Disclaimer in first part.
Could've Been Worse: Part Two
by Diamonde
The only light was from a television screen Remy had long since stopped really watching. His eyes took in flickery patterns of light, but he couldn't have said what he was watching. It might have been a horror movie, then again it might have been an ad for tampons. Eventually he switched it off and stood up. Like a lame ghost in the sleeping house he drifted down to the danger room, starting up as few systems as possible. He knew he shouldn't be doing this, but he had to do something. Anything.
The doors locked behind him.
"Pathetic." He was as large as life and twice as arrogant, sword hanging carelessly from one hand. "Y' never could take me, Remy, now you just gonna get y'self killed."
"I'm not dead yet, Julien."
"You will be." The assassin lunged, sword whistling through empty air as Remy ducked. "Why we always do dis on rooftops?" he asked almost conversationally.
"I like it." Remy blocked the next attack with his bo staff, and very nearly broke his dead brother-in-laws shin.
"You don' have de advantage up here anymore, thief. I do."
"I know." Remy forcibly held back the temptation to use his mutation, even when Julien forced him back another painful step.
Julien laughed. "You've already lost, LeBeau. You're not eighteen any more, you're crippled and useless and I don' know what you're still *doing* here! What good are you?"
The most truly humiliating thing, Remy decided as he fell, was the way the bastard had used the flat of the blade to sweep him off the roof. He hadn't even been worth killing.
The program shut off, its requirements met. The room was empty when Remy hit the floor, trying to roll. Once again his knee refused to do what it was supposed to, hitting hard. Remy saw a white flash and felt a burst of pain, then slid into unconsciousness.
Jean woke up with a gasp. She felt as if someone had just dropped a miniature atomic bomb on her leg, waves of pain flowed over here, slowly receding as she got her shields back under control. "Scott?"
He was already half awake, her distress had washed down their bond. "What is it?"
"You know how you said you didn't think Gambit was capable of exercising himself to the point where he got seriously hurt?"
"Oh no." He sounded sick, guilt and worry collided.
"He's in the danger room. I'm waking up Cecilia." Jean let her husband run off without her. She needed a few minutes to collect herself before she could look at anyone in the light, time to rid herself of that black sense of almost unbearable loss. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting the feeling wash through her on its way out. She was floating in a damaged boat, grey waves rolled and crashed around her. A storm was coming, and there were no harbours she could get to in a ship without sails…
Jean frowned. *A ship without sails, a bird that can't sing...* Poetry of a kind. Where had she heard that? Without knowing why, she shivered. It wasn't that bad. Gambit wasn't badly hurt, she could sense that from the others. But why was he doing this? He'd lost was some mobility, but it could have been so much worse...
"Gambit? Gambit, can you hear me?"
Remy groaned. His head was feeling a little too small for his brain. "Oui, 'm crippled, not deaf…"
"I see you didn't break your sense of humour. Pity."
The biting sarcasm meant he was fine. Remy wondered if he could manage to pass out again. He seemed to have hit the back of his head on the floor, maybe he could dredge up a concussion.
"Gambit, don't drift off on me. Open your eyes."
He opened them reluctantly, an image of Cecilia leaning over him with Scott and Hank behind her seared itself across his eyeballs before he closed his eyes firmly. "Ow. You know I don' like you shinin' dat light in my eyes." He breathed deeply, trying to ignore the pain in his leg.
"I've done that now, your pupils are equal and responding. C'mon, if you don't follow the finger you'll be lying on that cold floor all night." He sighed and opened his eyes, following the finger as it waved from side to side. "Okay, what day is it?"
"Jeudi." (1)
"You aren't amusing anyone except yourself," she warned.
"Today."
"What's your middle name?"
"Trouble."
Cecilia rolled her eyes. "What was the date the day before yesterday?"
Remy frowned, thinking hard and drawing a blank. "The third," he admitted sulkily. Hadn't thought up a smart reply for that one yet.
"Thank you. Anything else wrong with you?"
"My knee. Hit it when I landed."
Scott's voice cut softly through the pain of Cecilia's gentle examination. "Which raises the question of what the hell you were doing."
"Couldn't sleep, wanted a little exercise. Some people can't combine dat wit' bed like you can, fearless leader. Dat is, if you do. Could explain why Jean's so uptight 'round me…" He could feel the glare, heard the anger in the indrawn breath. *Go on. Yell at me. You know I deserved it for dat one...*
The danger room was silent for a few moments. "How does it look?" Cyclops asked Cecilia calmly.
"Bruised." She poked a little. "That hurt?"
Gambit whimpered. "No."
"Can you move it?"
"Yes, I just don' want to."
"You are absolutely the worst patient I've ever had, know that?"
"Just hearing you say dat made my whole day."
"And what day is that?"
"Today." Always today, endless todays flowing into each other… What he wanted was for all the yesterdays to still be tomorrows.
(1) Jeudi = Thursday