Okay, okay - I'm sorry if I freaked anyone out or confused them with the last two chapters! There's no worries; Rogue's not dead nor is she dying. Also, if you were confused, everything gets explained here so you might have to read this one and then re-read chapter 17. It'll make more sense, I promise.

Oh, and anyone reading You Want It that hadn't noticed; it got updated a couple of days ago.

Also: Holy Reviews, Batman! Thanks for the reviews! I lurve them!

Double also, why is Remy such a stud? I was watching the old xmen cartoon today and that guy is awesome. What a stud! Oooh baby!

Ace of Hearts - Chapter 18

Debriefing

Rogue inhaled deeply through her nose. As her senses started to awaken, the first thing that hit her was her sense of smell. Remy. She loved his smell, the scent that was uniquely him. She loved how he smelled like spice and tobacco. More than that, she loved how his sheets were tinted with the smell of sweat when they were together.

It took her a moment to lift herself out of a medication-induced fog to remember that she wasn't with Remy. Her other senses started to awaken and she could see brightness against her eyelids, she tried to open them.

No, she wasn't with Remy at all. Last thing she remembered. . . well her memories were a little foggy as well. She had flashes of the ceiling of the Xjet, the medlab, the hanger below the mansion.

She willed her eyelids to open and was quite surprised to see a certain blue mutant. "?" Her throat was dry. Her body ached.

"Well look at that!" Hank smiled down at the girl on the bed. He pulled himself away from her, stethoscope in hand. "I was thinking you'd be waking up soon. The mild sedative I gave you this morning kept you out most of the whole day."

Rogue said nothing, not even bothering to question how and why she was in her room. She closed her eyes momentarily and fought to open them again. She was so tired.

Hank's smile was still rooted in place, "Now, how do you feel, Miss Rogue?"

She would have shrugged, but felt unable, "Like Ah got a monster headache, and mah body hurts a little. Mah side is starting to hurt more as we talk."

Hank nodded, "I figured as much. Now, your medication should be wearing off shortly and then you'll feel the extent of your injuries." As Rogue grimaced, Hank's grin grew a little, "But fear not, young Rogue, for I happen to have a most effective painkiller prepared for you."

Before Rogue could respond, her eyes moved to the door to see Logan enter her room. She couldn't help but grin back at Hank, "Boy howdy!"

Hank was laughing quietly at his own sense of humor, "I thought you'd be happy to see Logan."

Rogue couldn't help but to smile at Hank. Sure, she had a headache, but if Hank was right, the last thing she wanted was to really feel all the areas that slightly throbbed on her body, "Yah ani't just whistling Dixie, Hank."

Logan approached the bed and smiled warmly, "Glad to see you're awake, Stripes." He could smell the Cajun in her room, on her, and the thought made him angry. As much as he wanted to say something, now was not the time. All that mattered was that she was awake; she was all right.

"Thanks fer coming, Logan."

"Anytime." Logan replied seriously as he held out an uncovered arm towards Rogue, so she wouldn't have to pull herself close to him.

Placing her bare hand on his arm, she held just for a few seconds. She released him as she could feel her headache subside. "Thanks."

"Anytime, Rogue. You know that."

Hank quietly pulled latex gloves onto his large hands, "Now, Rogue, if you don't mind, I'm going to remove the stitches in your left leg. Now that your skin has healed, there is no reason for them."

She nodded and watched quietly as Hank worked. She quickly glanced at Logan who stood next to Hank, arms crossed over his chest. "Logan, I'm sorry about all the trouble."

Logan reached down affectionately and pushed a white stripe away from her eyes. "I'm proud of you, kid."

As Hank finished what he was doing, he pulled off the gloves, "Now, Rogue, you have bandages wrapped around your body, as well as your head, I trust you can remove them and dispose of them properly?"

She nodded, "Yes, ."

"Well, with that, my friend," He clamped a hand on Logan's shoulder as he stood, "our work is done!" He winked at Rogue, "And our young friend here is as good as new."

Rogue sat up fully in bed, thankful for Logan borrowed healing factor. Without him, she wasn't sure how she would have gotten through that.

"Oh, and Rogue," Hank turned to smile at her one last time before leaving the room, "There is a certain room mate of yours waiting anxiously to see you."

Rogue nodded, but Logan placed a hand on her shoulder before moving to the door, "Take it easy on Half Pint, kid. This thing really hit her hard."

After the two men left the room, Rogue pulled up her shirt to remove the bandage from her stomach. It took her a moment, but then staring down wide-eyed, she realized that wasn't her shirt at all. Holding the hem in her hands, she brought the shirt to her face and inhaled deeply. She was quickly assaulted with the image of Remy, and she realized not only why she thought of him when she was waking, but also that she missed him enough that her heart ached. She hadn't seen him for a month. She took another deep breath, savoring the taste of him. She hadn't seen him, but clearly he'd seen her.

Rogue saw a head slowly stick itself through the door. "It's okay, Kitteh, come on in."

Kitteh walked through the door slowly and looked at Rogue. "Like, how are you feeling?"

Rogue could hear the nervousness in her friends voice and smiled, "Good as new, compliments of Logan's healing factor." She unwrapped the read stained bandaged from around her stomach before moving to the one around her head.

Kitty smiled a little, clearly relieved. She sat on the edge of Rogue's bed. "I attended the debriefing. It was just the Professor, Jean, Logan, and myself. They wanted to get it out of the way so you wouldn't have to deal with it."

Rogue nodded, "So yah know what happened?"

"Yeah," She looked up at Rogue before looking away again, "You guys spent two extra weeks because the antimutant movement in Ohio was really picking up. You guys stayed so you could attend the extra added rallies just to see if you could learn anything or run into any like shifty characters. Like, you guys learned a lot and pretty much everything had gone without a hitch. That was until the last rally where Logan and Jean were observing and you were hanging back for backup. Jen said that's how you guys attended each one, two guys in, and one hanging back just in case."

Rogue nodded, "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

She continued, "You were hanging back near some large intersection. Some idiot ran a red light and crashed head on into some car, which crashed into another, and there was like a pile up or something. Logan said, from what he heard, there was some kid crossing the street at the time. Someone saw you run into the middle of the street and pull the kid out of the way. They said you jumped to try to get out of the way as well, but got hit by some piece of car and it knocked you down or something. It was kind of vague. Apparently, you hit your head pretty hard and were knocked out. Not to mention, you were pretty roughed up at being caught between four cars piling over each other."

"Sounds about right."

Kitty shook her head, "Hank is shocked that you got out of there like you did. He said aside from you hitting your head, the really worry was how much blood you lost when something punctured your side. Surprisingly though, nothing more serious happened to you."

Rogue smiled, "Ah'm just lucky, Ah guess."

Kitty didn't smile back, but she agreed, "I guess."

Cocking an eyebrow, Rogue looked skeptically at her friend, "Kitteh, Ah'm fine, it could've been worse, but wasn't. Everything's fine."

She nodded slowly, "I know."

"Then what's bothering yah?"

Kitty shrugged, "It's stupid, I know, but like. . . I don't know, Rogue. You know, all this time with the X-Men and being a mutant, we've leaned that injuries can happen or that missions can go bad. . .But this had nothing to do with the X-Men. Okay, sure, had you not been part of the team, I don't you'd like jump into the middle of traffic otherwise, but I guess I just realized that were not really invincible. I mean sure, I've seen a bunch of use get hurt on missions, but this was just a car accident! Car accidents are every day, normal things, and it managed to hurt one of us."

Rogue nodded, slowly, "Ah get what yah'r saying Kitteh, and yah'r right. It is scary, but it's life. We can't be afraid of everything that could hurt us."

She nodded, but didn't want to continue the topic any further. "I called Remy."

Rogue looked surprised, "Ah knew he'd been here. He left his shirt."

"I thought he'd want to clean you up and dress you. Not that I didn't mind, but I figured like. . ." She trailed off a little.

"Thanks, Kitteh. A appreciate it. Yah'r the best room mate Ah've ever had."

Kitty giggled, but couldn't help it, "I can't believe you like had him under 'Hot Cajun' in your cell!"

Rogue rolled her eyes, "Don't even give meh that look. Ah didn't put him in mah phone; he did it himself!"

Kitty looked unconvinced, "Yeah, like surrrre."

She rolled her eyes, but then started to wonder. "Did yah tell him what happened?"

"I told him there was like an accident and to come over because you'd been hurt, but that was it. I know that the accident wasn't exactly part of the mission, but he's not part of the team so I figure it'd be best to like leave out all details."

. . . . . .

Remy tossed back the shot of Bourbon, not nearly close enough to tipsy, and looked back at his friend. "Remy dunno what t' d', Johnny boy. Seein' her like dat. . .I never felt dat mad b'f', never felt dat worried."

Pyro nodded slowly, nursing his beer while listening to his friend. "You love the Sheila. That's what happens . . . I think." Pyro cocked his head to the side slightly as he sunk back into Remy's couch.

Remy nodded in response. He had returned from the mansion that morning feeling angry, nervous, upset, worried, and any other number of emotions he didn't bother to name. Seeing Rogue unresponsive had tore into him more than he could ever have imagined. He'd never felt something pull at his heart like that, not even seeing Julian die or Belle look at him unadulterated hatred . . . Nothing hurt like seeing Rogue like that. He went back out on his motorcycle and drove for literally hours, just trying to loose himself in the curves of the road.

As the day grew into night and he found himself burning through a pack of five of cards, not to mention a pack or three of cigarettes, he called John. John and him had spent quite a few nights at his apartment in the past, drinking, ignoring Magneto, trying to get Piotr to loosen up, and then some. Although he wouldn't admit it, he figured he needed a friend now, and he could use the company to distract himself.

"It's jus. . . Remy dunno, mon ami, Remy jus want her t' b' all right."

John nodded and gave Remy a slight punch on the shoulder, "The Shelia's a fighter, mate. She'll be fine."

At that moment, Remy's cell phone started to ring. He jumped at the sound and quickly pulled the small device from his back pocket. Learning his lesson from the last time Kitty called, he chose to answer with a simple worried, "Roguey?!"

Remy felt relief wrap around his whole body at the sound of a straightforward southern sugar coated voice. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard. The tension left his body as he heard that perfect drawl, "Hey, Cajun."

Remy sighed, letting all his fears and worries leave his body with that breath, "Y' okay!"

The laugh he heard placated him like nothing else in his life, "Ah'm fahne, Remy. Ah know yah were worried, and Ah appreciate yah coming ovah to check on meh."

The words were out of his mouth before he could think of anything else to say to her, "Love y'!"

He swore he could hear her smile, "Ah love yah tah, Rem. Ah missed yah while Ah was gone."

He felt his heart swell, "Remy miss y' t', chere, mo' dan y' know."

There was a pause and then he heard that perfect voice again, "Ah. . .um . . . Ah was kind of hoping Ah could come over tahnight."

It took him a moment to swallow and calm the increase in his heartbeat. "Oui, chere. Y' want Remy t' come get y'?"

John was wiggling his eyes inappropriately at Remy and making some other inappropriate movements involving his mouth, tongue, and the neck of his beer bottle.

Shooting his 'best friend' a glare that could strip paint, he turned away from him and pressed the phone a little closer to his ear, "Did y' hear, Remy? Y' want moi t' come pick y' up?"

"Ah heard yah, Ah was just thinking. . . Yah don't have tah come get meh, Ah got a bike, yah know."

Remy laughed at the playful tone of her voice, "Y' sure y' okay t' drive?"

He could practically hear her role her eyes, "Ah'm fahne, Swamp Rat."

"Okay den. . . Did y' eat yet?"

"No, Ah can grab something from the kitchen though."

"Non. Remy get dinner ready."

"All right, Ah'll see you in probably about an hour, Rem."

"D'Accord, Roguey. Love y'."

"Love yah, tah."

As Remy hung up his phone, he turned back to Pryo that was now doing something inappropriate involving his index and middle fingers, and his mouth. He sent him a warning glare.

Pyro laughed. "Your Shelia coming over, then?"

He nodded, despite himself, "Oui, dat means y' have t' get out."

Pyro rolled his eyes and quickly knocked back the rest of his beer. "I hear you, I hear you."

As John got up and Remy followed him to the door, Remy reached out and caught John's shoulder with his hand. "Tanks, John. . .f' well y' know."

John took his hand and patted Remy on the opposite shoulder. He responded seriously, "Don't worry about it, mate. We gotta stick together, you know?"

Remy smiled and nodded as he watched his friend exit his apartment. As soon as the redhead was out the door, Remy felt his heart start to pound in his chest as he ran to the fridge and start quickly pulling food out. He felt his palms start to sweat as he put water on to boil on his stovetop.

It took him a minute to realize that it was his nerves making him feel all jittery. Remy LeBeau, nervous? He shook his head trying to clear it. As soon as he pushed his nerves aside, he still felt jittery.

Rogue was coming over! Remy couldn't help but grin as wide as his face would let him. His chere was okay! Not only was she okay (and more importantly safe!), but she would be with him soon!

He placed his hands flat on the counter and took a deep breath. "Merde!" He swore as he looked down at the pair of sweat pants he had on as well as his white undershirt. He raced to his room and stripped off his pants, not able to get his jeans on fast enough.

He took his favorite gray Dior dress shirt out of his closet, and was buttoning it on the way to the kitchen, before grabbing his Kiss the Cajun apron.

He could feel the butterflies in his stomach, although he would never admit it. He poured the pasta shells into the now boiling water, figuring that he if he let his mind wonder that dinner would never get made.

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