Epilogue

Logan entered Storm's office and sat down on a chair in front of her desk. Storm looked up at him from watering the plants on the window sills.

"How'd it go?" she asked, continuing to water her plants.

"All that searching and cross-referencing of Sinister's files has paid off," Logan replied with a nod. "They're there, all right. I could smell the Marauders before I even got to the door."

"No one saw you?"

"Course not."

"Good," Storm said with a nod.

Logan watched her as she set her watering can aside and sat down.

"What you thinking, 'Ro?" he asked.

"The Marauders are good. Very good," Storm said slowly. "More to the point, they have a lot of experience with fighting dirty and killing, which we do not."

Logan nodded. He did his best as a teacher of course, but there were some things his students—the younger X-men in particular—couldn't do, whether it be not yet or not ever.

"Which is why we've decided to play things smart," Logan said.

"Yes," Storm said with a nod. "Logan... Hank didn't have the skill to take care of Scott's injuries, so he called in a surgeon who did. When he knew what had gone wrong with Kitty, but couldn't do anything about it, he called in someone who could. I think what we really need right now is to bring in someone who has a lot of experience in breaking valuables out of highly secure places."

Logan sat up in his chair, his eyes squarely on Storm's.

"You want to call in Gumbo," he said.

"He's the best Thief in the entire Thieves Guild," she said seriously. "We can't send Kitty back in, and we can't risk sending Kurt in alone. We have no ideas about how we're going to get into this place while not only Sinister's inside, but half his Marauders as well. If anyone can figure this one out, it's Remy."

"Would he do it, though? Steal a kid instead of a painting?"

"In this case? Yes, because it's me asking, and because we want to return Nate to his parents," Storm said firmly.

Logan nodded. "Guess you'd better make the call then."

"Right."

Storm took a deep breath as she pulled out her phone, feeling a little nervous about this. She had never imagined, not even for a moment, that she would ever have reason to contact Gambit in a professional capacity. She found his number in her phone's contact list and hit the appropriate button to ring him up. While the phone rang, she mentally geared herself up for the conversation, and then groaned when she got his voicemail instead.

"Bonjour, you have reached Gambit's voicemail. If this is Emil or Etienne, joke's over guys, if you don't lay off the 'king' quips I'm going to appoint you both 'court jesters'. If it's anyone else, leave a message, and I might even get back to you."

"Hi Remy, this is Storm. I can't believe I'm saying this but... I need to hire the Thieves Guild."

To Be Continued in Hand Over My Body...

Thanks as always to all my wonderful reviewers. I hope everyone who read the story enjoyed it.