Part Thirteen
written by Soar and most expertly edited by Jeanne Kalvar
email ksg3@le.ac.uk
Remy wasn't sure how they knew, but all the X-men seemed to come at once as soon as dinner was ready. Ororo came down first with the Professor, and Remy ran over to her side.
"Remy, I have had the most marvellous time! I planted some seeds and watered some flowers and I sang to them too, because the Professor said that that is what his friend does to them." Ororo paused to take a breath. "What have you been doing Remy?" she asked.
Remy looked at Jean and then back at Ororo, "I went for a walk wit' Jean but I fell down so we came back 'ere and I helped to make de dinner."
The Professor looked up with alarm at Jean when he heard of Remy's accident, but Jean just smiled reassuringly.
*Don't worry Professor, he's fine, I caught him in a telekinetic bubble before he could hurt himself.* she said telepathically.
"Okay. You two get yourselves washed up and then come and sit at the table. You'll want to get yourselves sat down before the others come in," she said aloud.
Remy and Ororo both went over to the sink to wash and then sat down together. Logan and Bishop also washed up and sat opposite the two children. Jean put the dinner out and had just sat down at one end of the table in between Remy and Logan when everyone else came in.
Remy and Ororo watched wide-eyed at the assortment of mutants. Remy marvelled when he saw the blue man with wings and the woman with purple hair. He also recognised his blue-furred doctor. There was a woman with a white streak in her hair that looked at him a little too intensely; she was starting to make Remy feel uncomfortable. What he found strange was that amongst this assortment of multicoloured mutants were also some very ordinary looking people, like Jean and the Professor.
A young man came in and sat down close to their end of the table. He froze his dinner while Remy and Ororo watched with mouths open wide.
He looked up and saw them watching. He still wasn't sure that he trusted Remy after what had happened before the transformation, but there was something innocent about him now that made Bobby forget about the adult Remy and his dislike of him.
"Hi, I'm Bobby, but you can call me Iceman," he said with one of his mischievous grins.
Remy and Ororo looked at each other and then back at Bobby.
"Mr Niceman," Ororo said, "how did you do that?"
The entire room began to laugh, as did Bobby. Ororo and Remy looked at each other in confusion.
Jean took pity on the pair, "Just call him Bobby--he's not at all nice."
"Hey, Jean, you're ruining my reputation in front of these two," Bobby pouted irrepressibly.
The table hummed with conversation through out the meal, but Ororo and Remy were silent. Although feeling more relaxed, they were both still on their guard. Lessons of the streets ran through their minds. You never know when you may need to exit quickly so always be aware of your surroundings. Never relax your guard with strangers.
When dinner had finished, the X-men left as quickly as they had entered, except for Sam who was on washing up detail.
Scott had not been at dinner with them; he was still out on an information mission, so Jean took the children back to the boathouse with her. She could see they were both very tired--after all, they'd had a relatively busy and exciting day, and they were both still so young.
She left them watching television while she made up their beds. Then she found them something to wear in bed.
"Right, you two! Come on, bed time," she called.
They made no arguments, so Jean guessed that they were probably very tired. She ushered them upstairs and allowed them the privacy of the bathroom to get changed. Then she checked Remy's stitches to make sure the day's excitement hadn't loosened them.
She tucked them both in and walked to the door.
"Okay, now. If you two need anything, I'll be just downstairs for now, and you know my room is at the end of the hall."
They both nodded solemnly. Jean turned out the light and closed the door softly.
"Remy," Ororo called out into the darkness.
"Oui chere?"
"Do you like it here?"
"I don' know, chere. I like Jean; she be real nice. But de others, I don't know 'bout dem. Dey scare me."
"I know. Goodnight, Remy." Ororo said yawning.
"G'night, chere," Remy answered, and they both drifted off quickly to sleep.
Remy's eyes opened. Something had awakened him. Fully alert, he got out of his bed and moved to the door. He opened it quietly and stepped out into the upstairs hallway. He could hear voices coming from downstairs.
One of them was Jean's; the other he did not recognise. He made his way to the top of the stairs and slowly moved down them, looking through the railings. He could see Jean hugging a man. The man had strange red glasses on. He could just make out what they were saying.
"You're sure?" Jean was asking.
"Yes, my source is reliable. You know that. If he says that Sinister is up to something, then we can take his word for it. I just wish I knew what."
Remy didn't hear any more of the conversation. His mind was working furiously to connect the name Sinister to a memory. Suddenly a light shone, and he saw a picture in his mind's eye. An evil-looking man with metallic looking skin and strange red eyes, with a diamond in the middle of his forehead.
He heard a strangled moan of terror and didn't realise that it came from his throat. His mind became locked in past memories.
Jean and Scott heard the moan and immediately raced to see who had made the sound. They found Remy sitting on the stairs, a look of pure terror on his face. He did not appear to see them there.
"What's he doing here?" Scott asked his wife.
"We'll talk about it later, Scott. Right now we've got to help Remy."
"What's wrong with him?"
Jean lightly probed Remy telepathically, fully expecting a psychic ejection. But what she found instead was an image that was fixed in Remy's mind, the image of Sinister.
end of part 12
Part Thirteen