gambit she'd been having issues with her Tinnitus lately. He wasn't all that surprised. He was certain this was a very stressful time for her.

"So, uh," Gambit said, standing only a few steps away from the door. "I gather me touching you is okay now."

"Oh, um, yeah." A faint smile crossed her lips. "Looks like Dr Ashton was right. It was just a knee-jerk reaction, though I didn't really know I was pass that until I kissed you just now." She took a deep breath. "It's been nagging at me the whole time you were away."

"I'm sorry, maybe I should've—"

"No." Rogue shook her head. "No, as angry as I was that you left I… You did the right thing. For both of us, really. I think If you had been around, I would've forced myself to touch you just to prove I wasn't afraid of it and I suspect that would've made things worse." She turned towards the windows. "Besides, if you needed to leave to help you get control over your powers so that this wouldn't happen again, then you had to leave."

She put her hand on the window frame, then turned around to face him.

"It did help, right?"

Gambit nodded. "Yeah. Got to clear my head. Actually ended up spending a lot of time in casinos, playing poker. I'm going to be trying to keep a poker face going. I figure if I can get some control over how emotions effect my facial expressions and body language and stuff, that'll go a long way to stopping emotion-induced explosions. So, yeah, I'm planning to continue to visit casinos."

"Huh." She cocked her head at him slyly. "Won't that cut into your Danger Room programming time?"

Gambit grinned at her. "Probably. But I think getting control is more important than finishing the suburbia program."

"Are you ever going to finish it?"

"I sure hope so, but it doesn't much feel like it." He took a deep breath. "Rogue, I know I said this before but… I'm really sorry about blowing up your arm. And I'm not expecting you to forgive me—"

"It was an accident, Remy," Rogue cut in disgustedly. "Of course I forgive you. That doesn't mean I won't end up taking out my frustration on you. I've already been taking it out on everyone else."

"Well, unlike everyone else, I actually deserve it," and he held up his hand before Rogue could object to that as well. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm here for you. No matter what. Anything you need, just let me know."

Rogue snorted. "Yeah, that's what everyone else has been saying too. I lost my arm. That doesn't make me helpless. It sucks," and she turned back towards the window, "but it doesn't make me helpless."

Gambit took a deep breath and slowly walked towards her. "'Course it doesn't. Good thing too, otherwise I might have had to go to someone else next time I need help and I would much rather go to you. You being the one person I know I can trust to have my back."

Once again, he was amazed at just how deeply he meant his words. It felt strange to say out loud that he trusted someone. Two years ago he didn't think he'd be able to trust anyone ever again.

"You've been doing a pretty good job of looking after me ever since we met," Gambit went on. "Helping you through a mess that I put you in is not my preferred method of paying you back. It is quite literally the very least I can do." He sighed. "Like I said, I owe you big time."

Rogue slowly turned back around to look at him. Without a word, she embraced him. He held her close.

"Let's not assign blame," Rogue said softly. "Let's just not. I know we both have our reasons to blame ourselves, but I've been thinking about it, and… I can only conclude that what happened was an inevitable accident."

Gambit blanched at the word 'inevitable', even as his first conversation with Storm after the accident came to mind.

"Let's just…" Rogue sighed. "Let's just accept what happened and move on." She pulled back and looked him in the eye. "And I need you to promise me that when I have an angry outburst born of frustration where I start assigning blame, that you won't listen to me. Or at least, don't take it personally. I mean, I'm going to try to keep my temper in check. I really don't want to hurl abuse at anyone." She sighed again. "But I have been. I've been a real bitch the last month, and I hate it, and please don't go telling me it's understandable or you deserve it or whatever. It's terrible behaviour on my part." She grinned. "Maybe I should be taking Storm's emotion control class."

Gambit grinned back at her. "Maybe. But in the meantime, I will take any outbursts of temper as a opportunity to get my own emotional control practice in."

Rogue chuckled sourly.

"How had it been going, anyway? Learning to use your left hand, I mean?" he asked.

"I've been picking it up faster than I thought I would. I guess that's what happens when you literally have no choice about which hand you use." She shrugged slightly. "Hopefully that means my bursts of temper are waning, but I really shouldn't be taking my frustrations out on other people. I really shouldn't."

Gambit nodded slowly. He had a distinct feeling he'd missed out on some spectacular displays of temper while he was away.

Rogue lifted her hand to his face. Her fingers lightly skimmed the skin below his eye. Gambit fell quiet, conscious of the fact that his eyes were a different colour.

"When you look in a mirror, do you see a stranger?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," Gambit replied after a moment's pause, then snorted. "It's so stupid. When I was a kid I hated my eyes. They made me stand out, and when you're living on the streets, the last thing you want is to stand out. I wanted nothing more than to have normal eyes and now that I have them," his smile was ironic, "I just want my old eyes back." He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "'Course, they will come back when this Cure variant worn off, so I can't complain, really."

Rogue nodded. "You can understand, though. At least a little."

"You hate looking in the mirror too, huh?"

"So much. I hate it so much."

She wept. He pulled her in closer, and her tears fell onto his shirt and soaked it. He said nothing, just held her.

Rogue stopped crying after a time, but stayed wrapped up in his arms for a few minutes longer.

"I didn't know you grew up on the street," she said with her head still resting on his shoulder.

"Huh." Gambit mulled that over for a moment. "I guess I was never really able to talk about my past with anyone. That's something that's pretty full of a lot of intense emotion."

"I noticed. Any time your past came up, or most times, you'd charge something," Rogue said, and lifted her head to look at him. "Would you tell me something? You don't have to tell me much just… a little…"

"Enough to relieve some curiosity?" Gambit asked teasingly. "Sure, um. I was raised in a street gang. I have no idea who my parents may have been, it was more of a communal raising, I guess. I learnt to steal from day one, basically. I'm a pretty good pickpocket, I have to say."

Rogue grinned at him.

"That's actually how I met the guy who ended up adopting me," he went on and hesitated when he felt the swell of emotions the memory of Jean-Luc LeBeau provoked. If he hadn't taken the Cure variant, his clothes would be charged up now. "He caught me picking his pocket. He was a far, far better thief than I was. I like to think I'm better than him now, but he's pretty wily, so who knows."

He pulled away from Rogue, and turned his back on her.

"Something happened, didn't it?" Rogue asked. "Whatever stress that you were under that made your powers flare up out of control… Your dad… You don't have to tell me anything you're not comfortable with."

Gambit took a deep breath as he thought things over. Between meeting up with Rubix and not having to worry about blowing anyone up right now…

"I'm not comfortable. Not at all," he said, "But I need to deal with this."

He swallowed, looked back at her, and then gestured to the bed. "Mind if we sit?"

"Not at all," Rogue said and scooted in to do just that.

He sighed as he sat down beside her. "My father is the leader of the Thieves Guild in New Orleans," he said, his eyes trained on the floor. "There's a rival Guild, the Assassins. There's been a war going on between us for, I dunno, centuries, probably. It didn't effect me until Jean-Luc adopted me. My best friend at the time was Bella Donna Boudreaux. She was the daughter of the leader of the Assassin's Guild." Gambit glanced slyly up at Rogue. "You're probably smelling a plot to end the war between the Guilds by marrying us off right about now."

Rogue giggled. "I did wonder if that was where this was going."

"As long as you don't think I'm making this all up, we're good."

"Nah, you're too imaginative for that. Besides," Rogue looked at him seriously, "this is something that is far too important to lie about."

"Yeah. It is." He cleared his throat. "So, yeah. Arranged marriage. Yay me. I think it's safe to say that was the main source of stress that caused my powers to flare up."

Rogue nodded.

"The other thing, person, actually, was Bella Donna's brother." Gambit swallowed. He couldn't believe he was about to say this out loud. "He hated me from the day he laid eyes on me, even before the betrothal happened. He… On our wedding day, he… He challenged me to a duel." Gambit threw her a look. "Don't ask. I know it's very antiquated, but the Guild follow some pretty antiquated rules. It's bizarre how they can be so modern in some areas and still continue to follow ridiculous traditions like duelling."

"I wasn't going to say anything." Rogue looked at him expectantly.

"I… He… Thing is, he was a better fighter than me. Always had been. He was an assassin, it's what they do," Gambit said. "And it wasn't meant to be a duel to the death, but I knew Julien. If he could kill me, he would, and damn the consequences." Gambit closed his eyes. "So… so… yeah… Got in a duel to the death that wasn't supposed to be. Straw that broke the camel's back."

He could still remember it so clearly.

When the silence drew out, Rogue spoke: "Is… is that when your powers flared up? You killed him instead of him killing you?"

Gambit nodded.

"No one believed me," he said, his voice almost a whisper. "I'd always had good control of my powers before. They didn't believe me when I said it was an accident. I can't go back. There was talk about executing me but I got exiled instead. I don't even know how Marius got talked into agreeing to that but…"

Only then did Gambit realised he was clutching his hands so tight, his knuckles were white.

Rogue wrapped her arm around him.

"I keep seeing it. Julien's body, or what was left of it," he said. "It's like he's haunting me." He paused, then gave a short, bitter chuckle. "He probably would haunt me, given the chance."

They sat in silence for a time.

"Thanks," Gambit said finally. "I think… I think I needed to verbalise that more than I realised."

"Yeah, I get that." Rogue shook her head. "We're a fine pair, aren't we? Got more issues than a comic book publisher."

Gambit snickered and threw a grin at her. "I think we do, in fact, make a very fine pair."

Rogue grinned back at him, her eyes still puffy from her recent crying. "Me too."

Rogue wanted to do something special for their first date, but she didn't want to go out in public because she hated being stared at. Given their feelings about mirrors, Gambit decided that they'd both be happier if they didn't go to the trouble of getting dressed up.

And thus it was that Gambit picked up Rogue at her bedroom door just after six. With a flourish, he presented her with a single red orchid in a little glass vase.

"Oh!" she exclaimed lightly as she reached out to accept it. "It's beautiful." She darted a look at him. "And if you say 'just like you'…"

Gambit grinned at her. "Not only is it beautiful, just like you, it's also full of love, passion, desire, strength, and courage."

She blinked at him. "You looked up its meaning?"

"I wanted to get you something a bit more imaginative than red roses." His eyes twinkled with mischief.

"Well it is that. And it's even more beautiful now." She smiled at the orchid, then set it aside on her dresser. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

From there they headed down to the small coastline that was part of the estate.

"We're not, um, we're not going to your place, are we?" Rogue asked tentatively when she realised where they were headed.

"Oh no. Not on our first date, chère," Gambit replied cheerfully. "That would be awfully presumptive of me."

Rogue giggled.

"Nah, I'm actually set up near the new boathouse. Well, the only boathouse now, technically. Not too close though."

Sure enough, close to the shore, but not too close to the boathouse, was one of the school's pavilion tents. Inside was a table and chairs, and the meal Gambit prepared earlier, covered up so that it wouldn't get cold. Ornate camping lights lit up the room, and a portable stereo played softly.

"I thought about having a picnic, but it's windy. I figured we'd enjoy ourselves move if sand wasn't being blown into our rapidly cooling food," Gambit said with a grin. "I hope it meets with your approval?"

Rogue sat down at the table and smiled up at him while the wind continued to blow outside. "It's wonderful."

"Now it is a little bit of a shame we aren't having this at my place," Gambit went on as he uncovered the foil from their plates, "because it smells amazing right now."

Rogue grinned as she looked down at the plate. Bite-sized pieces of red meat were mixed in with bite-sized pieces of vegetables, smothered in a brown sauce and sitting on a bed of rice. She gave an investigative sniff.

"Why? Does it smell like this?" she asked.

"And how. Slow-cookers are amazing." Gambit took his seat and gestured to the food. "This meat is so tender, it will melt in your mouth."

Conversation mostly ceased as they ate, with the occasional comment from Rogue about how he was right concerning the tenderness of the meat and how delicious it was.

After their meal, hand in hand they walked onto the beach in bare feet and braved the cooling water for a couple of minutes. After a time, they got out of the wind again and sat down to enjoy dessert.

They alternated between light chatter and simply enjoying each others company in silence, bar for the stereo that continued to play softly in the background. They spent a little more time on the beach, and watched the sunset as their evening drew to a close.

Gambit kissed Rogue goodnight outside her bedroom door.

"Thanks for a wonderful evening, Remy," she said.

She leaned in to kiss him back with fervour, her hand on his shoulder, and his hands on her hips.

"Oh hey! You're back!" came Bobby's voice down the hall. "Have you heard the news, yet?"

Rogue pulled back slightly and threw Bobby a look, while Gambit took the liberty of kissing her neck. "That you have terrible timing? We knew that."

"No, about the Cure," Bobby said. "They just announced it. Well, not 'just' announced it. It was a couple of hours ago now."

"Nope, haven't heard, don't really care right now, either," Rogue said, and she dropped her hand from Gambit's shoulder to turn the knob on her door.

"Oh, well, the Cure's going to wear off," Bobby said, grinning broadly. "Congratulations, Rogue! You're going to get your arm back."

Rogue froze. Gambit stopped kissing her neck to look at Bobby, who was standing there looking so happy. Gambit felt like smacking Bobby's head against the wall.

"If this is your idea of a joke, it's not funny," Rogue said coldly.

"No joke! Worthington Sr just did this huge announcement thing. Said that, um… a couple of the people involved in the human trials have had their powers come back completely in the last seven months, and another 30-something percent are experiencing the gradual return of their powers," Bobby replied "I don't remember the exact numbers, but I'm sure it's all over the net by now. Anyway, Worthington said that mutants might expect to see the return of their mutations as early as August this year. I guess there wasn't a very long waiting period between the human trials and the public release."

"Well, given the flavour mutants were in back then, I can't say I'm surprised they pushed things through," Gambit said cut in. "Seriously, Bobby, couldn't this have—"

"Oh!" Bobby snapped his fingers. "That was the other thing! Vange was one of the trials."

"What?" Rogue asked.

"Yeah. Apparently while all the other trials are getting their powers back gradually, Vange was the sole exception: she had no warning at all. Her powers came back just like, well," he snapped his fingers again, "that. I guess that's why Worthington took charge of her legal defence." He shrugged, then grinned again. "Isn't this great? You could have your arm back before the year is out!"

"No, this is not great," Rogue snapped at him. "This is terrible. This is the worst possible news. How dare you spoil my date with Remy with this… this… Oooh, that's it. You're jealous."

"W-what?" Bobby asked, looking so confused Gambit wanted to smack him for being so oblivious.

"Yes, that's what happening here. You're jealous, so you thought you would come along and ruin my perfect night with your stupid lies!" Rogue snarled.

"But… It's not a lie… They just said… You can check for yourself…" Bobby stammered. "Don't you want your arm back?"

"Sure I do. I'd love to have my arm back," Rogue said as she threw her bedroom door open. "But I don't want it back if it means I have to take my powers back too. I would rather have one arm forever!"

"Seriously Bobby!" called Kitty's voice down the hall, and Gambit looked past Bobby to see she and Piotr walking towards them. "You had to go and tell her? You couldn't have waited until tomorrow?"

Bobby looked between Kitty and Rogue. "But I… I thought… I thought she'd be excited." He looked helplessly at Rogue.

"Did you not learn anything from your break up?" Kitty demanded, sounding exasperated as she quickly closed the distance between herself and Rogue. "Look, don't worry about it. There's no proof," Kitty threw a nasty glare at Bobby before looking back at Rogue, "that the Cure is going to wear off everyone, or that it's even going to wear off everyone completely. From what I've gathered, the number in the trial was pretty small so any statistics are probably not going to be an accurate indication of what's going to happen. Plus, it's clearly still in progress, so it's much too soon to start worrying about this." Kitty glared at Bobby again. "Or getting excited by it either."

"What?" Bobby asked defensively.

"Thanks Kitty," Rogue said tersely. "I'm going to bed now."

With that, she stepped into her room and slammed the door closed.

Gambit, Kitty, and Piotr all turned on Bobby.

"I thought she'd be happy!" Bobby exclaimed.

"No, you didn't think at all," Gambit replied coldly.

Without another word, Gambit stalked down the hall. He kept going, not back to the beach so he could pack up, but to look for Storm. He found her in the rec room with Logan.

"Oh hello, Remy," Storm said as Gambit came striding in. "Logan and I were just talking about you. I was thinking we might start a regular poker game here, once a week. I thought it might give you a chance to practice your poker face without having to put down money on it."

"Ain't as much fun without stakes," Logan said with a grunt, and narrowed his eyes at Gambit. "What's up?"

"Bobby just blurted out the news about the Cure wearing off to Rogue. She's pissed," Gambit replied and stared down at Storm. "You knew, didn't you? You knew the Cure was going to wear off."

Storm sighed. "Yes, I and Dr Ashton knew. When Hank McCoy found out, he arranged to have a copy of the data sent to us, but we had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. We could not discuss it until after the formal announcement to the public was made."

"And that's the real reason why you wanted me to take the variant."

"It was a strong, contributing factor, but the fact that I had to omit it does not invalidate the other ones I gave you," Storm said firmly. "I was not happy about not being able to tell you either—"

"You could've just told me, NDA be damned," Gambit cut in.

Storm raised her eyebrows. "And as your friend, I wanted to. But as Headmistress of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, I have a responsibility to everyone here. Sometimes that means I have to make decisions I do not like."

"How's Rogue doing?" Logan said before Gambit could retort.

"Not happy. She's in her room," Gambit replied.

Storm stood. "I was going to speak with her in the morning, but I suppose I should go talk to her now."

"Kitty tried to do some damage control but…" Gambit shrugged. "Bobby made it out to be a good thing. Like all she would have to do is wait until her powers come back, absorb Logan, and regrow her arm."

"Oh really?" said Logan. "I sense Bobby and I are going to have a nice little chat."

"May you succeed where the rest of us have failed," Gambit replied.

"Honestly," Storm said with a sigh, "for someone so smart, he can have terrible tunnel vision. You would think having been absorbed by Rogue on several occasions he of all people would understand…" She shook her head. "I will go speak to Rogue."

"Might be a good idea to speak with the whole webseries team too," Gambit suggested. "Rogue particularly is probably about to get bombarded with messages about this."

"Oh yes…" a slight frown creased Storm's forehead. "Yes, that does add another layer of difficulty. Well, I was planning to have a staff meeting about this regardless. It may be of use to have a webseries team meeting as well. But, first things first."

She left. Logan reached for his beer as Gambit sat down.

"What am I doing?" Gambit asked himself and stood back up again. "I have stuff I need to pack up." He held up his hands as he left the room. "Later, Logan."

After Gambit finished packing up the tent pavilion, furniture, and everything else from his date with Rogue, he headed back towards the mansion. He had a few small maintenance jobs he needed to do, and then he was going to work on the suburbia program some more.

On his way, he noticed that the light in Rogue's room was on. He started heading for the wall before he realised he'd even made the decision, and climbed up the wall to her bedroom window. He hesitated briefly before peeking inside. Rogue was alone, sitting on the bed with her knees tucked up under her chin.

Gambit knocked on the window.

Rogue glanced over at the window. Her eyes went wide and in a flash she was off the bed and opening up the window.

"What in the world are you doing?" she exclaimed. "Get in here."

"Just checking to see how you are," he replied as he climbed in through the window.

"How'd you even get up here?" She looked out and looked down the side of the stone wall.

"Seriously? You've seen me and Kurt climb up the mansion before. All the way to the top, no less," Gambit replied.

"I know, but still!" Rogue threw up her hands and shook her head at him.

Gambit chuckled. "What can I say? I've been scaling buildings since the day I first learnt to climb." He grinned slyly. "I've climbed up buildings way harder than this."

Rogue shut the window again. "Of course you have."

"So, ah, did you want to talk about it?" Gambit asked. "Or did you want me to distract you? Or just leave and let you have some time alone?"

Rogue sighed. "I think I'm done talking about it for now. I just had a good long chat with Storm." She slouched against the wall. "I really wish she had been the one to break the news and not Bobby. Not that the news was any different, but Storm knows tact."

Gambit nodded. "Yeah, I can see how that would make a huge difference."

"And even though Storm never liked that I decided to take the Cure," Rogue pushed herself off the wall and began to pace, "she never made me feel bad about it, she never treated me any different. And she didn't get all 'I told you so' or anything just now."

Rogue slammed her fist into the wall.

"I don't want my powers back."

"I know."

"No, you don't know. I really Do Not Want my powers back," she said. "I feel like I'm going to be sick."

"I wish I could promise you that wouldn't happen," Gambit replied softly.

"I wouldn't believe you if you did. Damnit. Why is this all happening at once? I'm already working on living my life with one arm when I'm used to having two. I don't need to be dealing with my powers coming back too! I don't want to be dealing with it at all. But I have to, 'cause it'll be worse if I don't and…"

Gambit listened patiently while Rogue ranted a little longer.

Finally, Rogue sat down on the side of the bed. "Sorry. Thanks for listening, but sorry you had to put up with that."

"You're not someone I 'put up' with, ma chère," Gambit replied as he sat down beside her. "We are going to get through this. All of this. Together. If you need me to listen while you vent some steam, I'll listen."

Rogue sighed. "I appreciate it. I think right now I'd really rather punch something." She held up her left hand. "We have not gotten to the re-working my fighting style part yet."

Gambit nodded. "Want me to teach you some kicks? Well, more kicks?"

"You do know some pretty cool kicks," Rogue said thoughtfully. "Sure, sounds great. Can we start now?"

"Sure," Gambit said, and rose to his feet.

"Good," Rogue said as she took his hand in hers. "I really want to beat the stuffing out of something."

"This can be arranged."

End!

And now that it's all official that the Cure's wearing off (at least some people, anyway, heh), I can now address the elephant in the room:

Miss Elephant, what a pleasure it is to have you with us. I hope you've been enjoying the series so far. I understand you reached the same conclusion that Bobby did and have some concerns? Oh yes, I can see why you might be worried that I may have blown up Rogue's arm just for the shock factor and there's no substance to it at all. Well, let me assure you that I have every intention of taking this seriously and want do it justice to the best of my ability.

Limbs do not grow back in real life (unless you're a lizard or starfish or something). It can be difficult to explore real life issues in comicbook universes where there are so many easy outs. Rogue could absorb someone with a healing factor. Elixir or the Morlock Healer could show up and heal it. Rogue could have an encounter with Shi'ar medical technology. Rest assured that if/when Rogue's arm does grow back, it cannot erase the fact that she lost it in the first place.

Next Story: I just need to figure out a few casting issues and then I'll start writing. As always, I'll begin posting after I have enough chapters written that I can be confident about finishing in a timely fashion.