Lone Wolves

Chapter 6: Glycerine

By BeeJ and Nicole Wagner: The Deadly Gambit

Rated: PG-13/R for violence, sexual themes, and language

Summary: An Alternate version of what happened AFTER Antarctica in Uncanny X-Men #350. Everything you know that happened, is not what it seemed.

This Chapter gets a special thank you to BJ, who helped write out this chapter and may be on board for the rest of the story! (I dunno yet, but I hope so! I miss writing with BJ!) People may also be confused by this chapter's title. "Glycerine" is the title of a "Bush" song from their album "16 Stone". I listened to it while working throughout the chapter with BJ, and it helped inspire it. I also encourage you to listen to the song while reading this chapter… since it just has a feeling of fitting in with all the emotions of the entire chapter.

I would like to take this time to give a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed the story and encouraged me to continue writing this story! Thank you! Keep those reviews coming!

Logan had slammed the door shut to the medical lab. He could not believe what was happening. It was like his whole world in a matter of hours was falling apart. Weapon X was back, his son's whole life was played out to give him nothing but pain and heart-ache, and Rogue had practically betrayed them all for some fantasy world.

He found himself struggling with the animal within, and the man he was. Logan did his best to try and regain his composure. He wanted to just lock himself in the danger room for a week and do nothing but destroy things until he felt better. But what good would that do? His son would still be gravely injured when he was done, Rogue would still be some pity hungry monster, and Weapon X would still be around.

He leaned against the wall watching the still form on the bed slowly breathing in
and then out again for a long time. It was wrong, all wrong, he kept telling
himself this couldn't be happening, but there was the proof; pale and damn near
fatally wounded right in front of his burning eyes. Remy. He was always moving,
could barely stand still most of the time and now... what would be left of him
when he finally woke up again?

Memories washed over him without any warning, stealing his breath and making him
feel chilled to the bone; watching the kid sink an impossible shot while playing
pool, practically dancing his way through battles, smiling as he threw down yet
another winning hand on poker night, riding his bike with no helmet; screaming
with joy as the wind whipped through his long hair, drinking and smoking and
being a general pain in the ass just to drive Cyke nuts...

Logan ran his hand through his hair and sighed; moving to the chair beside the
bed sounded like a good idea but he couldn't make his feet go. He hadn't slept
since he brought Remy home, and even with the healing he was feeling all of his
years and was dead tired.

"I'm a little jealous, kiddo." His voice sounded rough and overly loud in the
little room. He finally found the strength to push away from the jamb and
dropped into the uncomfortable chair. He'd have to see about getting a better
one down here soon. "Maybe I should just make ya move over, huh?" He imagined
Remy's brows shouting up at the little joke. He picked up the newspaper off the
floor but threw it back down just as quickly, there was nothing in the news he
cared about anymore. Leaning forward he brushed Remy's bangs back as their last
night together played out in his mind. "Damn it, Rem ..."

"You're drinkin' like you're runnin' away from somethin', kid, spill it."

Remy just looked at him over the top of his glass, "Maybe Remy don' wanna talk
about it.

Logan grabbed his elbow and led him to the side of the bar to a small booth. It
was past closing time and they had the bar to themselves. "Well maybe Remy don't
get a choice. Sit. Tell me what's eatin' ya. I know something's botherin' ya,
that's why I drug you out tonight. We were havin' a good time then all of a
sudden you clam up and start tryin' to out drink me. Come on, Rem, you know you
can trust me kiddo."

Remy closed his eyes with a sigh then waved to Harry and waited until he left
the bottle of amber liquid on the table before lighting a cigarette and blowing
the smoke out in a long, slow breath. "It be m' anniversary t'day. Congratulate
me."

Logan was about to ask what he meant when the meaning of the statement hit him,
"Belle? This is about you an' Belle?"

"Oui." Remy looked down into his glass of bourbon, then back up at Logan. "Woulda been our tenth anniversary, if she was alive. Not dat it woulda been a happy one for us."

"Why not, kid? Thought you and her had something." Logan frowned, remembering when the Brood attacked New Orleans. Belle had given her life to save the X-Men, Ghost Rider, and both Guilds that day. Remy was in shock, but he never cried, nor did he have time to mourn. Instead he went back to the X-Men without a peep. He always thought the reason was it was too painful for him to talk about. But with how Remy was acting at this moment, there seemed to be more under the surface.

"We was jus' friends. Nuthin' more, nuthin' less." Remy drank the last drop of bourbon from his glass, and instead of refilling it, he went straight for the bottle instead. "We woulda been stuck in a love-less, meaning-less marriage. Nuthin' but tension, hate, an' anger on both sides. It wouldn' even be close to anything normal. Not like what Jean an' Scott got."

Logan raised an eyebrow at this. He then placed his hand on Remy's, preventing the younger man from picking up the bottle of bourbon and drinking even more. He never imagined that his son would have ended up in such a marriage, much less end up getting his heart stomped on by Rogue.

"Was it because of the Guilds? I know you said you had to marry her to prevent some war between'em." Right after Logan said that, he was taken back by Remy's reaction. He was laughing, and not a drunk laughter either. It was more like the kind of laughter to let out to prevent yourself from crying.

"Dat was a lie, too. Guess Roguie right an' I can' even tell de truth to no one." Frowning a little, Remy tried to take his bottle of bourbon back from Logan. "You give me dis bottle back, an' I'll tell you de whole story. Jus' gotta make me a promise."

"What's that, kid?"

"What I tell you now... it stays b'tween us, oui? No need t' involve anyone
else. It ain' th' kinda story I want passed aroun'."

Logan took the bottle and filled Remy's glass, "Start talkin' kid."

Harry seemed to magically appear with another bottle of beer for Logan and an
extra glass in case he decided to switch to the kid's harder stuff. "I'm headin'
out boys. Lock the place up on your way out." He dropped a set of keys on the
table.

They nodded and watched as the old bartender left through a back door. "Okay
kiddo it's just the two of us now. Tell me a story."

Remy played with his pack of cigarettes. He desperately wanted to smoke one but
knew that was just a stalling technique. Instead he pulled a card out of his
pocket and flipped it through his fingers. "Me and Belle... we go way back. Met
her even b'fore I met papa. She had th' prettiest eyes. So I talk to her once in
a while, compliment her, we become friends, well as friendly as a street rat an'
a princess could ever get."

He finally lit a cigarette before continuing, "We come t' be pretty good friends
f' a couple o' kids who supposed t' be enemies. Talked a lot, even followed her
t' watch her practice a couple o' times."

Logan poured himself a drink from the bottle and stopped him, "Wait wait wait...
you followed her into her own practices? In Assassin territory? And you never
got caught?"

Remy gave him a strange smile, "I liked the girl, non, an' Remy, he was a very good little thief. They never knew I was there. That's when I first got a look at Julien, her "brother", keep that in mind. Sick sonofabitch…"

Logan saw the look of disgust on his son's face. He knew instantly that he
needed to hear more about Julien but he didn't want to interrupt Remy now that
he finally had him talking. He had a feeling that Julien would somehow come back
into the story anyway. He poured the kid another drink and nodded for him to
continue.

"I'd know Belle f' years by that time and I was livin' with papa... I wasn' a
street rat no more. I was an equal, at least in the eyes of anyone who'd care,
so I decided t' ask her out. Her birthday was comin' up soon and I thought we
could maybe go on a real date."

"Sounds pretty ballsy. The son of a thief askin' the daughter of the Assassins on a date." Logan grinned some. Remy sometimes reminded him of himself, even if he never got the chance to raise him. Live and love dangerously.

"Nah, wasn' ballsy at all. I was jus' a fool wit' his first crush." A smirk crawled back upon Remy's face as he took another swig of his bourbon, before slamming his empty glass back down. "I snuck into her house de night before her birthday. Was dressed up fine, me. Even brought a rose for her, too. But as soon as I reached her bedroom door, well… My heart jus' shattered."

Logan was afraid to ask what Remy saw. No doubt it was no good if it broke his heart at such a young age. Instead, Logan just sat back in his chair and took in more bourbon as he let Remy explain more. He hurt as soon as he saw the smirk from Remy's lips disappear, and an extremely pained look come across his face.

"Belle was… she an' Julien' were fuckin' ." Remy poured himself another glass of bourbon. The bottle was starting to run low now, and he still did not feel buzzed enough to handle remembering this horrible story. "At first I t'ought he was hurtin' her, an' was gonna bust in dat room to play hero. But den, I heard her. She was telling' Julien she "loved" him. Her own "brother"! It was… it was disgustin' ! She "loved" HIM", a family member!"

Logan sat up in shock. It was no wonder Remy wanted to keep such a memory to himself and in private. He could actually imagine other X-Men laughing at Remy for this and pulling some "South" joke out of the bin. He just lowered his eyes, and placed a hand on Remy's shoulder, trying to at least show he was there and not going to judge him by this.

"I was in shocked, stumbled back a few feet from the door and knocked over a vase, 'casuin' Belle's Papa to come out of his study and catch me. Man was about to box my ears when he heard de noises from Belle's room. Instantly let me go an' ran over dere. De man was horrified at what he saw to say de least. Gave me enough time to get de hell outta dere." Remy's red on black eyes were partially closed, now. His fingers were spinning the empty glass on the table as he kept going, not even bothering to shrug Logan's hand off of his shoulder.

"Next day, Belle's Papa comes to my house to 'ave words with my Papa. Dey was in de study for a few hours. Thought I was gonna get my hide handed to me. Instead, Belle's Papa left the room, not before shakin' Jean Luc's hand an' lookin' to be all smiles. T'ought it was weird an' went to ask Papa what it was all about. He said I was gonna marry Belle for de sake o' de Guilds. Jean Luc ain' never been a gullible man in all his life, but he fell for dat lie hook, line, an' sinker."

"Did ya explain what ya saw?" He imagined his son going over that awful time in his mind, reliving the shock and pain, and hated himself once again because he was partially responsible for it. Swallowing hard he asked quietly, " Rem? Kiddo, what happened?"

"I told'em de truth. Told'em about what I saw dat night... said I was sorry for breakin' into de Assassian's main house dat night, an' even more sorry ah got him into dis mess. He looked at me an' told me I ain' don anyt'ing wrong, dat it was Belle an' Julien's fault... an' ah was payin' a price for dere sins."

"He wanted to call it off, wanted to yell at Marcus for suckerin' him into such a deal... but I stopped him. Dis pact, it meant no more needless killin', no more hatred between the Guilds. Just peace, like some calm after a big ol' storm. Jean Luc turned to me, begged me to t'ink about what I was sayin'. I was t'irteen years old, been livin' wit' Jean Luc for six years... an' such a choice would impact de rest o' my life. I looked at him an' said "One life for hundreds more", an' he just held me. T'ink he even shed tears, too."

Remy shed some tears of his own, taking the bottle of bourbon back from Logan and just putting it to his lips, drinking heavily. Logan did not have the heart to stop him, he just sat there watching the young man in such pain. "So that was it?"

"Dat was it. Jean Luc was proud o' me for sacrificin' so much for so many people, but he hurt. He knew I was gonna be stuck wit' "used goods" for de rest o' my life. T'ree years before I was to be married, he sent me to Paris to find myself, find some joy in my life before I ended up miserably for de rest. He kept encouraging me to find a nice woman while I was there, take on a Mistress so I would at least 'ave some love. Told'em no, I was not gonna be as bad as Belle an' her Broder."

"So... you sayin' you didn't go to Paris to sew your wild oats like your father suggested?" Logan looked somewhat puzzled at this. He was going to be stuck in a horrible marriage, yet he refused to go off and love any other women. It was almost unbelievable, but the pain on Remy's face made it all true. This meant the story Rogue had come up to him with was pure fiction. Remy never was with some girl in Paris back in his youth, making him possibly the most noble man he ever met. "What did you do while you were in Paris, then?"

"Heh, you wouldn' believe me if I told you, Logan." Remy chuckled, slamming down the now empty Bourbon bottle on the bar top. He placed his hands on his head, already feeling wasted from drinking so much. It took away his mental pain for the night, but no doubt it would be back in the morning at full force. "Mais, I can' drive home like dis. M'sorry... you mind givin' me a ride? Gotta wake up at some decent time to go to de City wit' de others."

"You are actually gonna go with them?" This surprised Logan. He knew Rogue and Joseph were talking about a possible romantic outing during the trip. It was like a sword in Remy's heart seeing the two together, and Logan was sure of that. Hell, he even though the way Rogue was flaunting her new relationship was in bad taste, and that said something. "You sure you wanna do that?"

"Eh, why non? I always wanted to go ice skatin' at Rockafella center... well, always wanted to try it, anyway." Remy was laughing, not a pained laugh by a care-free one. "I ain' one to let other people go an' ruin my fun."

Logan chuckled himself. Remy had a tendency to make the best of any situation, be it on the battlefield or off. He was always willing and able to adapt when needed, something most men could not do. "Alright Cajun, let's hit the road. You're a lucky son of a bitch, you know that? I don't normally drive the Jeep over to Harry's."

"Eh, I been told such." Remy chuckled himself, waving a hand dismissively at Logan. he wobbled a little as he stood there, watching Logan clean up their drinks for Harry. He then twirled the bar keys on his finger with his own jeep keys. "We make our own luck sometimes, no?"

"Damn straight we do." Logan put an arm around Remy's waist, trying to keep the kid from face planting as he walked. He felt bad for letting him get so sauced, but he knew Remy needed this. With all the shit that's been going on, he needed to have some form of fun. "Let's go. And no spewing in my Jeep. You do that Cajun, you are gonna regret it big time!"

Logan came back to reality when Hank walked back into the room. he was quite as a mouse, checking Remy's vitals and then changing the IV fluids that were being forced into his son's body. He had nothing to say as he watched Hank work. There was nothing to say.

End of Chapter 6