She fluttered her eyelashes to get rid of the rain drops that clung to them. It was a rainy day all right, and it fit well with the circumstances.

Circumstances?

She started and began to look around herself, trying to remember where she was, and what she was doing there. "A cemetery? What the.." They were all there, Ororo, Bishop, Scott, Logan, Jean, Xavier and the others, weeping. "What in Gawd's name's hap'nin here?" she thought. "Who… who's dead?"

Then, as she saw the epithat, she felt her heart stop. "Ci-gît Rémy Étienne LeBeau, ami et mari bien-aimé. Que notre confiance et notre amour pour toi puissent te guider dans un monde meilleur » (Here lies Rémy Étienne LeBeau, beloved friend and husband. May our trust and our love for you guide you to a better world).

She panicked, frantically turning, meeting sad looks from her friends, not wanting to believe. This could'nt be happening. 29 years old. He could'nt have just left her like this. Widowed at 25!

The world began to twirl around her. She grabbed someone's jacket before she landed hard on her knees, gripping her round tummy. "Oh, my Gawd, what am Ah gonna do… the baby… no…" Tears flodded from her eyes as she saw her friends touching her, saying tender words she could'nt understand. She saw Ororo stand by her, blue eyes gone red with crying, gently touching her shoulder.

"Rogue, Rogue, please, calm down…Rogue, honey…"

~~

"Rogue, chérie, s'il te plaît… Rogue, wake'up, belle, c'est seulement un cauchemar…" (it's only a nightmare)

She woke up to the gentle shaking of her shoulder and sat straigt in the bed. She had sweat all over and her nightshirt clung to her body like a second skin. She took one breath. Two. She could see Rémy's head hovering near her, a worried look in the dark red glow of his eyes in the darken room. She registered all of the details, from the tiny mosquito zeeeing against the window to the alarm clock that showed 2:47 am. She put a hand to her round tummy, it would always calm her. She closed her eyes, counted the heart beats. One, two, three… The tiny, faster beats in the background made her smile a little. Another of these darn dreams and she would die of a heart attack before the end of the month.

"Y'had a lot'o these nigtmares, chérie, said Rémy, putting a hand on her neck to draw her close "Are y'sure to be al'right?"

"Yes, Ah am… Ah… Ah just need'y t'hold me, please, Rémy…" she murmured, feeling tears running down her cheeks.

He lied back, holding her tight, as the sobs and hiccuping slowy stopped, murmuring incomprehensible French as he would to a child, rubbing her back tenderly. "Allons, allons, ma chérie, c'est terminé… Je suis là, ne pleure plus… je suis là." She had had nightmares for almost a week now, every night, and it was beginning to frighten him as well, even if she didn't want to describe what she dreamt of. A small bump touched his stomach, and he forgot about the dreams, smilling at the tought of what awaited him in only a few weeks.

"We woke'up Junior, Ah think" she was smilling, too, trought her tears. Surprising how being pregnant could help her deal with her demons. And it seemed to help him as well. Rémy gathered her closer and she sighed, the remnants of the nightmare evaporating as she drifted to sleep in the arms of her lover.

~~

His eyes popped open. He didn't move, trying to remember what had awakened him. He still held Rogue tightly ; her head was burried in his neck and he could feel the heat of her regular breath on his collarbone. Her right hand held a lock of his hair, her fingers entwined in the dark auburn locks, rather long, he had to say. He smiled at the tought of the smaller fingers that would pull them in a few weeks, and decided with a smile that he would tie them up or cut them before going crazy. He sighed with pleasure, stretched his legs for the sake of blood circulation and gathered Rogue closer. He relaxed as he felt the clouds of sleep drifting slowly on his mind.

"Click"

He froze, remembering why he had awakened. For the years he had being living in the mansion, he knew every sound the old house could make. And the gritting, clicking sound he'd just heard wasn't one of them.

"Click" again. He delivered himself gently of Rogue's grip on him, carefull not waking her up, and sat up in the bed. He listened again, and his lips streched in a small, ironic smile ; a thief, in the house of a thief! "Except that I have a rather bigger advance on'im" he tought. He got up, took his discarded jeans of the floor and quickly slipped in. Slowly walking to the door, he cracked the door open, just in time to hear light footsteps on the first floor. Too light to be those of a hungry X-pal on a moonlight snack. "Amateurs, he tought, let me show y'how a thief welcomes des amis in'is house!"

He tiptoed to the stairs, stopping to get a look dowstairs. He suddently turned, warned by his space awareness, to meet angry dark eyes. One of them winked, and Rémy nodded. Logan. So he wasn't the only one to smell something fishy in the house. They got slowly down the stairs, carefull not making a sound. As Rémy turned towards the kitchen, a shadow coming out of nowhere punched him hard in the stomach.

"Humph!! Merde! Qu'est-ce que… »

SHINKT! Claws drawned, Logan turned to see Rémy doubled up in front of a man, before noticing quite a lot of other black dressed men coming from the broken kitchen bay window.

~~

She slowly woke up. Her eyes popped suddendly open when she realized she was alone in the bed. She turned towards the clock. 4:39.

"SHINKT!"

She started. Logan's claws?

"What's happenin down ther?" she said to herself. She was surprised to have an answer.

"Well well, what do we have here, young lassie… Ye'll be the lass of the red eyed lad, yer not?" said a voice from the door. A tall form was entering the room, and Rogue didn't need any light to guess it wasn't friendly. She jumped out of the bed, thinking as fast as possible. "Ah took my anti-power pill at 9:00… mah powers won't be on 'till 7:00! Darn, Ah have to do somethin! Where's Rémy, damn him!" The man stepped further in the room, winked and smiled, displaying a large amount of missing or rotten teeth. "Now now lass, ye won't run awa from me, won'tya?" he said in a low burring voice "We can have som'fun, ye an me!"

~~

He and Logan had taken down most of them, but he could see that many men had escaped trought the window. The noise had awakened almost everybody in the mansion, and together they had managed at least to get rid of the thieves, most of them scared to their wits from meeting unexpected rich, numerous, well-trained, pissed-of-for-getting-out-of-bed-in-the-middle-of-the-night mutants.

Rémy half-shrugged, testing his hurting shoulder. He'd taken a blow from a big man, right now lying face down on the oriental rug, dark blood making a waste of the little fortune the rug must have cost. He sighed. What a night!

~~

The man had managed to leap across the bed to reach for her before she could even move. That he moved with great grace for a man of his weight was all she had the time to think of before he had her pined half lying on the bed, oblivious to the bulge of her stomach. Junior moved suddendly, disturbed by the rude manipulating. Rogue could smell the fetid breath of the man, his face inches from hers. She could hear a lot of commotion from downstairs, and she sure hoped someone would wake up and give her a hand with this.

The man pinned her hands above her head and began to rumaged at his zipper fly with his free hand. Totally disgusted and mildly panicked, Rogue took a deep breath. She may not have her powers, but she did have her temper back on the line, and vocal cords in great condition. She streched her neck and shrieked as loud as she could an inch from the man's hear. His eyes squeezed shut and he threw himself away, letting go of the grip he had on her legs, at least enough for her to give a kick where it hurts a man. Letting out a loud grunt and doubling up, the man ran for the door, letting go of his idea of "fun".

~~

His heart stopped when he heard her scream. Rogue! Everyone looked in the stairs direction, but Rémy was the first to run like hell in that direction, climbing the stairs two at a time. At the top, though, he ran into the big man, running like hell too, but downstairs.

Surprised, Rémy hesitated for a split second. A second too long. Less surprised than him, the big man drew up a pistol, aimed at Rémy's chest, and fired.

Rémy's mind had just the time to think that it must have been a realy old gun for it to produce so much powder smoke before he felt his chest tear up and go on fire. The power of the point-blank shoot threw him in the air, flying over the sixteen wooden steps. He landed hard, face-down on the floor boards, not bothering to put his hands first to protect himself. He moaned, seeing the other X-men running towards him, and turned himself on the back, just in time to see the thief aim again at him, and fire.

This time he felt the pain explose in his abdomen. He heard the "shinkt!" of Logan's claws; he must have cut the man's throath. But he could hear the beating of his heart in his head, and he could feel it in the burning wounds in his chest and abdomen. He tried to take a deep breath and was surprised to feel as he never tried, only to realize that the weezing sound he heard came from his chest. He could begin to feel the lack of oxygen as he put his hands to his wounds, doubled up on the floor, as he tried to stop life from flowing out of him. He barely saw his friends trying to steady him, talking to him. He saw Hank kneeling near to him, looking at his wounds, saying something… Saying? He couldn't hear.

"God… pierced lung……hospital…tell Rogue…..get…Rogue…"

Rogue! The thought of her brought him to consciousness long enough to see that he was lying in a puddle a blood. His blood. He felt life flowing throught his fingers, even though he was holding on tight. This couldn't be happening.

~~

The man ran out the door and she sat down, terrified. Should she go out? She cast an eye at her 8 months gone pregnant stomach and thought better. If the man didn't come back, it was better for her to stay in the room. She couldn't help downstairs. She bit her lip : being handicaped wasn't something she liked.

Her heart shattered like ice when she heard the gun shot. She threw herself on her feet and ran for the door, heading for the staircase. She saw the man reloading his gun, aiming at someone, and firering again. But at who? A split second later, Logan was on the man, slitting his throath. Logan looked downstairs, gasped and, just before he flew back downstairs, saw her. The terrible look of sadness that she saw in his eyes made her feel cold, and her feet froze where they were. She felt her knees wobble and she fell on the floor. A moment later, Logan was with her, making her stand up and heading for the stairs.

~~

His vision was blurring, going grey at the edges. He could feel the heat of his blood on his hands, the softness on the towel someone was holding to stop the bleeding, but he felt ants in his fingers, and he couldn't feel his feet anymore.

"Rémy! NO! No!"

He knew that voice. He oppened his eyes. Blurred all right, but there she was. Dark copery hair touched his face, and he saw her bright green eyes full of tears as she put her soft, hot hands on his cold cheeks.

~~

She couldn't believe it. She sniffed and put her hands to his cheeks to looks him in the eyes. She could feel everything around them. Scott on the phone, talking to the lady of the 9-1-1, Ororo on the other side of the limp body of Rémy, holding his hand and talking trought her tears to the one she considered her brother. Hank and Jean, both holding compresses to Rémy's chest and abdomen. And there she was, terrified by the coldnest of his skin, though afraid to let go unless he dies in front of her. She sobbed. She felt like watching a bad television show about emergency rooms. She knew this time it wasn't a nightmare, though, and that she wouldn't wake up from that dream.

"Rémy, Rémy? Can ya hear me, sugah? Stay wi'me, honey, the ambulance's comin. Stay awake, sugah. Don't leave me. RÉMY!" She yelled the last word when he closed his eyes. He oppened them again, only to give her a little smile. She was terrified not to see the usual red burning glow in his eyes, but a dull, flat red, without so much as a tiny spark to lit them up.

"N'est-ce pas ironique, ma chérie?" he managed to gasp. "Le voleur, tué par un autre voleur". (Isn't that ironic, chérie? The thief, killed by another thief.)

"Shhht, sugah, don't talk" she could feel tears streaming down her face, but she didn't care. She couldn't imagine how bad he must be feeling to drop into French, when he knew she didn't understand.  "Ah'll take care'o yah, you just don't talk"

~~

It didn't hurt anymore. He had to think hard to see what was happening around him, but all he could see were her bright green eyes on him. She had said something he didn't catch, he couldn't hear anything but a loud rumble in his ears and the slow tumping of his own heart.

"Rogue, ma chérie… Rogue, je t'aime"

It was all he could manage before the rumble in his ears stopped. He heard clearly his heart beat once, twice. The darknest took over him, and he closed his eyes.

~~

"Rogue, ma chérie… Rogue, je t'aime"

She moaned. "This just can't be happening" her mind said furiously. And when he closed his eyes, she craddled his head in her lap and cried all the tears in her body. His chest rose once, twice, stopped. She lifted him and held the body of her lover against the baby she bore, crying, as the flashing lights of the ambulance filled the suddently silenced hall.

~~

He slowly put the big white lily in front of the grave, crossed himself and rose to leave. To come here filled him with peace as he talked to the father he never knew. At first, he felt stupid talking to nobody, but then, each time he felt as all his problems had an end now. When the fights with his mother, these powers he couldn't control, blowing off everything, and the teasing of the others teens at school would be too much to bear, he would come here. "Ci-gît Rémy Étienne LeBeau, ami et mari bien-aimé. Que notre confiance et notre amour pour toi puissent te guider dans un monde meilleur." His hands balled at his side and he forced himself not to cry. The sight of his mother crying at the 15th anniversairy of death of Rémy had been hearthbreaking. He haven't known Rémy, but aunt Ororo had told him once he was a carbone copy of his father : tall and handsome, charming, powerful, and very pigheaded. And he knew his father would have been sad to see the kind of relationship his son was having with his mother.

He sighed. He got on his knees again and gently touched the photograph on the grave, carefull no to charge it. His mother's eyes had grown huge when he had accidently caused the explosion of the remote control. She had taken a good look at him, and had seen something that made her eyes water. "Do I look so much like you, Father? What would I not give to meet you, and to have someone to call dad."

"Yah do, Louis. Yah do look so much like him" He turned on his heels to meet Rogue's eyes, reddened from crying. "Since when were you there, Rogue?" He saw her flinch when he called her that "You've been looking at me? Spying on me again?" His voice rose. He could feel his heart break to say such things to her, but he couldn't stop it. The beautiful green eyes filled with pain.

"Please Louis, Ah don't wanna fight. No here. Please. Wait f'me in tha mansion if yah want but Ah won't let yah say mean things on ya fatha's grave, sugah."

His heart broke when a tear came across her cheek. "Mom…" She snapped her head up, surprised. He had been calling her Rogue for months, since their fights had begun. "Mom, I'm sorry. I…I don't wish to say these things to you, I… Ah… I guess I'm just sorry." She just looked at him, unbelieving. He made a tentative of smiling, and she smiled back. He just oppened his arms. She threw herself to him and squeezed hard her son's waist. At last he let her go, kissed her forehead and said "I love you, mom".

"And Ah love yah too, sugah. Louis… Ah'm sorry too for the mean things Ah said to yah."

"That's nothing" he smiled teasingly, so much like Rémy. "Guess were even. I'll leave you alone. You'll… You'll want to talk to him, I guess"

"Thanks"

He left his mother kneeling in front of the grave, a yellow lily in her hands. He turned towards the mansion. He could feel his heart was lighter and couldn't help from smiling. And he knew that up there, somewhere, his father was proud of him.

Fin