Four days later, Remy and the thieves were sitting around the rec. room with Jean, Logan, Jubilee, Bobby and Professor Xavier. Genard had been released from Hank's care two days prior, and had joined them, but Emil was still in the MedLab on antibiotics, getting better. Or so everyone thought.

They were talking when Hank entered the room and cleared his throat. "I would like to announce the return to the real world of Monsieur Emil Lapin, who has been an exceptional patient of mine for the past week."

Emil shook his head as he walked in behind Hank, a quirky grin on his pale face. "You're somet'ing else, Doc."

"How are you feeling, Emil?" Zoe asked, motioning for him to sit down by her. He did so and looked at her, smiling.

"Better. Not a hundred percent, but I'm getting dere." He coughed. His blue eyes had regained some of their natural sparkle, but there was still a hint of dullness that alerted the thieves to the fact that while he was feeling better, he was still wrestling with the emotional stuff.

"I guess dis means we're goin' home soon." Claude commented.

"Oui, dere's no real reason to stay here anymore." Remy sighed. "I jus' hope solvin' de Guild's problems won' be as hard as I t'ink it will be."

"You never know…" Emil said cryptically. And he didn't elaborate on what he had said, even though his comment generated looks from the X-Men and his fellow thieves. Emil wasn't sure if the talk he knew he had to have with Gris would actually help matters, but he was going to try, for both his own personal well-being and the well-being of the Guild as whole.

"Okay, Remy. See you tomorrow." Bella Donna said before hanging up the phone. She sat back on the couch in the safehouse living room and sighed. Remy had just called her to say the thieves were returning to New Orleans in the morning, and she now had to break the news to the other assassins. They had all be fairly happy for the days the thieves hadn't been around and she had a feeling they weren't going to be too impressed with the idea that the thieves were coming back so soon.

Bella Donna got up and headed to the kitchen, where she knew Gris, Fifolet, Questa and Singer were getting something ready for supper.

"Who was on de phone, Bel?" Questa asked as he chopped up some onions.

"Remy." Bel replied briefly.

Fifolet glanced at her sharply. "Dey comin' back?"

"Oui, tomorrow." She admitted. "An' tomorrow night we're gon' see what we can do 'bout de problems b'tween de people in dis Guild."

"I'll stop tryin' to kill dem without reason," Gris conceded. "But de second Lapin says somet'ing I don' like…"

"We'll talk 'bout it tomorrow, Gris." Bella Donna told him. "But don' you t'ink dat's goin' a bit too far? Hurtin' him is what got de others angry in de first place."

"I don' care." Gris snapped, and walked out of the room, followed by Fifolet, leaving the others to finish making supper.

"He won' change, Bel." Questa commented, watching his friends leave. "He hates Emil. De rest of us don' feel dat strongly, I don' know why he's been actin' de way he has. I guess Emil jus' gets on his nerves."

"Well it's gon' have to change. It can' continue." Bella Donna said, turning on the oven and starting to fry the ham, onions and green peppers. Nearby, Singer stirred up the eggs, getting them ready to add to the mix. They were making western sandwiches, something Remy had told them about.

Late the next morning, Remy and the thieves returned to the Guild safehouse. Their spirits weren't low, but they were calm and a little apprehensive. The next few hours were going to be crucial in keeping the Guild unified.

Bella Donna met them in the front hallway, obviously apprehensive herself about what was going to happen. She knew the two Guilds could survive as separate units, they had done so for over a century already. But she also knew the prophecies said they should be unified, and right now, that unification was in jeopardy. She looked specifically at Emil.

"How are you?" she asked.

Emil smiled. "I'm doin' better, t'anks."

"How are t'ings lookin' here, Bel?" Theoren asked. He was having a hard time not taking charge of the situation. He had been the second in command of the Thieves Guild, a position that he had not taken lightly.

"For de most part, I t'ink t'ings are okay…" Bella Donna replied with a raise of her eyebrows. "Mais, Gris is gon' be a problem. He's still sayin' dat if Emil says one t'ing dat pisses him off, he's gon' do somet'ing."

Emil sighed. Of course it would be this way. He wasn't surprised. He didn't like it, but it didn't surprise him. It just made him realize even more that he and Gris had to talk.

The thieves went and got resettled in the safehouse while Bella Donna went to assemble the assassins. Initially, she and Remy had decided to have the meeting in the evening, but upon the thieves' return, they changed their minds and thought it would be best to get it over with as soon as possible.

When the thieves started filing into the living room, the assassins were already there waiting, with the exception of Bella Donna. She and Remy were going to be the last ones to arrive, wanting to see what the others could do on their own first. They were testing the Guild waters, so to speak.

Gris and Emil eyed each other but didn't say a word. Like they had before, the thieves were on one side of the room, the assassins on the other. Not a word was spoken between any of them. This meeting wasn't their idea, and because it wasn't, they weren't going to instigate it.

Remy and Bella Donna entered the room and when they realized the silence wasn't on their behalf, they glanced at each other. They both knew accomplishing an actual peaceful union was not going to be an easy task.

"You all know why we're here." Remy began. "I know I'm only patriarch of dis Guild by de skin of my teeth, an' de irony of dat isn' lost on me. However, b'cause I am de patriarch of dis Guild, an' b'cause Bella Donna, as my viceroy, agrees wit' me on dis issue, we are all gon' sit in dis room until we come up wit' a workable solution to make de unification work."

"De definition of a workable solution is a solution where no one gets hurt, an' no one dies. Period." Bel continued with a pointed look in the general direction of the other assassins. She didn't want to single Gris out, but she knew as well as everyone in the room that he was the real instigator of the problems in the Guild. "We're stuck wit' dis, an' we're gon' work together to figure out how to make it work effectively for our own benefit, both as a group an' as individuals. Any questions?"

Continued silence met Bel's question. That silence was broken by a question from Genard.

"Where's Tante Mattie?"

"In de kitchen. She didn' want to be part of de meetin', but she felt dat she might be needed at some point, so she's stickin' 'round." Remy told him. "On top of dat, she's makin' us some food, b'cause like I said, we're not leavin' dis room until a solution has been agreed on by all of us."

"Dis gon' be a long day." Claude muttered to Emil and Mercy, both of whom almost laughed. They agreed with him. Emil especially agreed, because while he was feeling better, he was still on the antibiotics and he wasn't one hundred percent well yet. The day had already been long to him, in spite of the early hour, and he was tired. The idea of sitting there for hours arguing over solutions made his head hurt.

Some fifteen hours later, around two-thirty in the morning, the group was still sitting in the same spots. Not one of them had moved, save to go to the washroom, and they had only been allowed to leave for that purpose as long as they were back in the living room in three minutes. Remy and Bel could be a fairly strict when it counted, they saw. For the first seven or eight hours, they had done their best to come up with solutions, but for the most part, it was Remy and Bella Donna who were tossing out ideas, trying to get reactions from their Guild. Finally, in desperation, Bel said,

"We could always say to hell wit' de unification an' go back to two separate Guilds. I mean who cares what de prophecies say?"

At that, Emil, who had been trying his hardest not to fall asleep for most of the meeting, started laughing uncontrollably.

"What's so funny, Lapin?" Gris demanded, annoyed.

Emil attempted to stop laughing and only ended up laughing harder when he saw the look on Gris' face. "Oh c'mon, Gris! You've been sayin' dat exact same t'ing for months now. Don' you t'ink it's funny dat dey're finally considerin' it?"

"No I do not." Gris replied.

Genard, the Guild's resident 'Star Trek' fanatic, started chuckling. He desperately tried to hide it, not wanting to annoy Gris further, but he really couldn't help it. The big assassin sounded for all the world like Lieutenant Worf from STNG.

Zoe poked Genard in the ribs, seeing the glare he was getting from Gris. "Genard, stop it!" she hissed. Genard just laughed harder, and no one else in the room had any idea what exactly he was laughing at. It didn't matter though, because laughter is contagious. With both Emil and Genard practically falling on the floor laughing, soon Questa, Fifolet, Singer, Claude, Zoe and Mercy had all started laughing as well.

Remy and Bella Donna looked at each other. It occurred to them that the others were tired and getting punchy, hence the spontaneous laughing fit that overtook the majority of them.

"You t'ink maybe we should call it a night?" Remy asked, a smile playing across his lips. He had to admit he wanted to laugh too. It had been a very long day, and they had gotten absolutely nowhere. Or so he thought.

Bel smiled and shook her head slightly. "Not jus' yet. I t'ink our problem might be on de way to bein' solved."

"How do you figure dat?" Remy asked. "Dey're all laughin' like hyenas. Dat's not solvin' de problem."

"Perhaps not, Remy, but it's a start, isn' it? When has dis ever happened b'fore? Sure, most of dem don' know why dey're laughin', but dat' isn' de point. It doesn' matter why dey're laughing. It jus' matters dat dey are. Let's let dem laugh for awhile, see where it leads."

"Are you crazy?" Theoren and Gris asked at the same time, both having overheard the conversation. They eyed each other warily. Neither one of them liked the display of hilarity their friends were showing, but they also didn't like the fact that Bel thought it should be allowed to continue. It wasn't getting them anywhere.

"Aren' we all?" Bel replied with a charming smiled. "When dey've stopped laughing, tell dem de meetin's adjourned. We'll continue after everyone gets up in de mornin'."

The next day, after everyone had gotten as good a night's sleep as they could, they assembled in the living room again, sheepish smiles on some of their faces. After they had broken up the meeting the night before, Genard had refused to tell anyone except Emil why he had started laughing. Emil agreed that it was hilarious, and promised not to tell anyone if asked.

The meeting didn't last long. Fifolet, Questa and Singer had spoken after the previous meeting, before going to bed, and they agreed that the hostilities had to end.

"We were talkin', an' well, we don' want de problems to continue either." Fifolet said. "Bel, if you an' Remy want peace in dis Guild, den as far as de three of us are concerned, dat's what you'll get."

Eyebrows were raised around the room as the others listened to what Fifolet had to say.

"T'ank you. Dat means a lot." Remy said.

"It's jus' getting old, ya know?" Questa asked. Remy and Bella Donna both nodded, understanding exactly what he meant.

Gris stood without word and stalked out of the room. He wasn't impressed with the way things were going and wanted no part of it. He also wanted no part of a continuation of the unification.

"Gris!" Bel yelled after him, but he kept going, ignoring the former assassin matriarch. Sighing, Bel sat down in defeat. "Great. I don' t'ink anyt'ing can change his attitude."

"Strange as it might sound, I might be able to." Emil said quietly, going to the door.

"Emil, he tried to kill you!" Mercy exclaimed. "What makes you t'ink you can make him see reason?"

"I know, I know. I jus' t'ink I can. I have an idea. It might not work, but it's worth a shot. An' if I start yellin' for help, I do expect you all to come save me." Emil replied, leaving the room and heading for the kitchen. That's where Gris had been heading when he left, so Emil figured it was a good place to start looking for the assassin.

When he saw Gris standing in the kitchen looking out the window, Emil was filled with apprehension. He was about to start a very difficult conversation with a very dangerous, very big man who hated him and wanted to kill him. Emil wasn't looking for a fight, even though he wasn't all that fond of Gris either. He just wanted to talk, and he hoped Gris wouldn't make it any harder than it already was.