The sun was shining, bright and hot, in the sky when a sound started stirring Emil out of his deep, exhaustion-induced slumber. With his keen senses, he could hear the sound even in sleep, and tried to figure out what it was in his dreams. The longer it took to figure out though, the more awake he became, and finally he was lying on the sand, eyes closed but fully awake. And the sound was clear as a bell.
"...Mmmph...?"
One word flashed though Emil's protesting mind. Remy! His eyes snapped open and he sat bolt-upright in the same instant, turning to look at his best friend, who was still on the makeshift stretcher beside him. "Remy?"
Remy was close to regaining consciousness but hadn't quite made it. Emil sighed as his cousin didn't reply to his question, having fallen back into his former unconscious state.
"Dammit Remy don' do dat to me..." Emil complained. "Worried 'nough 'bout you as it is..."
A frown tugging at his lips, Emil resumed his position and closed his eyes again. He was still tired, and he just wanted to sleep. If Remy wasn't awake, he didn't want to be either, because when he was awake without Remy to talk to he had more of a chance of scaring himself half to death or giving himself a nervous breakdown, neither of which would help the situation any.
Five minutes later, however, Emil was getting up again. His body had insisted on it. He was thirsty. Emil gave in to his need for water and went to the stream. After he took a drink, he sat down on a rock near the ocean's edge, close enough to the shelter so that if Remy woke up, he'd be within earshot, and stared out at the calm, clear water.
"Why hasn' anyone found us yet? What happened to James? Doesn' anyone know we're missin'?" He asked the ocean. "An' de rest of de Guild...do dey know? Are dey worried...?"
Tears welled up in Emil's blue eyes. It was one thing to be safe in your hometown surrounded by people who can protect you if they're needed. But it was quite another thing to be virtually alone in a strange place with very little food and no way of contacting the outside world. "I'm scared..." He whispered. "I wan' go home..."
There was a knock at the back door of Tante Mattie's house. Mercy, closest to the kitchen, told the healer not to get up.
"I'll get it, Tante. It's prob'ly Bel an' de others." The blonde woman said. "Dey're prob'ly wonderin' why we ain' gone back to de safehouse to wait dis out wit' dem."
Mercy walked out through the kitchen to the back door. She peeked out through the blinds and almost shook her head in amazement. She had been right. With a half-hearted smile she opened the door. Standing on the step were Bella Donna Boudreaux, Viceroy of the Unified Guild and former Matriarch of the Assassins Guild, and the rest of the Assassins: Gris-Gris, Fifolet, Singer and Questa.
"Figured you'd be here when you weren' anywhere else." Bella Donna said quietly.
"You cared 'nough to look for us, I'm impressed." Mercy couldn't stop the sarcastic remark from slipping out but instantly regretted it. In the short while since the two Guilds unified into one, they had all been doing the best they could to keep the peace and comments like that didn't help any.
All five Assassins raised eyebrows at Mercy, who sighed. "Dat came out wrong...I'm sorry...c'mon in. An' I apologize in advance for any other such comments dat might come from de others...we're more'n a little stressed out right now..."
Bella Donna led the Assassins into the house. They followed Mercy into the living room, where Tante Mattie and the other Thieves were still watching CNN. There had been more of James' boat recovered during the night and early morning hours, but still no sign of Remy and Emil anywhere. It was starting to seem like the two had dropped off the face of the earth, even though no one present believed that to be true.
"No word yet?" Bel asked.
Claude shook his head and spoke for the others. "Non. Theo says he's got a plan, but he won' tell us what it is. Not like any of us can form a search party...de cops'd be on us in minutes."
Gris-Gris, leaning against the wall, his dark eyes keeping a keen watch on everyone around him, glanced at Theoren. "Marceaux? You gotta plan maybe you should tell us, non?"
Theoren sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I know Gris." He stood up and moved to where he could see all of the assembled Guild members. "Well, it's like dis. I started t'inkin' last night. Dey got de Coast Guard an' everyone else out lookin' for de guys, right?"
"Yeah...so?" Questa asked.
"So? T'ink 'bout it. What're de authorities gon' find out if dey locate Remy an' Emil? Who dey are. An' subsequently, who de rest of us are too. We can' let de Coast Guard find 'em." Theoren said.
"But how can we do dat?" Genard asked. "We can' go look for 'em for de same reasons, an' yet we don' wan' dem to find 'em either..."
"Guys you ain' t'inkin'. We don' have to do a t'ing except make a phone call an' wait." Theoren explained. "Somehow, when Remy's down here, we all forget dat he's more'n just our Guild Patriarch."
"De X-Men..." Zoe's eyes widened.
"Exactly. Far as we know now, dey don' know Remy's missin'. If we call an' tell dem, dey'll get out dere full force an' find him an' Emil faster an' more efficiently den de Coast Guard, plus dey won' draw attention to anyone but demselves. An' dat, in turn, will take all de attention of de Guild."
"How on earth did you manage to sit on dat idea all night an' not bust?" Mercy demanded.
"I don' know, but can we do it?"
"Of course!" Bella Donna exclaimed. "What de hell are we waitin' for? Call dem already!"
"Wait now...!"
All eyes turned to Tante Mattie, who was, as always, the voice of reason. She held her cordless phone in her hands, but refused to give it to one of them just yet.
"Who are you gon' talk to? What if one of de chil'ren answer de phone? You can' jus' tell whoever answers de phone, you have to ask for someone you know will do somethin' 'bout it. We're tryin' to save Remy an' Emil here...don' jump in without t'inkin' first."
"Should we talk directly to Professor Xavier?" Fifolet asked.
"What if he's away on business?" Singer countered. They all understood what Tante Mattie was getting at and wanted to work it out for themselves.
"Who's de second-in-command up dere?" Gris-Gris wanted to know.
"I don' know...we shoulda asked Remy long 'go..." Bel replied. "Dat kinda information would come in handy right now."
"I know who we should tell." Zoe grinned. "Storm."
"Storm?" The five Assassins asked in unison.
Mercy nodded. "Yeah. Ororo Munroe was de person who got Remy into de X-Men to b'gin wit'. Remy's always talkin' 'bout her an' what a great friend she is. Good idea, Zoe. So who's gon' call? Personally, I t'ink Theo should since it's his idea."
Bel looked at the Assassins. She would have liked to make the call herself, being the Guild Viceroy and technically in charge without Remy around, but when her family nodded, she agreed with Mercy. "No disagreements here."
Theoren glanced at her as he took the phone from Mattie. "Don' take dis de wrong way, Bel, but dat's kinda surprisin'..."
"I know. Technically, I prob'ly should be de one to make de call, but when it comes down to it, Remy an' Emil are t'ieves an' if de Guilds weren' unified an' dis happened, you'd be makin' de call yourself anyway, as second-in-command of de T'ieves. So, go 'head. Makin' dis call is your job. We're merely here for support." Bel smiled.
"T'anks guys." Theoren returned the smile.
"Xavier School, Bobby Drake speaking." A chipper young voice answered the phone two rings after Theoren finished dialing the number. The voice belonged to one of the members of the X-Men, a young man by the name of Bobby Drake.
"Hello, may I speak wit' Ms Munroe s'il vous plait?" Theoren asked as politely as he knew how. Tante Mattie had instilled good manners in all the Guild members from the time they were small children, but a lot of the time those lessons in manners were lost in the scuffle of what they did for a living. Theo was glad to have the opportunity to be nice and polite without having the ulterior motive of conning someone out of a fortune.
"Sorry but Storm's teaching a class right now. Can I take a message and get her to call you back?" Bobby asked.
Theoren rolled his eyes. "It's extremely important dat I talk to her...can' you get her out of class or somethin'?"
"You're kidding, right?" Bobby chuckled. "Interrupting one of Storm's history classes for anything but an emergency could be punishable in ways you'd rather not know about."
"But dis is an emergency. Dat's why it's so important." Theoren forced himself to be as calm as possible. He didn't need to start sounding authoritative with the younger man. That wouldn't get him very far.
"It is?" Bobby sounded surprised. "Okay...I'll see what I can do...hang on a sec."
Five minutes later, a pleasant female voice came on the line. "Hello?"
Theoren nearly passed out from relief. "Ms Munroe?"
"Yes."
"I'm really sorry to interrupt your class, but I'm pretty sure you won' mind when you hear what I have to tell you. First, I'm Theoren Marceaux, I'm Remy's cousin..."
"One of the Thieves?" Ororo asked.
"Oui. Um..."
"Has something happened to Gambit?"
Theoren swallowed. "Actually, yeah, dat's why I'm callin'. I don' know if you guys watch CNN or anythin' up dere, but Remy's vacation plans were to take one of our cousins to Florida for sailin' lessons an', well, dere was dis hurricane or somethin'..."
"They were on the boat that was wrecked at sea during the hurricane?" Ororo's voice was low.
"Yeah. De Coast Guard is out lookin' for dem right now, but it's kinda important dat dey don' find 'em...b'cause if dey do, dey'll find out who dey are an' who we are an'..."
"And that, given who you are, would be a bad thing." Ororo finished. "I understand. Remy has always been very quiet when anything concerning the Guild came up. I will inform the rest of the X-Men immediately and we will do what we can to bring Remy and your cousin back safely with as little publicity as possible."
"T'ank you..." Theoren whispered. He gave Ororo the phone number where they could be reached if needed, and hung up the phone.
"Well?" The rest of the Guild members asked in one voice.
"She said dey'll do what dey can. Sounded pretty concerned 'bout Remy, an' promised to keep it low-key so we don' get any publicity." Theoren informed them.
"Good. Now all we have to do is wait." Bella Donna said.
"Emil?"
Remy's voice drifted out to Emil, who had been sitting on his rock for over an hour. Emil heard it and smiled, saying a quick thank you to God before jumping up and heading back into the shelter.
"Hey." Emil said. "Welcome back to de wakin' world. Gave me quite a scare y'know dat? I know you're de Guild Patriarch an' all, but I swear if you ever put me t'rough somethin' like de las' two days 'gain, I'll never forgive you."
"Sorry..." Remy replied with a cringe. He had tried to move and found that more than one part of his body was in a lot of pain.
"Yeah, movin' ain' really an option right now, mon ami. Y'got a broken leg 'mong other t'ings. You ain' goin' nowhere without help. An' b'fore you ask, dere's no Tylenol or Advil or anythin' in either of our backpacks."
"Damn." Remy muttered. "What were we t'inkin', not takin' painkillers wit' us?"
"Beats me. Other den sore, how you feelin'?"
"Hungry an' thirsty an' like dis vacation wasn' really de best idea I ever had."
"Well, for hunger, we got food. Berries an' coconut an' stuff. For thirst, dere's a stream of water out dere...I'll get some. Hang on." Emil replied.
Less than five minutes later he returned with a canteen full of water and a make-shift bowl filled with berries and bits of coconut, both of which he handed to Remy.
"Here ya go. Ain' a meal fit for a Prince of T'ieves, but it'll have to do." Emil joked.
Remy studied his cousin while he ate. In spite of the jokes and light-hearted banter, Emil was much more subdued and serious than Remy remembered him ever being in his life. "You've changed."
Emil sighed. "Nice of you to notice, now if Theo also notices when we get home, I'll be set."
"Emil..." Remy began. Emil cut him off.
"Remy you didn' give me much of a choice. You went off on your own, fell down a huge, deep hole, broke your leg an' knocked yourself out an' essentially left me to my own devices! Hell yeah I changed...dis whole week has changed me..."
"Like I said, not de best idea I've ever had." Remy said. "An' I never said de changes were bad ones. Looks to me like you did pretty well when left to your own devices, as you put it. Proves to me what Mercy's been tryin' to tell us both for years: you're more'n capable of takin' care of yourself an' takin' charge of a situation if you need to. If it takes dis week to make you realize dat, den maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all."
"Oh for cryin' out loud...I don' wan' grow up Remy, ain' you figured dat out yet? De second de others realize I can actually t'ink an' be mature an' stuff, dey'll expect dat all de time...I don' wan' change..."
"No dey won'. I don'. We all know you too well to expect you to completely change, nor do any of us want to, except perhaps for Gris an' Theo. But de truth of de matter, Red, is dis. You can t'ink an' come up wit' some mature, workable solutions when the need arises, and dat's a great t'ing."
"Yeah okay whatever." Emil sighed in defeat. He didn't feel like arguing the point with Remy any longer. "So how come I can' come up wit' a plan to get us off dis damned island, huh?"